Declaring war on gunge in sandwiches

 Me? I love a good sarnie. When I was a teenager, there was nothing I liked better than a bacon butty at The Travellers Fare cafe at Kings Cross Station on my way to St Pancras for the train home. British Rail catering was often derided, but I used to rather like the unfussy approach. The choices were such delights as cheese and tomato, ham and tomato, bacon, sausage or egg. You'd get two slices of white bread, margarine and a filling. All washed down with a cup of builders strength tea. The whole idea was that it was cheap and cheerful. In 1976 a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich would set you back 36p.

I can't exactly recall when things started to go wrong, but in 1991 I recall, when working in Pall Mall, a new cafe opened up. I wasn't eating meat at the time. They did a hot cheese and mushroom croissant. I'd never had anything so delicious in my life. The cafe was called Pret. A couple of weeks later, they introduced a new sandwich. It was rocket and crayfish sandwich, with delicious mayo on it. It was amazing. I told all my friends to try this new cafe. They were all amazed at the tasty delights on offer. For about six months, I'd go to Pret every day for lunch. Despite the fact that everything was twice as much as the other cafe's the food was just too good to miss out on. 

Then I changed jobs and was based in Aldgate. Here we had Sidoli's cafe. It was back to the cheese rolls and tuna sarnies. I longed for Pret. Over the course of time, it seemed like there was a Pret everywhere. However they no longer did the cheese and mushroom croissants. I excitedly sought out the crayfish and rocket sarnie. To my horror, it was pretty average. Over the next few weeks, I tried a few different Pret sandwiches. What had seemed delicious a few years before now just seemed like a mush topped with gunge. I realised that every single item had mayonaise on. Not only that, but to me, the mayo tasted of nothing and made my mouth taste greasy. Worse than that, it seemed that all of the supermarkets etc had followed suite. No sandwich tasted of anything and everything came with that gunge that was called mayo. 

I realised that the sarnies and rolls made in Sidoli's were far superior and gunge wasn't mandatory. But the trouble is, if you get a train or plane, the little cafe's like Sidoli's are nowhere to be found. Whereas you used to be able to get a freshly prepared bacon roll in a BR buffet on a train, now, if you are lucky, you get something in a box, that they may microwave if they feel like it and costs a small fortune. Whilst the snobs that write newspapers and gossip columns used to laugh at the plain fare of British Rail, the truth is that it was decent food at a reasonable cost. The small cafe's that are rapidly disappearing from our high streets, providing wholesome food at a reasonable cost are being replaced with shiny chains, that produce tasteless food, covered in gunge in factories, to be sold en masse in their outlets. 

There are some things you can be sure of. The cheese in the sandwiches tastes of nothing. Buy some decent mature cheddar from a proper shop and make yourself a sandwich and compare the taste with the gunge bomb that you'll buy in a ready made box. I do love an egg on toast, but try and get that in any chain and you'll be rather disappointed. Sure you'll get a chopped up egg drowned in mayo, but I certainly know what I'd rather have. 

I'm starting the campaign to end gunge filled sandwiches. There was a time when small business owners were just happy running a cafe. Now it seems that unless you have a desire to 'start a franchise' you lack ambition. The world is going mad before our eyes. I don't know who decided that if you want a cheese sarnie, you need a bucket of gunge on it, but it has to stop! I may return to this theme on a Saturday in the very near future!

The Saturday list #309 - My world tour of London list

Korean food at Whitecross St Market

London is the capital of the world. As we can't go anywhere, we have the world on our doorstep. So here is my holiday in London!

1. Lets start with Italy. A cheeky Peroni and an espresso in Bar Italia (with a custard tart) watching the world go by. There is nothing finer!

2. A little bit of Mexico at Mesito's in Euston. Thoroughly delicious!

3. Fancy a taste of Spain? Checkout Camino's for tapa at Kings Cross. It really is good

4. A bit of Aussie tucker? Whilst you are in Kings Cross Grainger and Co are well worth checking out.

5. If Chinese food is your thing, you don't need to venture further than The Good Earth in Mill Hill. But Chinatown and Gerrard St is always worth a mooch around. Everyone should check out Won Kee's at least once in their life.

6. A culinary trip to India is always a joy. I would say that Indian is probably my favourite type of food, but there are many different styles. I've probably spent more time in The Mill Hill Tandoori than any other leisure establishment over my life. It is a proper suburban Indian restaurant which does what it says on the tin. But there are other styles, I'd highly recommend the Ravi Shankar Vegetarian Indan Restaurant in Drummond St if you fancy something a bit different. 

7. And if you like Indian food, then you really should try out Nepalese cuisine. Whilst we are in the neighbourhood of Euston, The Great Nepalese in Eversholt St is a diamond. 

