Spelling, food, and football*

Well, here we are at the end of February already! Wow, <insert appropriate cliché>, right?! Finding time continues to be a challenge, so I am taking a couple of hours out at our local Panera Bread, a common lunch and coffee chain, trying to catch up on things.

We’ve had some fun, very American experiences these last 6 weeks, punctuated by a real avalanche of work.


Towards the end of January, we took part in the “Spelling Buzz” at the Rock & Roll Hotel bar in DC. This is modelled off the uniquely American institution, the Spelling Bee, which - for those not familiar -is usually a competitive spelling tournament for school kids. In this guise it is a quasi-drinking game competition to win $60 to spend at the bar however you may choose. I think that “buzz” might be a reference to getting buzzed (i.e. tipsy in US English).

Karen was excited because she won some local spelling bee competitions as a kid (obviously minus the alcohol!). Playing with us were John and some of his friends. I’m sad to say that I crashed out in style in the first round (apparently the painkiller codeine has an “E” in the middle – oops!). Karen though survived through several rounds against some stiff competition from John’s friend Rachel to win the whole thing!

After a couple of hours of good times, we left and Rachel suggested that we go for pie at the well-known Dangerously Delicious Pies. Hey, pie in the small hours sounds like a lot better idea than Kebab!

In this country, fruit pies (apple, peach, cherry, etc.) seem to be much more common, while in Britain savoury pies are no.1. Well, being a pie specialist, this place offers both. In the end, I opted for what is known as a chess pie, in this case chocolate chess.

Chess pies are part of Southern Cuisine, which seems to be the heart and soul of food in this country, though only bits of it are known to us in Europe (fried chicken, pecan pie, ribs). In fact, there’s enough to say on it for a whole separate post!

Anyway, a chess pie is a kind of sweet, gelatinous custard tart, made with butter, sugar & eggs. I found it light and delicious – not stodgy and heavy like a lot of chocolate desserts can be. Also, their pastry is a delicious flaky shortcrust – in short, they know them some pie!

A week later it was time for the Superbowl – the game between America’s two equally-rated *football* ;-) leagues to crown the national champion. In America, it’s traditional to have big get-togethers around this event – since the game lasts for over three hours what with all the continuous stoppage of play!

This was the first year that we didn’t have to stay up to 3am to watch from Britain, and we had ready access to lots of people who were at least culturally interested in it, if not avid followers, so we decided to throw our own party.

We invited lots of people from church, and ended up with over 20 (!) people crowded into our living room. What with all the people to talk to and the buffet table vying for my attention, this may ironically have been the Superbowl I saw least of so far! People brought along allsorts – cupcakes, pulled pork (I’ll explain that deliciousness later!), tortilla chips and melted cheese sauce, buffalo wings, crab & bacon dip, and on and on and on :-) We also had our own little hard core of people on either side who actually supported the two teams, which all added to the flavour.

For Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to spoil my Karen with flowers, and dinner at a French bistro in North West DC. We had a nice time, and it brought back memories of our early days in Caen and Paris. I have definitely missed French bread – no-one makes it like they do, period!

On the way home, we decided to stop off for a couple of minutes to see the National Cathedral, one of the few Gothic-style churches that I’ve seen here. It’s beautifully designed, and we’re looking forward to going back during opening hours. I took this photo while between nearly being blown off my feet by a wicked wind!


In fact, high winds are a common problem around here. Last Saturday, in the morning, the weather was so lovely, especially considering it’s still February, that we decided to go for a picnic. Unfortunately, by lunchtime, the silly optimistic Brits were shivering half to death as a gale ripped at their picnic blanket! That’s what you get from a lifetime of chilly barbecues in England – optimism to a fault! I’m still doing my country proud tho :-)

Anyway, this is turning into a bit of an epic, as usual, so I’ll leave it there. Take care & I hope you are all well.

Mark & Karen xx