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food archives
dougal's cook book
still going strong in our household and providing quality shortbreads
a bit of a pain
this is a bit of a pain
a franglais joke there for bilingual readers (like yves in brussels)
the british aisles
here's the british products aisle from our local supermarket
it's what they think we crave
but we've not really bothered to get anything from here as not only it is real expensive, but it's stuff we don't really want
but interesting to see what we might have been missing.
"full menu"
"inverted commas" suggest a less than full menu ?
national dish
a sign as big as a car to celebrate the national dish of pie and a can for $3. (our smallest coin is 10 cents, so the .99 only benefits you if you buy 10 pie and can combos)
14.75 billion sold worldwide
this is brilliant. it's a little mobile trailer selling hot donuts. claiming its own little part of the 14.75billion unit business.
who came up with the 14.75billion figure ? were they all sold from this single van ?
all food half price
a small but significant step to help reduce world famine
national cookery books
Emonds is/was the kiwi delia
couch reserved for mums feeding babies
i went to a church meeting for blokes and this was on the couch. i kept an eye out just in case, but no ladies came along to use it.
we have hot soup today
usually it's cold
all the kebabs
not just some. all the kebabs.
kiwis and pineapple
i found this in a corner at work. kiwis are all over the place.
eating world
it's like disney world for people who love eating
sticky rice
sticky rice stuck in a cup
luxury street meal
here are some cigars and a bottle of whisky on a wharf
balanced meal
2 cans of coke and some sweet corn
(by the way, have you noticed i've tried to include my shoe in more of my photos ? how do you think that's working out?)
new meals
new meals are a good thing for a restaurant. i recon
doritos - now in nz
the great news is that Doritos arrived just before easter.
fish and chippery
that chap just peeking round the corner turned out to be a security guard. but this being new zealand he wasn't bothered i was acting suspiciously and taking a photo of a fish and chippery shop.
queen of tarts
we saw alice in wonderland at the weekend and really enjoyed it.
jane and i on a date
my lovely wife and i went out on a date on friday night as the girls went to a sleep over at some lovely friends' house
we went for a walk down the beach. it was low tide
i had pork and bacon and apple which looked like an owl
jane was delighted
then i had a cheesecake and washed it all down with a hot chocolate which was a bad idea.
then on saturday morning we went to a posh cafe for breakfast where i had sausage bacon and toast. there were four sausages and a giant's fist full of bacon.
we had friends round for tea this evening and had a big meal with them cooked by jane. so we're all feeling a little rotund. but good.
our first kiwi barbeque
so we did it. we bought a proper kiwi gas barbeque. jolly good it is too
crumpet control
at last, we have a way to control crumpets in our house. long overdue.
fish and chips
we went to our local fish and chips shop last night to get some, er, fish and chips. they had three different sorts of fish. one was snapper but we'd not heard of the rest. we went for two types and did some sampling. the jury was split. and rather confused.
why it's best to draft things in pencil first
i'm more of your 'straight to ink' guy, enjoying the randomness of mistakes. i'll often go with a spell suggested word on my mobile rather than the word i was planning on using just because it causes the sentence to make no sense. (if anyone from my future employers is reading, i do this strictly for non work related things - mostly).
anyway, i took the first picture above as i liked how the sign was made from multiple pieces of A4. when i went up to take the photo i saw the pencil drafting underneath and could see why they thought this was a better idea than inking in their draft.
bergurs anyone ?
nanna's - made by or from ?
oh the fun we're having chuckling at new zealand food packets !
unlucky dip
as a family we came up with the fab idea of having an unlucky dip at our goodbye party yesterday (apologies if you weren't invited, it wasn't anything personal - we're just being rather dippy at the moment).
anyway, the unlucky dip was a bit of a tombola, and you got to win something we were just going to throw in the bin. so that was nice.
in the land of the upsway down, it's always christmas
christmas puds in April ? it's all upsway down
posh steak and chips
chips were stacked in the jenga style
lots of salt and vinegar crisps
i love abandoned trollies. mostly i find them outside supermarkets, but this one was a good one inside tescos. it contains mostly single bags of salt and vinegar crisps (chips for you new world-ists). plus an odd alien and some cakes.
all that remains of the brownies
i'm pleased to say esther is taking after her mum and is cooking up some fantastic foods. like these brownies
very posh dinner
grandmas' picked
this kind of thing can happen over the festive period
demonstration house
more shabby tescos demonstration cakes. this time it's something showing how the build-it-yourself gingerbead house should look like. only all the inhabitants have had their heads removed (and eaten?)
