What "prepared dinners" can I pick up in London to survive train trip out of city?
Mar 20th, 2024, 01:22 PM
#21
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Hard to imagine why you would buy food in London (which is not where food comes from) and take it to the country (which is where food comes from) and sort of maximisation of food miles for no real reason.
Don't worry, we, out in the sticks eat very well using the basic idea of either cooking it ourselves, shoping in award winning butchers/bakers etc locally or buying from the same industrial units that make everyone else's food.
I recommend Waitrose as it carries a small amount of cache' (and a slight premium to identify with) which any local would recognise. M&S is a little more down-market than Waitrose. If you give us the village name we can probably list the local good places.
Cornish Pasties, well you will not be able to get them in the Cotswolds but you may find something similar in shops, just avoid anything with the name "Ginsters".
Don't worry, we, out in the sticks eat very well using the basic idea of either cooking it ourselves, shoping in award winning butchers/bakers etc locally or buying from the same industrial units that make everyone else's food.
I recommend Waitrose as it carries a small amount of cache' (and a slight premium to identify with) which any local would recognise. M&S is a little more down-market than Waitrose. If you give us the village name we can probably list the local good places.
Cornish Pasties, well you will not be able to get them in the Cotswolds but you may find something similar in shops, just avoid anything with the name "Ginsters".
Ok, Bilbo, do tell..what is a "ginster??" Funny that the spell check changed that into "minister!" Guessing: Sister who shares one's predilection for Boodles??
Oh, I see: Harrods=no go. Fortnums=to go. Have to keep the hierarchy I'm mind next time I snag an invite to a house party in the country.
Apropos of nothing: Is Sussex a nice area..in general? Yeah, I know there must be council houses and other places where ordinary people live, but if someone invites you to their country house in Sussex, is that considered a "fancy" place? Obviously my knowledge of the UK is just a tad limited.....just curious....
Mar 20th, 2024, 10:56 PM
#22
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Definitely something for the OP to consider if they deliver to their post code.
Now I want one of those picnic baskets.
Mar 20th, 2024, 11:28 PM
#23
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that Fortnum and Masons and 'Arabs, as Harrods is normaly known, get their food that they sell from outside London. One of my ex bosses (as a side hustle) made some of the products in the F&M baskets in North Yorkshire. Apart from a few salads and amazingly honey, London doesn't make any food and even the mass processing of it has long moved out of the centre of town.
Surrey is where many wealthy Londoners end up living because the train links are so good. If you call them Londoners they will recoil in horror but that is the reality. Sussex is less posh and the train links are famously dire but still wealthy people live there.
Country houses. I have a bunch of friends who have country houses around the country. Just how posh they are depends on two things, how long they have been in the family and how much money has been spent on them recently. So I have one friend who has owned the house for 30 years, is very wealthy but only spends roughly £30k a year on it to slowly bring it around. 30 years ago we were sleeping in a barn, now there is glass in every window. Another friend has had the house in the family for 250 years and the previous incumbant ran off with the nanny taking the money. The windows are good but we take good wine and expect to be doing maintenance. One year we were asked to provide and cook a meal.
If it helps, we tend to travel with a few cleaning cloths and some Cif/Jif just in case to both. All I know is good wine is always appreciated, but drunk just like plonk.
Surrey is where many wealthy Londoners end up living because the train links are so good. If you call them Londoners they will recoil in horror but that is the reality. Sussex is less posh and the train links are famously dire but still wealthy people live there.
Country houses. I have a bunch of friends who have country houses around the country. Just how posh they are depends on two things, how long they have been in the family and how much money has been spent on them recently. So I have one friend who has owned the house for 30 years, is very wealthy but only spends roughly £30k a year on it to slowly bring it around. 30 years ago we were sleeping in a barn, now there is glass in every window. Another friend has had the house in the family for 250 years and the previous incumbant ran off with the nanny taking the money. The windows are good but we take good wine and expect to be doing maintenance. One year we were asked to provide and cook a meal.
If it helps, we tend to travel with a few cleaning cloths and some Cif/Jif just in case to both. All I know is good wine is always appreciated, but drunk just like plonk.
