It was a bright but freezing cold January day; the leaves on the trees wore frosty white negligées and the sky was positively Scandinavian. After a morning spent restocking the larder after the Christmas blitz, I wound up at the glorious Cooked Meat Shop in Bath’s Guildhall Market, where the olives, fresh anchovies, homemade fruit cakes and Wiltshire ham are second to none. And there, I fell in lunchtime love. It could’ve been a simple filled baguette that grabbed me. It could’ve been an exotic Jamaican pattie, or a swarthy spinach and feta pie. But no - something else entirely caught my eye, and my heart went pitter-patter.
Ten minutes later, and I’d found myself a bench overlooking the weir, a takeaway coffee beside me, an open jar of piccalilli (also from CMS, for this very purpose) wedged between my knees, and the real object of my affection on my lap, where it belonged.
If anyone can suggest a more satisfactory impromptu midwinter lunch than a traditional, hand-raised pork pie (solid, peppery pork buffered by a richly gelatinous jelly, encased in the shortest hot water crust you can imagine), broken by hand and dunked into chunky, mustard-infused piccalilli while enjoying one of the most beautiful views in the West Country (and hey, no tourists to ruin it!), then please, tell me about it. If it cost you less than £2.50, I’ll take you on my next restaurant review.
1 comment:
Sausages in a bun from the Sausage Shop on Green Street? Will check price, but you might well owe me a meal out. Might it perhaps be at the Dower House?
This is my first comment here, but I've been reading since October. Love it! Don't stop.
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