Eating Out

Now that the Slovaks are here, I have a little more time for myself and my family.

About eating out on the Island. That is an experience truly not worth having!! This is no gastronomic haven but a gourmands idea of hell. Over the past 3 years we have often ventured out with the possibility of leisurely eating out with family, as we did in London. The last and the most horrific experience we had, compelled me to write. We visited a well known 'Inn' who has many hundreds of covers a day and serves "fresh food". Well, we chose "Gourmet Burger" and "Salmon Pavarotti". We thought that no one could go wrong with simple food like this.The sauce,supposedly white sauce,for the fish which in its simplicty is divine was some glutinous, chemical infused mess. The burger promising to be gourmet with roquette, tomato and cheese had 3 leaves, no tomato and a slice of processed cheese. Prices - £8.95 for the burger and £12.50 for the sliver of Salmon in chemical mess!

All of us felt ill and had the worst migraine of our lives. All of us!! Proof that the food had any number of E's or other mutant chemicals in it.

We have visited many restaurants around the island. Italian, Mediterranean, English, French Cafes, Inns serving food, a chain restaurant (serving Thai food- that tasted and looked like filth and we waited 45 minutes for our main course), a couple of Asian restaurants and more food serving Inns. The best (of the lot) and freshest food we had was at Pizza Express. With all the other places, we had severe food reactions, the food was processed, over priced or just very inconsistent. ( Strange that one local food critic wrote that a place selling Pizzas served freshly cooked Pizza- ie the dough was fresh. We had eaten in this very place on innumerous occasions and we are serious Pizza dough makers- this definitely was Frozen Pizza base.)

When people eat here, they are amazed at the delicacy of the flavours. ( read guest book) Of course, these are the discerning ones. We have had some serious ignoramuses who have asked us why the food is not spicy - like the food they were served in the "Midlands", and claiming that they knew all about South Indian food and what we served was not South Indian, because they came from the " Midlands" and they knew better! Then they asked for Naan or Mango Chutney!!! ( believe me- I was asked out of the kitchen by these people who vehemently argued with me that the food I was cooking was not South Indian )

We are sometimes dismissed as being too expensive. We, who paste our spices everyday, who don't even add soda or vinegar as it is artificial and serve the freshest and most generous portions of salad do not warrant comments like that. Even the Chinese takeaway is as expensive as we are and dont forget the MSG they add! I wonder if our bodies are so acclimatised to chemical infusions through food that palates cannot even recognise fresh quality food when they taste it.

So for all our experimentation with island eateries, sadly, for now we found The Pizza Express and Thorntons - the only places that fulfilled our desire for fairly fresh food and good coffee, with at least some real flavour to it. I certainly hope that the island fosters and encourages restaurants that serve better quality food than what exists at the moment.