British Food in my poem, Tea For Three by Angela Lansbury

 We travel around the world at our supermarkets. Lild is German, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose are British. We eat porridge, British style, English style with sugar rather than the Scottish custom of adding salt. 

For lunch, we have smoked salmon from Scotland. Or sardines from Portugal. Or sushi, a Japanese dish.  

Breakfast

Traditional English breakfast

Porridge oats, sugar or honey

Then baked beans, egg and bacon grill

Hotels give this thrill, for money

For daily grub go to the pub

Avoiding big hotels' big bills

Choose sausages and black pudding

Fried potato, and tomato

Lunch

For lunch you could choose a Scotch egg

Sardines on toast, a healthy fish

Fish and chips is what we like most

Sundays Yorkshire pud with beef roast

If you're adding roast potatoes

Careful. You'd better keep quiet

Please don't spoil my good gourmet day

By reminding me to diet

For weekday lunch we have salad

And smoked salmon in a bagel

Supermarket sushi, garlic

We buy half price when we're able

Tea

Each afternoon we stop at four

Or four thirty, or even five

By which time we're yawning and tired

Need food and drink to stay alive

Tea time in London's any time

No longer always Earl Grey tea

We drink hot coffee, apple juice

Lemon, ginger or mint for me

 If you've never had hot crumpets

Your gourmet life has not begun

If you're offered two with butter

Please don't stick to half or just one

Scones feature in Cornish cream tea

Spread thick cream, then strawberry jam

Some say you should put jam on first

Avoid arguing, if you can

We sometimes choose a restaurant

But most of our food's home made

We make brown bread with seeds and nuts

Seville oranges marmalade

We clear the table, wash the dishes

And load the dishwashing machine

It does a very good job

Of keeping our plates sparkling clean

Dinner

Then it's time to lay the table

And get ready for dinner

For me, it's brussels sprouts

Chicken and chips is a winner.

Plates of steak, add English mustard

Chocolate pudding, with custard

Christmas pudding, then easter eggs

Build balloon tums and tree trunk legs

Tea Tomorrow

I hope you'll come to tea with me

But I must tell you with sorrow

I ate the last baklava and chocolate

My fruit diet starts tomorrow.

-Ends-

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Mooncakes to Buy Worldwide, to Choose At Hotels and Supermarkets, Or Clubs, Or Make

Every year Chinese and Asian communiities hold a mid-auttumn festival which is celebrated with moon cakes. In the UK we have apples falling from trees in gardens. In Chinatowns and Asia and online there are mooncakes.

Moon Cakes

Traditonal moon cakes have a baked pastry case.  Inside are dense sugary fudge-like filled The sweetmeats are muffin size. If you have a group, you cut the mooncake into tiny triangular sections like a large cake. A tiny piece, like a dice of fudge, goes a long way. Most are pure sweetness. 

You can buy a variety of flavours. 

Flavours

Red bean. Lotus. Grreen Tea. Ice cream. Durian.

Eggs

More expensive are those with teeny boiled eggs inside. How do they get the eggs so small? Are they baby eggs or shrunk? They are duck eggs. The eggs complement the sweet taste, and provide protein. 

Souvenirs

Hotels sell expensive versions with decorative boxes you can give as gifts to business associates and as a thank you to hosts or guests. Pop-up shops sometimes sell individual ones as well as large boxes of four or more.

You can buy mooncakes online from the websites of supermarkets in Singapore. But watch out for scams on WhatsApp.

DIY

You can find recipes and buy plastic or wooden moulds.

Amazon sells a set of two modern mooncake moulds which push out the mooncake.

Mooncake moulds from Amazon.

Supermarkets

In September 2023 Fairprice supermarket in Singapore was offering online mooncakes, a single moon cake at 15 Singapore dollars, Flavours include lotus paste, green tea. A large number of individual mooncakes and boxes are shown on the website.

Fairprice supermarket also stocks halal mooncakes.

See my previous posts on mooncakes.

