昨天晚上在一个酒馆里，PJG和一个当地的英国人聊天，我问他伦敦有什么本土的特色小吃或是菜肴，他看似严肃的说蛋炒饭，然后哈哈大笑。他认为伦敦没有什么值得一提的本土美食，如果说是寻找美食，最好的就是尝试来自各个国家不同的菜系，因为伦敦是这样一个集合世界各地人的大都市。他说的很有道理哦.
Last night at a pub, we were chatting with a local Englishman and I asked what he considers a local special dish in London – he seemed serious when exclaiming, “egg fried rice”, and then we laughed. He felt that there is no real local food in London to mention, and said that if we are to look for food, the best thing to do is to try different cuisines from various countries, because London is such a metropolis that it brings together people from all over the world.
Indian Food
印度菜在英国很流行，因为印度曾是英国的殖民地，很多印度人移民到英国，也带来了她们的美食。所以PJG对这里的印度菜非常的期待。 不过～ 大大的不过～ 昨天晚餐我俩去的这个Palms of Goa印度菜是我俩有史以来吃过的最不好吃的, 真的好失望，😨😰 希望能找到一个正宗的印度菜，再尝试一次。
But ~ and a BIG but ~ Yesterday for dinner we went to the Palms of Goa Indian restaurant, near our Airbnb hoping to find authentic Indian cuisine. BUT in fact it was the worst Indian food we have ever had – a really big disappointment, 😨😰
Chinese Food
今天的晚餐是中国菜，正如我俩的计划要在每个城市吃一顿中国菜。 由于我俩的民宿住地离中国城很近，就选择了这家在中国城离的餐馆。感觉中国城里大部分都是香港饭店，也有好几家看上去很正宗的四川火锅。这个饭馆的菜品照片看上去还不错，我俩点了在美国经常吃的三道家常菜，总体感觉还可以，不过没有赫尔辛基那家的好吃。价格不便宜，而且饭店直接加了10%的服务费，来英国后还是第一次见饭店自己就加了服务费的。我咨询了一下服务员，她声称这边的饭店都会加，而且她们是得不到的，都是给了老板的。还有，这个饭店要打包的盒子还需要付0.5英镑！而且是一个非常小的塑料盒子。
另外，英国的消费稅是20%， 在饭店或超市里看到的价格已经税后价了。不像美国，看到的都是税前价格，然后在结账的时候，会在加上百分几不等的税费。
Tonight’s dinner is Chinese food (yeah!), and our plan has been to have one Chinese meal in every city for comparison. Since our Airbnb is very close to Chinatown, we chose this restaurant. I feel that most of the Chinatown restaurants are Hong Kong style, although there are also several authentic looking Sichuan hotpot places. The dishes in this restaurant looked good, and so we ordered three home-cooked dishes that we often eat in the US, and the overall feeling is OK, but this is not as good as the Chinese food in Helsinki! The price is also not cheap, and the restaurant directly adds a 10% service charge! This was a surprise since coming to the UK and was the first time to see an added service charge. I asked the waiter, who said that all the restaurants add it, and that the staff does not get the tip, it goes directly to the boss! In addition, Britain’s consumption tax is 20%, but the advertised price seen in restaurants or supermarkets has tax included in the price. Unlike in the US, where we see the pre-tax price, and then at checkout, they add the tax, but here it is included.