leafy dinner
i went to a posh restaurant for my first xmas dinner on thursday and every one of my courses had a leaf in it
i suspect they had to carry the food across a courtyard and the leaves fell in on the way
Enis's fantastic cafe
i read about enis's cafe on the excellent 'nothing to see here' blog and a few days later found myself walking past its entrance at lunch time so popped in for a sausage sandwich. it was as fantastic as i'd hoped and just as mysterious.
i asked whether there was any story behind the decorations and was told "look around you'll find lots of stories".
then i was presented my sandwich wrapped in a piece of tissue paper with the words "you'll find this is spot on". And it was.
i'll be back ...
dessert
custard and grumble. luberly
classic british picnic
picnicking in a carpark
picking our own
kezia and i went off to pick our own strawberries yesterday as part of her summer school project.
i just loved all these signs with foods that grow around, under, on or near dirt.
i've never seen a currant tree, so that would be a good destination sometime. actually, i think it might be where they keep the currant families like red, black and yellow/green striped.
and what's a calabrese ? i thought that was carpet cleaner
still we got a good fist full. kezia ate a large proportion of them in the car on the way home.
i've no idea if it's cheaper or more expensive to buy via pick your own. on one hand you are saving them the labour, but on the other it's an hour's fun so you might have to pay for the privilege.
this price chart was quite interesting though. quite a few random letters and words left over.
strange food
what exactly are those burnt things in the picture above ?
friends and food
we've been without a kitchen for a couple of weeks (probably a bit longer) but there's hopefully only this week to go before we get reinstalled. over the last few weeks we've had loads of dinners out from people at church and it's been brilliant ! so, thanks to everyone who has had us round !
cow picture outside a utchers
have a look at what you are eating.
everyone remembers their first wimpy
kezia and i went to a posh riverside town and after duck feeding and play-parking we went for lunch in Wimpy. it had everything i remember - knife and forks, disappointingly untasty burgers and poor service (they never brought our drinks and the waitress couldn't have seemed to have cared less about us being there) !
still, it's great to know Wimpy is still going strong and hasn't changed in all these years !
toast wars
i like how cafes often have photos of the food they serve, just in case
you don't know what things like sausages, beans, coffee etc look like.
two cafes close to each other near farringdon station both had pictures of toast.
two cafes close to each other near farringdon station both had pictures of toast.
shrove tuesday
we had a family pancake throw off last night. jane's mum won for finess and enthusiasm. jane's dad won for sarcasm. jane won for just being generally fantastic
bakewell tart
ether and kezia's godparents invited us round for lunch yesterday which was fantastic. we lived in the Sheffield at the same time before moving south. ruth made this fantastic bakewell tart. my piece had a big thumb print in.
kezia and the squirty cream
there's few things more terrifying that a 5 year old with a loaded can of squirty cream.
toast bar
regular readers will know i love signs like these which show the food looking proud to be eaten. this 'toast-bar' also serves chips, as seen here.
i initially read the sign as 'retro-snack'. toast would make a good retro snack
i initially read the sign as 'retro-snack'. toast would make a good retro snack
comedy menus
i had a big pile of raw meat (and a major three day stomach upset) and the miserable with raspberries. a colleague had cuckoo which was impressive.
dinner with the vicar
jane and i went out for a lovely meal at the rectory last night. we so rarely get to go out together so it was great. and the food was most excellent too.
caramel apple granny 99p
nothing and no one was ever wasted
hand made by me
i'm not sure how i feel about the word 'me' on a sign. was it the sign itself who made england's best pork pie (singular)?
cold rice pudding with bombs
good food and company yesterday at the vicarage for lunch. pudding was multiplus, including this rice pudding
liver bacon casserole (and liquid cocaine)
london's drugs culture hits the streets (you might need to click the picture to see the sign in the background)
served whit "free"
"free" meaning not free i guess ? that'll be their whit showing through.
holland fun in london
kezia and i had a dad and daughter day in london yesterday. we started with pain au chocolats in paddington station, then went to london bridge, walked down through borough market, spent a couple of hours in tate modern, then went to this.