8. A cuisine that is much overlooked is Irish food. In Hendon we have the Claddagh Ring, which does many of the favourites such as Irish Stew and Bacon and Cabbage, all washed down with an excellent draught Guinness. 

 

9. Argentina is well known for its meats and grills. In Mill Hill we have El Vaquero, which is an Argentinian grill. It is somewhere to go when you are hungry. You pay a flat fee and they bring you meat until you are full. Steaks, sausages, Chicken wings, it just keeps coming.

10. And finally.... If none of the above tickle your fancy and you'd prefer Thai, Japanese, Israeli, Korean, Braazilian.....  There is amazing street food at Whitecross Street market. Located near Barbican station and with a couple of great pubs nearby, it is well worth a visit. It is somewhere I always take friends who are visiting London. There is also a great food market at Borough Market, which is the other great place to take visitors.

The Saturday List #280 - Ten foods that seemed really exotic in the 1970's

On Wednesday I published a blog which received the best reaction of any blog for many a moon. It was entitled "How the 70's was the decade where the British discovered food". I detailed how the culinary habits of the British underwent a step change in flavours and experimentation in the decade and things such as garlic suddenly became part of the British array of cooking ingredients (previously it was salt, pepper, brown sauce and mustard). 

Some of the comments left on Facebook mentioned exotic dishes that we embraced in the 1970's. I thought I'd list my ten favourites. When I say my ten favourites, this is favourites as in, ones it seems amazing that they seemed exotic now!

1. Spaghetti Bolognese.

It seems bizarre now that a Spag Bol was ever seen as 'exotic', but I well remember the first time my mum cooked it. My Dad's RAF squadron had been stationed in Foggia in Italy in 1944, and he'd developed a love of Italian food and drink (far better than the flat rations the RAF had in North Africa). He told me a story of how when the RAF took over an Italian air base in North Africa, they kept all the Italian cooks etc on the staff and were the best fed airmen in the RAF for a couple of months. He taught us how to wrap the Spaghetti around the fork and advised me never to eat Spaghetti on the first date. I was about ten at the time. It was a bit of a revelation.

2. McDonalds.

This is another one that probably seems insane to anyone born after 1985 that anyone could see a Big Mac as exotic, but that is exactly what it was. When McDonalds opened its  restaurant in Golders Green there were mile long queues to by Big Mac and chips. It was seen as proper American burgers. We sort of felt that we'd become Starsky and Hutch if we ate McDonalds. I always thought the Golders Green branch was the first in the UK, but it was actually in Woolwich. 

3. Rum and Raisin Ice Cream.

For those of us born and raised around Mill Hill, Edgware and Burnt Oak, Ice Cream was a 99 whip from Tonibell. I loved the Raspberry sauce version with a flake. But over the road from us, lived a Jewish family, the Lewis's who were great friends. Their Dad, an accountant and man of great tastes, acquired a new Citroen and was incredibly proud of his motor, so he decided to take his two boys Johnny and Frank and me, for a special treat. We drove down to Camden Town to Marine Ices for a special Ice cream. Mr Lewis said "You'll never have tasted anything this good in your life". He recommended that we got a couple of different tastes. I think I got Strawberry and Rum and Raisin. The Rum and Raisin was out of this world. Mr Lewis also took us up for the opening of Dayvilles 32 flavours in Edgware as I recall. He pronounced that it wasn't as good as Marine Ices, and I trusted his judgement. What was even better was when we arrived back from Marine Ices and I told my family about it, my Dad bundled us all in the car and I got a second helping. I can remember telling my sister that it was the best day of my life.  I always had a soft spot for Citroen cars after that day! (Pic Courtesy of Marine Ices).

4. Vesta Packet Chow Mein.

As we discovered exotic foods, the supermarkets jumped on the bandwagon. The leaders in the field of making food seem exotic were packet food specialists Vesta. The idea was that you got a pound of mince, chucked in some Vesta sauce and hey presto, you got a plate of food that tasted as good as the local Chinese takeaway. I guess there was  two year period in the early to mid seventies, when we actually fell for it and didn't realise that it simply made the mince taste a bit less bland. I sort of liked the Vesta sauces. My mum and Dad would always have a bottle of wine over dinner with them, to feel as if they were on holiday. Often we'd have them on the day the Whickers World Travel show was on. It sort of made us feel like we'd been on holiday somewhere.

5. Arctic roll.

Anyone who is my age will have fond memories of Arctic Roll. The highlight of the Primary School day was pudding. If it was Tapioca, the day was a disaster. Then some time around 1970, one day we were given Arctic Roll. It was unlike anything we'd had before. It was ice cream and cake all in one. It seemed impossible to make something so good and have it served at school. I imagined that it was what polar bears ate for breakfast (not realising they'd rather eat me!). 

