My experience of London? Pride came before offal

5th September, 2011

The Times

I lived in London for half my life but I approach the city now with flutters in the stomach. A committed vegetarian I know who leaves the West Country twice a year for the Smoke says that, faced with the urban challenge, he lapses. He goes straight from Paddington Station to Burger King for a meat protein blast. Arriving last week from Scotland, I went — in the same spirit — directly to a Bayswater pub for a pint of much-missed southern bitter. Relieving me without a smile of almost £4, the barman asked me to take off my cap “for security reasons”. It isn’t Leith.

But there are joys. Fuller’s London Pride. A chilli-sauce-laden doner kebab stuffed into pitta bread in Shepherds Bush. Neal’s Yard’s organic Greek yoghurt. A stroll through Borough Market. And, of course, there are restaurants.

Read the rest here via Times Online