Luncheon, more commonly known as Lunch. This midday meal may not seem like such a big deal to the majority of people, however to me it is. I hate lunch. I actually really hate it. Its soooo annoying. I never know what to have therefore I end up having the same thing.
Lunch is a double-edged sword. The classic rookie mistake is eating too much lunch then ruining a potentially tasty evening meal, more commonly known as Dinner. Or the sword swings the other way and not enough lunch is consumed therefore forcing one to a.) snack and potential ruin the tasty evening meal that may follow or b.) become ravenous and wolf down ones tasty evening meal. The consequence being an inability to appreciate the flavours and effort of the dishes involved. So as you can see, Lunch bothers me. It is because of this that I usually/always end up having the same thing, sandwiches. I hate Sandwiches, I'm so sick of them.
Sandwich fillings provide the next conundrum. What to have imbetween the two slices of white, wholemeal, granary or whatever the preference. Too much filling and the sandwich falls apart. Too little filling and the sandwich can hardly be labelled lunch and is deemed a "snack" (e.g. jam sandwiches). I have concurred that the best sandwich filling is cheese and ham. This provides enough substinence for a lunch and also enough flavour for it to be an interesting lunch. There are several varieties of the Cheese-and-Ham which include salad leaves and pesto. I once spent a whole working week alternating between red and green pesto which made the sandwich slightly more bearable than that without pesto. Then of course there are the variations of cheese and of ham. I often opt for honey cured ham but occassionally select just regular run of the mill. The cheese however, should always be cheddar. The saltiness provides a perfect balance when combined with the sweet chewy ham.
Some observations of the Cheese-and Ham. If tomatoes and cucumbers are to be added then this must be done with caution. These water based ingredients will make any bready armour of a sandwich soggy unless positioned carefully. If they are placed between the slices of cheese and ham then this will eliminate any leakages therefore preventing a soggy sandwich.
I have also, when feeling naughty, included coleslaw. This has proved messy on previous experiments but I have found that if the sandwich is wrapped in foil, not clingfilm, the shiny silver wrapping will reduce the explosion of coleslaw juice from one's sandwich and on to ones clean work shirt/trousers. I'm not sure of the physics behind this but it is certainly tried and tested and it works.
Accompaniments with sandwiches are of course important. I like to make my sandwich partners as healthy as possible - therefore dinner can be a little bit more sinful. Such sides for me may include cherry tomatoes, celery sticks, carrot and cucumber batons and sometimes a slice or two of my all-time favourite and totally retro fruit loaf, Soreen cake.
And finally, sandwiches must always, ALWAYS, be cut diagonally. They taste better that way. Fact.
A Yankee Feast At Bodeans, London UK
I always notice the sweet bbq smell lingering around the main entrance of Bodeans - any of the several Bodeans located around the capital that is. The exterior, like the interior, is so stereotypically perfect it always makes me smile. The big American dining booths, red leather seat cushions, mounted moose heads and flat screen tvs showing a variety of soccer and basketball games or classic american films such as E.T and Back To The Future. Best of all, the service, the service is AMERICAN which means it's amazing. The waiters/waitresses are attentive and efficient and "super" friendly. As soon as I sat down a glass of water appeared in front of me. Something as simple and small as this impresses me because its something which I dont experience too much from other restaurants.
So on to the food. The menu focuses on comforting wholesome american grub - obviously and everything comes with fries :) Mains include pulled pork (pork thats been smoked for an age then shredded), burnt ends (smoked chunky bits of beef brisket), 1/2 and 1/4 chicken and not forgetting, the infamous RIBS! Bodeans ribs are the best ribs you will ever eat outside of the U.S. of A. In fact this was actually the main reason for the trip...the ribs.
My order consisted of a starter of crunchy and juicy chicken wings served with sour cream and celery sticks.
This was followed by the "ribs and pulled pork" meal which quite obviously consists of pulled pork and succulent spare ribs. I've decided I'm not the biggest fan of pulled pork. I dont really see the point of it. It was cold and a little bit dry and needed a giant blob of bbq sauce to mask the flakiness of the meat. The pulled pork was also joined by a splodge of tasty and creamy bodean's coleslaw - which was also used to mask the pork. Also on the plate was a large helping of proper american-style fries and of course, not forgetting, the ribs. A ginormous side of spare ribs. These were the highlight, the piece-de-resistance, la creme-de-la-creme and so on. The generous portion of ribs had the most juiciest meat cooked to perfection, still pink on the inside yet toasty and brown on the outside. I wish I'd just ordered ribs and fries but hey-ho, we live and learn.