My experience of holland has always been good, and this was no exception. nice cheese (made backwards of course). And plenty of clog related activities.
kezia and i danced like loons at the silent disco with music played by this chap (note the suite hanger). he too was a purveyor of fine quality cheese
prown coktial
prown coktial anyone ?
two soups
there's kitchen fresh soup. and then there's guest soup. which suggests that the guest soup isn't fresh. or is made from, rather than for, the guests.
greasy breakfast
i took the girls for a greasy fry-up yesterday morning. i think that's what dads are meant to do at weekends.
whilst we were fattening ourselves, jane was on a 12 mile training run !
wobbly cafe sign
it's interesting that the only plural on this wobbly written sign are beans.
charlie's doughnuts
reader charlie sent me this. he writes:
"Thought you might like this. It says tesco doughnuts, yet contains cornish pasties. How random."
things to make you feel better
i've had a stinking cold for the last week. i stopped at the petrol station for some lemsips and, as is always the way when i got to a petrol station, i also got a box/tin/tube of pringles.
but fancy me if they didn't use exactly the same colour scheme. that could confuse someone who was easily confused
Domhnall's buffet photos
my colleague Domhnall sent me these photos of a recent trip to a buffet.
he writes: "On the plus side we had lunch in a china buffet place today and they had the weirdest instructions. See the attached and you'll realise they charge you for sitting down (unless you ask them not to), how much your children pay depends on their height, and the offer of Chinese Mush was one I personally passed on! "
pub lunch
yesterday, whilst the girls were at a party i went to the pub and had a giant steak and ale pie and chips whilst reading the paper. what a treat.
the giant ice-cream challenge
Esther and i shared this huge ice-cream which contained cream, ice-cream, profitables, chocolate cake, maltesers and flakes. a brilliant daddy/daughter thing to do !
emergency snacks and confectionary
this incident catering unit van was at jane's half marathon. What a fantastic name for a van. And what a brilliant idea too.
they could have all sorts of advertising messages, like "all events catered for", or pun around the words incident/instant.
available now for all your emergency sandwich needs.
and if you click on the picture you'll note on the big version it says 'teapo' on the side. which is a nice idea.
contents may shrink after opening
children can be so lateral. Kezia had some Candy Floss. She'd wanted some for ages and finally got some, and loved it.
on the tub it said "contents may shrink after opening"
and esther said, "of course it will - you'll eat it".
meal combo pack
i like the idea of a combined beer and spaghetti can. food and drink, ideal for street embassadors (my name for tramps/homeless)
dougal cake
a major advantage of jane having the same birthday as our friend andy is that andy's wife gill prepared a fantastic birthday cake for andy which jane could also pretend was for her birthday ! hoorah for andy and gill and jane
bt tower menu
fancy stuff and ... crisps
eat more chips
keith sent me this picture of a lorry he saw. as if us Brits need more encourage to eat more chips. i know i don't.
cow and chips
an identity tag, just in case you weren't sure what your steak was made of.
jam of the day is strawberry
i had a business lunch with someone yesterday in a very posh restaurant, but they were 50 minutes late and i only had an hour for lunch so i didn't eat (the cranberry juice is nice though). During my waiting time i did study the menu quite well and noticed you could get broad beans with jam on. which was a nice idea.
stodge fest
i went out for a stodge-fest with Big Eye and Richard last night. i had a great square orchard pudding with piles of mash and sausages (and a little pot of gravy plonked in the middle)
hamlet
i had some parma ham and melon at Cafe Uno in Henley yesterday. it came with just a teeny weeny bit of ham and black bits on the melon. just in case you were interested. a small amount of ham is a hamlet
food plurals
you say panini i say paninis.
kezia's pudding
jane's parents came for dinner last night - they read this so hello Pooch and Party !
kezia had her favourite pudding which is hot custard and cold icecream. and i took one of my usual wonky pictures. i forget most of my pictures are wonky. i don't do it on purpose. that's just how they come out.
apologies to anyone i make feel sea sick by my wonky outlook !
a mad man shouting at a sausage
there was a fancy meal in a Scottish gallery on one night of my conference last week. we sat amongst all the famous paintings and ate our scran.
this chap shouted like a complete madman at this sausage for about 5 minutes before we were served with haggis. i think i'm going to adopt shouting at haggis in to our family dining routine
here's the starter (haggis, neep and tattis i think)
scottish beef
scottish chocolate pudding
of course if you'd tried setting up a table and having a meal during the day you would have been thrown out:
pig medley
with apologies to all vegetarians ... and pigs
eat as much as you can
it would probably be wiser to do 'eat as much as you like' rather than 'eat as much as you can'. the latter is asking for trouble.
