EAT.

Amongst the gazillion places you can buy a normal, quick lunch in this city, one stands like a beacon of light: EAT. While you can partially attribute this glow to the starch white interior, especially visible when it starts to get dark, it has much more to do with what goes on inside.

I started going to eat regularly a little over a month ago when the weather started to turn cold and the concept of soup before lunch sounded like an overwhelmingly good idea. Both Eat and Pret a Manger have hot soups available, and Tesco down the road has cold soups you can buy and heat up yourself. So on my first attempt at lunch soup I ended up first poking my head into eat to see if I liked what they had on offer. They had a smoky bacon and lentil, which I got with a chunk of wheat bread. It was the most delicious soup I'd ever eaten. The next soup I had there was of a southeast Asian variety and unfortunately had a high percentage of mushrooms, but was tasty otherwise. That was followed by Moroccan root vegetable, chili con carne and chicken pot pie. By this time I was checking the weekly soup menu on Mondays to see what would be the best day of the week to go (I try to take my lunch most days). Today they have smoky bacon and lentil, so it is indeed my eat soup day for the week!

The trickiest part of the ordeal is the actual ordering of the soup. Everyday they have two soups, one termed 'simple' and the other 'bold'. Smoky bacon and lentil is a simple (basically chunkless). I stick with ordering the name of the soup, while the people behind the counter refer to them as simple or bold. So a couple weeks ago when trying to order a big bowl of smoky lentil, I nearly ended up with two soups: a big 'bold' and the lentil. There was a long discussion but it was eventually sorted out and I just ended up with my big 'simple' so to speak. And eat soup day is one of the highlights of my week. Along with starbucks coffee day, which is again limited to once a week. It just so happens that today is both!

Speaking of today, it is also my last day in the office this year. After getting a transport assessment I did out in the mail yesterday right before lunch, I haven't had anything to do. So I'm slowly trying to gather knowledge on the history of the British monarchy and all their offspring via the best source for these things, wikipedia. Keeps you entertained for hours, I tell ya.

And I've got some tesco's finest mince meat pies ready to come back to the states with me! Get those taste buds ready folks! Mmmm. Raisins and goo.