"Plenty"

"For me, every food can be special. I always think you can add beauty and luxury to a dish by adding lots of herbs to it.

"I think a huge platter always looks better than a small plate, so to make my guests welcome and feel special I put many beautiful platters with food, as I do in my shops, so it's quite a lot around, a lot to choose from.

"Once you've done that, you can make the simplest things in the world, and still everyone thinks you've gone to the longest of efforts, but actually it's as simple as that."

Yotam Ottolenghi, author of "Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi," on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday

The English breakfast

"To eat well in England, you should have breakfast three times a day."

W. Somerset Maugham, quoted in Albert Jack's "What Caesar Did for My Salad: The Curious Stories Behind Our Favorite Foods"

Bagels on the brain

One minute I am reading about bagels in Britain, reminiscing, for example, about Brick Lane Beigel Bake in London.

"Anyone who has visited an authentic bagel shop will know the steamy, burnished aroma of bagels made in small batches... Freshness is the core philosophy in this place, and the ovens are on the go continually. Under the glossy crust, the dough is dense yet tender, slightly sweet with a beery yeastiness..."

The next minute I am toasting a bagel for breakfast and slathering it with cream cheese. It doesn't take a whole lot of convincing. I am easy like that.

Pass the passata

Ever since a friend in London mentioned passata in a curry recipe from his mother's kitchen, I have wondered about it. Is it essentially pureed tomatoes?

The Telegraph talks about San Marzano tomatoes in a piece on store-bought passata, used in this case to add depth and texture to weeknight pasta sauces. It provides some enlightenment.

All-around goodness

Breakfast might or might not be our favorite meal of the day. That remains a toss-up. It does, however, give us an excellent reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Travel + Leisure offers a compelling look at hotel breakfasts around the world. There are dumplings in China, for example, and parathas in India. There are bangers and bacon in Britain, and biscuits and beignets in the U.S. There is goodness everywhere.

This time this year

This time last year, we were in London eating, exploring food shops and outdoor markets. This time this year, we are not.

Fiona Cairns, though, takes us back a bit to England. Her company, set in Leicestershire, supplies fanciful desserts to British department stores such as Selfridges, Harrods and Waitrose.

The cookbook "Bake and Decorate: Charming Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies for Every Occasion" lets us re-create many of her sweet treats in our own kitchen.

In it, we find recipes for cakes with penguins or gingerbread men, and cupcakes that resemble butterflies, ice-cream cones or flower pots. What interest us most, however, are her directions for a simple Victoria sponge.

Victoria Sponge Cake
from Fiona Cairns' "Bake and Decorate: Charming Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies for Every Occasion"

for the cake:

1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. organic sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

for the filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup raspberry or strawberry jam
confectioners' sugar, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

You can choose to cook this cake either in one or two 8 x 1 1/2-inch round cake pans. Butter the pan or pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper. If you use just one pan, line the sides with a 3-inch high collar of parchment paper as well, to allow for the rise.

For this batter, I use an electric mixer and beater attachment, but use a food processor, or a bowl and an electric whisk, if you wish.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl, then add the butter (cut into tablespoons), the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Beat together until thoroughly blended, about 2 minutes on high speed. Scrape the batter into the pan or pans and smooth the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes if you are using two pans, or 30 to 35 minutes for one pan, until the cake springs back to the touch or a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes. Run a knife around the rim to loosen the cake from the pan and turn out onto a wire rack. Peel off the paper and cool completely.

Lightly whip the cream until just thickened into soft peaks. If you have baked the cake in one pan, slice horizontally with a serrated knife. Fill with jam and cream and sandwich together, so the cream forms the upper layer.

If you have baked the cake in two pans, be sure to sandwich the flat bases together. Sift confectioners' sugar on top. Makes 8 servings.

Getting sauced

Oliver Thring writes in the Guardian of HP Sauce, comparing it to both A1 Steak Sauce and ketchup. Like me, he favors one but not the others.

"It's almost shocking how delicious HP is. From its lowbrow reputation and unappetising hue bursts a remarkable aroma: complex, fuggy and fruity, like swimming through compost and Jif. It tastes better than it smells, too, a sweet-sour, subjugating blend."

Feeding groupies

Jamie's Italian at Canary Wharf. It is the meal I look forward to. If Jamie Oliver is a rock star, then we are bona fide groupies. Admittedly so. It is the meal on which we conclude this particular trip. We enjoy spit-roasted lamb and pasta Bolognese. We are happy and well-fed.

Happy Harrods

Nor can we resist the food hall (and chocolate Santas) at Harrods.

Literary London

All it takes is a walk through Hatchards on Piccadilly or Books for Cooks in Notting Hill to make me wish I've brought extra empty luggage. Next time, definitely.

I think, for example, to buy "Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North" by Stuart Maconie, or "Breakfast at The Wolseley" by A.A. Gill, or "Great British Grub" by Brian Turner or "Full English: A Journey Through the British and Their Food" by Tom Parker-Bowles, son of Camilla...

But I practice restraint and limit myself to one title - Nigel Slater's "Eating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table," in paperback.

Upstairs we eat

Downstairs in The Horniman at Hays, a stone's throw from the HMS Belfast and London Bridge, people laugh and drink after work and into the evening.

Upstairs, away from the bustle, we eat. We have pie and mash and veggies. We have fish and chips and mushy peas. Others come for the beer. We, apparently, come for the food.

Fortnum for sure

Nor can we resist the pretty sweets at Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly.

BBQ buns

We can take the girl out of Chinatown, but we can not take Chinatown out of the girl.

The White House eats

During a June visit to London, the Obama girls, their mother, grandmother and the rest of the entourage reportedly ate at The Audley in Mayfair. The children, we understand, had fish and chips. When we explore the quiet tony neighborhood, we find the British pub for ourselves.

Humming along

Opened, as it turns out, by a friend of a friend, The Hummingbird Bakery sells American-style desserts aplenty. There are cupcakes, for instance. There are layer cakes, pies, cookies and brownies.

And, not surprisingly, there is a book: "The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook" from owner Tarek Malouf.

We opt for a red velvet cupcake with traditional cream cheese frosting. My sister takes a bite. I happily finish the rest.

Leave the rice, keep the soy

The store-bought sushi is convenient but mediocre. The rice is cold and hard, the fish nearly nonexistent. The soy sauce, however, is packaged in such a unique way we can not resist a photo.

Brick Lane beigels

Brick Lane in the East End is filled with curry houses, none of which, I am told, is any good. 'Tis a shame really.

What we do like on the street, however, are cheap and chewy beigels from Brick Lane Beigel Bake, a testament to the historically Jewish influences in the dynamic neighborhood.

On Broadway

The stalls run the length of Broadway Market, from Regents Canal on one end to London Fields on the other. We shop on a refreshingly chilly Saturday morning, happy to meet new people and taste new foods. I find I do not mind the light rain. Not at all.

Major marketing

"A magnet for locals, visitors and foodies attracted to its more than 100 merchants and fast-food stands," Borough Market is mecca for gastropods, those of us who travel on our stomachs.

It can also be a madhouse on weekends, when it is open for business to the general public. We wander from stall to stall to stall, eyeing everything from sausages and cheese to pies and pumpkins. We get full on looks alone.

Totally Selfridges

We can hardly resist the food hall at Selfridges on Oxford Street.