and how can you have such an offer as a take-out service ? you could feed the entire neighbourhood and claim it was for yourself. And all this fun for just £3 !
basic meal
here's the remains of a luxury meal on a bench. i think this contains all of the recommended daily amounts for all the basic food groups, but i could be wrong.
it's weiner man
i am a sausage. eat me. yeah !
if you don't believe me look at my photo:
service station food
here is a pile of greasy breakfast fodder
but here's is my excellent sausage sandwich. note the heinz ketchup in the background. terric.
coordinated rubbish
outside a house in london were a variety of different sized pizza boxes
a nice summer evening
i worked from home yesterday which meant we could head off in to the countryside with the family for a stroll down the river and a meal in a restaurant without it being too late (and me being spent from the commuting).
warm sunny evenings with a cool beer in the Flower Pot near Henley on Thames. marvellous.
steak and ale pile
we had our annual summer party for people in any way associated with music at church this evening.
here is a pie we ate:
why did the lolly pop ?
i offered kezia the choice of a lolly or a bounce on a bouncy castle. she went for the lolly option.
instead of 3 minutes bouncing she had over 2 hours of stickiness. good choice kezzy !
raw meat
here is a rare steak and a pile of raw meat. yum (or perhaps not)
donuts
click for big
click for big
jelly
it's a very sticky little chappie
family burgers
guess where we went for a traditional sunday lunch ?
muffin
just look at the late afternoon shadow on this muffin in the middle of the road
sausage role on hungerford waterloo bridge
click to enjoy fully
gas
curry can have this effect. photo by matt the web landlord
dog's dinner
can you believe they have restaurants just for dogs these days. it's SO unfair. they probably get to take their scraps home in human-bags.
pain-ful disappointment
here was a pain au chocolat i had one morning last week. it's only got one seam of chocolate which was a real disappointment at the time.
not a lot of people know this, but 'pain au chocolat' literally translated means 'the pain of chocolate', which means 'chocolate window'.
spring is in the air
spring is springing. which is nice. it's good to see flowers flowering and sprouts sprouting.
i was delighted to see my first pork pie in a flowerbed on the way to work this morning. a sure sign that summer is not so far off.
satsuma segment on a bench
fruit needs a rest too
strawberry and chewing gum
highly unseasonal
pre-eaten
no body has any time any more. i know i don't. i've taken from stealing time from myself which can only lead to disaster in the long run.
every day so far this week i've gone to bed around or after midnight (thanks to working late) and got up around 5am to start work (i was up at 4.30 this morning to finish a document). it's all been due to the busyness of work, but hopefully that should calm down a bit after today (well maybe).
anyway, food is a tricky thing when you are busy, which is why my local supermarket has started introducing pre-eaten foods. like this half eaten apple.
it saves you both time and money (as they are sold by weight). and also means you don't have to eat fruit.
so everyone's a winner (baby, that's the truth)
chocs in a box
i went round to mend a friend's computer last night and to pay me she gave me a bottle of wine (for jane) and a box of galaxy chocolate bars for me ! so much for the no choc rule (back on hold at the moment).
i set the 'point of sale' box up and now it feels a little like i'm running a confectionary stall.
i could never be a proper computer repair man. my teeth would drop out.
but i was quite pleased with this (slightly photoshopped) photo of the chocs in their box !
breakfast
i'm usually quite hungry by the time i get to work.
it being a friday i decided to buy a selection pack of teeny weeny croissants and pain au chocolats. what a treat.
unfortunately the noise of drilling and general construction coming from another part of my office took the edge of this morning luxury.
i've got a stinking cold and have a massive headache anyway, so the noise didn't help. here's a video of me dealing with the noise.
i don't think i normally look this depressed and miserable. but maybe i do.
don't feed the bladers
home made sign on the south bank:
please do not feed the bladers. hungry bladers operating in this area
hot drinks on a cold day
sister (in law) binky prepared a range of hot drinks for our boxing day walk (i'm a bit late with some of these pictures aren't i ?).
she started by arranging the cups in a nice line. hot drink picnics always work best if someone has taken care of the estheticeness.
it was such a cold day that our drinks were very welcome.
click for big
maltesers
mmm. i'm enjoying my last few days of confectionary eating fun.
word 14 - always: christmas greens
sprouts and broccoli are not a young person's vegetable. but they are obligatory at christmas.
puddings through a window
here are some cakes i spotted through a window when i was walking down a street in brussels.
lager fountain
lion fountain holding beer can.