Useful Websites

Useful Websites

https://www.fairprice.com.sg/product/prestigio-delights-lotus-paste-double-yolk-mooncake-180-g-90141002?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6_CYBhDjARIsABnuSzqoTmivI4NL7jBe8llIkCAsZKfM6iacogPsvPBRNPxuJEwVoRyr2EgaAs6TEALw_wcB

https://www.facebook.com/toastboxsingapore/posts/these-traditional-teochew-style-mooncakes-from-thye-moh-chan-are-made-with-delic/3213940525320115/

Great recipes:

https://zhangcatherine.com/mooncakes/

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2021/09/food-and-fun-at-autumn-harvest.html

Please share links to your favourite posts 

Taiwanese Food To Try

Chinese food is always full of surprises.  The Taiwanese  eggs look like the eggs I tried and tried to make in Singapore. You soak them in tea. Chinese style. But the ones in Taiwan are soaked in soy sauce.

The foods which I look forward to eating in Taiwan include

eggs stewed in soy sauce.

Coffin bread.

Hollow out the cooked bread, fill with cream of chicken or mushroom, add fried bread or toast lid.

To finish, pineapple tart.

And figs floating in ice.

And to finish, bubble tea, invented in Taiwan.

Bubble tea. It has balls of glutinous tapioca floating in it. This makes the tea last longer. Adds a touch sensation.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Taiwan

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine#Etiquette

See my other post on the Taiwanese blue magpie.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

All you can eat at Brazilian style El Vaquero in London, grilled meat, delivered constantly, a perfect evening out

El Vaquero restaurant, Mill Hill, London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury

 El Vaquero means the cowboy. The origin of the word is the Portuguese vaca meaning cow. (Portuguese being the language spoken in Brazil in South America.) The restauran'ts two selling points are all you can eat, and meat carved off the skewer onto your plate by perambulating serving staff.

El Vaquero restaurant in Mill Hill in North West London is very popular for birthday parties. We heard Happy Birthday being sung four times when we were there on a midweek evening, Thursday. For birthdays, the restaurant will give one piece of cake free to the birthday person. If you want a big birthday cake for everybody, such as a Caterpillar cake, Marks And Spencers is just around the corner, under the railway bridge. 

Drinks

You order your drinks - I had Prosecco. 

Drinks. Angela enjoying Prosecco. And boiled eggs from the vegetable counter. 

 Photo by Sharot family.

Decide whether to have the set meal or the completely vegetarian. If you go for the third option, fish, they need 48 hours notice, because otherwise it is first come, first served and they might run out of the sea bass or whatever is available.

Vegetables, Garlic bread.  Hard boiled eggs, halved Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The vegetable choice is attractive to the eye and tasty. I had cauliflower, corn (Americans say maize), cooked fresh, tasty. Boiled eggs, cut in half, were on teeny trays with mayonnaise. My favourite vegetables were the orange sweet potato and the parsnips. 

Meat

Waiters scurry around from table to table with long vertical skewers offering to cut you a slice or two of chicken, lamb, beef, sausages. Mustard is available on request. 

Chips

You get one free bowl of chips shared between a couple. You have to pay if you order a second helping of chips (known as French Fries to your American friends.).

We were lucky to get a table for two, giving them half an hour's notice. At weekends you must book.

Any Improvements?

Drinks

The driver cautiously ordered a Sprite. 

I was so intent on eating my food whilst it was still fresh, that I didn't start on my Prosecco, nor finish it, until towards the end of my meal. By then it was tepid.

Maybe in this heatwave, we should have been offered ice in the drink, or an ice bottle for any of the bottles.

El Vaquero had three branches, one  in Mill Hill, where we saw the jolly owner, racing from table to table. Occasionally he or another member of staff asked to ask is whether everything was all right. Another branch is owned by another member of his family, in Whetstone? A third more expensive version is run by another relative. The third one charges more so can afford to buy even better cuts of meat. 

I was very happy with what I had.

Desserts

Dessert marshmallow included, with grilled pineapple strips. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

You can have sorbets or ice creams, according to the menu. But included in the price are slices, strips, of grilled pineapple - which to my mind had lost its freshness, and a marshmallow, with a dry outside and inside a stretchy sugary concoction which wrapped around the cutlery challengingly like chewing gum or the tasteless dead cheese on pizza. Hm. I was so one hundred per cent sure every single dish was perfect until I reached dessert. What was wrong? Too dry. Too sugary. My son declined the dessert. Next time I shall, too. 

Without the dessert, the meal was perfect. Fast service. Tasty meat. Vegetables cooked just right.

