We had a nice lunch out yesterday, we went to the Foxes hotel off the seafront that is a teaching hotel for students with learning disabilities. Their restaurant is open to everyone, not just guests staying at the hotel. They have a fairly short menu which changes with the seasons, they do special offers on different days of the week, and a coffee and cake offer. Mondays they have a special of pie and mash with a soft drink for £8. All the food is made by students, the waiting staff are all students, they're all fully supervised - all the ones we met were lovely, polite, helpful and attentive. I had chicken pie, husband had beef & mushroom, they both came with mash (real spuds with herbs and butter), roast parsnips and seasoned red cabbage, plus 2 individual jugs of gravy. The pies were really nice, well cooked fillings and gorgeous homemade pastry, the mash and parsnips lovely too. The only thing neither of us was keen on was the red cabbage - I'm not really a fan of red cabbage anyway, although husband likes it. However, it tasted very strongly of juniper - which is odd that I didn't like it as, back in the days when I drank alcohol (I don't now), gin was my favourite drink. Perhaps they used too much of the juniper berries - husband has never liked gin hence why he didn't like the flavour of the cabbage either. Anyway, we liked it there and will definitely go back again, perhaps on a different day for a different special, or even just coffee and cake.
I had a slice of cheese on sourdough toast for tea, husband made himself a ham & cheese omelette. We both had homegrown fresh tomatoes on the side, the toms are starting to ripen quickly now.
As this month is double pension month, I'm using some of the extra money to start building up a store cupboard (well, a big lidded box under my bed actually) of shelf stable long lasting foods.....as I mentioned before, the frothy coffees and long life oat milk, e.g. We're going to Aldi in Taunton today to do a monthly top up shop and will get some of the extras. I like some of their toiletries and cleaning supplies too, which are much cheaper than the normal supermarket things and just as good.
It's rained during the night, so the garden's had another good watering and the grass is already starting to green up again.
I like Aldi's toiletries and their other household goods - washing up liquid, laundry liquid, etc, one because they're much cheaper (and just as good) and two because they're cruelty free (most have the leaping bunny symbol). I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, but I buy cruelty free when I can.
ReplyDeleteLunch sounds lovely and it’s nice to support a local enterprise which is helping young people to develop skills. Our daughter lectures at an FE College in hospitality and we eat there to support the young people she teaches. Catriona
ReplyDeleteThat lunch sounds yummy (even though I don't eat meat!). What I call proper food. Having a stock of long life foods and drinks is a good idea. You can then rustle something up if you don't feel like cooking. Grey and overcast here today, but we've not had the threatened thunderstorms - yet! At least that hot and humid weather seems to have passed now. I really don't like it! xx
ReplyDeleteI get the Aldi toothpaste, its cheap but what I most like about it is the lack of a strong minty taste in other toothpastes which I find almost hurts my teeth!
ReplyDeleteThe lunch at the hotel sounds like a really nice place to support, we went to something very similar in Llandudno when we lived in North Wales, the food there was amazing too. Starting a store-cupboard (under-bed box) is also a really good idea.
ReplyDeleteYour meal sounded delicious and not expensive at all. Wish we had something like that here.
ReplyDeleteAngie
Your lunch sounds really tasty. I do love proper home cooked food. We've started a food box too. Plenty of tins that I can use in case of emergency. There's talk of a branch of Lidl being built within walking distance. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it's approved
ReplyDeleteI've never had cabbage with juniper, but I have had it with caraway which is quite distinctive.
ReplyDeleteI think that over the last few years, we've all learned the value of having a little bit of storecupboard staples in hand.
What a wonderful day you had. Your lunch out sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.