Dinner Dance
Menu
Minestrone Soup with Parmesan Cheese
Roll and Butter
********
Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding
with Horseradish Sauce
Roast Potatoes
New Potatoes
Broccoli Spears
Baby Carrots
********
Fruits of the Forest & Pavlova & Cream
********
Selection of Cheeses & Biscuits
********
Tea, Coffee & Mints
Minestrone Soup with Parmesan Cheese
Roll and Butter
********
Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding
with Horseradish Sauce
Roast Potatoes
New Potatoes
Broccoli Spears
Baby Carrots
********
Fruits of the Forest & Pavlova & Cream
********
Selection of Cheeses & Biscuits
********
Tea, Coffee & Mints
C.'s presentation/dinner dance. This meal would easily serve as an example of how us Brits got a bad name for cooking and food. It also highlights the difference between the generations. About ninety diners and possibly four of us under the age of fifty. Where to start? At the beginning.
I have tasted better minestrone soup from a tin. This had a slightly thick texture and very little taste. It was served at the table from a glass jug more usually associated with coffee machines. The Parmesan was the powdery stuff we used to put on our bolognese in the seventies. (The pots had three different sized holes/shapes). I had no idea there was still a market for it. Still, the bread was fresh and tasty.
There were murmurs of appreciation all round our table in praise of the beef. "Tender", "moist" and "can't remember when I last had beef this good." C. and I were remarkably quiet. The slices of beef were paper thin - they could hardly have been chewy - and tasted of nothing much at all. The horseradish sauce was good. Potent with an ability to clear your head in seconds. I smothered it everywhere. (So much so I thought my nose was on fire at one point). The Yorkshire was just as my mum makes them (which is praise indeed) and the roast potatoes were passable.
I declined the new potatoes. Given that it's winter they are probably from a tin. I cannot stand potatoes from a tin. One of my aunts used to feed them to us in the seventies (that decade seems to be hovering). They were disgusting and we were too polite to say so. Not much can be said for the broccoli and carrots except they were boiled to a mush and duly tasted of water.
The pavlova was a lump of very sweet meringue accompanied by a splodge of berries (recently defrosted) and a swirl of cream. I just shovelled it down quick.
The cheese was served in tiny pieces, fresh from a supermarket poly pack, on a paper plate. I usually elbow people out the way for the cheese but even the Stilton looked like plastic.
While the others took their share I commented to C. that his food tastes have changed considerably in the ten years since he met me. "I've been spoilt" was the reply.
I have tasted better minestrone soup from a tin. This had a slightly thick texture and very little taste. It was served at the table from a glass jug more usually associated with coffee machines. The Parmesan was the powdery stuff we used to put on our bolognese in the seventies. (The pots had three different sized holes/shapes). I had no idea there was still a market for it. Still, the bread was fresh and tasty.
There were murmurs of appreciation all round our table in praise of the beef. "Tender", "moist" and "can't remember when I last had beef this good." C. and I were remarkably quiet. The slices of beef were paper thin - they could hardly have been chewy - and tasted of nothing much at all. The horseradish sauce was good. Potent with an ability to clear your head in seconds. I smothered it everywhere. (So much so I thought my nose was on fire at one point). The Yorkshire was just as my mum makes them (which is praise indeed) and the roast potatoes were passable.
I declined the new potatoes. Given that it's winter they are probably from a tin. I cannot stand potatoes from a tin. One of my aunts used to feed them to us in the seventies (that decade seems to be hovering). They were disgusting and we were too polite to say so. Not much can be said for the broccoli and carrots except they were boiled to a mush and duly tasted of water.
The pavlova was a lump of very sweet meringue accompanied by a splodge of berries (recently defrosted) and a swirl of cream. I just shovelled it down quick.
The cheese was served in tiny pieces, fresh from a supermarket poly pack, on a paper plate. I usually elbow people out the way for the cheese but even the Stilton looked like plastic.
While the others took their share I commented to C. that his food tastes have changed considerably in the ten years since he met me. "I've been spoilt" was the reply.
posted by ems at 12:53 AM
5 Comments:
Oh dear, this doesn't sound too good...
First of all, I would have to take exception to the fact that the minestrone was served a) from a jug (seriously?!?); b) with Parmesan already on it. Parmesan should be served on the side, so you choose to add it. That way you get the option to decline if the Parmesan comes from a tube of pre-grated matter...
Glad to hear the horseradish sauce was good, and the Yorkshire puddings! I should post a picture of the lovely Sunday lunch we had yesterday. I'll put it on my Flickr account if you fancy a look!
I just don't get the British thing of having two types of potatoes. Whenever I used to have dinner at friends' houses when I was a kid, there was always roast potatoes and mashed - what is the point?
Thankfully, the food aside, the evening was very enjoyable.
a.c.t. no, I don't get the two potato thing either (even though we're quite definitely British). We only ever had one variety on the plate at any one time.
I think you had some bad luck there although I used to bounce from one "rubber chicken" dinner to another at one time and I found the best thing to do was to get very drunk, very early and forget you had paid a lot of money for school dinners.
The menu reads like the little card British Airways gives you let you know what you will be served for the inflight meal.
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