a belgian meal
i asked at reception if there were any good restaurant nearby the hotel i'm staying in. the receptionist said what sort, and i said "i dunno, mcdonalds or something".
she looked me in the eyes and said accusingly "are you american ?".
anyway, i ended up going to a nice restaurant as you can see from the food i got.
it seems it's the custom in Belgian for late comers to restaurants to say hello to people who are already in the restaurant eating.
but it seems it's NOT the custom to shout goodbye to people as they leave from your table.
look at this fantastic biscuit box and the lovely profitable-tolls.
not a chocolate cookie
this is not a chocolate cookie. it's a very nice wheat and raisin one. but i wanted a chocolate one so i sent it back.
but then the electricity went off which resulted in: no music, no money (as it was trapped in the electronic tills), no water in the toilet (???) and no ability to cook me a proper cookie.
oh well.
street biscuits
at this time of year it's quite common to see little piles of biscuits in the street such as these.
[insert comedy caption here]
for anyone who thinks their job is boring, then just think about this poor person who's stuck inside a sandwich all day.
there's got to be a fantastic joke here somewhere. but for now it escapes me.
i'm sure someone out there can find a suitable sandwich based pun for us ?
cause and effect
as kezia says: "drinks makes wees"
food and bollards
we went out for a meal with our good friends julie, andrew, katie and olivia this evening. i had one of the best meals i've had for a long long time in a restaurant.
it was a Beefeater. Not quite a Bernie Inn, but never mind (whatever did happen to them ?)
i gave quite a lot to other people on the table but still felt totally fed-up at the end of the meal !
one of the other highlights was seeing a high number of bollards in the kids fun pack. On the cover picture it appeared that this young lad is being attacked by three bollards.
what i ate and drank today
following on from last's year's experiment, here is today's consumption. much liquid, but little actual food until right at the end of the day.
banana, fruit juice and hot water for breakfast, blueberry muffin for lunch, crisps at 6pm-ish then a cheese fondle and banoffee pie.
i must remember to eat more food in a day. but notice the lack of chocolate (which is nowadays replaced with beer)
chocolate cake
i gave up chocolate nearly 4 weeks ago. but we went to a restaurant today and i decided (in advance) i wanted the chocolate cake. so i did.
i've been thinking about how to make the transition back to everyday life with the chocolate thing. i still need chocolate bars badly, but don't have as much of an issue with cake.
so i've decided to stay away from chocolate biscuits and especially chocolate bars, but otherwise be a bit more flexible on cake and puddings (which i don't often have anyway).
i felt a bit sick after this cake (which was huge) and i thought it was much too sweet. which is excellent news !
perhaps i'm finally kicking the habit ...
tomatoes and mushrooms
things sitting in the street outside a restaurant this morning
aaargh chocolate
at what point will this get easier ? i'm still absolutely desperate for chocolate. it's been over three weeks now.
and still chocolate haunts me. this easter egg was outside paddington station. and yesterday i found a full packet of smarties in my jacket pocket (must have been places there by one of my daughters last week).
chocolate - desperation
still no chocolate (over 2 weeks now).
i saw this sign in a museum yesterday. i'm at phase 1 - desperation.
click for details
dangling meat
it's a restaurant where the food hangs above your head.
thin ice cream
this sign was just outside the permiter of the toilet roll ranger, but it wouldn't surprise me if his (or her) jurisdiction had been extended.
the sign said 'danger thin ice'. there certainly wasn't any ice on the little pond so it must have been very thin.
or perhaps it was referring to the giant ice-cream painted on the wall next to the sign. that was as thin as some dried pain. which is quite thin. i think.
fruit snap
i was eating a banana on the way back to the station last night. as i turned the corner i nearly bumped in to a man who was also eating a banana.
we were both dressed similarly and both listening to headphones.
i spontaneously shouted "snap!". in the micro-second that followed before we passed we both gave each other a huge grin.
i've a friend who had a Citreon 2CV and he used to hoot and wave at other 2CV cars as a friendly jesture.
maybe it's the same with fruit - it's just i don't know because i'm normally stuffing chocolate (a more selfish food) down my face.
the torment continues
i got home this evening (11pm) to smell the sweet smell of home cooking. i traced the smell to the kitchen where i found a tub of home made CHOCOLATE cakes.
i opened the lid a small amount and savoured the odours. but i did not eat, for i have cheated chocolate today once more.
here is a photo taken through the transparent plastic lid.