Price? We paid for the set meal, a couple of drinks, mine being alcoholic, and the service charge.

The restaurant is very jolly, very noisy. For a birthday. For children and families. For men who are hearty meat eaters. For everybody.

Toilets are conveniently on the ground floor. We parked around the corner in the station car park which was free after 7 pm.

Useful Websites

elvaquero.co.uk

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Eggs Benedict With Smoked Salmon - what do you call it?

Shukla at Soyo restaurant

 Eggs Benedict is a classic breakfast dish supposedly invented in America for a diner named Benedict consisting of eggs in bacon. Since Jews, as well as Moslems, don't eat pork, the variation you get at restaurants serving no pork can substitute other foods. In Soyo restaurant in Golders Green, London, England, I had Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon. All my life I have struggled to remember the ingredients of Eggs Benedict. However, now I find it is easy to remember. I realize that it's eggs on toast, or breakfast eggs and bacon. The eggs are wrapped in the bacon. But for those who don't eat pork, smoked salmon is substituted. (For those who don't eat fish either, another variation is with spinach, a contrast or green and yellow.)

Wikipedia gives the two stories of supposed originators, rival characters called Benedict, as a first name or surname. The earlier dated version seems to be a financier who went into a hotel in New York. 

I sort of remembered a British character named Benedict. But maybe my memory simple abbreviated the story and edited out the fact that the man was American.  

Anyway, if you are in London, I recommend that you go to Soyo restaurant and try their Eggs Benedict, which is made with smoked salmon.

How to cook eggs for breakfast and drink fresh coffee in a hotel room

I read about a woman who returned to Australia and was quarantined in a five star hotel but without a microwave oven.

An Iron As Hotplate
She made herself apple crumble and other foods heated up on an upturned iron, which acted as a hotplate, secured between two heavy books.

She chopped up an apple with a penknife. (Any hotel can send you a knife. A five star hotel has 24 hour room service.)

Her cooking utensil was an aluminium tray you get with takeway food. I presume the crumble was a ready mix. But you can mix flour and water with fat such as butter to make crumble. the advantage is crumble is it is just flour rolled up into balls, no need for a rolling pin to roll it out into pastry. A hotel usually has sugar sachets.If you have flown overseas or on a long flight within a country, you might have meal service inclding a sachet of salt.

Most fast food places have condiments which seem unnecessary at the time but can be just the ticket later. For example, most take away piza comes with extra sachets of cheese and pepper or spicy sprinkles.

You can also buy packets of individual portions of cheese. If you save bread from your brakfast, ideally with a butter or margarine sachet,  you can add a cheese portion, or the cheese sachet and sprinkles left over from the pizza, and you have a mid-morning snack.

I was wondering whether she could have demanded a microwave, or bought herself one (if she was getting free food for a fortnight, she could afford a cheap microwave.

Some hotels don't like you cooking in the room. Why? consdier their point of view. It uses their electricity. It is a fire risk. You are making crumbs which attract rats and cockroaches and flies. You are deprivin them of sales of over-priced food from their kitchen.

On the other hand, they might be short-staffed and keen to keep you happy or just flexible.

Do a health and safety assessment first. What could go wrong? How can you prevent it going wrong?

Can you leave the room as you found it?



Simple solution - Suites
A simpler solution was one we adoped as a family of three in the USA. If you are staying longer than a week, go to an all suites hotel. There you have a larger living room, often a bigger dining table where you can eat or work, and a microwave.

You need to buy in food to bring with, or have it delivered.


UK flag

Eggs
Years ago we were in a UK hotel room which had nothing but a kettle and we needed breakfast. I said, What I would like is an egg.

The corner shop across the road had eggs.

No chance of making scrambled eggs. But what about boiled eggs? We had hot , boiled water, from the kettle. Just pour the water over the egg in a cup.

We did consider putting the egg inside the kettle. If the egg breaks, you get an awful mess.

Coddled Egg
You could bring your own kettle from home, a small one, ideally one with a flat base inside and not an exposed element, so it is easier to clean and empty.

My husband used to do this as a student at Aberdeen university in Scotland. He had an egg pricker to make a hole in the egg so it would not burst. He added vinegar to the water to coagulate whites if the egg splits or leaks through the hole.

