New Nibbles, Familiar Faces, and the Quest for Queen Victoria’s Sponge Cake

Spending just short of a month in an entirely different country, combined with spending most of that time in one of the most international and diverse cities in the globe, leaves one with countless possibilities in regards to food. And, given that food accounts for nearly fifty percent of my personal spending on this trip as of composing this post, I like to think that I have taken ample advantage of the opportunities London provides. I sorted my adventures in three categories: totally new foods, familiar brands, and the only food goal I had prior to departing the United States.

The first category, as one might expect, contributed to the most revelations about the foods I have missed out on back in Arkansas, and what I should attempt to replicate on my own once I return (though that may have to wait until I have a kitchen with a proper vent hood, among other things). Examples of this category include the following experiences:

I tried out a Malaysian seafood soup-like dish on the first full day here at a restaurant with Taylor and Hailey. While it was nice, it was made of various types of seafood, with some of those not being among my favorites. It came in a larger portion than I expected, so I ended up leaving more on the table than I would like.
The week of our departure from London to Stratford-upon-Avon, I stopped into a Chinese restaurant nearby the hotel. The menu had very little English on it, only being used for short descriptors of the food’s content rather than any sort of formal name for the various dishes, and some of the items listed were…abnormal in my opinion. To my credit, I tried to order an appetizer that was outside my comfort zone (rabbit head cooked in hot chili sauce, in case anyone was curious), but was told it was not available. Though, given the portion size of the boiled fish filet in hot chili sauce that I ordered instead, I would have been too full to finish the entrée if they had that appetizer in stock. The fish was soft and thoroughly took on the flavor of the sauce, as did the vegetables and other ingredients in the bowl, but the spice level made my nose start running by the time I was about half way through the meal.

The group stopped at Spitalfields Market after our visit to the Museum of London, and after I completed my shopping, I looked around for food and found this stand selling a small number of Indian dishes. I forgot the name of the specific food, but I recall that its base was lamb mixed in with various spices and vegetables, and that the vendors put chili sauce and pickled pineapple on the top. Whatever amount I paid for it was well spent, because it was absolutely delicious! The sweetness of the pineapple on top complemented the savory meat perfectly, and I would not hesitate to recreate it if I knew the ingredients!

The second category contained less outright surprises, but allowed me to make some nuanced observations about the differences in an identical product made and sold in two different places.

Fanta in the United Kingdom has several flavors that I have never seen in the United States, like Tropicool (which is a mix of various fruits and flowers) and Shokata (a particularly refreshing blend of elderflower and lemon), but the main flavor, in both countries, is orange. I found that the sugar-free variant (as well as most other sugar-free sodas in the UK) was not especially good, but the normal kind was. I believe sodas in the UK utilize more actual sugar than in their US counterparts, which use corn syrup as well as sugar. The orange flavor in the UK is less overtly sweet than in the US, and has flavors closer to fruit juice (though it certainly will not be confused with orange juice). I have come to prefer the version sold in the UK, and I will see if there is any way to get them after coming home. I have come to the same conclusion about Dr. Pepper as well, though Sprite and 7 Up has not proven itself as significantly different from those sold in the States.

This will come as a surprise to no one, but there are a decent number of McDonalds’ fast-food restaurants in London. So, I got it into my head to try and find the differences between the ones here and the ones back home. After my “scientific” investigation, I have found that there is zero difference in the burgers and ketchup, the fries (as I have observed about British chips as a whole) taste more like potatoes but lack seasoning, and the flavors of milkshake that the UK chains share with the US chains taste different (I suspect that the flavor syrups they use are different than the ones back home) but not in a bad way.

The third category is by far the most interesting because it involves a mission with personal stakes. I have been to London once before with my mother and brother, during the summer after my freshman year of high school. On one day during that trip, we walked around the British Museum all morning and left at around lunch time. We were understandably tired, and we stood in line and got lunch at this café in a nearby park. I got a really pathetic sandwich with nothing but sausage and onion on it, and a slice of Queen Victoria sponge cake that turned out to be one of the greatest things I had ever tasted! After eating our food (and fighting off dive-bombing pigeons trying to eat said food), we sat out on the grass and watched an old man put on a traditional Punch and Judy hand puppet show. It was one of the least “touristy” things we did on our whole trip around Europe, but it was so peaceful and picturesque that it has always stuck with me.

Understandably, I wanted to find that café and that excellent cake a second time, so I planned to look around at the various parks near our hotel (which is also nearby the British Museum) as a sort of preliminary search. At the first park I walked through was Russel Square Garden. I found a café that looked very similar to the one I remembered. But, when I went inside the place, hey did not have the cake. So, I resolved to look elsewhere for the spot from my childhood. I could not find it anywhere, and my mother could not recall anything useful about it when I asked her. Because it was my only remaining option, I returned to the first park I visited and entered the café again. While placing an order, I asked the lady working there how long the business had been in the park, and if they had ever served Queen Victoria sponge cake. As it turns out, their family has been running that café (Caffe Tropea) at that location since the 1980s, and they actually did used to serve that cake, but they stopped during the outbreak of Covid-19 and have not brought it back since. I was proud of myself for tracking down the memory, and even though the cake of my dreams was nowhere to be found, the torte-della and tiramisu I ordered were fantastic substitutes!