News is good food...for your mind. But I want food...for my mouth.

So, my dad asked me the other day what kind of food I was eating, so I thought I'd take a moment to touch on the "fine dining" of the tour and London. By far the sweetest and best eating of the entire trip happened in Stratford. The bed and breakfast fed us freshly cooked breakfast and dinner, and it was paid for! Lunch was pretty much always Subway's sub of the day (for 1.99 pounds, you get a predetermined sub each day...sort of a magic deal by London standards), and hence we lived for under 150 pounds in 2 weeks, which is a pretty good deal when you get down to it. However, this calm and relaxing break is the exception, not the rule, so I'll take a moment to hit the highlights of our dining:
*Pubs-this is the heart of dining in Ireland and the UK. All the best and cheapest food that isn't American (more on that later) happens in the pubs. From fish and chips to burger and chips to chicken bacon and cheese and chips to cheese chips (notice a pattern?), all the sweet food action happens at pubs. And the drinking too. Except drinking is EXPENSIVE, although a small and stalwart group of us managed a pub crawl for under 10 pounds last week...we weren't particularly drunk by the end (too much walking and eating), but it was still really fun. Some pictures from a particularly sweet pub coming soon.
*Burger King-yeah, you read that right. BK lets us have it our way for SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than most of the sit down restaurants...besides, it's more filling.
*McDonald's-see above.
*Pizza Hut-still more. At Pizza Hut, you've got 2 sweet deals: either the 4 pound lunch buffet (usually crowded but good), or the 4 person feast for dinner...6 pounds a person for 2 pizzas, 4 appetizers, and 4 desserts...it's MASSIVE.
*Grocery stores-the 2 grocery stores that are pretty close offer a wide range of tasty premade sandwiches and wraps, which make a cheap alternative if you're not interested in hot food...plus you can buy bread and meat there for an even cheaper meal, but the bread started to make me nauseous...not cool.
*The desperate quest for Mexican-you wouldn't think that London would be lacking good Mexican food, but it's pretty much one of the hardest things to find in town. It took 5 weeks of searching to finally find a place that serves tacos for under 5 pounds...but man it's good.
*The hotel-finally, the hotel food. Some of it is good (the heated ham and cheese croissant, the fish and chips) and some of it not as much (the blt), but it's close, so there you go.

Anyway, more on my independent travel plans and pictures soon.
kmf 11/06
ps-Stone Sour was pretty much amazing. The end.