All You Can Eat

                                                       The proprietor of The Eden Café

When I awoke on Saturday morning (my birthday) a card was propped on my bedside table, when I opened it I found a hotel reservation, Glenn had arranged a surprise night away in London.

Part of the surprise was that we would be meeting my brother and his partner later that evening for dinner. When we arrived at the hotel, which had been chosen purely for its proximity to my brother's home, it was adjoined to a Toby Carvery, a British carvery chain brand which serves 21 million meals a year.

When we arrived breakfast was still being served, (although actually it's all self service) every conceivable breakfast ingredient was displayed on hot plates, the concept being for four pounds you could help yourself to as much food as you want. None of it looked very appealing, I personally don't like old food that has been sitting under warmers, the eggs looked hard, the bacon and sausages looked like cheap quality, the bread was white processed bread, but hey you get what you pay for.

What I found most off putting, as we hastily made our way through the restaurant to the hotel, was the sheer volume of food on peoples plates.

On coming back downstairs the breakfast buffet had been replaced with the all you can eat carvery and already the restaurant was heaving. As with the breakfast, people were piling so much food onto their plates that Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes were dropping from plates and scattered across the floor.

'All you can eat' sums up much of what is wrong about our relationship with food. One third of the world's population are consuming their way to obesity and diabetes, eating far more than they need, while for the rest of humanity-especially the 900 million people around the world who suffer from chronic hunger-all you can eat is unattainable and inconceivable.

There can be no doubt that our penchant for meat particularly the cheap factory farmed kind is ravaging our planet. Our want for excessive amounts of food is in turn causing colossal food waste which just isn't sustainable.

 We decided to venture out for some brunch. Further up the street was a café that looked rather appealing, we sat on the terrace and immediately a very friendly waitress was by our side. The menu didn't look promising, the photos of the food weren't appealing everything looked very processed. However, when I asked the waitress if (fat chance I thought) the bubble and squeak was home made, she went into raptures about fresh ingredients and the chefs wonderful cooking. When my food arrived it looked delicious although there were some random onion rings on my plate?

This breakfast cost nearly double the 'all you can eat' breakfast yet it was worth every penny in terms of taste and quality.

                                These young girls had come for the 'all you can eat' carvery

It had been a while since I'd last had bubble and squeak, it was so good I went and personally complimented the chef, and that's the thing, instead of a loveless meal just churned out by robots, I appreciated the passion involved and the chef was pleased with the compliment. As Jamie Oliver says: 'If I'm grumpy when cooking, my recipes never turn out right, good food is about a happy cook.'

Bubble and squeak, such a simple dish and one which we ate regularly throughout my childhood, is a dish created out of leftovers. Shredded meat and leftover vegetables from Sunday's dinner would be fried in a big pan for Monday's supper. As long as 60% is potato you can add any vegetables you choose, serve with eggs and beans for a meat free meal or add a couple of rashers of good quality crispy bacon and a big dollop of HP sauce.

Bubble and squeak

Recipe
Serves 6
1kg potatoes
600g vegetables, carrots, Brussels, swede, parsnips, leeks......whatever you like
Olive oil
Butter
Salt and pepper

Peel and trim all the vegetables, chop into even size pieces
Boil vegetables rapidly for 10 minutes then drain

Put a frying pan over a medium heat and add a splash of olive oil and a large knob of butter
Once hot add the vegetables and mash everything up in the pan, season well

Cook for 4 minutes, until a crust starts forming underneath, keep folding the crispy bits back into the mash
Keep repeating this process, moving the crispy bits around
Once the bubble starts to set flip it over, let the underside crisp up
Serve onto hot plates

'Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.'
- Mahatma Gandhi

Love Donna xxxxxxxx