h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know if this counts, but I fed myself and four teenage girls for £7.06 today thanks to Greggs (two sausage rolls, a ham and cheese slice, a cornish pasty, a cheese and tomato pizza slice, and a latte) and Poundland (three cans of coke).

It was warming and sustaining, in the middle of a cold, wet shopping trip.

Mol

Not so much a where as a what happened -

An all-you-can-eat place attached to the hotel I was staying at. Young family with rather overweight teenage girls at the table near me. One of the girls having platefull after platefull until the inevitable happened and on a refill run she puked. What was amazing was she caught the puke in midair with her left hand ... and never stopped texting on the phone gripped in her right hand!

And they say the youth of today have no useful skills

I was to to the theatre last night to see Stewart Lee's new show (excellent BTW) and went to Lorenzo's http://www.lorenzos-restaurant.co.uk/

Used to be a favourite haunt of mine but not been for years and years. It was excellent. Though not good for my diet.

FB

I ate at Pizza Express in Stourbridge. We have a little ritual where every couple of months we take our son to the cinema and get pizza first. I had garlic bread, goats cheese and roast vegetable salad and cheese cake (diet you say...it was on offer..).

For some reason I found the whole thing richly comic. That's the entertainment done said my son when the napkin he was drawing on ripped. Oh said my husband we'll just have to lick the butter.

Service was slow and incompetent and the waiter looked aware of his own inadequacies. The people at the table next to us couldn't understand the menu, and the waiter had to go and get plates to explain the different sizes of pizza.

It left me in the perfect mood to enjoy The Servant With Two Masters which was something of a farce, with some brilliantly wicked dialogue and amusing use of accents.

Daft Eddys on Skettrick island, Strangford Lough.

I used to go here quite a bit when the kids were younger - it's very child-friendly, and has stunning views of the boats moored on the lough.

The sun was shining, Dai suggested we put the top down on the MX5 and go for a drive. We didn't have this restaurant in mind until we were closer, and weren't sure how busy they'd be on a Sunday lunchtime. But the staff were lovely and welcoming, and easily found us a table by the patio door overlooking the beer garden.

I had the shellfish stew - mussels, crab claws and prawns in a chilli and pancetta tomato sauce, served with toasted ciabatta and rouille. It was totally delicious.

Himself has the homemade burger with cambazola and bacon, side salad an Ballymaloe tomato relish. And fries. Pronounced it wonderful.

We both remarked on what a perfect and serendipitous Sunday drive that had been.

I went to a lovely local carvery on Saturday for the FiL's birthday.

But the best thing about it is the fact they offer "Cake Away". Which is exactly what it sounds like. A takeaway offering dozens of homemade cakes and ice creams.

I ate at Yaki Soba in Chorlton Manchester (http://www.yakisoba.co.uk/site2/Home.html). I was very impressed, they were able to accommodate a party of ten at fairly short notice, the atmosphere was cool and delicate on a hot day and the food was delicious. The children were wowed by the large fish tank.

I had vegetarian noodle salad bento box. A bento box with fresh fruit, salad, nuts, miso soup, spring rolls and prawn crackers accompanied with a large bowl of tangy noodles with tofu and vegetables. Other members of the party looked equally impressed with Buddha island treasure bento (tempura), Mongolian lamb and prawn pad thai. Jasmine tea and green tea

There was a sticky moment when the food arrived as I had insufficiently explained the Bento box concept and the food was met with anger by those who felt they hadn’t ordered all these extra’s and would be charged and those who thought the extra’s were all they were getting. The staff patiently returned our food to us until everyone accepted the idea.

Some fellow diners were dressed eccentrically, blue hair and 1950s glamour (Emeli Sande) my brother sashayed over doing his best Noel Gallagher puppet impression..allright girls..you off to a disco? The women stare in bewildered incomprehensive horror until my sane brother guided the drunk one away.

I ate at Syriana in Birmingham (http://www.syrianarestaurant.co.uk/). It’s a Syrian restaurant and we had the fixed menu. We ate mezze (a selection of dips and fresh warm flat breads), cous cous with vegetables and small pastries. The service was brilliant, the waiter telling us about each dish and life in his home country. In my attempt to be a non-drinking person we drank mint tea and far too much Arabic coffee.
The building was amazing; it’s at a fork between two roads and looks Victorian. The building is very narrow and red brick with a round tower at the front. The name of the company that owned the building was inscribed in the brickwork. Once inside it was all draped material in red and gold and wooden carved decorations with big windows and high ceilings.
My husband and I have booked a weekly babysitter for the next two months and this was a deliberate date. Dates with my husband don’t follow an obvious format; he has a gift of making anything fun but an unconventional idea of what fun might be. Highlights of our dating career include a tour of the insulation in the Friends of the Earth building. This was a good start.

We ate at the Slate of Cheese in Hay on Wye. We had the mountain cheese board, local cheeses served with crackers, bread, grapes and fig. 

