While traveling through England, every night I’m eating at pubs and restaurants I recommend in my England guidebook. And I have to say, the eating has been excellent. Here’s a peek at the Dolphin Pub in Canterbury. (Notice the energy — things feel pretty good in England wherever we’ve gone.)
We’re just finishing our third TV episode in England this month, and we’re coming home with three brilliant shows. As usual, elements I really like need to be deleted, as 30 minutes of TV is only 3,000 words. Here’s the text that was in our Southeast England script but had to be pulled:
“England’s pubs offer a warm, friendly welcome and, for many, an essential part of any visit to Britain. Pub is short for “public house” — it’s the neighborhood’s extended living room. It’s a multi-generational affair and, while children aren’t served beer, the entire family is welcome. Whether you’re drinking or eating, don’t wait to be served. Go to the bar to order.
England loves its brews. Each village seems to have its own microbrew. Beer aficionados go for the real English ales and bitters. They’re from the long-handled pumps literally hand-drawn from kegs in the cellar. For a lighter, colder, and carbonated brew — ask for a lager. They fizz out of the short tap handles.
The standard serving is a full pint. While women routinely order a half pint, when a man does, it can make you the butt of jokes. But, if you don’t know the various beers and want to double your experience (and can endure the ridicule), ordering by the half pint (which costs exactly half as much as a full pint) lets you double your beer-exploration experience.”
This is Day 83 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.
The great thing about England now is the variety of foods, we ate at pubs a few times, but found many great Asian and Italian restaurants too. The little sandwiches in small cafe stores were also great for lunch. Pub food still tends to be bit fried and heavy for a daily diet.
I wish your PBS shows were an hour long instead of 30 minutes!
Great idea to talk about newer ‘Gastro-Pubs’; not so great video clip: respecting people’s privacy as you do here doesn’t show either the food or the beverages even if we do get a fine sense of a lively, happy pub scene. We visited Gastro-Pubs in Bath and in the Cotswold and lighter food can be had with just a little advance research. I like ‘The Good Pubs Guide’ published by Britain’s Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA.) A membership organization, they harness British peoples’ energies to save classic local pubs and to promote classic local brews. Thanks to their research you can ‘know before you go’ which pubs pride themselves on food and just what ales, beers, scrumpy ciders and pearys are on offer.