Coffee Pods
One year we were on holiday in Wales and my husband was not happy with the quality of the coffee. he drove to the nearest city and bought the cheapest coffee pod machine which came with a set of coffee pods. We were on holiday for a long weekend. He had his breakfast coffee and mid monring coffee and lnch time coffee and mid afternoon coffee and after dinner coffee for 2 days.  Some for me too.

He drinks black coffee. A pint of milk was available from the nearby Tesco supermarket and stayed cold on the windowsill.  He reckoned the price was not much more than the cost of bying all those coffees in the restaurant or bar.

With planning and ingenuity, or asking what is available, you can often find a solution.

Interesting Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8356091/Woman-makes-apple-crumble-homemade-TimTam-IRON-hotel-quarantine.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.
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Why You Should Teach Your Partner to Cook! In Coronavirus Times or Any Time

My mother always did all the cooking in my parents' home and my father's sole contribution was saying thank you.

She died, aged 89, in the year 2000, and the next day my 89-year old-father, who had refused to come and stay overnight with me, phoned me.

His quavering voice said, "I can't find the egg cups."

My Widowed Father's Need To Cook
I thought my father had woken up lonely and this was just a plea for attention, but I treated his problem seriously and asked, "Have you looked in all the cupboards?"

"Yes," he replied. "I can't find any egg cups anywhere. I don't know what to do. Can you help me?"

I sighed. I had to cope with my mother's death, telling friends and family, neighbours, organizing a funeral tea at my house. The last thing I needed was delivering meals on wheels and playing hunt the egg cups.

Fortunately I was only ten minutes' drive away.

I said, "I'll bring you some egg cups. While you are waiting, look again. And get out two small plates and two teaspoons. Tiny ones, if you have them. And a saucepan."

I said that to keep him busy. I thought he had only phoned me for company because he was alone and forlorn.

I was wrong. He really had no idea where to find an egg cup or how to boil and egg.

How Do You Boil An Egg?
"Thank you," he said. "And - can you show me how to boil an egg?"

"You just put it in water and boil until it's done."

"What size saucepan? How much water? Water to cover the egg, or to the top of the saucepan?
If I put it in boiling water I might splash myself. If I boil it then it might boil over and splash me.
How will I know when it is done? How do I get it out of the boiling water? Do I need to leave the water to cool? And the egg to cool. When your mother did it, I thought it was simple. Now it seems so complicated."

"I'll show you," I replied. I must admit I never really thought about how I cook an egg. I just get up and do it.

He asked, "How do I get the shell off? Can I cook six eggs for the week?"

"I'll be right over," I replied.

You could start every day with a sustaining egg, which contains rotein. You might get a bit bored. What about different eggs?

I used to hate cooking eggs any way except scarmbled. First there is the mess of the bits of broken egg shell. Then the risk of the broken yolk, messy. Finally, if you achieved a perfect yook, ideal for fried eggs you had to inspect the eggs. They sometimes had red blood spots. Or little white wiggly bits.

How Do You Scramble Eggs?
After I wrote the above, in 2020, I thought, what will I do if my husband goes into hospital? I went into the kitchen and asked my husband, who does all the cooking, "Where are our eggs? Where are the egg cups? How many do we have? Are they different sizes and does it matter. Do we have any small teaspoons for eggs?"

He answered, "The eggs are in the door of the fridge in the egg tray. The egg cups all fit any size egg. I have a small teaspoon I use for salt but usually just use the normal teaspoons for eggs."

My Husband's Scrambled Egg
Yesterday I asked my husband to show me how he cooks a scrambled egg. I do it differently.
He whisks it the eggs up with a hand whisk. He does not add water (which hotels do) nor milk nor cream. He adds just a pinch of salt and pepper to the mixture. 'Not too much!'

Have a nonstick pan and a wooden spoon or teflon spatula. Put a teaspoon puddle of oil. warm the pan before adding the eggs. If hot and fast cooking the butter turns brown fast.   Keep stirring fast. As soon as it starts to solidify, take the pan off the heat. It will continue cooking.Remove onto a plate.

Add your pre-chopped salad and pre-washed and chopped tomatoes.

If you cook toast at the same time, lots to watch and co-ordinate. You may have to practice learning how long a partiuclar type of bread, particular thickness and particular toaster. Butter on hot toast, then eggs on toast.

Whipped up egg for scrambled egg. Photo by Angela Lansbury. copyright.

