Guinness (the crisps)

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, so I am preparing myself to it. I bought a few pints of Guinness and... and, well, that's it so far. No food for the special day. The Irish make the best crisps (see my post here). And you may be aware, if not please keep it in mind for tomorrow, that Guinness is also a flavour of crisps by Keogh's. I discovered them when we went to Belfast. There's Guinness and Flame Grill Steak, which I tried, and Guinness and Oyster, which I did not, because I didn't know it existed. Anyway, these crisps go well with, well, a pint of Guinness. I hope I can find some tomorrow (you never know).

Valid Reasons to Celebrate Saint Paddy's Day

 I found this meme on social media yesterday and I wanted to share it here today. I am not Irish, but I may have some Irish ancentry, maybe. I do enjoy a Guinness. I also visited Dublin once in my life and have been wanting to go back ever since. I tried Tayto's more than once and enjoyed it. So yeah, I think I'm legit.

Tayto

Here is another post about our holidays in Belfast,a post about one of its most important, most typically Irish topic. Because of course, when one thinks of Ireland, one thinks of potatoes. For centuries, it was their main diet. It might still be the case. So it made sense that we tried some of their local crisps. The brand Tayto was pretty much everywhere. Apparently it is also sold in England, but I don't remember seeing them here. I took no chance and bought a few. They taste lovely, or at least that was my impression. It was love at first bite for me. I guess I must have Irish blood.

Trick or Treat

 This is a picture of the bags my mother prepared for trick or treat. The big bags are for the children she knows well, children of friends  or neighbours. The smaller ones are for the other children. There are about five or six treats in the big bags, maybe more, "only" four in the small ones. And not just anything: chocolates and crisps. You know, the stuff children love. A labour of love. Really, I wish Wolfie could celebrate Halloween with his grandparents.

Christmas Goodies

 'Tis the season to be eating and drinking and thanks to my employer, I have some extra party food and dirnk this Christmas. So I recently received this box of goodies: red wine, tea, coffee, biscuits, jelly stuff, salted nuts, fancy crisps, etc. I haven't started it yet, but will do tonight with Wolfie. It may look like nothing, but this box made me very happy. Because it shows that I am appreciated. Not so long, I used t have rubbish employers, in a working place so toxic that they had to cancel the Christmas dinner because nobody wanted to go. Now because of the distance from my office (I go there once a month, if that), I cannot attend events very often, yet they still send me that box. It feels like a sweet revenge.

Chips à la tourtière?

Je ne sais passi ça existe vraiment ou si c'est une niaiserie inventée dans les internets, mais Miss Vickie's aurait (peut-être) décidé (ou pas) de faire des chips à saveur de... tourtière. De vraie tourtière, du Lac, de ma région, donc. Photo à l'appui, mais j'ai encore de la misère à le croire. Quelques observations: 1)c'est peut-être un canular, 2)si c'est pasun canular, j'essaierais par curiosité et 3)c'est vraiment une traduction en anglais de m*rde.

Le panini au fromage

Il y a quelques jours, nous sommes allés à Bourne for Desserts, un petit diner américain qui se spécialise dans... enfin, oui, les desserts. C'était la première fois depuis des mois. Ils offrent des lunchs, mais ils sont simples: grosso modo, ue variété de grilled cheese, ou toasted cheese comme disent les Anglais. Mais ils se sont gentrifiés depuis notre dernière viste, car maintenant on peut l'avoir en panini au lieu du pain en tranches. Avec des chips (des crisps), et une salade pour faire un peu de verdure. C'est pas compliqué, c'est un peu cher pour ce que c'est, mais ça nous sustente et on se sent moins coupable quand on prend un dessert après.

Yum Yum et McAuslan

La page Facebook de Yum Yum (les chips Yum Yum, bien entendu) a publié cette photo récemment. Leurs chips avec l'une de mes bières préférées (ma préférée de McAuslan étant la Griffon rousse). Bières et chips, c'est ma conception du bonheur. Je n'ai pas les deux marques, mais je vais faire avec
aujourd'hui à l'apéro.

