I cannot help feeling hugely virtuous today, baking day.
I do a lot of my own bread - mix in the breadmaker, bake in the oven - but was feeling guilty about all that wasted space in the oven, so had promised my wife to make better use of the energy. Witness today then a vegetable lattice pie and two strawberry tarts (the allotment is a strawberry factory at the moment) as well as two loaves. Have no idea how to do the fishes.
Grans did baking days. My mum did when I was a little kid, before she went back to teaching. Now I have. Doing my usual thing and guestimating the costs, the loaves about 25p each maybe; the veg pie basically using up left overs, but with butter (and to be honest lard) and an egg in the pastry, milk and cheese in the filling sauce, and some bought veg included it must have been pushing £1. The strawberries were plot freebies, but the jelly to set them and the butter, egg and sugar again in the pastry mean again a profligate 50p each for the tarts. And 10p of lentils for the blind baking of the cases. Admittedly this extended my lunchtime and in theory cost me money - the opportunity cost for any economists reading this was getting some paid writing done. But the cost benefit analysis shows... sod that, I had fun, we ate well tonight, and I was fed up with staring at the same article on my screen. All work and no play makes Jack a heart attack victim at 35 and divorced for the second time at 40.
Per the blessed Delia btw the secrets of crisp pastry are baking sheet under the pie dish, and only metal pie dishes will do, never glass or ceramic. Worked for me. Greeseproof paper over the empty flan cases, lentils on the paper. Brush the flan bases with beaten egg and cook for another five minutes to seal them, then the filling won't soak in. Bought pies with their mysterious fillings don't come as chock full as the veg pie, and these days when I do have the guilty pleasure of buying industrial food it often tastes funny. Which is no laughing matter.
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Tuesday 24 June 2008
Gold plated lettuces
I am looking at Sarah Raven's Spring 2008 catalogue, except it is probably called something far posher than that. A choice list perhaps. Now I started doing this blog to get some work with the good people at the BBC, but as I live outside the M25 and have never been called Davina or Kate even at the weekend, I figure my chances are limited (chip on northern shoulder weighing me down again) so I want to make a few comments about this. The fact that I think that a large percentage of BBC programming is worse than poor and the too often self-satisfied corporation (please see any programme featuring a Dimble) needs reminding of this may not help me hugely either. The catalogue is from her own business, but she is a BBC person. And then we can have a quick visit to Carol Klein land.
Sarah Raven produced an excellent book about kitchen gardening - The Great Vegetable Plot I think it is, lost in my library somewhere. I agree with everything she says about growing for flavour, growing stuff you can't get in the shops, and growing for freshness. Statements of the bleedin' obvious perhaps for some, but not all. But what world is her catalogue aimed at? 10 lettuce seedlings for £9.50 plus post and packing. If the slugs get 2 and one is unlucky, with postage that would be well over £1.35 a lettuce. I'd want them to be bloody gold plated for that price. For heaven's sake buy a packet of seeds and have dozens for £1.65 at most. Sarah Raven's ultimate veg seeds: 12 packets of seeds in a tin for £27.95, plus of course p&p. But they are in a tin so that makes it alright.
I'll take a wild guess and say the buyers will be ladies who lunch, and occasionally garden in white gloves when the weather is simply gorgeous darling - or who watch their gardener while wearing white gloves. There is the argument that she has pointed the buyer at good varieties, but then most vegetable books will do the same. She provides growing instructions, but then so does just about every packet of seeds on the market. I'll take another wild guess, that at least half of the seed packets she sells will never get opened, but will make a nice talking point when Bunty and Jessica come over on Thursday. And trying different varieties yourself is part of the fun of gardening for food.
Sarah Raven writes well (but her catalogue/choice list has been put together by someone with an occasionally eccentric grasp of syntax, and the plural of Jiffy is not Jiffy's), but does that justify the price levels here? It's a market economy, so good luck to you Sarah.
Another of the Gardeners' World presenters who has contributed to the recent upsurge of interest in vegetable growing is Carol Klein. Or at least she made a programme about it. Before I gave up watching I gathered a couple of facts. 1: Vegetables grow in the ground, and 2: they do especially well when they are grown by friends of the presenter who live in a big house in the country. Best stick to the wonderful Bob Flowerdew for more detailed advice then.
