english food

“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas.” ~ Charles Dickens

“Food, Glorious Food” is my personal anthem. I sense Lionel Bart was thinking of me when he composed it. Okay, probably not, but one can always dream. ☺

When I lived in London, I got to see “Oliver” in the West End.

Those were the days when you could get great tickets to a musical for only $15.00! I love love loved it when those ragamuffins sang, “Hot sausage and mustard!” I don’t know what it is about those four words. Till today, whenever I hear them, I want to hug myself. Just so very British. Definitely a good thing.

I’ll always remember the time we went on a class field trip to the Dickens House Museum on Doughty Street (his only surviving town residence, where he wrote Oliver Twist). I was teaching 9th and 10th graders, and a student teacher from Kentucky was working with me. We’d collected admission fees from the students ahead of time, but when we got to the museum, we almost didn’t get in — Miss J. thought I had brought the money, and I thought she had!

What to do? Hit up one of the students, of course. Peter (who reminded me of Augustus Gloop) had quite a bit of cash on him. Perhaps he’d robbed a bank on the way to school. After a little cajoling, he lent us enough for about 30 tickets. So, in a fortunate “twist” of events, two adults picked a kid’s pocket.

But back to my theme song. Sing along and sing it loud, with f-e-e-l-i-n-g!! I can’t wait to hear my favorite four words again!

Whether you have cold jelly and custard, pease pudding and saveloys, peaches and cream, a great big steak, or the glorious hot sausage and mustard, I wish you an uncommonly delicious holiday!