It hade been raining solidly for 29 hours. The water soaking into the hems of my boot cut jeans had reached my knees, but it hardly mattered as the rain hitting my thighs had soaked through to my goose pimpled skin. My husband who contends that there is no such thing as bad weather only inappropriate  clothing was beginning to consider my proposal that should it rain for another 24 hours we should return home. Some light relief had been gained from watching three adults ineptly try to erect a gazebo before the instructions dissolved but all in all we were feeling in need of some spoiling. As we sat inside the marque listening to the thump of the rain eating cheese I felt spoilt. 

I attempted to tell my family about a talk I'd been to the day before Daniel Kahneman on fast and slow thinking; he'd used an example... A bat and ball cost €1.10, the ball cost €1 less than the bat. How much was the ball? 5p said Tempest, I don't understand the question said my mum. My husband laughed. 

Had lunch at Red Hot World Buffet in Leeds today. Pretty cheap and, for the price, really nice. The range on offer was staggering and whilst some of it wasn't nice, most of it was lovely. Some of the dishes, like individual portions of chilli con carne, were genius

The decor wasn't the most appealing and my mates complained of it being over-crowded though I didn't notice. It was busy but I can see why. I'll certainly be going back.

I ate at Café Ort in Balsal Heath Birmingham. It was so lovely I didn’t want to leave. I was with just my husband and son. It is a community and art café in a great building (the old print works). It had a warm casual atmosphere, old tables, chairs and sofas grouped around a large spacious room with a kitchen bar style in one corner. My husband ate Pantomaca, which wasn’t a brussecta type thing I’d expected but fresh-pulped tomatoes with LOTS of garlic and olive oil- a little like a cold soup served with toast. I had the Ort breakfast, which at £4 for eggs, toast, tomatoes, mushrooms, paneer, vegan sausage and beans was bit of a bargain. My son had a pancake and the batter was freshly made for us. They played good world music and the table football was free. They offer an eclectic range of events; drop in maths, science café, film screenings and live music. I thing I’ll become a regular.

I had alfresco Fish N chips, yesterday (Sunday), at Donington, Download festavil. and it was supprisingly good If only it'd really been 'eating in', out.... there might have been a chair to sit on Before which was earlier Sunday morning, at an MCd, though, to be honest, I'm still debating with myself weather or not to class that as food or not, it was quite unlike food. I can't have eaten at McD for a decade, or nearly a decade

I ate at Strada in London. The food was unremarkable (I had Aubergine bruschetta and risotto) but the view was amazing. Often when I go to London I find myself disappointingly encased in offices and buildings that could be anywhere. This restaurant had huge windows looking out over the Thames, Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast. I felt like I was 'doing London'. We got drunk and went dancing till 3 in the morning before being invited to a party in Soho. I have agreed to visit a country I can't find on a map. 

Yet another Cornish pasty... eaten in the street, outside the bakery this afternoon...

Saltaire Bakery for a sausage and onion flatcake, feta and spinach pasty and rocky road slice. It's a good thing I walk so much when I'm staying here.

Just to say - I know I'm not adding much to this thread at the moment (we're on some of an economy drive) but I am still reading it. It's one of the threads I keep a particular eye out for. Keep going people.


Geggs

I used to live in Saltaire. I love those pasties. They do some amazing breakfast sandwiches too.

Ooh, ooh, lots of eating out this week.

Dinner at the Premier Inn, Victoria (stop sniggering). Something of a Fawlty Towers experience with respect to the service, but the food was fine if not outstanding.

Dinner at the Three Frogs, Wokingham. 25 years ago this was my local, rather cramped and a bit dingy, but we were fond of it because we had also regularly visited as a family since moving nearby. (Obviously we children were only allowed in the garden - but on fine Saturdays we would have the treat of a ploughman's lunch, and on summer evenings coke and crisps). ANYWAY, last night I met 4 old schoolfriends there. The inside has changed beyond all recognition, but the food was excellent. Only - no scampi. I didn't mind for myself (I had steak) but one of my friends *always* has scampi which, let's face it, is *always* on the menu in *every* pub in the land. Except for this one.

Mol

has anyone, ever* cooked scampi and chips at home?! I strongly suspect not... it is a food sort meant* and designed* to be eaten in a pub! and I've not had it in years
I've not been to a proper... or semi-proper resturant for ages and ages... asides a few takeaways, cafes, and pubs, really can't remember the last time, hmmm... not even an Indian or Chinese... And, I've almost come to the conclusion that I shall have to give up, entirely, for the rest of my life, eating takeaway pizza in this town... Unless one provider suddenly learns how to cook it so its not raw in the middle

I cook scampi and chips at home, when I'm cooking fishfingers for the rest of the family. But it's ready-prepared scampi out of the freezer, I don't hand craft it from scratch myself.

Mind you, I imagine it's out of the freezer at most pubs, too.

Mol