Growing my own vegetables for me is not just about freshness and variety. It is to a certain extent also a statement about the waste of the supermarket system - the stupid journeys produce makes up and down the land between farm and grading station and shop; the whole get it off the shelf and chuck it away thoughtlessly deal. Then I see stuff like 10 large oak labels for marking plants, only £12.95 plus p&p, and copper match holder (with matches) £9.95 plus p&p - still wondering about the idea that you can re-use the long matches to light the fire btw??? and see that a lot of new throwaway stuff is being produced for the green market, which makes me despair rather.
The guy on the allotment next to mine has turned a jungle of weeds into a fabulously fruitful plot in a couple of years. He cadges junk and turns it into productive tools. He thinks deeply about how to get the best from his land, and works hard to achieve his success. He comes up with some really creative ideas and turns them into reality - his greenhouse is heated at times by a variant on the old fashioned hot-box, for example. He doesn't screech like Carol Klein, and didn't train as a doctor like Sarah Raven (play the game count-the-mentions), but I learn more that is new from him than I ever will from either of them.
Sarah Raven produced an excellent book about kitchen gardening - The Great Vegetable Plot I think it is, lost in my library somewhere. I agree with everything she says about growing for flavour, growing stuff you can't get in the shops, and growing for freshness. Statements of the bleedin' obvious perhaps for some, but not all. But what world is her catalogue aimed at? 10 lettuce seedlings for £9.50 plus post and packing. If the slugs get 2 and one is unlucky, with postage that would be well over £1.35 a lettuce. I'd want them to be bloody gold plated for that price. For heaven's sake buy a packet of seeds and have dozens for £1.65 at most. Sarah Raven's ultimate veg seeds: 12 packets of seeds in a tin for £27.95, plus of course p&p. But they are in a tin so that makes it alright.
I'll take a wild guess and say the buyers will be ladies who lunch, and occasionally garden in white gloves when the weather is simply gorgeous darling - or who watch their gardener while wearing white gloves. There is the argument that she has pointed the buyer at good varieties, but then most vegetable books will do the same. She provides growing instructions, but then so does just about every packet of seeds on the market. I'll take another wild guess, that at least half of the seed packets she sells will never get opened, but will make a nice talking point when Bunty and Jessica come over on Thursday. And trying different varieties yourself is part of the fun of gardening for food.
Sarah Raven writes well (but her catalogue/choice list has been put together by someone with an occasionally eccentric grasp of syntax, and the plural of Jiffy is not Jiffy's), but does that justify the price levels here? It's a market economy, so good luck to you Sarah.
Another of the Gardeners' World presenters who has contributed to the recent upsurge of interest in vegetable growing is Carol Klein. Or at least she made a programme about it. Before I gave up watching I gathered a couple of facts. 1: Vegetables grow in the ground, and 2: they do especially well when they are grown by friends of the presenter who live in a big house in the country. Best stick to the wonderful Bob Flowerdew for more detailed advice then.
Growing my own vegetables for me is not just about freshness and variety. It is to a certain extent also a statement about the waste of the supermarket system - the stupid journeys produce makes up and down the land between farm and grading station and shop; the whole get it off the shelf and chuck it away thoughtlessly deal. Then I see stuff like 10 large oak labels for marking plants, only £12.95 plus p&p, and copper match holder (with matches) £9.95 plus p&p - still wondering about the idea that you can re-use the long matches to light the fire btw??? and see that a lot of new throwaway stuff is being produced for the green market, which makes me despair rather.
The guy on the allotment next to mine has turned a jungle of weeds into a fabulously fruitful plot in a couple of years. He cadges junk and turns it into productive tools. He thinks deeply about how to get the best from his land, and works hard to achieve his success. He comes up with some really creative ideas and turns them into reality - his greenhouse is heated at times by a variant on the old fashioned hot-box, for example. He doesn't screech like Carol Klein, and didn't train as a doctor like Sarah Raven (play the game count-the-mentions), but I learn more that is new from him than I ever will from either of them.
Thursday 19 June 2008
Box scheme guru
A couple of days ago I interviewed Alan Schofield, one of the leading lights in the organic farming movement in this country. Not only was he fascinating to talk to, he also managed to scare me a little. Alan farms in Pilling, Lancashire, with his land at 3' above sea level. Worried about the climate change he as a farmer has witnessed he has put his money where his mouth is and bought land a few miles away, 110' above sea level.
Today I heard the Americans had produced evidence showing the ice caps may be gone in 5 years. All that water has to go somewhere. Alan's range for the loss of the ice caps begins in 18 months.
