- I tried to eat like Queen Elizabeth II for a day.
- She eats quite healthily, but has specific indulgences.
- I realized that trying new foods is a learning process, and re-trying foods can be even more enlightening.
Queen Elizabeth II is set in her ways when it comes to food. In addition to strict dinner table rules, the 91-year-old sticks with specific foods that she likes. Although she tends to eat healthier options, she also knows how to indulge without going overboard.
This balance, and the idea of being a temporary royal, inspired me to try the queen's diet. I ate according to a recent report from Today that listed what the queen typically has for all of her meals. Although I didn't acquire a title by the end of this experiment, but I did acquire an appreciation for food and mealtime by the end of the experiment.
Scroll through to see what it means to eat like Queen Elizabeth II.
The first thing the queen has in the morning is tea and biscuits.
The queen has a cup of plain Earl Grey tea with a few biscuits before her real breakfast. I am a huge fan of having more than three meals a day, so I was excited about this pre-breakfast ritual.
I usually start my day with a hot cup of tea too. But I would never think to drink Earl Grey, nor would I bust out my mom's old china on an average morning. This, however, is exactly what the queen does.
I hadn't tried Earl Grey in a while, but I remember not being a fan of the bitter drink. I don't know if my taste buds developed or if the beautiful china blinded me, but I discovered I actually like Earl Grey.
On a typical day, I would never think to eat a cookie or biscuit first thing in the morning. I usually stick with eggs, fruit, and protein shakes. But I was happy to divert from the norm for the sake of the queen and as part of my (fake) civic duty.
BT reported that the Queen often feeds her pet corgis pieces of these cookies from the table. I didn't want to give my pet Maltese, Luna, cookies for breakfast. Instead, I gave her an extra treat in honor of the dog-loving queen.
Then, she moves onto cereal.
This was when the real breakfast began. Although Queen Elizabeth II will occasionally have toast with jam or scrambled eggs, she usually goes with the super low-maintenance breakfast of Special K cereal.
If I were an actual queen, I don't think that a bowl of cereal would be my first choice for a daily breakfast. But hey, I don't want to tel her how to rule the breakfast table.
Not knowing what flavor the queen eats, so I opted for chocolate almond because it was on sale and because the queen is a fan of dark chocolate.
The combination of rick chocolate, crunchy almonds, and cold milk were unexpectedly refreshing and satisfying. Leave it to a royal to get me to appreciate a basic food.
She enjoys an aperitif before lunch.
I'm not a cocktail connoisseur, so I had the bartender at The Barroom in New York make the queen's favorite aperitif — a gin and Dubonnet.
The queen takes hers with lots of ice, which I conveniently forgot to ask for. She also drinks it before lunch. Luckily, I did this experiment on a weekend day, so I wasn't worried about day-drinking.
Not being much of a drinker, I quickly learned that I don't like gin. I also learned that bitter beverages aren't for me. The bartender was nice enough to add some simple syrup to the drink, which made it more palatable. Though I'm note sure the queen would approve of that addition.
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