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[The VFM Addict]

Let me get this right -Tradesmen, who are often sole traders with their office ‘in their pocket’ can go to a Sam Smith’s pub whenever they want to cut themselves off from their customer base, turning off customer service for their current and past clients and missing out on new business calls/leads.     Round our way afternoon trade in the pubs in all but the summer is very often made up of 80%  Tradesmen who have been ‘rained off for the day’.

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[Bob Williams]

That’s an interesting take on it, VFM!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

I bet he only doesn’t allow music so he doesn’t have to pay for The public broadcasting licence.

I’m all for a pub that’s queitveniug to have actual chats. But his rules seem awfully restricting. However he has a lot in his chains so he must be doing something right.

But vfm is correct, on a wet day, it’s tradesmen that fill your bar from lunch to clocking off time, and everyone uses a phone for work.

I don’t like the larger weather spoons premises, as to me the all sound like swimming pools. With no back croumd music, if busy it’s a terrible racket to my ear.

[Richard]

I last went to a pub while I was working, i.e. just a few minutes back. Now we often go to pub restaurants. We find the presence of intrusive* ‘music’ prevented staying. Last evening after a long drive to and from a hospital with hours of my wife being prodded and sampled we wanted a meal. A new place has earned good comments. The very welcoming host said we were welcome to wait for an hour or so and they would fit us in, but for the moment they were in ‘party warm up mode’. At least that is what I think they said. The ‘music’ blocked talking and if the food need an hour of pre-food drinking to make it OK, we decided it was not the place for us!

*Background music or sound needs to be background only in my book.

[The Duke]

I agree that if youre offering food music should be very back ground.

[Bob Williams]

Wetherspoons places we have found to be different from location to location. The nearest one to me is in Louth and I have to be very hungry, with every other cafe/restaurant closed, to eat there. Last year on holiday in Suffolk, we ate at a much larger one in Woodbridge which was absolutely awful. I sent the food back once, second was no better, left refusing to pay. Eventually found an old-fashioned place recommended by a local. We have eaten at other Weatherspoons which were fine. The one in Louth used to be the only place open on Sunday evenings and every time I chose the Chicken breast, they had run out. Every. Single. Time.

Fortunately, in the last couple of years, the number and variety of eating establishments in Louth have mushroomed. (No pun!) We have Italian, Indian, Spanish, Morrocan, a Pie & Mash place, Tapas Bar and 3 Tea Rooms, 5 chippies, a couple of ‘upper crust’ restaurants and a cafe on the Cornmarket that does good trade all week, packed out on the 3 Market days. Our favourite is Cooplands in Louth, a chain which has restaurants all across Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. It is only accessible by stairs, which we both struggle with, but the food is worth it. The restaurant is above the shop and bakery, the place is clean and food is fresh and well cooked. The sticky buns and cakes are lovely!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[blacklion1725]

Pie and Mash Bob ? – proper pie and mash?? i.e. with liquor (parley sauce) – not seen that outside London/Essex/Kent. If the gospel is spreading then happy days !!

[Dave Rice]

I like the pies in the Fullers pubs, the Hung, Drawn and Quartered in Tower Hill is a favourite. But that seems an appropriate punishment for putting that green muck on perfectly good grub ?

[blacklion1725]

Dave if you get that far you should get down to Manzies on Tower Bridge Road. One of the most famous and historic in London (sadly all disappearing including Nathans at Upton Park). If you think the green gear is off wait till I tell you that you have to slaughter the whole lot in vinegar and pepper !!

 

[The Duke]

Vinigar is the devil’s work.

[Dave Rice]

Parsely sauce is for Birds Eye boil in the bag cod. Vinegar is for fish and chips. End of.

Gravy on chips? A bit ooop north but OK. But I hear we’re thought a bit weird having cheese and onion jacket spuds. An no-one has heard of Easter Biscuits made with oil of cassia and not the fake Mary Berry style efforts. But no I don’t know what a mangel wurzel is and I’m pretty sure no-one in Bristol does either.

[Richard]

Each to their own, the sauces sound about OK if perhaps a bit calorific, at least vinegar is about calorie free and does go on chips if you like it that way, but fish? That is not food at least not for me, its something to throw far away while wearing a gas mask and standing up wind from the throw direction.