But enough of that - until I check the elevation of my house. His farm was a pleasure to visit, healthy crops and not a chemical in sight - he doesn't even use those organic farmers are permitted to, preferring to leave land with nettles and scrub between productive patches, giving the predator insects a place to grow and breed, ready to pounce on any signs of infestation by pests. The reaction to the threat to food security at a government level has been predicatable. Let's go to the industrial option, GM crops. The industrial options have got us in the brown stuff, why couldn't we try something different for once? The Eu will doubtless come up with proposals after a few fact finding missions to Michelin starred restaurants with lobbyists, involving huge amounts of legislation and regulation, making it more and more difficult for smaller operators to comply. The rules already mean we are losing thousands of seed varieties for commercial use, making our food duller and less secure - if you restrict your gene pool what do you get? Well the royal family is one illustrative answer. And they have the ridiculous grading system for fruit and veg, though that is good for those of us who don't care if our onions are slightly smaller than some bureaucrat's idea of the norm. There are food shortages in the world and the EU actions mean huge amounts of our food are deemed second rate so don't make it to market.
The ghost of Kafka must be chuffed he lived in an age when what he wrote seemed crazy.
Today I heard the Americans had produced evidence showing the ice caps may be gone in 5 years. All that water has to go somewhere. Alan's range for the loss of the ice caps begins in 18 months.
But enough of that - until I check the elevation of my house. His farm was a pleasure to visit, healthy crops and not a chemical in sight - he doesn't even use those organic farmers are permitted to, preferring to leave land with nettles and scrub between productive patches, giving the predator insects a place to grow and breed, ready to pounce on any signs of infestation by pests. The reaction to the threat to food security at a government level has been predicatable. Let's go to the industrial option, GM crops. The industrial options have got us in the brown stuff, why couldn't we try something different for once? The Eu will doubtless come up with proposals after a few fact finding missions to Michelin starred restaurants with lobbyists, involving huge amounts of legislation and regulation, making it more and more difficult for smaller operators to comply. The rules already mean we are losing thousands of seed varieties for commercial use, making our food duller and less secure - if you restrict your gene pool what do you get? Well the royal family is one illustrative answer. And they have the ridiculous grading system for fruit and veg, though that is good for those of us who don't care if our onions are slightly smaller than some bureaucrat's idea of the norm. There are food shortages in the world and the EU actions mean huge amounts of our food are deemed second rate so don't make it to market.
The ghost of Kafka must be chuffed he lived in an age when what he wrote seemed crazy.
Monday 16 June 2008
A fiver for that Jamie?
Sainsbury's ads with Jamie Oliver cooking dull food for a fiver starting to get up my nose. Twee, simplistic, condescending. Which is a pity as his heart is in the right place.
Just had a meal for about £3.50 I'd guess. 89p for 250g of mushroom, onion from allotment, £1 for 6 eggs from a guy who rescues battery hens, free salad from plot too - red mustard, rocket, lettuce, and pea tips from the greenhouse. Bacon bits for 60p from Lidl on the salad, a pepper say 45p, dressing home-made, bread with rosemary home-made, and the second strawberry granita of the year from allotment strawberries and a 20p lemon.
What it comes down to is taking time to cook. Even if you know nothing but take some time, make the effort, you can cook. I listened to a local radio show recently where they were interrogating mothers (sexist gits) about cooking, and one had me screaming, saying she never made fresh, she was too busy. Does the concept of busy legitimately include bingo, the pub, and Coronation Street?
I love nosing at other people's shopping trolleys, and you get some doozies, like one woman with about twenty chicken curry boxes. Maybe it was a party, maybe an event. But for a quarter of the price fresh she could have done a better meal. She was doubtless too busy, too busy also to care about the crap she was going to present to her guests, throwing money at it not time. 'Let's have a bloody awful meal together' is not an attractive invitation.
How can you be too busy to live well? It reminds me of an obituary I read years ago for a guy who died from overwork, aged 40 killed by exhaustion. The paper, though, sang his praises, saying he built up a huge fortune in a short time.So not only did he die with the most toys, but he beat everyone else to it. Brilliant.
Real luxury comes out of time not money. People appreciate it if you take time. Food tastes better, the digestion is better, and your health is better. But you'll miss bingo.
Just had a meal for about £3.50 I'd guess. 89p for 250g of mushroom, onion from allotment, £1 for 6 eggs from a guy who rescues battery hens, free salad from plot too - red mustard, rocket, lettuce, and pea tips from the greenhouse. Bacon bits for 60p from Lidl on the salad, a pepper say 45p, dressing home-made, bread with rosemary home-made, and the second strawberry granita of the year from allotment strawberries and a 20p lemon.
