It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

. Canary Wharf is bedecked with festive Christmas trees  on the inside and the trees outside are sporting lots of tiny teeny sparkly lights too.

The clothing stores have pulled out all the stops and the mannequins are wearing their very best festive outfits.  Seasonal goodies are filling the shelves in the specialty stores and the supermarket has tempting goodies on special, two for this and three for that. 

Wharf cafés are no exception. Starbucks has its very own specialty toppings and that you can sup alongside yummy mince pies. Not that yummy though as they won’t warm them cos they don’t have a microwave. 

OK, yes I am on a food bent again. 

We were really disappointed when we first came here, and we continue to be disappointed by the fact that none of the stores we’ve been into sell warm muffins. The only way to serve these delicacies is warm enough to melt butter. And get this, they don’t serve them with butter either!

Scones fall into the same ‘need to be served warm’ category too. Ages ago, probably last year sometime we asked that the scones be heated in the microwave (young lad behind the counter said they did have one). We were really looking forward to biting into the warm scone dripping with melted butter. Unfortunately the young fellow had no idea about timing and our scones were rock hard because he had nuked them way too long. Yes I took them back and he replaced them with new ones nuked to my instructions. And they were yummy too.

Mum used to make and ice the Christmas cake. Layering the scrummy marzipan on first. One cake I remember was decorated to look like a snowy scene complete, I think, with snowmen.

Then there was the Christmas pudding with its threepenny pieces. Come to think of it both my sister and I would find one in our piece of pudding. I wonder if our clever Mum did what I used to do when my kids were little and slip one of these in each plate to be found by the delighted child.

And the Christmas mince pies, warmed of course, dusted with icing sugar eaten as they were or with cream and custard.

Can you tell that I love Christmas food?

Oddly enough, my own kids aren’t that fond of the traditional fare, though one of my sons in law does do rather tasty trifle. If only I could persuade him to add a drop or two of sherry it would be perfect.