Mar 20th, 2024, 11:37 PM
#24
Ginsters, is a company which specialises in providing plastic wrapped pastry based snacks for sale in petrol stations, railway stations and the like. Normally sold from slightly pre-heated shelving they are frankly disgusting and of dubious health benefits. Greggs, which are as fashionable as Star$s offer something similar which at least are freshly baked.
Cornish Pasties are best eaten in Cornwall. I'm not Cornish but really trust me on this. If for nothing that a CP is far bigger in Cornwall than you will find elsewhere. You can buy something like them from stalls in markets around the country and they are semi-acceptable. The Authentic Cornish Pasty company is one of the best but it went bust during Covid so I'm not sure of the state of recovery. Railway stations used to be a good place to get them while dashing for a train.
The UK has come late to regional Appellations for its native food and like Cheddar, CPs have probably missed the boat.
Cornish Pasties are best eaten in Cornwall. I'm not Cornish but really trust me on this. If for nothing that a CP is far bigger in Cornwall than you will find elsewhere. You can buy something like them from stalls in markets around the country and they are semi-acceptable. The Authentic Cornish Pasty company is one of the best but it went bust during Covid so I'm not sure of the state of recovery. Railway stations used to be a good place to get them while dashing for a train.
The UK has come late to regional Appellations for its native food and like Cheddar, CPs have probably missed the boat.
Mar 21st, 2024, 12:00 AM
#25
If you are asking about social mores my advice would be
1) Don't take flowers to a country house in the UK (also don't ever take flowers to a French house)
2) Don't turn up with your own chef (really don't)
3) Do ask if you can bring anything (don't be surprised at what you get asked for)
4) Do take booze, getting the quality/quantity correct can be tricky. I've turned up with Chateau Musar to be drinking Tescos Worst (as their Finest is normally called)
5) Taking a hamper is sort of ok, but, for example don't take one full of smoked trout to a house that has its own trout stream. Be prepared for the whole thing to be snaffled away to be eaten when you are gone.
6) Do ask how manyy people will be there. Trust me being one of 40 with an exhausted hostess and a host who has gone to his summer house and is not coming out until "those people have gone" is less fun than you can think.
7) If you do end up in a 40 person bash with various old school chums of his and some work colleagues of hers (mix and match as you like) be prepared to sit back, watch and listen. Be helpful but never lead in anything incase you cross some secret "Bonkers Brian" always lays the table sort of stuff. Don't let clothing confuse you, the quiet girl in the corner in some M&S dress will be a billionaire and the noisy tart in Givanchy will be bankrupt.
So basically think Jeeves but without the social clues
1) Don't take flowers to a country house in the UK (also don't ever take flowers to a French house)
2) Don't turn up with your own chef (really don't)
3) Do ask if you can bring anything (don't be surprised at what you get asked for)
4) Do take booze, getting the quality/quantity correct can be tricky. I've turned up with Chateau Musar to be drinking Tescos Worst (as their Finest is normally called)
5) Taking a hamper is sort of ok, but, for example don't take one full of smoked trout to a house that has its own trout stream. Be prepared for the whole thing to be snaffled away to be eaten when you are gone.
6) Do ask how manyy people will be there. Trust me being one of 40 with an exhausted hostess and a host who has gone to his summer house and is not coming out until "those people have gone" is less fun than you can think.
7) If you do end up in a 40 person bash with various old school chums of his and some work colleagues of hers (mix and match as you like) be prepared to sit back, watch and listen. Be helpful but never lead in anything incase you cross some secret "Bonkers Brian" always lays the table sort of stuff. Don't let clothing confuse you, the quiet girl in the corner in some M&S dress will be a billionaire and the noisy tart in Givanchy will be bankrupt.
So basically think Jeeves but without the social clues
Last edited by bilboburgler; Mar 21st, 2024 at 12:04 AM.
Mar 21st, 2024, 01:42 AM
#26
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Great advice Bilbo!
If you want to keep it local, Daylesford have a farm shop in the Cotswolds. They do nice hampers that can be delivered.
https://www.daylesford.com/shop/hamp...normous-hamper
If you want to keep it local, Daylesford have a farm shop in the Cotswolds. They do nice hampers that can be delivered.
https://www.daylesford.com/shop/hamp...normous-hamper
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