Undoubtedly our greatest joy about being home is food, that is food with flavour. We still can't quite get over the appalling food on ship. I'm coming to the conclusion no matter how adequate the quantity is, if you don't enjoy a meal, you don't feel satisfied or filled.
Yesterday we threw ourselves into chicken curry pancakes. I'd had to go to see the GP first thing so I was still in the midst of making them when Angie, our cleaner, arrived. She's never thought of filling pancakes with the curry mix before. For us it is an old favourite, a way of making a little leftover cooked chicken stretch a bit further. And oh the joy of spice after so much blandness.
Today's bit of spice will come in the form of some pepperoni I've found in the freezer. I reckon it will be just enough to top a home made pizza. I'll be cheating with a bought pizza base, but the topping will be all mine. It should be quick and easy to do which is just as well as we're intending to do the food shop today. And what a list that is! I can see it will take some time to do.
At the moment we're even revelling in simple things like champ, a good bit of Lancashire cheese, crisp chips. I did think part of the blandness of our holiday food lay in the fact we had chicken or pork for most meals. The only alternative being "white fish", whatever that I might be. (I couldn't tell you from my attempt at eating it). I came back hankering for red meat, a nice bit of lamb or beef. Yet all we've had of that since getting home is some minced beef in one of the Fox's excellent spicy spag bols. We've continued with mainly pork or chicken with the odd bit of pollack one day. But somehow our meals haven't tasted bland. We've dug into chicken pies & curries, enjoyed even a plain grilled piece of pork fillet (with a chilli dressing admittedly), loved some pork & black pudding sausages. We've enjoyed the lot.
To me it is total mystery how you manage to make so much so bland food. Even a simple grill should have flavour. The more I think of our holiday food the more I'm convinced the caterers regarded us as coming from a country with a reputation for blandness, mixed with the added disadvantage of being a load of sick people who ought not to have salt, cream or spice, or anything else that might overexcite us. The result was something on a par with hospital food, never an experience I would count as fine dining, more a case of trying to find something on the menu that may be edible, in other words the least worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment