It’s terribly easy to gain weight while living in London. Sure, I’ve gotten my fair share of workouts sprinting down the street after buses and carrying fifty pounds worth of dirty socks and jeans around the block to the washing machines, but London has a way of making sure your spare tire stays parked right where it is.
On almost every street corner in London there are mom-and-pop bakeries, patisseries and baguette shops with quaint outdoor seating and glass cases of sweets that make your mouth water as you walk by. For travelers with a powerful sweet-tooth (guilty as charged…), London is a sugary paradise; I’ve found myself indulging in at least one cake, tart, scone or brownie a day. The best part about these sweet shops is that most all of them bake their goodies fresh on the premises, for the locals to enjoy.
Perhaps my favorite place to frequent is an adorable corner patisserie in the Fulham area of London, where I go for my internship twice a week. A Polish family has owned the shop for quite some years now, and they offer a delicious selection of croissants, biscuits, cream cakes and exquisitely decorated fruit tarts, in addition to the gotta-have fresh-brewed teas, coffees and cocoas.
“We’ve had customers from generation to generation,” said the woman running the counter, who preferred to remain anonymous. “Our shop is quite well known and people continue to come back for the quality and service.”
Daring to mention the global monster that is Starbucks, I sighed with relief when she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Despite the competition from large corporations, this patisserie hasn’t experienced any downsizing, due to their loyal patronage from the immediate area.
“I can see that people enjoy and appreciate what we do,” said the woman, who worked in the restaurant industry for 17 years before starting the corner shop. Part of what makes her current job different from the previous, she explained, is the social interaction with her community. Pausing our conversation to serve a man who had just entered the shop, she kindly asked him about his family. Now, when’s the last time the Starbucks barrister asked you how your mother was doing? Exactly.
Excited to have become one of the patisserie’s most recent patrons, I’ll gladly continue to pack on a few pounds simply for the chance to greet my new friends and indulge in a heavenly sugar-and-coconut-coated strawberry biscuit twice a week.
Did I make you hungry yet? Cheers until next time!
For those of you looking for your vocab lesson, “biscuit” is the British term for cookie. British biscuits come in lots of different flavors, but seem to be smaller and harder than a traditional giant, gooey American cookie.
As for last week’s question, a “dodgy wheel,” happens to be an ugly sneaker! A British friend of ours told us that he can easily tell Americans from Brits just by what they wear on their feet. Whereas Americans quite normally walk around town wearing sneakers, the British wouldn’t be caught dead doing so! Here, sneakers are mostly used for exercising or jogging.
