London has some of the worst urban planning in the world, but this is because the city has been around since before urban planning itself existed. Most of the city’s major expansions occurred during the Industrial Revolution (the mid 1700s to late 1800s), so the design philosophy for most areas was as follows:

Oh, a factory! I guess we should build some houses around it for the people who work there… let’s also put in a space for a restaurant so they can eat. Maybe a school if their kids are getting an education and not working in the mines. Could we place a church in this skinny alleyway? Oh, there are more people now – let’s just put some more houses here… and there… and hey, is that another factory? And so the process begins again.

Modern urban planning wasn’t really formalized until the UK’s 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act, so most construction before that was entirely random and sporadic. For example, many working-class homes were built as “back-to-backs,” sharing a wall with another house, lacking adequate ventilation, and having no yards to cram as many people as possible near a factory. If you look at an aerial map of an average US neighborhood versus a London neighborhood, you’ll see that the US neighborhoods are meticulously planned with space for schools, retail, a certain distance between houses, streets that have clear start and end points. In London, you’ll find a lot of streets that start and end in odd places and churches in places where there shouldn’t be churches. As a bonus, every single tiny street has its own name, which makes finding certain streets particularly difficult.

Even experienced Londoners will usually need some form of a mapping app to get around the city. I was looking for a café to eat at with a friend after class in Marylebone, and we walked around for a solid 15 minutes before getting to the right street, even with the directions out on our phones. We had to turn into this deserted-looking street, that then immediately opens up into a larger street with a variety of restaurants and shops. Navigating around London is not for the easily discouraged. 

The cafe itself was very good, though (the Chiltern Street Deli, if you’re curious). Much like everything else in London, it was kind of expensive. I ordered a tuna melt, and I kept thinking to myself “I could make this at home… why am I paying £7.5 for canned tuna, cheese, and bread?” It’s the experience, the vibes, and convenience, I suppose. I enjoyed my food and chatted with my friend, so I think it was worth it. Travel and food are inherently related to each other. But still, the financial and potential dietary consequences of eating out all the time abroad are not to be underestimated. Convenient and fun, yes – but cooking is still an absolutely necessary life skill that I think not enough people have. Knowing your way around a knife, a pan with hot oil, or a piece of raw chicken breast are essential things to know. I’ve been cooking in my flat kitchen pretty often, especially on slower days when I just stay home and take calls for my internship and don’t see the outside world; it’s something that can simultaneously kill time and provide me with sustenance. What’s not to love? 

Cooking for yourself gives you a sense of normalcy. Romanticize it, just as much as you would eating at a local restaurant. The act of producing something with one’s hands, using all one’s senses, is very fulfilling. Personally, I’ve always known my way around the kitchen pretty well. I have always been interested in food, where it comes from, how to make it, how to eat it. I grew up watching Food Network with my parents on weekends, and my dad spent a long time working in the food/beverage industry. If you’re used to exclusively eating mommy and daddy’s cooking, instant noodles, or dining hall food, picking up a knife for the first time might be daunting. These are some things that I’ve found helpful when making my meals during my time in university, that a current/future DU abroad reader may appreciate:

• When you do cook, just make a lot of one thing. For example, if I am making chicken breast and rice, I would simply cook 2-3x the amount of chicken I am actually going to eat, put it in some containers, throw it in the fridge, and boom. Protein for days. 
• 99% of meals are just some variation of a protein, carbohydrate, and vegetable/green thing. Planning to buy 1-2 proteins (chicken breast, ground turkey, per se) 1-2 carbohydrates (e.g. rice or pasta), and 2-3 vegetables (my go-tos are cucumber, bell pepper, tomato) will have you set for a lot of meals. Having a list of these things when you go grocery shopping will also prevent you from buying as many chips or snacks.
• The most basic kitchen essentials are a knife and a pan. You only need one good knife, which will have you slicing and dicing almost all the ingredients in your posession. Don’t cheap out too much on a pan. You’ll know that the one you choose is good if you can imagine yourself whacking someone on the head and causing them serious injury with it. If there is any shred of doubt about the severity of their injury, or worse, your pan getting dented, you need a better pan. 
• Learn the basics and everything else becomes quite easy. Dice an onion, butterfly your chicken breast, make rice and pasta, make eggs in at least 2 different ways (e.g. over easy, scrambled), and a world of cooking options becomes available to you. 
• Heavy emphasis on knowing how to cook your chicken. For breasts, slice them in half lengthways, put them between pieces of plastic wrap, pound the thicker end with a mallet or your death-inducing pan, oil that same pan, grill each piece on medium-high heat on each side for 4-5 minutes. 
• Premade sauce and seasoning blends will solve most of your problems. Despite what TikTok chefs want you to believe, you do not need to make your own sauces. Just buy one that seems good from the grocery, heat it up and throw it on your plate. Use a seasoning blend on your protein instead of buying all the separate ones to save space. Easy.

Here are two examples of meals I made, which are quite simple when you boil it down to the protein/carb/vegetable basics:

Note: FYI, naan just means bread. I will judge you if you say naan bread because that just means you’re saying “bread bread”. It’s like saying “chai tea” (tea tea) or “bao bun” (bun bun).

I encourage you to see the grocery store as just as much of a cultural experience as eating at a local restaurant is. Find some strange ingredient you’ve never heard of, and try to make something with it for dinner. Now you’ve got an evening activity that won’t break the bank! 

Maybe next time I’ll attempt to cook something with the infamous British “brown sauce”. 

If you’ve managed to read through my mediocre crash course on cooking for college students abroad, I appreciate you dearly.

Thanks again for reading!

Alexandra