Welcome to the new stuff!

What better way to celebrate the official grand opening of my new blog than a plateload of eggs, beans, toast, potato cakes, and bangers washed down with a glass of fine Chilean Cabernet?

NB. You would not believe what horrors await you if you do a Google image search for 'bangers' and have the Safe Search set to 'Off'. Even on the moderate setting you're still not OK. But I digress.


Well, it is St. David's Day, and I suppose we should be eating something with leeks in it, but sorry, bangers sounded too good to pass up. They were Tesco's brand pork and Bramley apple sausages, and boy, were they good. You could taste the apple in there, definitely, but it wasn't overpowering, it was nice and subtle.

Since I have just arrived back in the UK a few weeks ago,  things have changed considerably in my hometown of Tenterden. For starters, there are a lot more places to eat.

The places to eat that were here before are mostly still here in one form or another. Pretty much everywhere else is within spitting distance of somewhere to eat or get a coffee. There are even coffee shops and cafes in the local garden centres and I even saw one at the Ashford B&Q DIY Superstore. Recently I went out to eat, twice by myself and once with my sister.

First place I went was The Honeymoon. This is a Chinese restaurant which used to be the Loong Sing back in the 70s and 80s, and became Honeymoon right around the time I got married the first time around, in 1990. I'd eaten there at that time, so for old times' sake. and because I had a raging appetite, I went and had lunch there a couple of weeks ago.  For a start I was tempted by the price: £6.50 for lunch isn't terrible, and when you consider it involved soup, a big pot of tea (good tea too, I might add) and a plate of sweet and sour pork balls and a ton of egg fried rice, it was actually very good value for the money. The Honeymoon is still great after 20 years!

I volunteer my time a couple of mornings per week at the British Heart Foundation's charity shop in Sayers Lane, and on one such morning, with the door open, we could smell delightful smells coming from Anderson & Campbell, the deli across the way. So after I left the shop I stopped in for a latte and a tuna sandwich. It was £5.80, which may seem a little on the pricey side, but when you consider that the sandwich was on hearty granary bread, which was cut into triangles yet was still humongous, jam-packed with tuna and cucumber, and the coffee, even though it was a small one, was still a good mugful for most normal people, it's not bad at all. Add to that the wild and wonderful selection of pickles, relishes and crackers on offer, not to mention the friendly staff, and it's a deli I'll be sure to revisit.

My sister and I were out shopping the other morning and we began to feel a little peckish. We popped into Brasserie Gerard in the High Street, which used to be the site of Weeks of Goudhurst, the baker's, and before that, Lavells Newsagents and Banks Newsagents before them. So the interior was completely different. We sat at a little round table over where the counter would have been at Banks'. I sat there thinking, can this really be the place where i bought a Valentines' card for Sarah Lynn back in the early 70s? I had a light lunch of pate, which came with a sliced baguette, a side salad with a lovely dressing, and a little ramekin of tiny pickled gherkins which were exquisite. My sister had a salad called Poulet et Lardons (I think) which had nice big slices of chicken on a bed of spring mix salad leaves with lovely bacon-y croutons. Both of these items were around the £6 mark and we were full afterwards, no need for a dessert. Again, a place I would definitely recommend to a friend and a favourite of my stepdad Chris, a man who knows his food also!

Tomorrow I am being taken out to lunch. Where, I do not know. But you can expect my report!