What it comes down to is taking time to cook. Even if you know nothing but take some time, make the effort, you can cook. I listened to a local radio show recently where they were interrogating mothers (sexist gits) about cooking, and one had me screaming, saying she never made fresh, she was too busy. Does the concept of busy legitimately include bingo, the pub, and Coronation Street?
I love nosing at other people's shopping trolleys, and you get some doozies, like one woman with about twenty chicken curry boxes. Maybe it was a party, maybe an event. But for a quarter of the price fresh she could have done a better meal. She was doubtless too busy, too busy also to care about the crap she was going to present to her guests, throwing money at it not time. 'Let's have a bloody awful meal together' is not an attractive invitation.
How can you be too busy to live well? It reminds me of an obituary I read years ago for a guy who died from overwork, aged 40 killed by exhaustion. The paper, though, sang his praises, saying he built up a huge fortune in a short time.So not only did he die with the most toys, but he beat everyone else to it. Brilliant.
Real luxury comes out of time not money. People appreciate it if you take time. Food tastes better, the digestion is better, and your health is better. But you'll miss bingo.
Friday 13 June 2008
Growing our own
Now that the allotment is yielding produce for the table again my smug rating has risen by several notches. Over the last two days we have had green salads (inappropriate label when they generally contain wonderful bronze lettuces as well as various green ones), root salads with grated icicle radishes and purple top turnips in them, strawberries - the first granita of the year will be made and eaten tonight - and onions that taste of something. And last night's meal ended with rhubarb pie and creme fraiche. And yes, thanks for asking, my bowels are in wonderful order. You can, as it were, stick your colonic irrigation up your...
When we started growing our own veg, I thought it was a waste of time growing onions. An onion is an onion, they are cheap in the shops, so why bother? The reason is flavour, though they are also far moister and crunchier than anything I have ever found Sainsbury's offering. A home grown onion cut into tiny half-moon segments and added to a Greek salad lifts it hugely.
The broad beans are about a week off now. They are another vegetable showing the difference between shop bought and home grown. In the shops you see monster pods, floppy after their travels, with beans the size of ten pence coins within, coarse and in need of the outer skin peeling to be palatable. We will pick ours with beans about five pence sized, quick to cook, and perfectly tender.
When we started growing our own veg, I thought it was a waste of time growing onions. An onion is an onion, they are cheap in the shops, so why bother? The reason is flavour, though they are also far moister and crunchier than anything I have ever found Sainsbury's offering. A home grown onion cut into tiny half-moon segments and added to a Greek salad lifts it hugely.
The broad beans are about a week off now. They are another vegetable showing the difference between shop bought and home grown. In the shops you see monster pods, floppy after their travels, with beans the size of ten pence coins within, coarse and in need of the outer skin peeling to be palatable. We will pick ours with beans about five pence sized, quick to cook, and perfectly tender.
Wednesday 11 June 2008
London is eating us
At the risk of sounding like a loony from a phone in:
Not a lot to do with food, but plenty to do with there being life outside London. I just heard another of those "if we MPs were not serving in Parliament we would all be earning millions and in charge of everything else" idiocies. I have met several MPs, and one stood out as highly capable, though his politics and mine differed. Another was the missing link between homo sapiens and toothbrushes. In twenty years in industry I never saw job descriptions where must-have qualities included the ability to avoid questions, stab colleagues in the back, laugh falsely and provide detailed excuses for almost every project they undertake failing. Ex-MPs are employable because of their contacts far more than what they now seem to perceive as superhuman abilities.
The BBC has been given a kicking today for not featuring life outside England, for which read London. Not the biggest surprise ever reported. I still grind my teeth when thinking of a BBC Radio 5 discussion when an MP went unchallenged when saying that the idea of the National Stadium being built in Birmingham was out "because it is too far away." The rest of the panel was I think composed of London-based figures. I remain convinced that plans to relocate some of BBC Radio to Manchester will be watered down because it is too far away, nay, further still.
London is swallowing the rest of the UK. The Olympics will benefit everyone to a certain extent perhaps, but it is London's infrastructure which will be improved, London which will have the legacy of superb sporting facilities, and for about three years before the games it will be the rest of us who can't get an electrician, plumber or bricklayer. And we have to listen to Sebastian Coe.
The BBC will have a jamboree with the Games, so cutbacks in projects outside London which a little imagination could see as linked to the need for cash for the Games will not feature too prominently.