Des chips/crisps au ketchup ici

Ça faisait longtemps que je voulais bloguer sur ce sujet vraiment trivial, même si ça donne encore un billet de bouffe. Je me suis dit que ce soir ferait l'affaire. Au Québec, on a des chips au keptchup. C'est une saveur si peu connue que même l'une de nos amies canadiennes nous a demandé de nous en ramener lors de notre retour. Or, à ma grande surprise, j'ai découvert l'année dernière au dépanneur pas loin de mon ancien lieu de travail (ça semble des siècles de ça), que Walkers, qui est peut-être LA compagnie de chips ici (ou crisps comme ils disent en Angleterre), fait justement des chips au ketchup. Ça m'a étonné, assez pour que je prenne une photo. Je n'en ai pas revu depuis.

Missing the Friday sandwich treat

I don't miss much if anything from my last job, which I recently lost due to the pandemic. You know the drill, I often mentioned it here: not appreciated enough, not enough good colleagues, not enough of anything good. But there was one pleasant moment in my week: my usual Friday lunch treat, which I bought at a corner sandwich shop. I was lucky enough to have one quite similar to the one in my previous working place. Both shops served chicken baguettes and had olives as condiment. I varied a bit with the chicken, but the trimming was always the same: tomatoes, lettuce, onions and olives. And crisps on the side of course. I don't know when I will have a new job (touch wood it might be sooner than expected), where I will be back in an office even less, but whenever this happens, I hope there is a sandwich shop that sells baguettes like this one.

Hobgoblin, the crisps

My readers know how much I love beer and how much I love Wychwood Brewery's Hobgoblin. I love everything about it: its look, its taste, its label and the way Wychwood uses British folklore. Well, I discovered last year, at total random, that they also sell crisps. To be precise, the Spit Roast Steak flavour Hand Cooked Potato Chips. Now that is a mouthful, in more than one way. I found this bag in the vending machine of my previous working place. It was during my lunch break and I hurried up to buy the bag, as there was only one left in the whole machine. I rarely eat crisps when it is not on a Friday, but thought I'd treat myself then and there and I had to cease the opportunity.

So what was the verdict? Delicious, and even though I know there was no true steak in it... It did taste like steak. Not like roasted venison as the bag seems to indicate, but that does not matter: it is as if little imps had flavoured it with the result of their hunt, as the picture on the back of the bag seems to indicate. I must confess, I am truly a sucker for Wychwood's imagery: I could have kept the bag, I thought the drawings were so darn cool. The only problem is that I had no Hobgoblin beer to go with the crisps. Maybe next time. Because believe it or not, I haven't had these crisps since then.

La simplicité du grilled cheese

Cela fera bientôt un an que j'aurai découvert Bourne for Dessert, un café qui a tout du American diner. Il est spécialisé dans les desserts, d'où son nom, mais offre quand même des repas chauds pas très élaborés. Mais la simplicité a du bon: le grilled cheese que j'y ai mangé est pas mal l'un de ceux que j'ai le plus appréciés de mémoire récente. Le pain est tout ce qu'il y a de plus banal, le fromage est un cheddar fort bien banal aussi, c'est accompagné de chips, mais il y a des onions et des tomates dans le sandwich pour donner un peu de légumes et de saveur au tout. J'ai donc envie d'y retourner un de ces quatre pour le lunch, pas pour un dessert.

Sanwiches and Northern hospitality

Of all the pictures I took in York, this must be my least impressive. It is true that we had already eaten most of the cheese sandwiches they brought for us. The sandwiches and the crisps were a complimentary snack from the Shambles Tavern. When you are tired and hungry after a day walking in the city, this was most welcome. I shared the picture on Facebook last year, with this caption: "Gotta love Northern hospitality. In the South, they'd charge every single crisp." That is not quite true and I was gently reminded that we can find such friendly pubs in the South as well. All the same, I have never seen one that was generous like this everywhere but in York and it does show the best of Northern hospitality and I wanted to show my gratitude on this blog. And I think even though not 100% accurate, my caption deserves to be a new great unknown line.