6. Chicken in a basket.

Around 1973, there was a craze for 'chicken in a basket' in pubs. I've no idea where it came from or why it was served in a basket, but it seemed rather exotic. A plain old bit of grilled chicken down the cafe seemed rather dull. The chips had to be the thin, crispy type rather than the chip shop fatties. 

7. Mushroom Vol-au-Vents. 

Sometime around 1971, my parents attended a party where Vol-au-Vents were served. These were fluffy pastry with a mushroom gloop in the middle. They were delicious. My mother immediately decided that we needed a party. She spent the week practising, which meant we got a welcomed change from the usual boiled potatoes and tripe and onions, that she'd inflict on us when she was too bored to cook anything tasty. For some reason, in around 1990, Vol-Au-Vents became inedible gunge. I cannot fathom quite what happened. 

8. Coq au_vin.

Chicken in wine, to give it its Anglicised name. My Mum loved this, my Dad (I suspect he was being polite) also lived it. I hated it. I've never been a fan of meat in gungy sauces. But my mum was incredibly proud of her efforts. I've not really thought about this dish since the 1970's, but researching this I see that the recipes recommend using red wine. Mum always did it with white wine. It was one of the dishes that made me understand the British wariness of 'foreign muck'.

9. Lamb Kebabs. 

After the war, my Dad had spent four years working as a commercial pilot, based in Beirut. He loved kebabs. I can well recall a trip down the Edgware Road with him when I was about ten, for a kebab. We went to a Lebanese restaurant, my mum was away with  my sisters. He soon got into a discussion with the owner, who was amazed by his knowledge of Beirut and Lebanese politics. We got VIP treatment and more meat than I'd ever imagined. I believed that kebabs were the food of the Gods. The next Kebab I had was in Alki's in Colindale in around 1981. It wasn't quite the same, tasty though it was. 

10. Sweet and Sour Pork.

Our family treats in the 60's and 70's would usually be a trip to Burnt Oak, to the Chinese Restaurant on the High Street. We'd have pancake rolls, sweet and sour pork, beanshoots, crispy king prawns, special fried rice and finish off with lychees. The best bit was the sweet and sour pork. In our house, Pork would be a Sunday joint or a chop. To have it batter with a bright red sauce that burned your tongue with its acidity and sweetness was simply exotic beyond belief. The restaurant was painted blue, had Chinese murals and paper lanterns. It's what I imagine turn of the last century opium dens and brothels were like. It was full of cigarette smoke and working class families on a night out. I loved it. I love chinese food but the restaurants simply don't have that vibe. These days they have clean lines and no mystique. 

I almost feel sorry for the kids of today, who's idea of food is to order sushi on line. There really is no voyage of discovery for them!

The Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Here's a new column for my regular readers. Every Thursday (well nearly every Thursday), I meet up for lunch with a friend and we take it in turns to select a venue. The deal is that we take turns to pay. It's a good way to start the weekend and it's become quite competitive as we try and select ever better and more different venues. As he's a greedy sod who likes his food and we give all meals some lengthy analysis, I thought I'd share this with you all. If like me you are always on the lookout for new places, I hope this helps.

Todays lunch was at the "Gourmet Burger Kitchen" at St Pauls in the City. As I was paying, I'd waited until they had a 2 for 1 voucher on their website before selecting the venue. Being a tightwad, I generally try and pick somewhere with an offer on.

The Gourmet Burger Kitchen prides itself on being the funky burger chain for those who like a high quality 100% beef burger. Not having been there before, we got rather caught out by the method of ordering. You are shown to your table, given the number and then you have to go to the till & order. Being thick, this took a while to sink in & even though we got there at Noon sharp, we found a lengthy queue had formed by the time we twigged the protocol.

Anyway, I ordered the Cajun Beef Burger and my friend had the Buffalo burger. We ordered a starter of Chicken kebob. By the time I'd ordered, the queue stretched out of the door. "It must be good was the comment". After a suitable pause, the drinks arrived. Faced with a heavy afternoon, I'd settled for Tea with milk. £1.90 for a relatively small cup, where you do your own bag, did not strike me as great value. After another 10 minutes, the Kebob showed up. The chicken was delicious. Sadly it was gone all too quickly.

We sat, we waited. We waited. To the left and right, diners who'd entered after us had rather tasty looking burgers turning up. Eventually, at 12.40 our food arrived, 40 minutes after we'd sat down. The chips were fantastic. Proper big chunky chips. My friends Bufallo Burger at £9.85 was, in his opinion, excellent. I was slightly disappointed with my Cajun Beef burger at £7.40. I expect a Cajun burger to have a chilli kick and this had none. The sauce was slightly sweet, which was not to my taste at all.