As a helpful tip to anyone planning a trip to their local Bodeans, check to see if there are any offers/deals running. After just placing my order I realised they had an offer to pig out on baby back ribs and fries with either a beer of glass of wine for only £10! A scandalous bargain! I immediately tried to change my order to this, alas, it was too late and the original order arrived. Disappointment struck. However, according to others the baby back ribs proved to be lacking in meat and quite dry and not as tasty as my superior spare ribs. Mwhahaha, smug smile.
So on a final note, Bodeans was yummy. It produced exactly what I wanted - a good, American diner experience with those absolutely mouthwatering ribs. If you're a fan of classic yankee grub then I'm sure this place would "meat" if not exceed any expectations you may have. Yes I would go back - but just for the ribs, none of that pulled pork malarky.
About Me
As the name may suggest I am Welsh however I live in London and have in fact been living across the border for several years now so have lost all form of a Welsh accent - unless back in the Motherland or powered with several glasses of vino.
Basically I eat. I love to eat. I have always liked to eat. My passion for eating started at a young age - my dad used to shove different ingredients in my mouth from whatever he was concocting for dinner and thus the fascination was born. When I was at school and uni I'd spend weeks pouring over Indian cookbooks when I decided I wanted to learn more about the origins of the nation's favourite food - to this day I'm a whiz with spice names! I once spent a whole summer holiday teaching myself to bake consquentially I single handedly exhausted the local supermarket's supply of flour...I have a 'unusual' obsession with the Far East and in fact I pretty much ate my way around China when I was 18. Since I'm now marrying a chinaman I have unlimited access to all things Oriental :)
When I left uni and got a job I discovered that I didn't have as much time to explore various cuisines and different cooking methods so much but I still wanted to make eating a rather large part of my life - so I decided to document everything I ate - from homemade goodies to restaurant nosh and lo my food blog was born.
So that's the story but I figured I should make this bit a tad more interesting so here's a few foodie facts about me:
1. I have an OCD thing of needing to use a minimum of 3 vegetables in each dish - this is not for health reasons, it's purely for colour and texture. Seriously, I like colour and texture!
2. I eat everything. There's a very very very tiny handful of things I don't like - but have tried many times to make sure I don't like them. Some of the more adventurous things I've tried include deep fried ants on custard, turtle soup, congealed ducks blood and crispy fried snakes skin...trust me - all tastier than they sound!
3. When eating out The Man, family and friends are all well trained at waiting patiently for me to take photos - from various angles - of their food. They have learned to love it.
So there we go - that's me, I eat. If you have any questions just send me an email!
Basically I eat. I love to eat. I have always liked to eat. My passion for eating started at a young age - my dad used to shove different ingredients in my mouth from whatever he was concocting for dinner and thus the fascination was born. When I was at school and uni I'd spend weeks pouring over Indian cookbooks when I decided I wanted to learn more about the origins of the nation's favourite food - to this day I'm a whiz with spice names! I once spent a whole summer holiday teaching myself to bake consquentially I single handedly exhausted the local supermarket's supply of flour...I have a 'unusual' obsession with the Far East and in fact I pretty much ate my way around China when I was 18. Since I'm now marrying a chinaman I have unlimited access to all things Oriental :)
When I left uni and got a job I discovered that I didn't have as much time to explore various cuisines and different cooking methods so much but I still wanted to make eating a rather large part of my life - so I decided to document everything I ate - from homemade goodies to restaurant nosh and lo my food blog was born.
So that's the story but I figured I should make this bit a tad more interesting so here's a few foodie facts about me:
1. I have an OCD thing of needing to use a minimum of 3 vegetables in each dish - this is not for health reasons, it's purely for colour and texture. Seriously, I like colour and texture!
2. I eat everything. There's a very very very tiny handful of things I don't like - but have tried many times to make sure I don't like them. Some of the more adventurous things I've tried include deep fried ants on custard, turtle soup, congealed ducks blood and crispy fried snakes skin...trust me - all tastier than they sound!
3. When eating out The Man, family and friends are all well trained at waiting patiently for me to take photos - from various angles - of their food. They have learned to love it.
So there we go - that's me, I eat. If you have any questions just send me an email!
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