Hot chicken et frites

Qui aime manger gras? Moi, parfois. Et il y a longtemps que je n'ai pas mangé de hot chicken. Un met que je soupçonne d'être québécois, car le "hot chicken" tel qu'on le conçoit au Québec n'a pas d'équivalence ailleurs, enfin pas selon la recherche que j'ai faite. Enfin bref, mon frère PJ m'a envoyé cette photo, un hot chicken vraiment cochon avec frites patio, mangé chez nos parents. Me semble que ce serait bon pour le souper de ce soir.

Crunch Time on the Train

 I love train travels, as you know. I always look up to them. One of the many reasons why is that you can indulge yourself with nice food and drink without feeling too guilty. You know, because you are travelling, you need to eat when you can, and eat what you can find. And there is the whole ritual: you buy lunch at a connecting train station, you bring it with you in the train, you eat it while watching the window. One of my favourite go-to places when I travel by train is Upper Crust. I don't think I ever ate a baguette from there unless I was on the move. I had an Upper Crust baguette on our last railway journey, washed down with a Coke. Pure bliss.

Pain sandwich orange

 Photo prise sur la page Facebook de la Fromagerie Boivin. Un pain sandwich fait avec du Petit Crémeux, recette de Ricardo. Le pain sandwich est un classique des Fêtes. Pas pour Noël même, mais pour les jours avant ou les jours après. J'ai des opinions ambivalents envers le pain sandwich. Cela dit, j'essaierais bien celui-ci.

Bakery 79

 A few days ago, I was sad about the loss of our local l Greggs, which was standing in one of the petrol stations. Nothing too fancy, but the I always loved Greggs and it's one of my favourite treats for lunch. And also, because I have a sort of love history with Greggs. So I was sad about its closure. Well, I needed have worried: instead they opened a Bakery 79. And it's the exact same staff, the exact same menu, the exact same sandiwches even. Only the label has changed. So yes, I can't complain. I guess I will have to get used to the branding, otherwise, I am happy.

Farewell to the local Greggs

Last Friday, I learned some ver sad news regarding the local Greggs, mainly that it doesn't exist anymore. I say it's the local greggs, but truly it was only a counter in one of the petrol stations here. So it got replaced a few weeks, maybe days ago, by another sandwich shop. I hope it is as good as Greggs was. I wonder where I will go when I am in the mood for a big chicken sandwich baguette with an insane amount of mayonnaise.

Pain sandwich

 Ma mère a acheté ce pain sandwich pour le dîner d'hier chez nous. Ce qui n'a pas fait l'affaire de tout le monde: mon frère PJ déteste les pains sandwiches. Moi, ce n'est que la partie avec du jambon que je n'aime pas, alors j'en mange rarement quand il y en a de disponible. Mais c'est un classique de Noël, bien que ce soit un classique controversé. Et vous, pour ou contre le pain sandwich?

Greggs: bring back the Friday treat

Remember when, back in the days, I paid myself a special Friday treat for lunch, usually a big bad sandwich, to celebrate the coming weekend? Well, it struck me that I haven't done that in a long while. Like for months. And it is no longer a tradition I follow. I used to observe it religiously: Friday means something bad but oh so good. And we have a local Greggs and it's not so far from our house. I had a sandwich from there fairly recently, a couple of weeks ago, but not on a Friday and because I was feeling too lazy to make myself one. Also, I'm a sucker for a chicken baguette sandwich full of mayonnaise. But I should really make it a weekly ritual.

Sandwich poulet, mangue, curry

 Mes parents ont fait des sandwiches il y a quelques jours. Poulet au curry avec mangue. Un joli mélange d'exotique et de familier. Le sandwich m'a fait un peu penser au club des îles que j'ai mangé il y a des années au défunt Cornichon. Je pense que je vais l'essayer quand je serai de retour à la maison, ou alors je le ferai ici. L'ennui, c'est que je suis le seul dans cette maison qui mange du poulet.

Next Greggs' sandwich?

Sometimes, just to spoil myself and the family, I buy us some sandwiches from Greggs.With a few extra bits and bots: a dessert for Wolfie, a coffee for my wife. Greggs is not really healthy, but it is the epitome of everyday comfort food. I usually go for a baguette, chicken most of the time, even though they go heavy with the mayonnaise (see the picture). But I don't mind, I guess I got used to the quantity of mayonnaise and it is just part of the excesses. I blogged in 2017 about my history with Greggs. We ate plenty of it for lunch last month (last year). Now that the holidays are practically over and that people are returning to normal, I think we need a treat for get us through, well, normality. My wife will probably think I'm exagerrating, but she will come round to it.