Omeletters have to be slow cooked. Because you need the to solidify so you can turn them over.

The moral of the story is, teach your parents and your partner and your children and your household help to cook. You never know when one of you will go into hospital, or be travelling for work, overseas on holiday, stuck on a cruise ship which can't get home, or worse case scenario you or your parent is widowed and have ing to cook for themselves every day, three meals a day, except for the once a week treat for a family meal out or in.

Quick And Easy Baked Potato
When I was at school, a girls' grammar school, we had Domestic Science lessons which included cookery. I learned to cook a baked potato in its jacket in the oven and grate cheese into the cooked potato. Baked potato is another another quick and easy meal.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker,
wtih many posts on travel, food and drink, menu languages and languages.
See later post:
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/04/plan-for-teaching-your-family-to-cook.html
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Timing your breakfast egg in a holiday home or when visitng friends

How do you time a boiled egg on holiday?

You can make yourself a boiled egg in a hotel room by buying eggs from the nearby supermarket, putting an egg in a cup, pouring on boiling water and covering the cup with a saucer.
How do you time it.

English: Picture of an "hourglass" egg timer.
Date	8 January 2004 (according to Exif data)
Source	No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims).
Author	No machine-readable author provided. Lumos3 assumed (based on copyright claims).

Cheap, Popular Egg Timers

Firstly, how do you time things? Do you need to buy a timer?

You can use your mobile phone as a timer. On most mobiles go to the supplied clock up. You can look for stopwatch. You can either set a time. Or start at zero and watch until you get to the desired time.

You can also buy a device for heating water which plugs into your car or hire car cigarette lighter. You need a cup and water.

Add coffee to make black coffee. For years we used to make coffee in the car when travelling.

Add an egg to boil and egg.

If you have an electric toothbrush with a two minute timer, you could have one or two people clean their teeth and have the egg ready when they finish.

Useful websites
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=egg%20timer%20colour
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=sand%20egg%20timer
https://www.online-stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/
https://www.aliexpress.com/popular/3-minute-egg-timer-with-sand.
Set of three timers for 4 or 5 or 6 minutes in different colours, red, blue, yellow or as advertised.
https://www.amazon.com/Kuechenprofi-Sand-Egg-Timer-Set
About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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DIY Mooncakes - what is in a mooncake?

You can try and buy mooncakes in China, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam - and the USA! Mooncakes are delicious and so exotic with their classic pictures or messages in Chinese writing on top.  They are round but often with scalloped sides, and my favourite filling is the classic red bean paste. Another very popular filling is lotus seed.






Mooncakes are delicious but expensive. You could make your own.

Problem
What is in a mooncake?

Could I make one easily? Why not?

Answers
The traditional mooncake has a filling of syrup such as Gold Syrup and lard or butter or coconut oil. If you or any of your family or guests want to try your mooncakse, you need to check the ingredients, or make your own to be sure what is in.

No meat or meat products
You have to drop the lard, which is pig fat, if your guests are likely to include Moslems or Jews or vegetarians. Vegetarians won't eat meat so that rules out the lard.

No Milk or Butter
But some vegetarians not only avoid eating meat from dead animals. They don't want milk or eggs taken from live animals. A proprotion of vegetarians are vegan. You have to exchange butter for something else if your guests are vegan (won't eat milk products).

No Eggs
The vegans won't eat eggs. That rules out the salted egg concealed inside the mooncake.
If you buy a box of mooncakes, sometimes about 2 in six or ten or twelve  mooncakes will have the more expensive filling with the salted eggs. Ask the shop to point out which mooncakes have the eggs inside them.

In addition, some people are allergic to eggs. That was why Bird Eye Custard was invented, to make a quick custard recipe without eggs.

If you are serving a group in a public place, a club, or even your own extended family, you need to label ingedients.

Regarding allergies, the allergies you have to label for are nuts, eggs, and milk, because a proportion of Asians have lactose intolerance.

A recipe using sesame seed and explanations and pictures are on this website.

https://omnivorescookbook.com/traditional-mooncake

https://www.finedininglovers.com/recipes/dessert/chinese-food-mooncake-recipe/

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mooncakes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake

https://www.facebook.com/mooncakesonline/

Author
Angela Lasnbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

The Rear of The Rhea Was Here - where can you see it now?

