We had a meting for our little in-house newspaper. Birthday, comings and goings, and glaring blank pages. I said I enjoyed the ‘theme’ lunches they had started. 

As this will be published on Sunday, I wonder if many people still have Sunday lunch? Two of the themes were Chinese - we were celebrating the Chinese New Year, and Korean. Puzzle, how does the same kitchen produce such meals when the standard isn’t great most of the time. We had a Karaoke evening with cocktails (one waiter a dab hand) and a delicious platter of nems, samosas and accras. ‘Rosbif’, as cooked here, is horrible. In Italy it is worse, pale grey slabs floating in olive oil. The only thing the French know about British food is ‘Feesh and Cheeps’.

I find it difficult to find or praise British cuisine. Can anybody name an ‘English’ restaurant in London, except Simpsons if it still going? The Ritz was noted for teas. You had to wear a jacket, but they had every size lurking in a cloakroom rather than turn away a customer. We were staying in Dover, in the Mercure (not British) and they did a high tea which went down well with the boys. I advised my French friends to head for an English pub, especially if the landlady made her own pies. Now they are all Gastro pubs. So, where do you find traditional English food? Does it still exist? All the cheeses. Whitstable oysters, Melton Mowbray pies. Cornish pasties. Proper Yorkshire pudding. 

Mr G was in Leeds to take his National Certificate of Agriculture. He and fellow students were put up in a farmhouse. They started with several puddings like soufflés and loads of  gravy, then the meat. Devon clotted cream (he got sick of that when lodging near Newton Abbot). Plums and custard. Spotted Dick. Jam Roly Poly, steamed treacle pudding with loads of custard. Jellied eels, Ugh. Winkles. And what about Joe’s Cafe, with everything possible for breakfast.

The final decision on buying our first house was the bar. Trestle tables, coffee pot always on the stove in the corner. The butcher’s van was outside. Workmen went and got a super fresh baguette, steak from the butcher, and the bar keeper grilled them over the open fire and they had a mouth watering sandwich. For friends from overseas it was fish terrine, roast lamb from the salt marshes and strawberry tart. On my own ‘theme’ meals, on 14th July for about 100, I did ‘terroir’ (all local) tapas, authentic from a book found in Spain, and exotic. I served exotic cocktails with the latter. The mayor of the next town had four Blue Ladies, and hit the hospital wall trying to avoid a bend in the river, he blamed me, said they should have had a health warning. And you? Feel hungry? Favourite? 

The Gardener

A Moodscope member