The Company Shed is on Mersea Island, England's easternmost inhabited island, about a hundred miles from London and ten miles from Colchester down a long, snaking run of two lane roads. If behind a lorry (truck) or a prospective competitor in the Slow Car Nationals, the two-hour … [Read more...]
ENGLAND: Fish & Chips (the original fast food takeaway)
I used to rule the worldSeas would rise when I gave the wordNow in the morning, I sleep aloneSweep the streets I used to own I used to roll the diceFeel the fear in my enemy's eyesListen as the crowd would sing:"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!" Coldplay, Viva La … [Read more...]
RESTAURANT REVIEW (England, M6 outside of Westmoreland, Cumbria): The Shack at Tebay Services
This was the trip during which I was going to be reviewing Fergus Henderson's St. Johns or maybe Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck. But no. None of that…at least not yet. Instead, here I am reviewing a service station. That's right: a petrol station. More specifically, a food shack … [Read more...]
ENGLAND: English Sunday Roast (Le Rosbif)
Even in the darkest hours of British Cuisine – the post-War, post-Rationing period of the late 1950s and 1960s – there was one institution, part social and part culinary, that was a bastion of good food: the Sunday Roast. Traditionally, the roasting joint of beef was put in the … [Read more...]
SCOTLAND: Flying Scotsman (Haggis Stuffed Chicken with Auchentoshan Horseradish Cream)
Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Robert Burns, Address to a Haggis Haggis! Revered by some, reviled by many, Haggis is Scotland's national dish. And well it should be. In Haggis one finds much of that which is wonderful and terrible about … [Read more...]