Breakfast in Halls

Hall Food being what it is doesn’t inspire me much to write about food. In fact, recently eating has become more of a chore than a pleasure.

The worst thing about hall food is the generic fish Thursdays. The best is the breakfasts. On any day (apart from Wednesdays and Saturdays) you can get two or three item cooked breakfasts, but weirdly enough, sometimes these three item breakfasts would have to consist of black pudding, fruit pudding and a tomato. Sometimes there are sausages AND waffles. These count as Good Days. Sundays usually come with bacon AND eggs, which is amazing enough to get up for.

Last Saturday, being the morning after the hall ball, was a brunch. Served for almost twice the normal length of time and two hours later than usual, it really was a feast. It had everything. Maybe twelve or thirteen different cooked items, continental breakfast and the usual cereal and toast. It was amazing. Wow.

With other meals so often leaving much to be desired, breakfast really has become the most important meal of the day.

PM's of St Andrews

This is a generic takeaway outlet on Market Street - you can see the contact details on the brochure. I have come across this takeaway twice during my first weeks at uni. The first experience I had wasn't a very good one. I ordered a pizza, and it was not very good at all. To say the least. However, today, while powerwalking home from my 1pm class, I did feel the need for a chip butty. After handing over my £1 coin, I was presented with a medium sized white breadbun stuffed full of chunky chips. Condiments were put all on the same chip, as is customary for chip shops. I'm not sure whether it was my hunger or the quality of the chips (which were perfect, no scraggly or burnt ones), but it was the nicest chip butty I've had for a long time.

University

Well, having been engrossed in settling into university life in St. Andrews, I haven't posted on here much recently. Tonight, me and some of my new-found friends are going to embark on a whole new food journey - cooking for ourselves. Up till now we've been eating Hall food and relying on takeaways for the weekend evenings, but now we're trying it for ourselves.

After trekking to the local Tesco, we got ourselves a huge sack of rice, and one of pasta shells (economy brand, of course). We plan to make a stir fry tonight, with onions, peppers and mushrooms, and of course some own-brand sweet and sour sauce.

Tomorrow, tomato and basil pasta, along with any of the left over veggies from today.

Should be fun. I'll keep you posted.

Photos Added! (not a real post)

I finally got around to taking pics of the restaurants in Newcastle, so check out old posts for new pics!

Lau's Buffet King

Lau's Buffet King in Stowell Street, Newcastle wasn't given many stars by a local reviewer, and maybe it's easy to see why.

Although the food is filling enough, there isn't really that much choice for vegetarians, and as can sometimes happen with Buffet lunch deals, there is better food available for slightly more cash in one of the other Chinese restaurants in Newcastle. About £2 more gets you a 5 course lunch and a drink at Shangri-La or the Mandarin. That said, Lau's provides an easy meal. At £4.99 a head plus £1 for a soft drink, it's certainly one of the cheapest places to eat if you want Chinese food. Beware, any friends coming with you will be charged £4.99 even if the don't have anything from the buffet. Lau's is one of the many Chinese all-you-can-eat buffets on Stowell Street. The service is excellent, plates can disappear under your nose if you appear to be finished, though, so watch your knives and forks if you use them. For someone who eats meat, there is a lot of choice ("80"-course buffet offered!), though some of the mainstays of a Chinese buffet (chow meins for example) were strangely thin on the ground, but the special fried noodles are very nice, and led to something of a "noodle challenge".

Another fantastic thing about Lau's is the gorgeous sweetcorn soup, which you can find in a huge cauldron in the corner, along with another soup of the day. The choice of desserts is good too, ice cream, pineapple and banana fritters, fruit and jelly are all laid on.

So, even though Lau's is the cheapest around (and definitely cheerful) remember that you only get what you pay for.

Minchella's Ice Cream

This locally made ice cream is, in my opinion, the best ice cream you can get on a vaguely warm summer's day in Noth East England. It's so white it will make your teeth jealous, and is best enjoyed all on its own, or blended with cocoa powder when you can't resist buying 2 litres of the stuff to bring home. I think Toney Minchella's is the best. You can read about the Minchella Brothers on their company website.

Chocolate - Wonka's Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight

Today, I think I'll take a cue from some of the more ranty and arty blogs I've found while clicking the "next blog >>>" button. So, here comes some stuff in italics, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl.

"Charlie smiled nervously and sat down on the edge of the bed. He was holding his present, his only present, very carefully in his two hands. WONKA'S WHIPPLE-SCRUMPTIOUS FUDGEMALLOW DELIGHT, it said on the wrapper."..."Charlie looked down at the bar of chocolate. He ran his fingers slowly back and forth along the length of it, stroking it lovingly, and the shiny paper wrapper made little sharp crackly noises in the quiet room"


"Very slowly, Charlie's fingers began to tear open one small corner of the wrapping paper"..."Then suddenly, as though he couldn't bear the suspense any longer, Charlie tore the wrapper right down the middle...and onto his lap, there fell...a light-brown creamy-coloured bar of chocolate."


Well. Having read the book, there's no doubt that Wonka chocolate does promise a lot. However, you also have to remember it's Nestlé, and a film tie-in foodstuff.

And that's exactly what it is. This chocolate bar is really nothing more than a promo offering. Don't be tempted by the delicious sounding name. The fudge is only a tiny piece in each tiny block, with the rest being taken up by some generic creamy filling that could be found anywhere. In short, I feel a little let down by this supposed creation of one of the fictional world's best chocolate makers. Chuck me a CDM any day.