Thursday 29 October 2009

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.

Sunday 25 October 2009

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.

Sunday 11 October 2009

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.

Monday 5 October 2009

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.

Sunday 4 October 2009

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!