Comments on: The North-South Culinary divide…

By: jim cairns

jim cairns — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:07:50 +0000

steve robey mentions carricks I must be older than him because as a 8 year old the treat for being a good lad at the opticians was to be taken to carricks and in those days it was waitress service table cloths and silver teapots and even hot water jugs,as for greggs it’s the jack cohen [tesco ]adage pile it high sell it cheap but in there case they make it cheap as well

By: Chris Wild

Chris Wild — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:49:06 +0000

I’d be interested in a recipe for Stotties… I’ve tried a few but never been able to get them to work and the number I have found never seemed to match each other… I blame my mother for not passing the familt recipe down to me…!

I agree about Warbies, I prefer fresh baked bread, but Warbies is the better of the Supermarket packed variety.

By: Steve Robey

Steve Robey — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:21:59 +0000

I’m an exiled Geordie, living in Harwich,Essex.

Our local chippie – ‘Pieseas’ does excellent pies from the Pukka brand and our local Supermarket sells the same brand. Pukka tells me that they deliver fresh pies – I’ve never seen a wrapped Pukka pie in my life. Pukka seem good as far as pies are concerned.

Warburtons Bread. Generally pretty good. However, the bread is baked via the Chorleywood process, which accelerates the action of the yeast, and thus reduces the granular consistency of the brown breads, in comparison to those baked by the normal process by local bakeries. They have a bakery and distribution point in Enfield, Herts, and are moving in to the Southern market. This is a very good thing. Although their bread is Chorleywood, and, in my opinion, inferior to the breads baked by local bakers in my own town, it is a great improvement on the other breads sold in local supermarkets.

Steak and Kidney pudding is a rarity in the South.

I remember Carricks bakeries and ‘lite bites’ in Newcastle in 1974-76 and the grub was good.(I left Newcastle in 1976 in search of work). I understand Greggs originated from this concept. I visited a Greggs in Stratford, East London recently, and the produce was pure stodge.

It is easy to make your own pies (use stewing steak from a butcher, not a supermarket – frozen pastry is pretty good if you wish to avoid the trouble of making your own). Stottie cake is a cinch – there are oodles of recipes on the web. Steak and Kidney Pud is also quite simple – look up recipes on BBC food, but buy your meat – shin is good for this dish, and your kidnet, from a butcher, not a supermarket. He will also be able to sell you decent suet, although packeted Atora is reasonably ok.

Finally – I’ve waxed lyrical about food. I’m entitled to do this – I’m a chef.

By: Barnze

Barnze — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:57:05 +0000

We can get a belting pot of peas in nottingham..we could be the Pea capitol of the world..fantastic pea stall in Vickky Market in the town..

mint sauce anyone?

By: Chris Wild

Chris Wild — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:01:13 +0000

Yes; Originated in Bolton soem 139 years ago… only recently started to penetrate the south… I actually saw a Warby’s van on the M4 near slough the other week.

My father tells me they have a bakery down south now!

http://www.warburtons.co.uk/about_warburtons/history/index.html

By: Bob Moonhouse

Bob Moonhouse — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 02:35:22 +0000

Warburtons is a northern thing? Explains why its difficult to come by down here and why its so expensive. Tastes bloody nice though.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:49:33 +0000

Where on earth did you get a picture of pudding, chips, peas, gravy and a fish from? I thought that was just one of your ‘odd’ likes.

Were you feeling particularly hungry on Monday all this talk of food?

ps
Now I know where all the pretzels went!