Off to London

SINGAPORE CHANGI – It’s 5 AM in Singapore. I’m sitting in an air-conditioned airport lounge, yet I can feel the humid, muggy heat outside. I’ll be boarding a plane to London in a few hours whereI lived for several years. I’m going home, even though I didn’t grow up there.

It might be the lack of sleep but, strangely, all I can think of is the food I want to eat to make the most of my two weeks in the big city:

• A salt-beef bagel from Brick Lane (From Beigel Bake, the one with the white sign, obviously the better of the two on Brick Lane. Just to settle that argument.)
• A sausage roll and a scotch egg from Ginger Pig at Borough Market.
• A kebab from E.Mono in Kentish Town.
• A pork pie from that butcher in West Hampstead.
• Pork buns from that slightly dodgy place in China Town.
• Shortbread from Fortnum & Mason.

For me, being “home” manifests mainly through food. It’s the same when I return to Germany, where, when I visit, many activities centre around consuming pork in various ways.

I’ll probably gain a few pounds in London, but that’s ok since I mostly live off smashed avo on toast in Australia.