Entrée

This is Log, of Disappointment fame/ignominy. (If you Google the word "disappointment", he is basically the number 1 result. Yes he is). Log is in Germany today, so will be blogging a photo of a currywurst or something quite soon, I hope. He likes his food.

Sausage party

A tasty sausage pasta, wearing a wig of finely-grated cheddar.

One potato, two potato, three potato, four

After reading about designer Nicholas Felton and his "personal statistics recorder" Daytum in the latest issue of Gym Class Magazine, I decided to set up an account for That's Fine Dining.
Now, whenever I eat or drink anything, I can make a record of it at daytum.com/thatsfinedining. Who knows, nothing may come of it and maybe I'll forget about it after a day or two, but at least it might go some way to filling in the gaps between posts.

Lead us not into temptation

I was excited to see this chip shop staple in the freezer of Tesco, although it's pretty harsh to stack them next to the Weight Watchers ready meals. Also, I like the serving suggestion on the box of chips with curry sauce. It seems to be, "put them on a plate".

Sunday morning

A bacon sandwich, made by Disappointment in the style of his gran.

The Box Of Delights #2

Lancashire hotpot, savoy cabbage and roasted root vegetables from the Blue Fin Building's cafeteria. £4.30. Bargain.

And the dinner is...

Three-course dinner at Tuesday night's BSME awards, at London's Park Lane Hilton.
The courses were something like:
Starter: Chargrilled peach with some cream cheese wrapped in ham on the top
Main: Monkfish with asparagus tips and sweet potato mash
Dessert: Champagne jelly with some fruit in and a sort of pink marshmallowy thing that was a bit chewy.
And wine, wine, wine.

Porkies

Lovely roast pork at the Vauxhall Griffin, with some delicious homemade apple sauce.

Breakfast of champions

Toast, topped with Marmite and some M&S crisps with a couple of Celebrations for afters. Thanks Disappointment!
P.S. Does anyone know what those crisps are called?

Paninaro – oh, oh, oh

In 1986, the Pet Shop Boys wrote a song about an Italian youth cult, "consisting primarily of young men dedicated to fashionable clothes (particularly baggy jeans), Timberland boots, motor scooters, and large sandwiches known as "panini" (the plural of "panino"). These youngsters were referred to as "paninari" – or singular "paninaro."
In 2009 on my road trip with Disappointment, I myself became something of a paninaro, after eating two such large sandwiches – one (the nicer) in Hay-on-Wye, the other in the cafeteria of Gloucester Cathedral. The Gloucester panini, sorry, panino was pre-made, and came in a little papery/plasticky bag. It was then reheated somehow. I very much doubt it ever knew the inside of a panini press.
For more about the Pet Shop Boys song Paninaro, click here. And this is the video.

The platters that matter

Tasty roast beef eaten off the hatch of the DJ booth of the Vauxhall Griffin while playing some relaxing music as part of their regular Sunday Supplement thing.

A midweek summer roast

As it's Sunday, here's another roast dinner, eaten at the "assisted-service" Vale Restaurant (canteen) at Saint Fagan's National History Museum, near Cardiff. You can tell it's in Wales; look at all those leeks. This roast was eaten not on a Sunday, but on a Thursday lunchtime. Perhaps that is why Disappointment plumped for a ham and tomato baguette (not pictured) instead, augmented with plenty of cheese and coleslaw.

Good morning Britain

It's Monday morning, it's raining, I'm waiting in for the boiler engineer to come, and I'm hungry. So here are some breakfast things I wouldn't mind eating right now.
The first – beans, two sausages and a fried egg on toast – is from the Stradey Park Hotel, near Llanelli. Nice, self-service breakfast, with plenty of choice. Sometimes they have two kinds of sausage (gasp). And that dribble of bean juice looks quite arty – the sort of thing they'd faff about doing on Master Chef or something.
The next two pictures were taken at Cardiff's number one B&B Ty Rosa – "Cardiff's only exclusive and gay boutique bed & breakfast". Nice place, run by Paul & Stuart (or "Miss Judy by the time you leave us"). Their breakfasts are great. Disappointment had the beans, bacon, hash brown, sausagey sausage and I had a small portion of the eggs benedict. One of the American lads on the table next to us had the Glamorgan breakfast or whatever – bacon, cockles and laverbread on toast. Challenging.

Beef dinner

I'm disappointed with myself. I've been unbelievably tardy about keeping this blog up to date. So slack, in fact, that the week-long road trip I started to document here is now well over two months past and I'm still not finished with it.
To get me back on track, and as it's Sunday, here's a lovely beef roast dinner that I had from the carvery at The Old Bridge Inn in Llangennech, near Llanelli.

EDIT: The Bridge website says it is all about "good food, good atmosphere, good value for money". It's also about two bloody big dogs on the roof. Woof!

Eat the parents

A night out with mum and dad at the Ashburnham hotel. Thai turkey curry and half & half, chicken curry and half & half, salmon with cockles and laverbread, and a very cheesy lasagne.

Totally the best bacon sandwich I have ever eaten

Made by Disappointment's gran in Nottingham. She lightly fries one side of one of the slices of bread. Seems to make a world of difference. So nice.

Don't let the salads win

Too much Cheggers on the Love Chips website, but there's a Flickr group.

Colonel Sanders

or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Gained 7lb




A week-long jaunt around the country in a hire car. Rapid weight-gain ensued.
First stop, a lovely pot of tea and a KFC Zinger® Burger at the Welcome Break services, Newport Pagnell. (Welcome Break? You're welcome to it etc.) Then a lovely homemade quiche and potatoes and salad and things courtesy of Ma Disappointment in Nottingham. And finally, after a night on the town, a densely-cheesy pineapple and pepperoni pizza from Sneinton's finest The Food Junction. And that's quite enough for one day thank you.

When Saturday comes

A shared pain au chocolat and a pea, mint and feta muffin at the Royal Festival Hall. A chicken satay salad at Cha Cha Moon. Coffee and cake from Patisserie Valerie, eaten in Green Park.

Sandwich course

A three-sandwich weekend. From the top:
1. Sausage (they forgot the ketchup, but I found some chilli sauce on the next table) at the Madeira Star in Kennington.
2. A taleggio and onion or something toastie at Concrete next to the Hayward Gallery. It came with some nice mustard and dill coleslaw.
3. Sausage and ketchup at Vergie's in Kennington.
I think if I really put my mind to it, I could manage about six sandwiches per weekend in future. Maybe even nine on a Bank Holiday.

A tuna day

A tasty, but not inexpensive, tuna sandwich at the Imperial War Museum Café.

A bellyful of Wales

Scones and tea cakes at Verdi's Café in Mumbles. Turkey rogan josh with half and half at the Ashburnham, Pembrey.
The following day, a picnic in the car on the seafront at Saundersfoot, then back to the Ashburnham in the evening for chicken tikka with half and half.
And finally, the day after, back on the train from Swansea to Paddington with homemade chicken sandwiches.