[Sca-cooks] Hampton Court

[Elise Fleming]

Johnna wrote:

<<< THL Guillane, Countess Alys, and I ate at Hampton Court
Palace on Easter Sunday. Not very fancy I'm afraid.>>>

And Stefan replied:

 >Sounds pretty impressive to me. Was this something open to the public
 >or something you managed to arrange through your trip there or
 >through other foodie types at Hampton court?

Hampton Court is a "tourist attraction" with two cafes.  You can find 
out information about it at www.hrp.org.uk .  The smaller cafe is inside 
what used to be Queen Elizabeth I's Privy Kitchen and serves sandwiches, 
sausages on buns, scones, and meat pies.  The other, Tiltyard Cafe, sits 
outside the Palace proper in what used to be Henry VIII's tiltyard. 
There are several different "stations" of food - cold sandwiches, 
dessert or tea-type snacks, hot food.

<<< Easter Monday Guillane and I skipped Windsor Castle and went
off to have breakfast in London. She had Eggs Benedict with smoked
salmon and I had kippers. >>>

 >I've heard of "kippers" before but never had them. These are
 >apparently mildly smoked fish, according to Brian Fagan in "Fish on
 >Friday". He says the term "kippering" originates in the 11th Century
 >but that the process as now done originates from the 19th century
 >when faster transport allowed less strong smoking process to be used.

Kippers are fantastic.  I stayed for four days in Newcastle with my high 
school pen pal and her husband.  They drove me around some of the 
coastline and we stopped to buy kippers in Craster 
(http://www.kipper.co.uk/home.html).  You can see some photos of kippers 
at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesclay/471040304/ .  We bought 
"seconds" which is what the locals buy and my friend paid less than five 
pounds for some seven pounds of fish.  We feasted the next day on them!

 >So how were these garnished/served? Was this considered an entire
 >breakfast or were they served with something else such as a pastry or
 >cereal?

Depends on who's serving them!  I had two halves of a fish and didn't 
need much else for supper.  I think we had something else - a starter - 
but don't recall now.  We did have a "pudding" (aka dessert). It takes a 
bit of time to remove the bones from the kipper.  Those you get at 
hotels are "firsts" and are probably served in smaller portions than we 
had in Newcastle.

I've got to get my photos organized and will tell you all of the 
gastronomic delights at Ivan Day's course and at Cafe No. 8 in York. 
For my time in London, I ate baguettes bought from a vendor at Victoria 
Station.  Never had a restaurant meal there so Johnna and Susan probably 
ate better than I did, although the baguettes are quite good.  One tires 
of them, however, after days of eating them.

Alys, in need of supper now.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/