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.