not again !
the girls hardly ever have chocolate but once again here they are with big bowls of it for their pudding. hoorah for angel delight they say. it smelt SO good. but i didn't eat any.
they continue to taunt me
look what was on our dinner table just now. more chocolate (for the girls pudding).
none for me still though (it's been nearly a week and i haven't killed anyone yet).
today was one of those lunches where you use up the scraps from around the house. i think those are the best meals.
esther said "this meal isn't very healthy is it mummy ? but i know it's the best you can do". she's full of encouragement.
how they taunt me
so far so good. still no chocolate since monday morning. but i was quite tempted by this toblerone in the street.
and when i got home there was a chocolate catalog on the floor ! and in our band practice this evening jane gave out chocolate biscuits to everyone.
(but on the fantastic side i did get to shake John Stott's hand this lunchtime)
don't mix drink and drugs
here's some good advice readers. you'll do well to remember these words.
chocolate
i love chocolate. in fact i think i am genuinely addicted. i have a king sized mars bar for breakfast and then various other confectionary delights througout the day.
and we always have a couple of massive bars of chocolate in the house for me. the girls aren't really that bothered by it.
so i decided yesterday to give up chocolate to save money, my teeth and my health.
i plan to be chocolate bar free for 3 weeks. that's the time it takes to kick a habit according to a random page i found on the internet. it wil be the mornings when i miss it most.
last night i watched as the girls ate the remains of my household chocolate store:
where's sleeping beauty ?
perhaps it was sleeping beauty's hair i saw chopped off this morning ? in which case she'll never be able to lower her locks so the frog can climb up to kiss her.
this apple was next to a car park. just so you can picture it in its surroundings
more glasses
after seeing these glasses i then saw these glasses:
and a little later i saw these two orange drinks (one freshly squeezed, one fizzy) by the back entrance to a hospital:
keep taking the pils
one way round england's archaic licensing laws is to buy a couple of cans of strong beer and sit on the benches outside a pub.
kitkat
what have they done to the humble kit kat ? they've given it a subtle make over which i'm not happy with.
look at the cheap special offer label. 30 pence. much too cheap for a quality product. It was a limited offer and there was only one in the shop.
but look at the picture on the back ! chocolate shouldn't be eaten by dyed haired bimbos !
you can see what happens when they try:
the kit kat is supposed to be a sophisticated chocolate bar not some giddy headed fun biscuit.
quite expensive luxury fruit juice
£7 / 100ml is quite a lot for a drink. That's £70/litre. There was obviously some mistake on the pricing label and i wanted to make sure it wasn't the price / bottle figure which was incorrect.
so i pointed out to a shelf stacker in Tescos that i wasn't prepared to pay £17.50 for a 250ml bottle of juice and he got very confused.
so i pointed at the sign a few times and explained my maths until he eventually walked off.
in the end it only cost me £1.75 so i needn't have worried anyway. And if it makes my cold go away then it was money well spent.
but it probably won't so probably wasn't.
yesterday's food
this is what i had for lunch yesterday:
in the evening we went out with our friends Andy and Mary-Anne. We left all our various children at home which was good. we didn't even talk about them (too much).
for me, the culinary highlight was the ice-cream which contained a massive piece of chocolate fudge cake:
you can't feed a bear booze.
a bear for the beer or a beer for the bear ?
the fatima cafe
i went to this cafe one night. i was full of bearded people with dreadlocks. the men were even worse (boom tish).
one of the customers had brought their pet rat along which was a nice touch. i was invited to play cards by some non-english speaking arts students but when they realised i didn't know what they were on about (and vice versa) we didn't bother.
the music they were playing was excellent - nick cave i think.
anyway, i went past it this morning on the way to the conference and spotted the dangling life-sized manequin. so here it is.
food of the evening
more beer and chocolate and later a kriek which turned out to be a real boon. i got abuse from the bar man when i ordered it because he implied it was a girly alco-pop. in the end it reminded me of snake bite and black (black current, cider and lager) which i used to drink as a goth student.
verdict: very pleasant
catering for the masses
more fine belgium cuisine. after a plate full of meat and 'frozen boiled potatos' (an esther phrase), we had mini sponge cake, chocolate gloop and a profitable-roll. yummy.
i've so far failed to eat any of my emergency Mars bars which i always take when travelling abroad.
belgium cuisine
who could fail to love a country whose national dish is steak and chips accompanied by beer followed by luxury chocolate and ice-cream.