Grilled cheese for Sunday lunch

This is what I had for lunch today to fight the Sunday blues: a grilled cheese sandwich with Pringles. Unhealthy comfort food at its best/worst. I cannot remember the last time I had made a home made grilled cheese. The English call it toasted cheese or cheese toastie, I call it grilled cheese since I'm a kid. My recipe: mature cheese (or "extra mature cheese" in this case), American mustard and white bread. That's it. I guess I'm not much of a chef. When the Ticklers visit us in our new home, I might prepare them this meal.

L'apéro dans le jardin

Une autre re-découverte lors de mes dernières vacances: l'apéritif, ou apéro, avant le souper, pris dans le jardin quand la température nous le permettait. J'en profite pour désigner apéro comme le nouveau mot du jour. C'est le terme que mes parents utilisaient et utilisent encore. C'est celui que j'utilise également. Sur cette photo prise la veille de notre départ, les amuse-gueules, dont les chips (dans le sens de croustilles, donc les crisps anglaises). Comme alcool, du cidre rosé (!), lequel n'était pas si mal. Enfin, le cidre est une spécialité bretonne, on ne peut pas vraiment se tromper, même s'il est rose.

Le temps des betteraves

La semaine dernière, j'ai mangé des chips (crisps comme on les appelle ici) de betteraves (donc où la betterave remplaçait les patates) achetées à Marks & Spencer. C'était bon, paraît même que ça donnait une portion de fruits et légumes si on mangeait le contenu du sac de chips/crisps au complet, mais ce n'était pas aussi bon que des vraies bettes (comme on dit au Québec). Et ça m'a fait penser que c'est le temps de les récolter et de les mettre en conserve, en ce moment. Enfin, peut-être qu'on les récolte avant: je me rappelle qu'on allait chercher les betteraves dans le jardin de mon oncle avant la rentrée des classes. Mais c'est quand même un légume automnal, à mon sens, en tout cas qui commence à se consommer en conserves à l'automne.

Henley Amber

I had an Henley Amber, from the Lovibonds Brewery tonight with my meal. It tastes delicious and it accompanies salmon very well. When in doubt, always buy local: it comes from a local brewery. Look at the colour, it's absolutely gorgeous. I much prefer amber beers to blonde ones and I experienced it tonight, as my second beer (for the crisps after the meal) was Fuller's Discovery. Not a bad beer, but after the Henley Amber it just wasn't that great. You can see a picture of my dinner at the bottom right. Yes, it looks a bit small, because it was a bit on the light side and some potatoes or rice would have been in order (I would say couscous or rice, they both go so well with salmon). On the plus side, the salmon was delicious. And don't feel too sorry for me: I had loads of Pringles afterwards, so I didn't starve. After last weekend in Cambridge, I can live with a less indulgent diet.

I haven't written in French all day. Shame on me.

Pringles in court

No way, Pringles have been declared not potato crisps! That's wrong, I resent that. I always loved Pringles, they taste delicious and you know exactly how much you have when you buy some. It's junk, but it's honest junk. I have found memories of the weekends at my grandmother's place in Arvida, when we were drinking regional soft drinks and eating loads of potato chips, particularly Pringles. And peanuts. And chocolate. Before dinner. My grandma didn't mind (my parents did, however, but who could stop grandma from spoiling us?). Anyway, the court is wrong, wrong, wrong I tell you! Pringles are made of potato, they are salty, they are crispy, they have to be potato crisps! It has been decided, I will have some Pringles tonight with beer. Lots and lots of beer. And Pringles. Lots of them. Then dessert. Because I grew up and my stomach isn't as strong as when I was a child so I can't have it all at the same time.