Harters

My apologies - I'd failed to take note of your location.

Thanks LHT & EJL. We need to contact our TA about a couple of other things, so will ask her if she is able to book this for us. I'm guessing O has a glitch on its UK version website.

It didnt display the third excursion in the cart. But, nope, no CC option.

Does this mean I need to lodge a credit card with O at the point of booking excursions? Is there somewhere on O's website that I do this? Reason for asking is I've been trying to book excursions to use up my £778 credit ($1000). I've been able to book two excursions with no problem, leaving me with a credit of £162. Tried to book a third excursion which costs more than £162 and the system won't accept it. My guess is that this must be related to the need to pay the balance somehow. Or is it? Any advice please?

I'm also a chutney and pickle maker but don't think of them as condiments so didnt mention them. Although there are others, including what I expect to be a very nice beetroot one, tucked away, I have three in use at present - plum, tomato lime & chilli and one the recipe called "Christmas chutney", probably because it only uses dried fruits, like sultanas, apricots, dates, etc, which we commonly associate with Christmas cookery. Most of the chutneys I make only get used when I make Asian dishes but the Christmas one most often gets used on sandwiches and is similar in texture to Pan Yan, already mentioned, or Branston - both well known British pickles (although Pan Yan hasnt been available here since 2002.)

As I understand it, ASLEF (which represents train drivers) are on strike on 1/9 but have a ban on overtime working on 2/9. It is well known that the train operating companies have insufficient staff to work a full timetable without drivers working overtime so, in itself , that sounds like it will be disruptive on 2/9. The RMT (which represents other staff working on the trains, signalling staff, etc), are on strike in their very long running dispute on 2/9. Put the two together, and it seems clear that not much, if anything, is going to be running on Avanti West Coast London/Glasgow, or LNER London/Edinburgh.

Yes. We tried two of them and found them not very pleasant, so didn't order any more. I think they were the only things we used the butler for (plus getting an ice bucket one evening).

There's rarely anything other than pepper on the table at Casa Harters. But a ham sandwich would be unthinkable without mustard. As would a bacon sandwich without ketchup.

To answer the question in the thread title, it's Oceania's general ambiance. I don't really have much to compare it with. Back in the late 1990s and very early 2000s, we did three cruises with P & O but then became very disenchanted with the whole formality thing. Later tried a cruise with the shortlived Island Escape but found that too casual. And are only other experience was a short cruise from Miami with Norwegian, as part of a longer holiday to America. So, we'd pretty much forgotten about cruising but discovered O in 2017 and realised that it was possible to have a relatively upmarket experience without the formality of dressing up. I do not go to land based restaurants that require jackets and am hesitant about those that just have jackets "preferred". So, to find that I could go on a cruise, with good food, dressed as I would go to a Michelin starred restaurant, chinos and shirt, put cruising back on the agenda. Yes, the food is important - O's marketing that it offers "the finest cuisine at sea" may or may not be accurate but so long as it offers food as good as my neighbourhood regular restaurants, I'm happy with that. I like the fact that we can dine as a couple at the times we want - we've no wish to dine with strangers. Most other aspects of a cruise, I don't have hang ups about. So long as I have a comfy bed and someone keeps me well fed, the ship can go round in circles for a couple of weeks without going to a port, and I'd be OK with that. So, we cruised on Marina in 2017, have recently returned from a Nautica cruise and have one booked on Vista for next year. After that, I really, really want to try Viking.

Possibly, but it may still be ultra expensive. We are currently with All Clear, as we struggled to find anyone who would cover our various conditions (Stay Sure declined to continue covering us). Our annual policy, which includes for European cruises, is about £1450 for the two of us. We've recently been in touch with them asking about extending the cover for the US and Caribbean,as we are considering a transatlantic cruise and will be in the sector for a few days. It is going to add approx. another £2000.

I'm not American but, yes, I like peanut butter in moderation. I have tried it as Americans seem to often eat it, with jelly , but that's definitely not to my taste. Of course, I'm referring there to American jelly, not what we Britons would call jelly. That would be an even more unpleasant concoction. I have it on toast as a snack but, most usually, I use it to make satay sauce for Indonesian or Malaysian grills or as a dressing for a gado gado salad.