[Bob Williams]

BL yes, proper Pie & mash with liquor if you want it, gravy if not. The cafe is tiny, up a small side street and the Proprietor sounds like he was born somewhere in E7, also never stops talking, lol. Parsley sauce I like in restaurants with Plaice, or Salmon, but only if it is anywhere as good as my gran used to make, with her own Parsley.

Dave those biscuits sound good, look a bit like the Fig biccies my mam loved. And yep, we love gravy on our chips up here, preferably accompanied by a local steak & kidney pie, or Lincolnshire sausages. Which make Cumberland sausages taste like gravy on sawdust in comparison!

Steve I never let chippies put S & V on my fish and chips, I put a little on myself. Some chippies lather it on, possibly to disguise something about the F & C.

Richard I love all kinds of seafood, favourite is between Sea Bass and Grimsby Cod, which is always fresh here, due to Grimsby being just up the road.

Tea is almost ready and I have worked up an appetite with this Topic! Pork chops!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[blacklion1725]

Cheers Bob – many people reckon Pie and Mash Liquor is made with eels as well (lots of the Pie and Mash shops would have signs with “Pies and Eels” as they also sell/sold jellied eels).  This is (or sadly was) Nathans on Barking Road – another victim of the move away from Upton Park. Used to eat in their a lot, queues for a hundred yards. Got a takeaway once and was eating it out of a polystyrene box in the West Stand at Upton Park. Was sat next to a German journalist who I was chatting to nice bloke but he was nearly physically sick when I poured the liquor on and especially the 6 sachets of vinegar (sorry Duke!)

[Richard]

Bob, I did start my message with ‘each to his own’. My wife loves fish of all sorts, on the other hand I have made my feelings clear on that one! Though I also cannot stand so called vegan food due to the added ‘flavour’ I do love vegetables, sprouts greens in fact almost every one, though swedes I prefer in great moderation. The only proviso is that I want them to taste of what they are not of salt, or anything else that I have encountered. The problem I often find when eating out is that vegetables are apparently grown in platinum pots filled with pure gold dust the way many places portion control the amounts. Gravy, yes please but it should be just on the mobile side of cut-able with a knife and fork, no dish water muck for me!

[Bob Williams]

That’s a contrast to my German mate Rolf, BL. He went to the UK with his missus for a month of touring in his camper, around 1970. I gave him all the places to visit, which took him around the country. By the time he came back, he loved fish and chips in newspaper and had developed a passion for pickled everything: onions, eggs, gherkins, you name it. He went up at my nehew’s place near Aberdeen. Nephew and my big bro his dad took him on a Distillery tour around the Western Isles, thus giving him a passion for obscure (= expensive) Scotch. He tried everything including Haggis! Rolf still buys the obscure Scotch and has introduced others to them in Germany. As he was a very successful businessman, he could afford it, as could all his mates except one – me. He hit a period of very little rain and always said “Why do you British complain about your weather?” He also liked Scarborough very much and his missus liked it more, which is why they went back there for holidays just in Scarborough and North Yorks. He laughed about Yorkshire pud: in Yorks he had it as a sweet with jam, and most other places as part of a dinner with gravy, meat and veg. He watched cricket at Lords and was totally confused by the experience. That’s OK I said, I have never understood it either! But he liked sitting in the sun in a deckchair, having a pint. I can hear him now: “Bob, your English beer is VARM! KALT, it must be!”

Even my foreign mates are characters.

Richard, you would have loved my old mam’s gravy. Dad used to say as he passed the gravy boat bucket, “One slice of gravy, or two lad?” Murderous looks from mam. Brussels I love, all veg in fact but brussels steamed as my missus does them not boiled, crisp and crunchy, are my favourite. Parsnips are another, just had a big roasted one with Cauliflower, Brussels and mash to pork chops. Feeling no pain atm!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Bob, I guess Spreewald was in East Germany in your days, but it is the self proclaimed capital of Gherkins. If you tour around in the area every farm/shop seems to be selling them. link

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Ed. You’re right, Spreewald was in the inaccessible East for me then. I will contact Rolf at the weekend and ask if he eats gherkins still and if they are from Spreewald. Although he does suffer a bit from the old FRG West German attitude towards products  (and sometimes people) from the former DDR.

Personally, I cannot stand gherkins, but each to their own!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

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