Pub Sandwich

 There's club sandwiches, but here in the Uk, pubs give a whole array of sandwiches and they often make for quite nice treats at lunchtime. Take this one for instance: I tried it a few months ago, during an impromptu family visit in our local pub. Corned beef, cheese, on toasted bread. I think it had Dijon or American mustard too, I cannot remember. But with chips and a salad (which makes it almost healthy) it is an almost perfect lunch. I say almost perfect only because I know their roast beef sandwich is even better, but it is for another post.

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.

Greggs for lunch

Remember when I gave myself Friday treats? Well I started the tradition again today, as I bought myself a tuna baguette from Greggs. We have one Greggs shop in town, I know it's a chain (on principle I prefer to support local businesses), but we might as well make the best of it. As I mentioned in this post from 2017, my very first lunch in the UK, back in 1999, was a sandwich from Greggs. So it has a special place in my heart.

Italian style panini

 We went to a local café for lunch today. It was our first time there and we had been wanting to try it for a long while. I saw in their menu an "Italian style panini", which I had to try: mozzarella, chorizo or salami and olives. Now until Easter, as this is Lent, I try not to eat meat. Not out of religious devotion, but because it makes my wife happy. She is vegetarian, see. But I could not resist this panini. Not because of the meat, but because of the olives. And I have a complete faith in Italian style food. I'm a sucker for olives. My wife's judgement: "Oh you are such a bad Catholic!" Which has to be a great unknown line. That said, it's a bit rich for her to say: 1)I'm no longer a Catholic,and 2)she's never been a Catholic, so what does she know about it? Anyway, the panini was worth my impiety.

BLT Treats

Our family has a treat we now have fairly often for lunch: the BLTs. Except the bacon is either veggie or vegan, my wife being vegetarian, and we do away with the lettuce. After all, it's not the taste of the lettuce that makes the BLT. Anyway, I have been making them recently every other weekend or so, when I gave good bread, and we don't get bored with it.

Halloween Afternoon Tea

For today's countdown to Halloween, a bit of a treat I'm considering giving to myself and my family. I mentioned in another post a few days ago that Halloween and tea go hand in hand for me. I guess I associate everything I like with Halloween somewhat, come this time of year. But I'm not the only one thinking that, it seems: the small coffe shop chain Strawberry Grove, which I blogged about before, is making an Halloween Afternoon Tea. And a kid's version. It's not cheap, but I am very tempted to order one, just because of its name, even though there nothing intrinsically Halloweeny about it (except a pair of Halloween glasses). And Strawberry Grove always make good products, especially their desserts.

About peanut butter sandwiches

When I started working from home, peanut butter quickly became the main part of a quick and easy meal. Well, I had started using it again in the office of my previous job, the one I hated, but it is since lockdown that it became my main mean of sustenance, at least for lunches. It is in many ways going back to uni. I either use it on toasts, or in a sandwich, if I have a good enough bread. A peanut butter sandwich is quick and easy to make, it is filling, it gives you plenty of energy, it is also delicious. Peanut butter sandwiches have many virtues.

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.

The Friday's Sandwich Treat (with giant olives)

It has been a while since I last blogged about my Friday's sandwich treat. last time was in 2017. For the long time readers, they may remember that it is a tradition I have, since my last job: every Friday, I go to the nearest sandwich shop and treat myself with a decadent sandwich: chicken, onions, tomatoes, lectuce, salt, pepper and olives, in a baguette bread. Sometimes it is slightly different, but in general this is what I have, with crisps and a Coke. It's a way to celebrate the coming weekend. Sometimes, when I am lucky, they even have giant olives, like these ones, and it makes the sandwich all the more delicious.

Steak sandwich

It's not because I am on holiday on a Friday that I will not allow myself my usual Friday treat. In fact, it gives me plenty of time to treat myself properly. So today, we went to visit preschools and we stopped for lunch at a pub near the last one we had visited in the morning. We were not sure whether to eat there or just have a drink, but it smelled really nice. We were looking at the menu when one of the staff came to us with the chalk board showing the daily specials. My wife identified right away what I was going to have: this steak sandwich. With fried onion and cheese, and chips on the side. I added American mustard on it, because they did not have Dijon. That was a proper Friday lunch, yummy, greasy decadent stuff. It was not the best I ever had, but it was plentiful. It reminded me of the time when, as a teenager, my mother used to make roast beef, then we had the leftovers in a sandwich like this one. When we left, Wolfie kept saying: "Want steak, want steak!" I guess he could tell I had something special.

Le hot dog français

La fin de semaine dernière, nous sommes allés au marché français annuel. Ce fut une expérience décevante: pas assez de choix comparés aux années précédentes, des marchands moins chaleureux aussi. Nous sommes restés le temps d'acheter des olives, des desserts et un lunch, puis nous sommes repartis. Au moins, j'ai fait le bon choix pour le repas du midi: un hot dog franchouillard bien gentrifié. Une baguette et deux saucisses, des oignons frits et avec de la moutarde de Dijon en masse. J'ai partagé le pain avec petit loup.