What I Learned in My First Month Living in London
Plus why I think it’s the best city for plant-based food enthusiasts!
It’s been slightly over a month since I moved to London, United Kingdom in order to pursue my Master’s degree at Imperial College London. In the beginning, it felt weird to live in such a hustling and bustling city after years of living in various Californian suburban towns, but it didn’t take me long to settle in. Weather aside, I am amazed by the plethora of things London has to offer. This includes the amazing plant-based food options readily available at practically any store or restaurant I visited. Below, I shared some of the most interesting things I observed in my first month in London. 🙂
1.) It is very convenient to get around to different places!
Living in California for the past 5 years, I grew into the fact that public transport is not very reliable to get around to different places. This is especially true since the places there are more spread apart, getting to various different places would be virtually impossible if you were to rely on public transport alone.
Although the public transport in London may not be the most reliable, it felt very convenient for someone like who just moved from the Bay Area. Gone are the days when I have to spend a long time looking for parking or pay an exorbitant parking fee. In the process, utilizing public transport also encouraged people to walk more rather than sitting in a car from point A to point B.
2.) Every restaurant offers a plant-based menu item
In the past month, I noticed that every restaurant I visited offers at least a plant-based menu item with most of them offering a vegan menu item. This includes traditional chippies that offer vegan fish and chips. It is easy to think that a restaurant traditionally known for their signature meat dishes offers sub-par plant-based dishes but after I tried some restaurants’ plant-based offerings, I am impressed that most of them did not skimp on the quality!
It is very encouraging to see how creative restaurants get with their plant-based dishes given how they are, in essence, breaking the mold. A fun example would be a restaurant called Hobson’s Fish & Chips that use banana blossom for its ‘fish’ while adding seaweed flakes to give it a familiar slightly fishy flavor. In my experience, it felt easier to be a vegan/vegetarian in London rather than the Bay Area given the ubiquity of vegan-friendly restaurants here in London.
3.) The plant-based items at retail stores are more segmented
While living in the Bay Area, it was a common sight to see plant-based products being sold in the meat aisle right next to animal meat products. However, when I did my first groceries here, it was very surprising to me to find plant-based products being sold in a dedicated aisle, away from the animal meat aisle. Although this may be just a difference in consumer preference, it still was surprising to me given how ubiquitous plant-based food is here in London with it being not exclusive at all. That said, it was refreshing to see many unique and unfamiliar plant-based retail items sold here since most of them are not available back in the States!
4.) There is a wide range of microwavable ready-to-heat foods
While living in the United States, the microwavable foods I encounter are typically frozen microwavable foods such as Lean Cuisine or those sold at Trader Joe’s. However, I noticed that here in London, there are a plethora of microwavable foods sold in refrigerated aisles across various grocery stores. Because of this, the foods have a shorter shelf-life compared to the frozen ones sold in the United States. Given this fact, many supermarkets would stick yellow labels on products that indicate that the products are about to reach their expiration date and sell them at a discount — an effective method to fight against food waste!
5.) Weather
Have I really moved to London if I did not talk about the weather? I guess the answer to that question is self-explanatory. The London weather is probably my least favorite part of London so far, the constant gloomy weather and rainfalls made me realize that I took the year-long Californian sunshine for granted this whole time!
I think the best advice I can give to anyone planning to visit London is probably to always carry an umbrella wherever you go regardless of what the weather app says because it can be sunny one minute and literally pouring the next.
This first month in London has been nothing short of exciting. From meeting new friends in my program, to meeting inspiring individuals working on very exciting and innovative projects within the food tech/biotech industry. I am confident that if this first month is indicative of my time here in London, then I would have so much to look forward to in the coming future! While I was sad to close my chapter in the Bay Area, I am very excited to see what is in store for me in London! Onwards and upwards! 🚀