Photo of Rhea by Michael Palmer in Wikipedia.


The Rear Of The Rhea Is Here
by Angela Lansbury

What is a rhea?
First I must say
It's oddly spelled
R H E A

The rhea, like its name, is absurd
Because it's a large, but flightless bird
Some people won't hear one bad word,
Ok, let's say, delightful bird

At first, when that big bird was found
They called it rhea, that's Greek for ground
South America's rhea is taller
Thank God, our Darwin rhea, here, is smaller

Most people here have no idea
About the truth, about the rhea
Except of course, for me and you
Like emus, we've no work to do

We look up facts, so we are clear
In case we ever must confront
Bravely, without a tear, nor fear
That dear, but very dangerous rhea

Thousands write to support its cause
It doesn't have big teeth, lion's jaws
But don't shake hands, evade its paws!
It catches, clasps, kills - with long claws!

On good days it just eats long grass
So if you're bothered by too much grass
No time at down to mow the lawn
Just let your rhea march, munching, past

One lady thought it would be fun
To own a rhea, just start with one
It's lonely, so then you get two
But what d'you think two rheas do!

A year goes past, while drinking tea,
You look up, gasp, "Hey - I see three!"
They breed and breed, you've soon got four
Let's split them up. please shut that door

'We've not got room, what shall we do?
I'm sure they'd like some at the zoo
So take a picture. Shut that gate!'
'Sorry, one's gone - I was too late!'

Cute in National Geographic
Not fun, running round in traffic!
It's run, done something in the field
I hope that helps the farmer's yield

It's not good news, not a good day
It's dangerous - on a motorway!
They're lost, they're breeding, two, four, five
The good news is that they'll survive

It's like an ostrich, and will eat
All kinds of plants, but sometimes meat
Rodent, reptile. It's friends with deer
Stands calm by cows, if herds are near

An 'emu' was glimpsed far from home
Caught on camera, then mobile phone
Escaped rheas at first sound fun
Delays, expense, police - with guns

Although, from far, a rhea's cute
Shyly running, in its feather suit
Now it's escaped, they'll prosecute
Stop car crashes. Game keepers shoot

We should know more, we all agree
To talk this over, over tea
I'll go off to scan the media
Please read more in Wikipedia

Because there's lots more I could say
But we've not enough time today
Let's go out looking, all of us here
Before laws ban them and they disappear

Learn more about the backward rhea
See which facts we can muster
The prime use of its feathers
Is to make a feather duster

If you fly to Argentina
You'll find the rhea is no stranger
You see it on centavo coins
There they're not rare, nor endangered

Gouchos would trip up rheas with ropes
Eat eggs and meat, make leather cloaks.
Farmers are angry, rheas eat crops
Not bad, they're good! Here shooting's stopped!

If soon, the world's rheas disappear
Don't drown sorrow in tea or beer
Come to England, amigos, Hertfordshire
You'll see two rhea rears running here!
-ends-

copyright Angela Lansbury.
Inspired by controversy caused by escaped rheas by the English motorway, pursued by gunmen, eventually recaptured, or returned for lunch, instead of ending up as dinner.
Please share links to this post.
For the story about the escaped rheas causing trouble to motorway traffic, see
UK Escapes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/27050298
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/what-s-going-on-rhea-yorkshire-police-find-an-emu-on-patrol-1-9014419
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-warning-over-aggressive-escaped-rhea-bird-on-the-loose-in-nottinghamshire-10345553.html

Escapes in Germany
http://www.10000birds.com/greater-rheas-germanys-new-big-bird.htm

For info on rheas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(bird)_

ENGLAND, UK
To see rheas go to Woburn Safari Park, England.
woburnsafari.co.uk
http://www.woburnsafari.co.uk/discover/meet-the-animals/birds/greater-rhea/

SCOTLAND
http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/animals-and-attractions/animals/darwins-rhea/

https://www.visitscotland.com

NORTHERN IRELAND
http://www.belfastzoo.co.uk/animals/darwins-rhea.aspx

vistibritainshop.com

CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA
Or Parc Nacional Pali Aike, Chile
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g2615237-d2461967-r346309803-Parque_Nacional_Pali_Aike-Magallanes_Region.html
https://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport
http://www.visitchile.com/en/

ARGENTINA, SOUTH AMERICA
https://www.audleytravel.com/argentina
https://wikitravel.org/en/Argentina

Trevor Sharot Photo of Monitor Lizard And Its Long Tongue In Singapore

Photos by Trevor Sharot, copyright.

