[Sca-cooks] Hi, honey! I'm home!

[Sue Clemenger]

Hey, is anyone out there at this hour?
This is Maire, finally back from her trip to Europe (6000 miles, just
today!), trying to get her body to realize that it's the middle of the
night, and not breakfast time!

I saw all kinds of cool things (went to Britain and Ireland), and some
of them were even food-related! (displays in a couple of museums in
Dublin, and the tudor kitchen at Hampton Court? <sorry, single operative
braincell has jetlag>).
I found some unusual chocolates (Whispa and flake bars, *real* Cadbury
bars, etc.), and some really bizarre potato chip flavors (the latter
only in Wales and Ireland, oddly enough)--prawn, buffalo,
steak-and-mustard....Didn't see any odd drink flavors, though, although
I had some very nice Irish whiskey at the old Jameson distillery!

Favorite food discovery: Bacon.  Real bacon.  Ummmmm...... Oh, and Irish
porridge with real cream. ;-)
**Scones with real Devon clotted cream**.....
**Wensleydale cheese**
**fresh fish and chips on board the ferry to Dublin**
Least favorite food discovery: BLT's in the UK are *not* made
American-style...I got one one day, only to discover (duh, Maire) that
it came off more like a ham sandwich.  Oh, and despite the risk of
sounding like a Heretic, the chocolate was okay, but no big deal.  I'm
guessing I'm more of a dark-chocolate fan than I thought.  The stuff I
tried was very smooth, very rich (much nicer than milk chocolate I've
had here), but it was _all_ milk chocolate.....
Weirdest food experience: Drinking a glass of water in the Pump Room at
Bath--tasted very warm, and faintly sulphurous, like drinking the water
you've boiled eggs in.  One of those things that ya gotta do once,
though!
Best meal: found this *amazing* Indian restaurant in Dublin--I splurged,
and got their special sampler, which started off with this amazing
unleavened, fresh flatbread with ground coriander and whole cumin seeds
in it, and wound its way through amazing things done with lamb and
chicken and seafood...and ended with some sort of classic Indian
icecream (mango-flavored).
I'm glad to be back, even if I do have (Maire checks) 2356 "new" emails
to go through....
--Maire