British Bacon Buster and a Trip to London

About a month ago, Steve and I had an opportunity to take a trip to London.  Our good friends, Brad and Kerri were going because their daughter, Elyssa, was studying abroad there for a semester.  She’s a theater major and was doing the set design for a play that her fellow classmates were going to be performing in.  Brad and Kerri wanted to be there to see the production and invited us to come along.

Steve has been to London many times for work and I have been there several times as well and we both LOVE it there, so we jumped at the chance to go!  As expected, we had a fabulous time!  We stayed in an area of London that we had not stayed in before, so we saw some sights we had not seen before and we visited some favorite spots as well.

Here are some photos of our adventure as well as the recipe for one of my favorite foods in London, a bacon sandwich or as they sometimes call it in the pubs, a Bacon Buster.  I had this sandwich every morning for breakfast while we were there.  It’s incredibly simple, but incredibly delicious, too!  I have never been able to find the the right kind of bacon (they use cottage bacon) here in the U.S., so I was really excited a couple of weeks ago when I found cottage bacon at a co-op market I shop at occasionally.  I went home and made myself a bacon sandwich and it brought me straight back to London!

We’re all set for the long plane ride

The taxi ride to the hotel, Steve and Brad are looking a little weary!

Brad and Kerri with Elyssa at The Jameson, a really cute little pub not too far from our hotel.

Let the fun in London begin!

We got friendly with the pub owner, Marianne, and she let us come behind the bar.

Here we are at the British Library…let the sight seeing begin!

After the British Library and the British Museum, we were starving!  We stopped at Belgo for lunch and their specialty was mussels done in a variety of ways.  These were cooked in a white wine sauce and were fabulous!

A taxi ride off to our next adventure.

There is  a lot of great Indian food in London and we went to a great Indian restaurant for dinner.  We started out with Papadums and a variety of dipping sauces and it was excellent!

This is the charming neighborhood where Elyssa has her flat.

We started this day out with a trip to Westminster Abbey.  It is absolutely gorgeous and it is so amazing to see all of the history there.

Another view

More of the Abbey

After sightseeing, we enjoyed a pint in a pub in Earls Field before we went to Elyssa’s play.  The play was in a very small and intimate theater and was an excellent show!

On our last day, which was a Sunday, Steve and I walked down the mall to Buckingham Palace.  On Sundays they close off the mall to cars and open it up to pedestrians, which is very cool!  For me, a trip to London is never complete without stopping by the Palace.  Maybe someday the Queen will invite me in for tea?

Sherlock Holmes is a well known pub in London.  We were going to have lunch there, but there was no room for us, so we moved on.

We ended up at a Spanish Tapas restaurant, not too far from Buckingham Palace and had a fabulous spread of tapas.

The other thing a trip to London is not complete without is a stop at Harrods.  It’s fun to wander around the store for awhile and gawk at all of the extravagant things in the store.  The food galleries are especially fun.  They have everything!  You can have a meal in there, or you can go to the deli, or the butcher or the seafood monger and buy just about anything.  Then of course there are all of the chocolates, pastries, coffees, teas and I could just go on!  It’s quite an experience.

Our final stop was a pub that we’ve been by many times but never stopped at, called The Bunch of Grapes, it’s just down the road from Harrods.  We had a pint and took some silly pictures!

If you want a little taste of London for yourself, give this bacon sandwich a try.  As I said, it’s incredibly simple, but incredibly delicious, you won’t be disappointed!

British Bacon Buster

• 2 slices cottage bacon
• 2 sandwich rolls or crusty baguettes
• butter

Put bacon slices in a cold pan and cook over medium heat until cooked through, but don’t let bacon brown.  You don’t want it to be crispy.

Heat the rolls or baguettes.  Cut rolls in half and spread butter on cut sides.

Put cooked bacon on each roll.  If desired serve with spicy brown mustard.

CHEERS!

Shared at these great blogs:

The Country Cook

Eat at Home