May 14, 2013 Chinatown, SoHo and O'Neill's Pub

Spent the day wondering aimlessly around Leicester Square, SoHo and Chinatown. Leicester Square is the theater district in London’s West End similar to Broadway in New York. Noted some of the shows we had not seen and checked some ticket prices.

Interestingly, London does not have a proper Chinatown. For a nation that has been traveling to the orient for more than 1,500 years, you would expect a Chinatown similar to San Francisco or New York. But, London’s is very small. In fact, I think Houston has a larger oriental community than does London. It is interesting, but you can see it all in about 30 minutes.

Of course you have to stop for a snack. How about giant chocolate croissant and cappuccino? This was only one of dozens of possible selections from this bakery shop.

Two years ago we came to London with Elaine’s brother on a whirlwind one day trip. We came from Paris on the Eurostar, the high speed train that goes under the English Channel. We wanted to have some authentic English fish and chips so I suggested that we ask one of the workers laying asphalt on the street thinking that they would know a good cheap place. The gentleman directed us to "O’Neill’s Irish Pub. Now mind you, this is an Irish pub, not a British pub and it happens to be located in Chinatown. The gentleman told us to ignore all the Chinese restaurants and to just keep walking until we found O’Neill’s. We found it and the fish and chips was excellent. And, what do you know, we were walking through Chinatown and Elaine spotted O’Neill’s again. We had to go in. Unfortunately, we had just had lunch and could not have the fish and chips but we did have a nice pint of ale.

Who could eat this.  Mixed Grill Burger: Irish Beef patty, chicken breast, Irish Pork and Leek Sausage, Bacon, Flat Mushroom, Fried Egg and Battered Onion Rings! This is an example of the sort of “pub grub” served at O’Neill’s.

Inside O’Neill’s pub. It started raining so we headed back home. While our friend, Kim, was here for the marathon, we had delightful warm and sunny weather. Kim went home and took the Texas weather with her. Since she left, it has been typical London weather. Cold, cloudy, rainy every afternoon. High temperatures in the 60’s and lows as low as 39! Yikes! Kim, come back the bring the weather with you.