Problem
How do you get up close to a monitor lizard? How dangerous is it?

Answers
I was sitting across the table from William in Singapore and I told him about the monitor Lizard which Trevor Sharot saw in Singapore.

Monitor Lizards In the Botanic Gardens

My new friend, William, was phlegmatic, unconcerned. He said:

"I saw monitor lizards in the Botanic Gardens."

"In a cage?"

" No, just lying around enjoying the sun."

"Aren't they dangerous?"

"Not if you keep your distance. But you wouldn't want to get too close."

"But Trevor saw one the other side of a wall with tennis netting.  The lizard was growling and striking its tail."

"Maybe it was protecting its eggs."

"How many did you see in the Botanic Gardens? Two?"

"About ten."

"Ten! I'd have left if I saw even one. I won't be going to the Botanic Gardens again."

Trevor Sharot's Video of Monitor Lizard
I asked Trevor Sharot to send me a still from his video. In the video you can see the lizard thrashing its tail against the wall.

Monitor Lizard's Tongue
Then it puts out its tongue. It wasn't until we freeze-framed the video to select a suitable still (showing the head not obscured by the wall or netting) that we realised how long the tongue is. It looks like a flexible pencil or piece of bamboo. The tongue strikes so fast! It's out and visible in one frame but gone in the next.

If you want to see a monitor lizard, go to a zoo, or Singapore's Botanic Gardens.

Useful Websites:
https://www.nparks.gov.sg/gardens-parks-and-nature/singapore-botanic-gardens
http://www.visitsingapore.com/en/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How to understand a menu in Romania

Problem
What is the vocabulary? How do I ask for something? How do I understand the answer?

Answer
Vocabulary is easy. translate with google and find words on Duolingo.

English - Romanian
breakfast - mic d e j u n
butter - u n t (notice the u and t in both words)
cake - t o r t a
cakes - torturi
cheese - branza
chocolate - c i o c o l a t a
cocoa - c a c a o - notice in English .O.OA but in Romanian .A.AO
coffee - c a f e a
dessert - deserturi
eggs - oua (there should be an accent like a bowl on the a. Although I have added the Romanian alphabet or keyboard to my Macbook preferences, I don't have the letters.
fruit(s) - f r u c t, /f r u c t e
juices - s u c u r i
knives - c u t i t e
pie - p l a c i n t a
sandwiches - sandviciuri
sugar - z a h a r (bowl shape accept on second a)
teas - c e a i u r i
water - a p a
wines -vinuri
yogurts - iaurturi

Romanian - English
cu - with
c u t i t e - knives
d e s e r t - dessert
iaurturi - yogurts
m e n i u r i - menus
m i e r e - honey (like miel, French for honey)
pahare - glasses
p l a c i n t a - pie
r o s i e - red / tomatoes
s a n d v i c i u r i - sandwiches
torta - cake
torturi - cakes
usturoi - garlic
v i n u r i  - wines

Do you want a newspaper while you are waiting?
z i a r e - newspapers

If you learn in Duolingo it reminds shows you the accents and if you mis one out it reminds you. The letters with accents are supplied under the box in which you type.

noi - we

N o i  a v e m means we have. However, the Romanian negative, n u  a v e m we don't have, sounds similar.

Tips
http://romaniatourism.com
https://www.duolingo.com/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,a author and speaker. See my other posts about
Romanian and other languages. Save useful posts and share links to your favourites.

What do You Eat, Walking and Trekking?

Problem
What do you eat, on a walking and trekking holiday?

Answer
If you are just out for the day, with a group breakfast at a hotel or hostel, a group lunch picnic or meal arranged, and supper back at the hotel in the evening, you might take the standby of Kendal mint cake, solid white sugar, with a dark chocolate coating. Plus of course water. And something spare, such as a sandwich, in case you get stuck.

Tea House or Tent?
Some treks stop for food at tea houses. Others are based in tented camps. Find out which, and decide which you prefer, before you choose and commit to a trekking holiday company.

