I know what I like …

Jay Rayner writes on food. I guess you’d call him a restaurant critic but he’s a little more than that. For a start he Tweets pleasantly liberal views about the situation of the day and he doesn’t just review restaurants but writes more broadly about food, our relationships with it and the influences which shape it. Last Sunday he wrote about choices he makes and what they say about him. Click here read it.

I can’t match the quality of Mr Rayner’s prose but I’ll use it as a starting point for what follows.

I start the day with breakfast. Not everyone does but I do because I enjoy it and I’ve accepted the teaching that tells me it’s a good way to start the day. Then my choices are generally conditional. If I’m at home it generally won’t be cooked and when I had toast it was with marmalade and I’d drink tea. More recently I’d have been to the village to buy a croissant in which case it would be with jam and I’d drink coffee. Now post Covid, post cardiac event and post diabetes scare it’s just a bowl of fresh fruit. If I’m out then I won’t have a full English, when I did it would be washed down with tea of course, but generally some combination of scrambled or poached eggs with avocado and maybe a sausage. I’ll eat that with a coffee.

I eat lunch and I do so at a table. I’ve spent enough time in Spain to understand the value of a proper break in the middle of the day to clear the mind and refuel for the rest of the day. I rarely drink alcohol at lunch time, just a modest intake ruins my afternoon, and make do with a sparkling mineral water, lemon and no ice. Of course if I’m on holiday I will enjoy a drink but then I am strict. It’s either a bottle of beer or a small or medium (I’ll risk 175ml) glass of wine.

In terms of what I eat I’m an omnivore. I eat meat and fish, but increasingly more of the latter, and lots of fruit and vegetables. Sadly my self imposed no/low sat fat diet excludes dairy products, cakes and fried foods. If it’s meat it’s generally red, although I enjoyed lots of veal and pork when we lived in Switzerland, and if it’s beef it’s a sirloin steak although if it’s lamb versus beef I’ll go for lamb.

I’d prefer dinner later than early, that’s the Spanish experience again, and then I’m more liberal with my approach to alcohol. I prefer wine to beer but I will enjoy a good Pils or craft lager as an aperitif. Then it’s always red wine. It was not always so. I’d always drink Sauvignon Blanc with cheese but since cheese it’s out so is the wine that went with it. I confess to carefully restricting myself to 250ml of an evening but that’s a rule which only applies at home. If I’m out I’ll drink myself through the menu.

I was out for lunch last Friday with a walking group which makes 10km jaunts around South Cambs and the neighbouring counties. We leave our cars at a suitable hostelry at the start and that motivates us to get back in time for lunch. This last one was at the Cricketers in Claverling and it was first class. I enjoyed sea bass and a 175ml glass of merlot and mentioned that since it was Friday it was steak night. My fellow walkers were aghast: two meals in one day! Well that is normal for me. What about breakfast someone asked ‘do you have a cooked one? Well yes, if I’m out but then it’s more brunch, we are blessed with a choice of good coffee shops in Histon where that’s possible, and it follows a generous bowl of fresh berries which I’ve had at home.

I do enjoy my food and Mrs J does me proud most nights and then sometimes I reciprocate. Then when we’re on holiday we avoid tours where dinner’s provided. Too often that means standard tasteless tourist fare. Far better to make your own choices after all that’s why we go on tours. We let the tour company make the lesser decisions about itineraries, hotels and what to do each day. I make the important ones about where to eat and which wines to have.

At what cost? Fortunately we have enough time on our hands and sourcing, cooking and eating good food at home is no more expensive than eating rubbish. Eating out is though a tad pricey but it’s a pleasure I’m willing to fund and I make myself more content by reckoning on the people I’m helping to employ.

Finally I’m fortunate, touch wood, that there doesn’t appear to be a health cost. Since I stopped eating croissants laden with jam my sugar intake is low and I never add salt to my food. My low sat fat diet keeps my cholesterol low and also contributes to keeping my weight down. For decades I weighed in at 70kg or so. Since my cardiac event just four years ago and the start of my diet I’ve shed 5kg and am now steady at 65kg. Fingers crossed it keeps me alive.