Pizza hut is great...

I usually go for a farmhouse with extra olives and red onions but today went for a simple mushroom and peppers deep pan and it was fantastic!
Yes, Pizza hut is great.

An incident in Debenhams cafe

I wasn't intending on writing in this blog two days in a row but after the incident in Debenhams this afternoon just felt I had to...

After a nose around the sale items I felt a bit peckish so decided to have lunch in the café.

As I approached the cafe and noticed the vacant look of the 17 year old girls behind the counter, dread poured into my very soul and these girls did not disappoint... Enquiring as to what vegetarian options where on offer (I didn't dare use the p word) I was greeted with a pained grimace and an offer of a jacket potato... I switched my attention to the sandwich bar and again made my enquieree... As the girl looked equally, if not a little more, vacant than the last, I again omitted asking for the pescaterian option and asked what was vegetarian... After a pause and a scan of her ingredients she answered "Ummm.... is cheese vegetarian?" I stifled my laughter and said yes, I did believe that cheese is meat free...  So it seemed apart from the potato this would be my only option.

"OK then, I will have a cheese, salad baguette then please"

"Oh..." She answered "We only have parmesan or that stuff" indicating the buffalo mozzarella. 

"No, Cheddar?" I asked solemnly

"No..."

"Could you check?" I pleaded

"I 'spose I could ask in the kitchen" She replied staring at me with a blank smile.

"Will you then?" 

I got no verbal reply to this just a shrug as she turned a left the counter...

This is when it all got a little weird...

I noticed that she hadn't completely left my view... She appeared to be... She was... She was shiftily hiding round the corner, checking her mobile...

After about 30seconds she put her phone back in her pocket and reappeared back behind the counter to announce that, no... She had checked with the kitchen and they had no Cheddar left... Sorry... 

What she hadn't realised that while she was preoccupied with her phone her colleague had actually been to the kitchen and returned holding a sample meal... A jacket potato with... yes, you guessed it, Cheddar cheese! Which was now sitting in the display cabinet... 

"What kind of cheese is on that potato then?" I enquired, indicating the potato

"Wha?" 

"The cheese, on that potato? That's Cheddar isn't it? Could I have some of that or is it reserved for jackets only"

"I think that's parmesan... Or that stuff..." She answered, indicating the mozzarella again.

"Nope, I think it's Cheddar" I insisted, getting quite agitated...

"I don't think it is" she replied

So, without a word, I worked my way down the line and asked the girl behind the hot food counter "Excuse me, what type of cheese is this?"

"Cheddar" came the unsurprising answer.

"Well can I have some in a sandwich then?" I asked with a sarcastic lilt... "Of course" Came the rather surprised answer and I immediately felt guilty as it wasn't actually her that had annoyed me so I made sure that my glare didn't leave the previous girls eyes while the sandwich was being made...

I do feel that if I'd only just chosen the lasagne life would have been a great deal easier...

My year of living as a pescaterian

Every year I try something new... Last year it was to live tee totally for a year, it was hard but not too hard... I cannot tell you how good that first drink tasted as the clock struck midnight on the first... But this year I have set myself a real challenge... Pescaterianism... I did play with the idea of vegetarianism but that just seems to hard for a carnivore such as myself so as a happy compromise I settled for keeping the fish... after all it's not for any moral or emotional reasons that I'm giving up meat... it is for myself... To prove to myself that I can do it... I can live without meat... Without juicy... Juicy meat...
I love meat.... I am proud to say it... I eat my steaks blue... I love black pudding... offal... game... I am a committed carnivore... I will eat anything with a face... or a pulse... but for one year I will abstain... I may go mad... This experiment could even backfire and I might start eating other things... people... mmm.... soilent green... But hell, it can't hurt... I may also loose a little weight...

The first two days of this experiment where nothing to shout about... Apart from a slight panic when I had to grab a quick snack for my daughter and myself (At my in-laws... Good, ageing Welsh people for whom meat is a necessity) and all I found was some bread, cold sliced beef and some cucumber... I quickly put together a beef and cucumber sandwich for my daughter then briefly played with the idea of grating cheese or boiling an egg but as we were already late it was an impractical solution to my problem... So I cut some slices of cucumber and buttered some bread... and viola... A cucumber sandwich... Boring... tasteless but no animals died to make it (Blah blah).
We went out to dinner with a friend in the evening, but to a nice place with a good classic menu and plenty of delicious sounding vegetarian and pescarian options... I chose the luxury fish pie, packed with prawns and salmon... tasty but to be honest a choice I might have made even without my vow...
But today, on our journey home we stopped at a service station just outside Bristol for lunch... This was the first time (and I suspect not the last) that I started to empathise and understand the impracticality of those who choose to be vegetarian for moral reasons... Whilst my husband and daughter could decide between sausages, meat pies (chicken and beef), a creamy topped thing that we suspect was lasagne and burgers... I had the choice of fish and chips or a jacket potato, two things I think I'm going to have to get used to this year. I plumped for a jacket and cheese... It was... unsatisfying... Even the soup was pea and ham... There were some cold options... egg sandwiches... a boxed cheese salad... all very, very dull and very unappetising...
So to make up for it my husband and I had a cold beer and a raclette with prawns and halloumi and salad... I can't count how many times I picked up a slice of chirizzo sausage absent mindedly put them to my lips before realising what I was doing... I suspect this might be a problem in the coming months...
First day back at work tomorrow... Lets see what the day brings...