Tag Archives: Full English

Bananas, Breakfasts and Boiled Eggs

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I have now had 52 acceptances for the year. It’s a nice round figure and I, once again, have to remind myself that quality and quantity should not be confused. The only area where they might coincide is that things, including writing, improve with practice and I may be improving my quality by writing more. It seems like a reasonable link.

That was Saturday, but we have had visitors over the weekend and my routine has been disrupted so it is part written on Sunday, but won’t be published until Monday. It’s good to have a change. My father, as he grew older, started to insist on routines about meal times, and I remember being concerned at the time. It always seems like a forerunner of decline. I currently sleep until I’m ready to wake up, have breakfast at a time that varies according to time of rising and any other plans for the day, have lunch at a time that depends on what we have for breakfast, then eat in the evening at a time based on what is on TV It’s fluid.

Breakfast – 3 fruits plus wheat

(Monday Morning)

Breakfast is likely to be cereal and toast this morning. I base this prediction on Julia having a lie in and me already at the computer. I don’t like making breakfast in these circumstances as I don’t want to wake her if she is warm and comfortable. Nor, having gto into my stride, do I want to have to stop typing when she gets up. She always makes cereal and fruit, because she is healthy. The toast comes later because I feel hungry and will make toast to top up. We used to have toast and marmalade every morning but decided to cut it out as a way of saving a few hundred calories a week.

I’ve just been looking at the top ten healthy breakfasts. Weetabix with fruit is number 5. It’s convenient and, I thought, healthy, and verges on one of those things you eat for health reasons rather than pleasure, so I’m disappointed to find it isn’t nearer the top.

 

 

Toast and jam – it’s the closest I have to a photo of toast and marmalade

Toast and marmalade is number 9. That’s a surprise as I would have thought a couple of slices of carbs plus a spoonful of sugar (even id it has been shown to an orange) would be much less healthy. Mainly, though, I’m surprised that anyone considers it a meal. Toast and marmalade is a snack or garnish, not a meal.

I suppose at this point I should start thinking about definitely not having toast with breakfast.

My preferred option, as I sit here, hungry and typing away, would be bacon cobs, but they, for some reason, don’t even make it into the top ten.

The top healthy breakfast is porridge. That’s great if you want to start your day washing a porridge pan. They always seem so clogged up by the end of the cooking.

Overnight oats is second. We have drifted away from these, but as I look at the list, it looks like we should start doing them again.

Oats – I have no photos of porridge and most of my “oats” search results feature boats or goats. I must check the titles of those photos.

Next is toast and eggs. Eggs should be boiled or poached to avoid added fat. It’s one of my preferred breakfasts, though not with boiled or poached eggs, and a garnish of bacon never goes amiss. And a few beans. Possibly black pudding and mushrooms and tomatoes . . .

Fourth is shop-bought muesli. Even the added sugar variety they use as an example is ranked higher than Weetabix. How can that be? Weetabix reminds me of the baled wood shavings you put in hamster cages. How can that possibly be less healthy than something that has added sugar? It contains not only dietary fibre but moral fibre, being, like porridge, half food and half penance. Yet, the manufacturers seem to be able to sneak lots of rubbish in there too.

That’s a breakfast . . .

I just drifted on to bananas. After feeling guilty for eating them (they have been getting a lot of bad press over recent years) I now find they are good for me. That’s good, as I like bananas and was feeling bad about having them sliced on my Weetabix.

Please note I use “Weetabix” to describe my breakfast cereal, when I really mean “cheap supermarket own-brand versions of Weetabix”. Seeing as I don’t enjoy them, I don’t want to pay too much for them.

Olympic Breakfast – classic British meal from the now defunct “Little Chef” chain of roadside restaurants

 

Breakfast at Sainsbury’s (Scone Chronicles XXVII)

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I’m going to have to up my work rate after what I said in the last post. This is therefore going to be the first of two posts today.

We have not had a good time at Sainsbury’s at Arnold recently. Twice before Christmas we went in and ordered Beef Baguettes. The first time we tried, we were told there there were no baguettes. I pointed out that they had a shop full of baguettes. It seems that they aren’t allowed to use them.

The second time it was a lack of beef that interfered with the plan. We had festive toasties instead, which allegedly contained turkey and stuffing, but tasted of cotton wool and ketchup.

When we found that the place was crowded at 11.30 I nearly didn’t bother stopping, but I’d promised Julia a day out, which, in my view, means that she doesn’t have to make breakfast.

The cafe was full, many of the tables for four being monopolised by a solitary coffin dodger who was on first name terms with the staff. Say what you like about quality of a service (and I will cover that fully in a later paragraph) , they know how to treat the elderly and I may well move in when I’m a few years older.

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Tea – note the cup for a milk jug

i got a table for two while Julia ordered the food. It needed clearing and wiping down. So did many of the others. A member of kitchen staff emerged at one point, cleared the pots off one table, left the crumbs and went back into the kitchen, never to be seen again.

One lady went as far as to get the table wiping equipment from the staff and wipe her own table down, also wiping the table for a lady in a wheelchair. To be fair, we are supposed to take our own pots away, and it must add more work when people are too lazy, or too arrogant, to clear the table after eating. On the other hand the staff should keep the place clean – I’m paying enough and should have a clean place to eat.

When Julia arrived with the tea I noted the milk was in a coffee cup, rather than a receptacle designed for pouring milk. Again, we paid enough for them to provide a small jug.

It’s just minor details, but it’s annoying that people can’t get the simple things right. For an echo of these thoughts seethis post, though I note there are one or two typos in it – sorry for that.

The food arrived quite quickly, and a member of staff took it on a tour of the cafe before finding us, so we were never in danger of burning our mouths.

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Big Breakfast – Sainsbury’s, Arnold

The breakfast report –

Portion size – good

Sausages – excellent and herby

Hash Browns – crispy and delicious

Beans – average, after all opening a can and heating beans is not a skilled job

Mushroom – excellent

Toast – average, another unskilled job that is difficult to do badly

Eggs – borderline – a hint of snottiness to the white means they were slightly undercooked

Bacon – this could take some time. There is a division of opinion on whether bacon should be crispy or pink and juicy. I favour pink and juicy myself but if the cook does it crispy I’ll eat that too. However, I’m not aware that there is a school of thought that says bacon should be cooked until hard, tied in a knot and basted with grease before being dumped on the plate. If there is such a school of thought I can recommend the cook at Sainbury’s in Arnold.

The bacon actually looks quite nice in the photo. But trust me, it wasn’t. And it was salty too.

So, despite the lack of cleanliness, mediocre efficiency and patchy breakfast, how was it?

Pretty good, to be honest. The good bits of the breakfast were very good, the staff are always friendly and cheerful, even if they do get behind with the cleaning and, judgingh by the way they get on with their regular ancient customers, they are providing a valuable community service.

I suspect the staff are great and the management is poor.

Would I recommend it despite my sarcasm and criticism?

Yes, though its constant failings with cleaning and detail are a bit wearing. On a good day it’s probably the best local breakfast, but the good days are, at the moment, in a minority.