England: Cindy Liu (Food in London)

When people say Britain doesn’t have its own food besides fish n’ chips and canned beans, I thought they were exaggerating. Until I came here and live in London myself.

London is a large city and one of the most diverse ones in the world. It is so diverse and heavily influenced by many different cultures to the point that I think British food no longer stands out here as much. You can find equally good Japanese food, Thai food, Korean food, etc, as they are back in their home country. I have been here for two months, and I still haven’t had fish n’ chips yet, not because I don’t want to but simply because it is quite hard to find a place that is both decent and serves them! And there are so many other options to pick from. I am trying at least one new restaurant per week and so far, I haven’t even gone to 15% of my restaurant list yet.

But one thing I did notice, and I think it is a fascinating part of the British culture, is its pubs. There are pubs not only located everywhere on the streets but also on campus. It is very common for professors to ask the class if they want to hang at a pub after class to continue the discussion of the class material. And those talks could go on for hours and very enjoyable. So instead of the fascinating foods that influenced my perspective on this city. I would say the British pubs definitely did more work.

 

Cindy Liu

Hometown: Dalian, China

Major: Political Science; Economics; International Studies

Program: London School of Economics