England? Food?

I feel that no discussion of England is complete without a brief chat about the food.

First of all, I must ask about this fruit. What is going on here? It is chopped up apples, grapes, I think an orange or two. All very nice, but they are swimming, SWIMMING, in this nebulous liquid of questionable origin.

What is this liquid? What purpose does it serve? I tasted it, and it's not a sweet poaching liquid, it's not tart lemon water to prevent browning, it's not Pimm's, it's not Sangria, and it's certainly not fruit juice, because no amount of fruit is going to produce that amount of liquid.

What?? Why?? It baffled me. It adds nothing to the taste, if anything, it kind of ruins it, but there must be some reason they do it. What is it? Anyone?? I must know!

Second, I must mention just how bad all of the food is for you here. I don't know what people are eating at home, but in restaurants it is impossible to get anything that is not deep fried, covered in mayo, accompanied by vast amounts of potatoes, cheese, sausage, or covered in pastry or custard (or cream. They cover perfectly lovely and healthy strawberries in a bowl of cream. Do they not know how much fat is in that stuff?! My cholesterol went up 20 points just looking at it!)

And don't get me wrong, I love fish & chips and savory pies and sticky toffee pudding. And the English potato chips are divine, the flavors they come up with (Worcester Sauce, BBQ beef, Prawn cocktail, chicken and tarragon) are marvelous. And English chocolate? Yum.

It's just that I would love to be able to also get something healthy. Like an entree size salad, or steamed veggies that are still crisp, because once you've boiled a vegetable for 45 minutes, you'll probably get more nutrients from eating your napkin, because everything good in that veggie has disappeared into the water.

We went to a lovely park yesterday, The Forest of Dean, and before our walk we decided to get some lunch. We ordered veggie burgers, thinking that was our best shot at being healthy. It was deep fried, was 90% potato, and it came on a bun that was, literally, as you can see, the size of my head.

It was tasty, I must admit, though I skipped the bun and what they called a veggie burger was really a potato croquette. At least we walked for 2 hours afterward.

I don't mean to be the ugly American, it just is hard, especially when you're trying to take off a few pounds, to be confronted with no healthy options at all. Plus who could resist that wonderful English Stilton? Or scones? I'm only human, after all!