We didnt eat out as a family back in those days. Few "ordinary people" did. I think I would have been about 20 when I went for my first restaurant meal - no doubt, a evening at a Berni Inn (then the UK's largest restaurant chain)

I am a very big fan of the Midland French. We visit once or twice a year. I liked the original French - every major city should have a restaurant like that in the "grand old lady" of its hotel. I was disappointed when they decided to rebrand under the Michelin starred chef, Simon Rogan (who was never able to bring a star to Manchester). If you've been recently, you'll know that the restaurant has again been rebranded as "Adam Reid at the French". Very different from the "old French" but still a great evening - https://www.hungryonion.org/t/manchester-city-centre-adam-reid-at-the-midland-french-2022-visit/31447/3

That Yelp link includes a recommendation for the Rock & Sole Plaice (fairly near to Covent Garden). It may well have a good pun as its name but my sole (!) experience of eating there was awful - they manage to do everything that is vile and unpleasant that can be done to fish & chips.

If you go to Weymouth and are looking for fish & chips, look no further than Bennett's right on the harbour https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g190817-d2346134-r861869397-Bennett_s_Fish_Chips-Weymouth_Dorset_England.html Or there's Rockfish - a small local seafood restaurant chain, located on the main promenade . https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g190817-d17766521-r861861431-Rockfish_Weymouth-Weymouth_Dorset_England.html

Information source, please. If I've done my maths correctly, two American tons would equate to about 1800 kilos. That, divided by the 2k passengers gives a daily per capita waste of 0.9 kilos. Seems an awful lot, bearing in mind by no means everyone will put great quantities of food on the plate. And, for many of those who do, they will eat it. Presumably, within that 2 tons, there will be waste from crew meals and there's bound to be some over production of dishes that don't get served and become waste. But, even so, nearly a kilo of food leftovers seems to me a surprising amount.

There's two black pudding stalls on Bury market. The one that usually gets all the publicity. And the one that the locals queue up at. Here's a short article about food on Bury Market on the Good Food Guide's website. It mentions it's written by a "long standing contributor". I'm sure you can guess who that is. https://www.thegoodfoodguide.co.uk/editorial/features/a-report-on-bury-market

Clonakilty is a good un. I can't get it easily here, nor their excellent white pudding. But I can say I've bought it actually in Clonakilty (few years back when we stayed in Kinsale).

I think the OP was asking about whether you can still get a physical Amsterdam card. The question was answered in the affirmative at #2. I have some empathy with the query as I'm one of that minority who does not carry a mobile phone, whether smart or otherwise.

Jellied eels may be the second worst thing I've ever put in my mouth. There used to be a van in Whitechapel selling them (next to Aldgate East tube station, IIRC). Horrible. It wasnt the eels - I quite like smoked eel - it was the jelly. London, of course, is the "pretender" to the crown of having invented fish & chips but it's documentation is 1865, some five years after the record of them being sold together in Mossley (round the other side of Greater Manchester from me - about a 30 minute drive).

I didn't know there was an international standard. But I know that, generally speaking, when I'm in Spain I need to ask for it to be medium, to get medium rare.

I remember you mentioning, on a previous thread, that she lived here for a while. My brother in law and family lived in New York state for a few years. My youngest niece was born there - which I think makes her eligible to run for president (assuming she claimed citizenship).

Reminds me just how big a country the USA is. By contrast, the UK only has 76 cities. The metro area where I live has ten boroughs, but only two of them are cities.

I rarely eat pizza. My companion in life more often. Now, I've only been keeping notes of our meals out since 2008 and I don't record who had what. So these won't be all mine but, between us, we've eaten pizza in the UK (of course) and on foreign trips to Spain, Italy, America, South Africa, Norway and Cyprus.

The best fish & chips are in the north of the country, where we still often cook in beef dripping, rather than an oil. And, even in the north, my advice to best avoid the vile offerings that you are more likely to find than a good version, is generally to not eat them in a pub. Except if (a) the pub is in sight of the sea and (b) has a reputation for good fish & chips. So, that advice to you isnt much help, at least for this trip. On trips to the capital over the years, I've tried a few of the often mentioned fish & chips shops and they have generally not been that good. I make an exception for Masters Superfish near Waterloo station. It's so good it could be northern. https://masterssuperfish.has.restaurant/ Choice of fish is often a regional decision with cod being generally favoured in the south of England and haddock in the north. But it can be more locally nuanced. I live in the northwest but mine is a cod area. You'll want mushy peas for the full experience, along with the chips.