good to see they still use heinz ketchup.
apples
here is esther examining the garden apples for mouldy bits, bird pecked bits and wasp sucked bits. most of our apples contain most of these:
there were a few good ones which jane chopped up for the girls. they were so tastey that esther licked the bowl to make sure nothing was wasted:
in a restaurant, no kids !
jane and i made the most of our trip to stockholm without the kids by having a meal in a restaurant. it was most lovely.
giant marrows
i've mentioned this numberous times before, but we all love things which are the wrong size. tiny dogs and giant vegetables are our absolute favourites.
here are katie and esther with a couple of giant marrows:
mushrooms
bizarre mushroom circle in Hyde Park. why do they grown like this ?
food fall down
unfortunately, due to a number of factors, the take-away dinner fell down the fridge and on to the floor. it was ok though. and still tasted great (the rest of it, not the floored stuff)
in flight food
i'm much happier with this modern picnic food you get on airplanes. it's much more to my taste
thursday is pie day
i find it very satisfying when i see a small and unimportant thing at the beginning of my walk to work, only to see another slightly related thing further on.
here is a good example. it's some jam tarts (near Paddington) and a pie (near Marylebone High Street). both pastries. both on the street about 20 minutes apart.
food of the day
melted ice-cream in a tub. it had a fantastically subtle green colouring which you can just about see in the photo.
smarties in the countryside
i love smarties. their chocolate goodness enclosed in a crunchy shell. mmm. these were particularly welcome on a cold day halfway up a mountain.
street food
this is a nice idea for people on pub crawls across london. it's an en-route refueling opportunity.
pickled cucumber
it's not heinz, but it is pickled cucumber.
food and drink
on my way to work this morning i spotted this heinz baby food tin. it reminded me of yesterday's heinz broccoli find. the colour reminded me of irn bru
here are some other abandoned food and drink items i passed on the way:
kids love broccoli
imagine their surprise at opening their tin of beans to find a little broccoli in there ! it must be why they threw the tin out in to the street.
luxury lolly
this melted lolly looked like a precious flower. beauty in decay or something.
Irn Bru
now here's a remarkable thing - Irn Bru. On our recent trip to scotland we noticed Irn Bru everywhere. it's the coca-colo ('cocalola' says kezia) of scotland.
i tried some at the loch lomond shores which was an irn bru only establishment.
look at the colour of the thing. i'm sure this is why the stereotypical scotsman has red hair:
they sponsor rubbish bins:
and kids play parks:
cans even wash up on the side of rivers:
oh, and i think it tastes horrid. but then i'm probably not man-enough to drink it or something.
a pie in the tree
i spent about 20 minutes trying to convince esther and her friend catherine that pince cones are in fact eggs containing baby mice. when they didn't believe me i admitted i'd got it wrong (i'm man enough).
i explained instead that baby dogs came out of pine cones and if they came along very early on a sunny summer morning they would hear the pine cones popping and puppies flying out. they didn't believe this either, but i think they enjoyed being smarter than an old person for a while !
on the way out esther pointed up at this tree and said "look mummy, there's a pie in that tree". and so there wasn't. unless it's a giant mushroom pie.
the great british picnic
the great british picnic usually takes place in a car park. you'll also need to take an umbrella. the umbrella WILL be needed to protect you from either the wind, rain or sun.
today it was a sun repellent.
feeding bench
one minute there was just bread then there were giant baked potatoes. a mystery caught on camera.
black and white
i think i'll throw this one open as a caption competition. not a real competition of course as there's no prizes other than the personal satisfaction of a job well done.
roadchef
there's much i could say about motorway service stations, but i shall spare you. this one is called Roadchef which conjures up images of a line of chefs cooking roadkill (well it did in my mind)
and look at it inside with it's wifi capabilities and airport waiting lounge style comforts. things never used to be like this.
a net
street fishing is all the rage. there's an ugly side involving dragnet fishing which involves scooping up entire streets.
more traditional is the street lobster pot. this one has caught a chocolate bar over night.
party food
one hour and counting. the food is all nicely prepared and wrapped ...
out of stock
all of these things are out of stock
messy meals
i took esther and kezia to mcdonald's today. i was amazed at how much mess they made. kezia insists on turning her cup upside down when drinking with a straw and esther managed to drop her ice-cream tub on her lap.
an old miserable couple sat on the table next to us and muttered to each other every time they made another little mess.
