Lewis's of Lancaster

I went to the town center today to pick up a mobile phone, which took FOREVER because it seems like everywhere in town is PACKED all the time. It also didn’t help that there was a festival/open market in the shopping square today. Think mayhem drenched in the smell of fried mini doughnuts and Indian curry. So I went into about 4 different phone stores, same story…packed, mostly it seemed with children too young and seniors too old to be using mobile phones. Maybe that’s not very nice, but I was irritated and growing weary of waiting in queues. Anyway, I got the phone situation sorted out and decided I’d earned a stop in a café.

I stopped at Lewis’s of Lancaster, a quaint, old-timey sort of place (the descriptor for everything here), right off the main square. I ordered a hot chocolate (my favesies) and beans-on-toast, because I took one look at the menu and decided that was probably the only thing I could stomach. Would you like to know what else was offered? Because I couldn’t help but copy some down:

Fried Egg Chips and Beans
Cornish Pastie, peas and gravy
Sausage and Chips + bread and butter
Bacon Bun
Cottage Pie served w/ chips, peas, red cabbage, and gravy
Steak Pie, chips, peas and gravy

Can’t forget the sandwiches—Tuna and Sweetcorn, Cheese and Chicken, Cheese and Onion

Or the fixings for a jacket potato—Cottage Cheese and Pineapple or Coleslaw or Bacon and Tomato or Cheese, Tuna, and Beans…mmmmm

Oh, and not to mention their all-day breakfast—Bacon, sausage, eggs, tomato, beans, mushrooms, toast, and tea or coffee. “Is it all one thing?” I pondered. What in the world would this freaking breakfast look like?...and no kidding, I found out about 20 minutes later...

It's all there isn't it? So creative these Brits.

For the record, my beans-on-toast wasn’t all that wonderful. The curly chips I scarfed down at 3 AM after going out last night were absolutely wonderful. And that’s about the extent of my foray into the fascinating world of English cuisine. Should I go bolder? Will my stomach be able to handle it? Will I lose my appetite at the first sight of gravy smothered chips and peas? It’s going to take some courage to find out.