As a lover of irony I enjoyed various politicians recently explaining that everything was ok with the Olympic budget now, and there had only been one period of error. Admittedly the error was several billion pounds, but what the hell, it's for London. And I also enjoyed the fact that the authorities forgot the VAT. Obviously they were not expecting to pay cash and avoid it, but the thought is still pleasing.
Not a lot to do with food, but plenty to do with there being life outside London. I just heard another of those "if we MPs were not serving in Parliament we would all be earning millions and in charge of everything else" idiocies. I have met several MPs, and one stood out as highly capable, though his politics and mine differed. Another was the missing link between homo sapiens and toothbrushes. In twenty years in industry I never saw job descriptions where must-have qualities included the ability to avoid questions, stab colleagues in the back, laugh falsely and provide detailed excuses for almost every project they undertake failing. Ex-MPs are employable because of their contacts far more than what they now seem to perceive as superhuman abilities.
The BBC has been given a kicking today for not featuring life outside England, for which read London. Not the biggest surprise ever reported. I still grind my teeth when thinking of a BBC Radio 5 discussion when an MP went unchallenged when saying that the idea of the National Stadium being built in Birmingham was out "because it is too far away." The rest of the panel was I think composed of London-based figures. I remain convinced that plans to relocate some of BBC Radio to Manchester will be watered down because it is too far away, nay, further still.
London is swallowing the rest of the UK. The Olympics will benefit everyone to a certain extent perhaps, but it is London's infrastructure which will be improved, London which will have the legacy of superb sporting facilities, and for about three years before the games it will be the rest of us who can't get an electrician, plumber or bricklayer. And we have to listen to Sebastian Coe.
The BBC will have a jamboree with the Games, so cutbacks in projects outside London which a little imagination could see as linked to the need for cash for the Games will not feature too prominently.
As a lover of irony I enjoyed various politicians recently explaining that everything was ok with the Olympic budget now, and there had only been one period of error. Admittedly the error was several billion pounds, but what the hell, it's for London. And I also enjoyed the fact that the authorities forgot the VAT. Obviously they were not expecting to pay cash and avoid it, but the thought is still pleasing.
Tuesday 10 June 2008
Fresh is best
It's June and allotments are starting to come into their own. Last night we picked - and ate shortly afterwards - turnips, green mustard and red, rocket, lettuce, onion, radishes and strawberries. With the exception of the strawberries, which need a few more days to be at their best, nothing available from supermarkets comes anywhere close in terms of flavour.
When people say lettuce has no flavour you know they don't grow it. A fresh cos lettuce washed and on the plate an hour after picking is crisp, but more importantly it has real tastes in its dark green leaves. Radishes are perhaps the easiest thing there is to grow. Rinsed of soil and crunched with a dusting of salt they again have a fire that uniform and perfectly red supermarket zombie radishes lack.
And only half a food mile, and that on foot. When we started ours three years ago we had the choice of more than 20 plots. There are still a few available, and one where the renter will get a letter shortly asking if they intend to carry on. We expected there to be a waiting list, but obviously there was not. It's worth asking the council, and it is truly worth doing if you enjoy veg, and like me have a mean streak. I reckon we get more than £1,000 woth of fruit and veg off it a year, for the princely rent of £30, and it has to be said a lot of hard but enjoyable work. Give it a go.
When people say lettuce has no flavour you know they don't grow it. A fresh cos lettuce washed and on the plate an hour after picking is crisp, but more importantly it has real tastes in its dark green leaves. Radishes are perhaps the easiest thing there is to grow. Rinsed of soil and crunched with a dusting of salt they again have a fire that uniform and perfectly red supermarket zombie radishes lack.
And only half a food mile, and that on foot. When we started ours three years ago we had the choice of more than 20 plots. There are still a few available, and one where the renter will get a letter shortly asking if they intend to carry on. We expected there to be a waiting list, but obviously there was not. It's worth asking the council, and it is truly worth doing if you enjoy veg, and like me have a mean streak. I reckon we get more than £1,000 woth of fruit and veg off it a year, for the princely rent of £30, and it has to be said a lot of hard but enjoyable work. Give it a go.
Cheap living, cheap liver
It is depressing that supermarket meat shelves are becoming more and more about steak, chops and roasts, and less about the wobblier bits of the animals. Does this reflect the push by the shops, or the ignorance of the consumers? I think the latter, with a bit of prejudice and fear into the bargain. The supermarkets still have some offal, but how long will they carry on? In the USA you never seem to see it in supermarkets.
