Eating Out and About in London for the 2007 WSOP Europe

The view from our ploughman's lunch in the upstairs dining room of The Crown pub in London for the 2007 WSOP Europe. (Bodog Beat Image)

In our ongoing quest to sample as much British fare as possible to gauge its quality, we found ourselves in Soho at another traditional pub perusing a menu and looking for something to catch our eye. This time we went with the "ploughman's lunch," which is nowadays a modernized version of an old country favorite.

The version that we enjoyed today, and we mean enjoyed, consisted of cold ham, English cheddar cheese, a collection of greens with tomatoes, a crusty baguette, Branston pickle (you don't want to know what's in it, just know that it is good), some butter, a little goat's cheese and an apple to finish it off.

Essentially, one combines any number of ingredients on a piece of bread, or that's how we did it, and polishes off the wooden board on which it is served. Of course, all of this is then washed down with the obligatory pint of Fuller's London Pride.

The tradition started when wives would pack lunches for the men as they headed out to the fields to plow, hence the "ploughman's" part of the name. The lunch part should be obvious. Originally, the lunch would have consisted of just the meat, cheese and pickle, those things most easy to pack and preserve. Obviously, the greens would not have been as readily available during the winter plow months and have been added on over time as they became more available. Farms also would most likely not have been producing goat's cheese, but we must say this was an added bonus.

Feeling quite satisfied with our lunch, we suppose we'll head back over to the Empire Casino to bring you more live updates and coverage of the 2007 WSOP Europe.