Offbeat Eats

After 3 long days at the Farnborough Air Show, we had to pack up to go to Leeds. But on our last evening, we decided to go into downtown Wokingham to find an interesting dinner. Wokingham is an old market town, and still has that basic layout at the town centre (Peach Place), so after parking, we found ourselves in the central market area of Wokingham looking at a handful of good options for outdoor dining. We ended up selecting an Indian restaurant, Bombay Story.

While our group was attending the Farnborough Airshow, we staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Wokingham. This was convenient for our transportation to and from the Farnborough Airshow itself (Wokingham is about halfway between Heathrow and Farnborough), but the hotel itself was on the edge of town, so aside from it’s on-site pub (which, oddly, had beer from Shipyard in the States on tap), there wasn’t much in walking distance. However, there was one notable exception to this, The Oakingham Belle. So on our second night in town, we decided to walk over and check them out and enjoy some good, old-school English pub classics.

(Closed) I started visiting the UK regularly when my brother started dating my now sister-in-law Sophie, and on most visits we had between 2006 and 2019, a common side trip was visiting my Aunt Sue, who lived just outside of Windsor, which is just a relatively short train trip from London, usually visiting with Sue, helping out around her house, and occasionally going out for a nice meal. She had a few favorite places, including The Pineapple in Dorney, the Windsor Farm Shop, and, for special occasions, Gilbey’s in Eton. Unfortunately, my aunt passed away in September 2022; in April we were finally able to complete the arrangements to bury her ashes in the splendid Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens in a small ceremony. Afterward, we retired to nearby Eton, and had a memorial dinner at Gilbey’s in her honor.