Friday 2 January 2009

THE LAST OF THE 7 THINGS - SEVEN FAVOURITE FOODS

For all those who have eaten to excess over the Christmas period and to all those who have gone on a diet as part of their New Year Resolutions this posting should probably come with a health warning.

I am now coming to the end of this marathon meme where I've been tasked to enlighten my readers with various lists of seven things about myself. So this is the last one - my seven favourite foods.

Now I must warn you from the start that I’m no gourmet, so don’t expect anything fancy in my seven favourite foods. I was brought up in the late 1950’s and 1960’s in Yorkshire by parents whose own formative years from a food perspective was World War II with all the rationing that went with it. I think my mother still thought of bananas as exotic fare well into the 1970’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy good food prepared well. However there are many places that use good ingredients and cook them well without having to spend an arm and a leg. So without more ado are here my seven favourite foods:-

All Day Breakfast – there is a café close to where we live that fronts onto a lake. The lake is used by fishermen (well I’ve never seen a woman fishing there before anyone corrects my wording) and the café caters for them. Here sometimes I meet up with Mrs Troy for an “All Day Breakfast” at lunchtime after she’s finished her part-time work. For £3.95 we get bacon, egg, scalloped potatoes, tomato, beans, fried bread, buttered bread and a cup of tea. The plates are always left spotlessly clean when we’ve finished and we walk back to our cars feeling comfortably fed and full. We only go about twice a month at the most so we aren’t overdoing it with the cholesterol.

Porridge – from October through to May I like to start the day with a bowl of porridge, topped with a sprinkling of sugar and cold milk. I actually prefer syrup to sugar but keep forgetting to buy it. I make my porridge as soon as I get back from taking Troy Junior to school, having picked up my Daily Telegraph on the way home. Porridge is a great slow release energy food to keep one going through to lunchtime.

A Nice Sirloin Steak – an occasional treat down at the local pub “The Crown” when I’m feeling peckish. I’m not particularly bothered about the extras like sauces or onion rings but I do like some strong English mustard with it.

A Chinese Takeaway – it’s always nice to pick up a well prepared Chinese takeaway. I call it "eating by numbers". But as the numbers will mean nothing to you I'll give you the details. Egg fried rice (I can’t take it boiled like the Chinese eat it) and chicken with cashew nuts will suit me fine, or with sweet and sour pork. Or with both. Also the meal should include some prawn crackers. However the best Chinese dish has to be Crispy Aromatic Peking Duck – lovely, very tasty and quite messy.

An Indian Restaurant Meal – it’s been a long time since we had one of these as Troy Junior doesn’t like spicy food. Whenever we eat Indian we always seem to be either the only ones in the restaurant, or one of just two couples present. It seems everyone else eats Indian food after the pubs close but Mrs Troy likes her evening meal nice and early. The very first Indian meal I ever had was with “friends” after watching a football game in Manchester. I told them I’d never had an Indian meal before so I would rely on their judgement as to what to eat. They ordered me a Vindaloo. I actually enjoyed it.

Scones, Jam and Cream – on a warm summer’s day there is nothing to beat scones, jam and cream sitting in the late afternoon sun. All washed down with plenty of tea. I think it is impossible not to feel civilised whilst enjoying afternoon tea in England.

Snickers bars – when feeling peckish there is nothing to beat a Snickers bar. I’ve enjoyed these since the days when they were called Marathon bars. I read somewhere that they are going to change the name back to Marathon bars (or was I just dreaming that?). Warning – they may contain nuts (hopefully several).

Biscuits – the eighth in this list of seven favourite foods. I couldn’t miss out my biscuits with a cup of tea of coffee. There are so many nice ones to choose from – custard creams, ginger biscuits, HobNobs, milk chocolate digestives – actually, the list is almost endless. When I was student I bought Rich Tea as you got more for your money with those. I think the very best biscuits are ones I that haven’t seen recently – Abbey Crunch. These just melt in your mouth and are so very tasty. However HobNobs come a very close second. They are so moreish and require discipline not eat and eat and eat and eat and…

Now I suspect some of my readers may have actually put on weight just reading about my favourite foods. This is a high calorie posting. I’ve always been a strong believer in the view that it doesn’t matter how many calories you intake as long as you burn them off afterwards. Since childhood I’ve always tended to burn off the calories – I can’t stand still for a minute. However recently I have started to put some weight on (probably due to sitting down and blogging non-stop). So I have to be more careful and ration my intake of these favourite foods. But that just means I enjoy them all the more when I treat myself.

