Won't someone think of the arteries?

Flowers in Dublin

The food over here is pretty different to Australia, I think that is the thing which so far has surprised me the most.  Sure I was expecting bangers and mash and the occasional warm beer (it's the ale which is warm), but the excessive amounts of salt and the lack of genuine chili has really shocked me.  I really miss chili, we went to a Thai restaurant the other night on a chili-craving outing, and they didn't have laska on the menu, or larb, or even red/green/yellow curry.  Without those dishes I'm not sure you are even allowed to call yourself a Thai restaurant. They had massaman on the menu, of course, the least spicy Thai dish I know, but everything else seemed to be a Thai/Chinese mix with zero chili.  I think I just have to accept that Thai food does not exist here, and I'll have to plan another trip to Thailand if I want to taste genuine larb again.

What London has perfected though is the ready meal.  Literally you can get anything you want in a vacuum sealed plastic bag.  I'm talking prawns and hokkien noodle stir-fry or pea and asparagus ravioli (that's actually pretty good) and don't get me started on their sandwiches.  Seriously, the sandwich must be some ultra-traditional English food that I just wasn't aware of.  They have whole take-away food chains devoted entirely to the sandwich (and I'm not talking subway here).  In fact there are multiple chains whose main product is the humble sandwich.  Though here it is not so humble, avocado, harissa and chick peas anyone?  We went a bit crazy on the sandwiches when we first moved here, until we started checking out the dietary advice, 50% of your RDI of salt in one sandwich!!!! We got a bit freaked out about that and have now started diligently checking everything we buy for it's salt content.  There are loaves of bread out there that literally have 3gms of salt per slice!  For the record the recommended daily salt intake is 6 grams.  And it's not just the pre-made sandwich which is stacked full of salt, eating out at restaurants can be a danger zone, and whilst they may not have any chili, I've frequently finished a meal with my tongue on fire and desperately craving water.