"GET A LIFE, THIS IS McDONALD'S" (i nearly said)
vegetable garden update
so how is that vegetable garden getting on ? not well, i tell you. i show you too. you enjoy yes ?
sandwich
a ham and cucumber sandwich with a single bite out of it on a staircase.
magic drinks
did you know you can change your drink just by pressing one of these circles on the outside of the cup in trendy coffee shop 'eat' ?
try it. let me know what happens.
mexican
here we are having fun in a restaurant. andy noticed that the chef must have been confused about animals as they were serving buffalo wings.
buffalos can't fly. but then neither do ostriches. or big buildings. but buffalos also have beaks (know as a Buffalo Bill). so perhaps buffalos are actually ducks ?
i dunno.
vegetable garden
how do you manage in a town when you haven't got a front (or back) garden ?
one answer is to build a shed outside your window.
another is to get a load of soil and plant some seeds on your front step as seen here.
the continued journey of the milk
here is some milk about a mile away from the previous milk. is it the same one ?
snail nosh
more snail stories - lynda also sent me this picture of snails eating a banana. she said she watched them for ages. apparently it was a complete banana when she put it on the ground ...
doorstep
today's mystery doorstep food stuff is a bit of bread. a doorstep when referred to bread is generally a massive thick slice, but this is a chunk of french stick i think.
potato on the doorstep
it's a random roast potato on our doorstep. how bizarre.
keep your pie on the road
i spy road pie.
my recommendation to you is to always carry a pie crust.
it's ideal for wrapping roadkill.
feeding debris
here is a wall with numerous food related debris liberally abandoned. bags as far as the eye can see (when squinting in to the sun)
slops
this massive pile of stinking slops was on the floor outside Paddington Station. jane said she thought it was mayonaise. she could have been right.
sandwich
a sandwich. quite near where i found the toasted one a few months ago.
fruit basket
here is a bike with a basket on the back. people have generously put old pieces of mouldy fruit in it to give it a more organic look.
rotting fruit is something often missed in modern bike design.
serious boozer
how DO you organise a drinking party at a brewery ? i'd phone them up and have an ask.
as we know, serious drinkers don't go to the pub, they go straight to the brewery and get tanked up there instead. some breweries even have areas where customers can get loaded with lager, such as here.
i was just passing.
nut muesli
here is my usual breakfast - nut muesli. i've tried to seperate the different nuts in to their own sections for your enjoyment.
unfinished restaurant
i went for lunch with colleagues today in Brick Lane which is famous for curries. a new restaurant had opened which sold .... curries.
if you want to find it, simply walk down Brick Lane. it's on the right and is between two other curry houses.
the restaurant and food was very nice. but there weren't any plants in the plant holders:
and there weren't any fish in the fish tanks:
but luckily they served nice square meals:
yorkshire puddings
raw materials supplied by Aunt Bessy, but expertly cooked and delivered by Jane.
another handkerchief
another one. proves my earlier point. love is dead.
cakes. mmm
a white canvas ready for ordaining with cherries, jellies, smarties and little metal ball bearings which look like sweets.
tasty
people ask why i don't drink tea or coffee and prefer to stick to hot water.
it's not easy and sometimes i really crave for a nice blend of glucose syrup and vegetable fat to whiten my drink. instead i use tippex (or another generic brand of white paint based correct fluid)
what is vegetable fat ? sprout blubber ?
caged fruit #2
it's a while since we've had some street food. here is an orange, an apple, some cheese biscuits and a french roll. and some barriers.
quality meats
everything about this shop screams quality. click for a bigger view. the door on the right is presumably unconnected with the main shop.
a better class of vagrant
i occasionally see beer cans and empty boxes in doorways. these are the tell-tale signs of 'life' left by street people.
i used to help with a couple of homeless projects a while back and the amazing thing was the type of people who ended up homeless. they came from all social classes and backgrounds. it could happen to anyone.
here we see the dining remains of an obviously higher class of street liver. two bottles of red, some breadsticks and humous dip, an apple, some foliage (for decoration) and a pile of takeaway menus. they've never had it so good.
brown sauce
brown sauce is a strange thing. tomato ketchup is sometimes called red sauce, because it is red. and it tastes of tomato which are also red.
but what is brown sauce meant to be ? it's not described as anything other than brown. sometime's it's called daddy's sauce, but that doesn't help much.
i put brown sauce in the same culinary hole as marmite. yuck yuck yuck.
please admire the 70s lighting on this photo. it was a happy accident (like most of the 70s)