I look forward to hearing if you share my taste in favourite foods.

29 comments:

Tim Atkinson said...

I was worried we might be the same person or that you were my long-lost brother for a minute. But you forgot the fish and chips!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

My husband loves a 'breakfast'. I like the occasional one too, but tend to go for the veggie version as I'm a bit of a drip with meat. Having said that, we're having spag bol tonight. I'm female, so it's my perogative to be awkward.

I love a good chinese take-away, biscuits, anything with chocolate, but you'd never get me eating porrige.

Kitty said...

I have a 'problem' with wheat, so my diet is restricted by that, but I love to bake for the kids. I do quite a lot of homemade biscuits. Chocolate digestives are a legend - *sigh* I wish I could still eat them.

x

Troy said...

Dotterel - you are correct, fish and chips should rightly be on my list. However the F&C shop in our village do awful fish. Instead when I go there I get steak & kidney pie and chips instead.

I hope you find your long-lost brother - keep looking.

Debs - don't skimp on the protein.

Kitty - yum, homemade biscuits sound great. My grandmother used to bake some wonderful ones. Sorry to hear about your wheat problem.

Carol said...

Superb list!! I completely agree with you on all of them (we even had curry on our wedding day) except for porridge!! My Gran has been trying to get me to eat the stuff for years....I've had it with salt, jam, sugar, syrup, sultanas (and probably several others the trauma of which I have blanked out) and I still don't like the stuff!!

C x

Elaine Denning said...

Well, I could leave out the porridge and the biscuits (though I do love shortbread) but the rest were perfect. The only thing I'd have added was a roast beef dinner. Yummy!

DJ Kirkby said...

Oh gawd I love all of these foods...except the Indian meal which I would love to love as it smells so delicious but if I eat any of it (or even 'western' food cooked in an Indian restaraunt), I collapse within a few minutes. It causes massive peripheral vasodilation in me which is not so good for the internal organs...as for the Chinese foods, I love the duck but also shredded ginger beef and lemon chicken. Mmmmmmmmm is it wrong to want some at 8.10am?

Troy said...

Carol - have you tried porridge with water or milk. Perhaps you were finding it too dry without?

Elaine - roast beef from the carvery with horse-radish sauce, like the fish & chips, should be on my list. Regarding the biscuits, I think you either have a sweet tooth or don't.

DJ - I assumed at first that they must have given you a very large bill but then I looked up "vasodilation" and I see it in a different vein now. Haven't worked out why it is "peripheral" - this is rewaching the boundary of my medical knowledge.

Troy's Trophies said...

I could have written that list myself!

Anonymous said...

Happy New year to you and yours!

Yes, I have put on weight and this post certainly hasn't helped. I do prefer a fillet steak though, done medium to well. Preferably with some kind of diane sauce or peppered.

Porridge - yuk!

CJ xx

DJ Kirkby said...

Peripheral means the extremities...oh wait a second, you already knew that didn't you? Grrrrrr, you are such a tease.

Anonymous said...

Please remove the requested item A.S.A.P

Troy said...

WTT - perhaps you did.

CJ - agree with the "medium to well". I don't know how people eat it when it raw and red. So you're another one who doesn't like porridge - I seem to be in a small minority regarding that particular dish.

DJ - correct! Boundary was the key word (along with vein).

Anonymous - chicken! (and I don't mean food).

Lane Mathias said...

Abbey Crunch are the best. I haven't seen them around for ages.

Will check out your local recommendations one day. The waterside breakfast sounds wonderful.

Troy said...

Lane - Hi, I don't think Abbey Crunch are made any more. Perhaps we should start a petition to bring them back? They should however come in a packet with a time lock on it to stop them all being eaten quickly.

Brunch by the lake is nice. At present the lake is frozen over but it lovely to sit outside in summer. The people working there are very friendly too. Mrs Troy told them last week that I'd blogged about them - they seemed pleased.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm..... porridge. haven't had it for ages. Just the ticket these cold mornings.

Troy, why don't you have an e-mail contact address anywhere? I regularly read this blog, and your ITFC one (Chelsea, here we come) and I wanted to send you something - a book, actually - but there's no way to get in touch.