A foodie friend refuses to even try tripe, which if well prepared is unctuous and delicious. Others I know will not countenance liver. Which is good for those of us who enjoy it. Yesterday for 82p I bought enough lamb's liver for a substantial meal for two. Rolled in flour, paprika, salt and black pepper and fried till still pink in the middle it was quickly done and tasted great, even if I say so myself.
With other bits it is even stranger. The butchers I used to use near my previous place of work gave me pigs' trotters for free. They make fantastic jelly to seal a home-made pate, are a delicacy if cooked long with herbs and stock vegetables, and give some rib-sticking body to slow cooked beef stews. One of those butchers couldn't sell ox liver, so gave that away free too.
As the economy slowly sinks again, and food becomes ever dearer with growing world demand, the scandal over bio-fuels, and decreasing yields as the climate inexorably deteriorates, will people be brave enough to go back to the peasant way of eating everything possible? One part of me hopes so. The other is greedy to keep the good cheap stuff for myself.
A foodie friend refuses to even try tripe, which if well prepared is unctuous and delicious. Others I know will not countenance liver. Which is good for those of us who enjoy it. Yesterday for 82p I bought enough lamb's liver for a substantial meal for two. Rolled in flour, paprika, salt and black pepper and fried till still pink in the middle it was quickly done and tasted great, even if I say so myself.
With other bits it is even stranger. The butchers I used to use near my previous place of work gave me pigs' trotters for free. They make fantastic jelly to seal a home-made pate, are a delicacy if cooked long with herbs and stock vegetables, and give some rib-sticking body to slow cooked beef stews. One of those butchers couldn't sell ox liver, so gave that away free too.
As the economy slowly sinks again, and food becomes ever dearer with growing world demand, the scandal over bio-fuels, and decreasing yields as the climate inexorably deteriorates, will people be brave enough to go back to the peasant way of eating everything possible? One part of me hopes so. The other is greedy to keep the good cheap stuff for myself.
Monday 9 June 2008
Northern Eco - food and pleasure
Hi,
Welcome to my first blog page. I'm a freelance journalist based in the Northwest of England, specialising in food and drink writing. As such I have loads of ideas and see lots of stuff that gets my mind racing - and frequently my blood boiling. Thus the need for a blog.
First up, drink rather than food. The last five times I have been out for a pint in my home city of Preston the hand pump bitter has been either poor or in the case of one pub 'off' on two seperate occasions. When you go to a pub and are told they are waiting to get a man in to sort the beer out, you have to ask what are the bar staff doing.
I keep reading about pubs losing customers. Does selling crap beer (or having no beer) explain this?
Welcome to my first blog page. I'm a freelance journalist based in the Northwest of England, specialising in food and drink writing. As such I have loads of ideas and see lots of stuff that gets my mind racing - and frequently my blood boiling. Thus the need for a blog.
First up, drink rather than food. The last five times I have been out for a pint in my home city of Preston the hand pump bitter has been either poor or in the case of one pub 'off' on two seperate occasions. When you go to a pub and are told they are waiting to get a man in to sort the beer out, you have to ask what are the bar staff doing.
I keep reading about pubs losing customers. Does selling crap beer (or having no beer) explain this?
London journalists live in Waitrose
Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed various articles appearing in the national press where journalists have admitted shopping in supermarkets other than Waitrose. The condescending way some have written about finding decent food elsewhere is yet another example of the extremely annoying London-centric nature of our newspapers.
Some of us have been shopping in Lidl, farmshops, Aldi, and elsewhere for quite some time. The most irritating thus far reminded me of the old Punch cartoon, where two white explorers stand before Victoria Falls, surrounded by local inhabitants, and one asks the other: "Do you think they have noticed it?".
Perhaps I should not complain. If the present trend continues, there may even be more than the occasional token restaurant review from outside London in the Independent and Guardian (and no, it doesn't count if the reviewer does a place where they are holidaying).
Some of us have been shopping in Lidl, farmshops, Aldi, and elsewhere for quite some time. The most irritating thus far reminded me of the old Punch cartoon, where two white explorers stand before Victoria Falls, surrounded by local inhabitants, and one asks the other: "Do you think they have noticed it?".
Perhaps I should not complain. If the present trend continues, there may even be more than the occasional token restaurant review from outside London in the Independent and Guardian (and no, it doesn't count if the reviewer does a place where they are holidaying).
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