Porters
On a longer trek, over several days and nights, you are likely to have local porters. They carry your food. For the large communal meals. (You still want something in your pocket or rucksack or day pack in case you get separated or stuck.

Meat and vegetables
An experienced trekker tells me: "What you need in Pakistan when taking a long trek or climbing up and down hill is protein. No problem with halal or kosher food. You don't take meat on a trek. It won't keep. It goes off too quickly.

"However, we did buy a sheep from a hill farmer half way through a trek. We were a group of 60 people, trekkers and crew.

"Usually your diet is vegetarian. You get your protein from beans and pulses.

"The diet is not dull. The porters take spices and garlic and onions. You can't taste so well at high altitude, so garlic is good. They cook up casseroles and curries, stews and soups."

Protein
How do you get protein?

"We got protein from cheese and eggs. We had yak cheese. Delicious."

Eggs
If you went up for a day or two, for the weekend, you could take cooked eggs. But on a longer trek the porters took eggs.

"On one trek we had a porter whose sole job was to carry the eggs. He had a wire cage, a cage with compartments and an egg in each cell for thirty people.

"That lasted until half way through the trek. Then he went home, back downhill again, because he was no longer needed.

"In Nepal and Tibet we had porters. In Tibet they weren't Tibetan porters but Nepalese."

One way to lose weight.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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The Future of Food Production and Diets - What Would Benefit the world?

Travelling around the world you encounter different diets in different cultures. The Muslims and Jews don't eat pork. The Jews don't eat shellfish and won't mix meat and milk at the same meal. Hindus don't eat beef.

Animal lovers avoid battery farmed eggs and veal. Vegans avoid eggs and milk. Vegetarians eat vegetables and fruit and grains.

Health-conscious people aim for organic food.

Dieters go fro fruit juices and avoid starches. (Other diets avoid fats, or sugars.)

Americans avoid Malaysian vegetables, grown in 'night soil' - manure or sewage; whilst Malaysians avoid Australian vegetables 'grown in chemicals'.

Arab countries and poor countries admire the fat and wealthy, well-fed look.

Western countries like the thin and energetic look this century. (In the painter Titian's day fashions in female forms was obviously different. Maybe painters preferred patrons who were and looked wealthy.)

Shakespeare did not like the lean and hungry look. (But Shakespeare and Marlow also liked drinking in taverns.)

As for drink, Muslims and Hindus are against alcohol. But the Irish and British are fond of alcohol. In the last century it was safer to drink alcohol than polluted water.

What of the future? We hear and read a lot about global warming. The UK is now proving wines.
Foods from distant lands are imported.

If you were a visitor from Mars, what would you think would be the best solution?

Hindus who don't eat meat, to preserve cows and oxen, work animals which roam freely, eating wherever and whatever and belong to the ruling classes?

The Chinese and / or there view that you eat anything with four legs except a table? (That would include stray dogs.)

Certain African tribes which eat insects?

Eating game? This would include lions, birds of prey, and so on.

Eating domestic pets? Rabbits?

Licensing all animal owners.  Marking animals, not just sheep and cows, and dogs, but also cats and chickens.

Killing animals which eat or attack humans? This would include crocodiles, some elephants, lions, jaguars, leopards.

Killing animals which eat others? This would include killing lions and foxes. Large snakes. Crocodiles.

Killing animals which eat crops or damage trees. This would / could include d e e r, birds.

Introducing animals which eat others?

Moving animals which eat others' eggs? (Removing hedgehogs to new places when they eat birds' eggs.)

Allowing everybody to eat everything like the Chinese?

Making everybody vegetarian like the Hindus?

Having meat-free days, just as the Catholics used to eat fish on Fridays. Copying some Indian groups have vegetarian day? Giving up wheat food which was given up in Lent after using up the wheat leftover from last year in pancakes, to ensure no contamination by mould of the new crop?

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker.

Easter egg drawing competition

In the midst of life we are in death - seems to be the other way round at Hearnden and daughters, undertakers and funeral directors, in Hatch End Broadway. They are running a competition for drawing an Easter egg. You go in to get the drawing paper.

They intend to display the results in their window. Their contribution to the High Street's conviviality. They already have a seasonal display of eggs in the window. I am already looking forward to seeing the results.

While I was in their shop I saw lots of interesting  leaflets about woodland burials and urns for ashes. See my next post.