(I am not a lunatic stalker.)

Troy said...

Rosy - I blog anonymously to avoid the lunatic stalkers. I followed your link through to your University page and as you appear quite sane I'll send you an e-mail. A book you say? Surely not the one on property dilapidation law?
DO FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ANY TIME.

Anonymous said...

'Sane' may be an exaggeration...

Troy said...

In all the millions of responses I've consistently left over the last millenium to my many thousands of commenters I've never once been accused of exaggeration before.

Catharine Withenay said...

For a while we rented a house with an Aga. Then we made porridge every day - leaving it to cook overnight at the back. Delicious, hot & creamy first thing every morning, submerged with raisins and brown sugar. Mmmm!!

But I'd still put biscuits first ....

Troy said...

Hi Catharine - I do my porridge in two and a half minutes in the microwave (suddenly I feel inadequate). I'm glad some porridge lovers have emerged. I wish we had an Aga to heat up our kitchen, although given fuel prices it would need to be nuclear powered.

I'm cutting back on the biscuits as am now putting on weight which is unlike me.

Hadriana's Treasures said...

Yep...I'd go for pretty much everything on your list. The porridge is a good one though and I have to get back to that so I can follow my diet. I fall in and out of love with it..truth be told.

When we were living in Egypt...we really did miss the curries. Glad we have been able to put that to rights now we're back!

Troy said...

Hadriana - I've just realised that I've also missed out Yorkshire Puddings with gravy. When I were a lad we had them as a standalone first course - yum!

Ladybird World Mother said...

Right, where to start.... I'll have the all day breakfast, with porridge... (also like croissants if ever in Paris with Huge Great Coffee. People watching.)
Yup, huge steak. Yum.
Biscuits. Yum. Have to dunk. Cant not.
Snickers Bar - Yum.
Scones - oozing with cream and jam. Yum.
And the odd Chinese or Indian take away. Bloody marvellous.
Also have to say, like the odd bit of toffee icecream, with caramel'y bits in it. And strawberries and cream. And raspberries and cream. And cream. And....
GOD I'M STARVING.
Nice list.

Troy said...

LWM - what time do you call this? I've been slaving over a red hot cooker since Friday 2nd and you only turn up now? Most of its ruined - no don't bother even trying it - its not fit even for the dog now. And hands off those Snickers bars - you need more inside you on a cold day than just chocolate. And leave those biscuits as well. I haven't spent all this time with breakfasts, steaks, chinese and indians just for you to have the biscuits - you've got to learn to come down here as soon as I shout that the food is posted.

And we've eaten all the pudding too!

Trixie said...

*waves*

I'm here!!! Better late than never!!!!

I agree with you with most of them!

All day breaky, yum! You can do this yourself though, healthily. I make a MEAN breaky (all low in fat).

Crispy Duck. YUM!!!!!!!! My favourite (but did you know there is 420 cals per pancake? And that's not shoving the entire duck into the one pancake!)

Indian - ANOTHER fave of mine! My kids are slowly getting into it. Try junior on kebab style to start with. (plus healthy, no sauces)

And you are SOOOO right on the exercise. I've just spent a week in Egypt (still haven't gone to bed yet from my return) and ate like kings (but they eat quite healthily there, lots of fish chicken, salad, rice)drank like a fish (no surprise there) and walked a TRILLION miles a day, to not put on any weight! (and no...I didn't get a tummy bug!)

I recommend Egypt to anyone for a healthy holiday! (exercise also includes camel riding!)

Troy said...

Trixie - you're welcome back. Just sorry there is no food left for you (Hadriana had the last scone).
Can't believe the 420cal per pancake (Yes, I know you are an expert on these things) - that must include the duck and sauce.
Strange kids don't like spicy food - how do Indians and Chinese kids cope? (and I carefully avoided a Prince Harry moment there).

Millennium Housewife said...

Are you my real dad (Daddy!), absolutely a list of my favourite foods, but you'd have to add cream to the syrup on the porrige. I could eat it forever which is why it's banned from the house. Add kettle chips and Humous and it's my birthday. I'm with you on the burning it off too, the gym creche is my best friend (after syrup and porrige.). Great list MH

Troy said...

Welcome MH - I'm not even allowed to have blue top milk in our house so the cream is definitely out.
Regarding your first question - you'd better ask your mother.
I like your photo, but why the long face?