All in all, pleasant enough food, but a bit slow & hassly. I wouldn't go there if you just want a quick bite. At £22.85 (inc £7.40 off meal), Ok value. I don't think I'll be rushing back.

Best Thing: Chicken Kebob Starter.

Worst Thing: The queueing & waiting

Other items of note : Good Veggie options

Cock Or Vain

I love the assortment of "foodie" shows on telly. They are compulsive viewing. Top chefs are must watch TV. There is one aspect that worries me. It seems that bullying, arrogance and abuse is part of the package. People are not treated with dignity and respect. Whilst people will take it from Gordon because he's a genius, I do worry that jumped up, talentless middle managers will think this is the way to run a good company.

It isn't, it's just TV. Good TV, but TV.

Saturday Morning is Bacon Sandwich Time

Over the years, various Pope's have made many tragic mistakes. Generally these take about 500 years to be acknowledged and for an apology to be issued. In my own personal opinion, one of the worse decisions made in my lifetime was the one to do away with the traditional fast on a Friday. When I was a child growing up in a strictly Roman Catholic household, Friday was different. Friday was the day when no meat was eaten. For me, there was a big upside and a big downside. The downside was the fact that school dinners at St Vincents (a Roman Catholic Junior School) were usually inedible. Not only that but a team of nuns viciously enforced a policy of "eat it all up". Pockets were checked, floors were examined for any attempts to hide the inedible slop which we used to invariably be dished up. That was the downside. The upside was glorious. Every Friday evening, my Dad would arrive home from work with bags of Fish and Chips. As there were six of us kids, mum, dad and usually some strange northern relative visiting (nice old Aunty Mary, Harry Taylor (the Magician), John Rathbone (the guy who used to go to Crufts) or Bernard, my brothers friend from France (swimming & Karate Champion who I suspect my sisters all rather liked !). We'd all sit down with mugs of brimming tea and tuck in. If you've never witnessed the Tichborne Family en mass with food, you'd be shocked. Imagine a dead Wildebeast with a large pack of hungry lions. I was the youngest by a few years, so I had to be the meanest, or I'd starve.

To my mothers eternal horror, we all inherited our eating habits from my father. To him, dining was a challenge. His favourite trick was to distract the person next to him and steal the best item from their plate. I'll never forget my mothers horror and anger with him, when he did this to the Mayor at a charity dinner. Personally, I don't think I'd want a sausage from any of our current crop of Tory councillors, but hey that's another story. Anyway, I digress.

Anyway, as I was saying, Friday was a special day. I always thought the pope had imposed the rule because he was a great bloke. To this day, fish and chips is a treat. It's a great dish for when you've got visitors and you don't want to mess around. Pickled Onions and Gherkins, salt & Vinegar. Eat it with your fingers and wash it down with tea or beer. My dad was an avowed carnivore, so he was ecstatic when the rule was abolished. He could have a steak on a Friday (as well as Thursday, wednesday, etc). I was gutted, Friday was suddenly a bit less special.

One of the best things about the effect of Friday, was the fact that as my dad felt he'd suffered so much on a friday, the breakfast ritual on a Saturday was different. Every other day of the week, it was a rigid regime. A cup of tea, a slice of toast and a bowl of cornflakes or other cereal. My mum, who was never good in the morning would send one of us kids up with a tray of it for my Dad, who never got up before 9.30 am (allegedly for health reasons). He'd lie in bed, reading the paper, or saying the Rosary and eat his breakfast. Mum didn't mind this regime as she thought he was "Too cheeful in the morning". On Saturday, Dad would get up and make us Bacon Sandwiches. Mum would lie in bed and feel miserable. Saturday morning was the day we awoke to the smell of frying bacon. I was a vegetarian for 16 years (after I had an ulcer & nearly died). It is true that bacon is the secret weapon of all carnivores ! When I started eating meat again, bacon sanwiches where the first thing back on the menu.

To this day, I still think my dad made the best bacon sandwiches. he'd only buy the best bacon. He'd fry it in butter, with tomatoes. He'd get the best uncut bread he could and toast it under the grill. A spot of pepper on top and hey presto. As he died 22 years ago this week, I thought I'd make myself a dad style bacon sandwich for breakfast. It's hard to get proper hand cut bacon with rind these days. I compromised and got some expensive stuff from Waitrose. Sadly there was no rind. My mother always used to tell us about the times during the war when the bacon was rationed. Her father would have all the lean cuts and give the rind to the kids. He always used to tell them he'd saved them the best bit. They were always very grateful.

Anyway, I made my bacon sandwich a la Dad. It was great. The simple things in life really are the best ! Next Friday I think we'll all have fish & chips for supper. If you have any wacky Norther relatives visiting send them round. If you have any French Karate & Swimming champs send them around as well. I'm sure my 13 year old daughter would be most happy then!