What I ate in Folestone

On my recent visit to Folkestone, I ate all the classic English foods.  Starting off each day with a full cooked breakfast.

A breakfast of bacon, black pudding, eggs, tomato, orange juice and tea.

A breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, tomato, orange juice and tea.

Another breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, tomato, orange juice and tea.

As you can see, mine were pretty modest. The average amongst the other guests was at least double. And that was just the kids.

The first evening we dined on fish and chips. Proper chippy ones. A bit pricey at over eleven quid. But really, really good.

Fish and chips on a plate.

This wasn't in a proper restaurant or anything. Just one of two tables in front of the fish fryer. But it still came on a plate with proper cutlery.

Second night, it was time for a curry. I do like a good curry.

Kicking off, as is traditional, with an onion bhaji.

An onion bhaji with salad and lemon.

A curry with naan bread

 It's always a good sign when they have proper naan bread. Yum. Really excellent stuff.

We had a day in Margate. And what do you do at the seaside? Eat chips, of course.

Chips on Margate seafront.

Pretty good chips again Nice and fat. Golden not scorched black like the often are in the USA.

And, of course, we had a Sunday dinner. A rather nice one.

A Sunday dinner of roast lamb, Yorkshire pudding, roast spuds and vegetables.

A home-cooked Sunday dinner, a big pile of food, for under nine quid. Total bargain.

This wasn't everything I ate. I also consumed a few cheese and onion sandwiches and bags of crisps. I just didn't think those were worth photographing.

More lovely 1970s pub food

I've not finished with processed pub meals yet. I've some more lovely dried meals for you.

Other dried products. Batchelors Catering Supplies has carried out intensive research into pub catering and to give maximum assistance to the trade have catering advisory service from which brochures, recipe booklets, etc., can be obtained free of charge. Members of this service are also available at all tunes to help and advise customers. There are three recipe booklets, one gives 50 meals using Batchelors savoury mince or farmhouse stew, the next giving 50 recipes for sweets from Batchelors and the third with 50 recipes for entrées from Batchelors ready dishes.

All the products, from soup to coffee, and including quick-dried vegetables, are convenience foods. They offer no shelf-life problems, all being guaranteed for at least 12 months under normal conditions. Reconstitution is by the addition of water, bringing to the boiling point and simmering for varying periods up to about 30 minutes. Additional assistance is rendered in that these pre-prepared foods cater for snacks, simple and elaborate meals and simple and elaborate sweets. They may be made to suit the custom and, in particular, the evening out — when it is a natural thing to go to a pub for a few drinks and a meal not encountered in everyday household catering.

For a simple meal there can be beef curry and rice, chicken curry and rice, chicken supreme and rice, chicken orientale and pilaff rice or spaghetti bolognese. For the more special occasion there is an orientale medley: stuffed peppers orientale, chicken marengo, chicken supreme de luxe, spiced chicken adriatica or savoury polonaise. Sweets have been far from forgotten, for here there are the convenience packs for delectations such as souffle milannaise, apple strudel, apple torte, charlotte royale, sundaes and strawberry delight.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 60.

Fifty meals from savoury mince and farmhouse stew? That's what I call cooking. Just add water, bring to the boil and away you go. You could even go crazy oriental. It's making my mouth water just reading about it.

Another new development was boil-in-the-bag technology.

A new concept in convenience meals was introduced nationally nearly a year ago by Cerebos Ltd. (part of Ranks Hovis McDougall), under the brand name Cerola, a range of complete meals which are easier to cook than break an egg. The packs of Cerola "Magipaks" meals, which serve either one or two persons, contain two pouches, one of meat and vegetables, another of rice. The two pouches are simply placed in a pan of boiling water and are boiled together for 15 minutes. The advantages are obvious — no preparation, no supervision, no messy cooking pans. Shelf life is indefinite and the packs are light and compact.

The range includes beef curry with rice; beef in a medium curry sauce with vegetables, tomato and sultanas. Chicken curry with rice; chicken in a mild curry sauce with red peppers, peas and sultanas. Lamb curry with rice; lamb in a strong curry sauce with apples, tomatoes, mango chutney and pineapp1e. Jambalaya; smoked ham in tomato sauce with onions, mushrooms, sweet peppers and spices, served with rice. Spaghetti Bolognese — spaghetti with a classic bolognese meat sauce with beef, tomatoes, burgundy wine and spices, served with Parmesan cheese and Paella; rice with chicken, prawns, red peppers and mushrooms in a spicy sauce.

The meat and the sauce are preserved for an indefinite shelf life with natural preservatives, involving the use of lactic acid. This procedure means that the meat and the sauce can be pasteurised rather than sterilised as in canning, and thus all the important nutrients are retained in the food. The contents are sealed in a flexible plastic pouch which allows reheating in boiling water, Boil-in-the-bag meals until now have only been available with frozen foods, where special storage facilities are essential. This, it is claimed, is the first time a range of meat products has been sucessfully preserved in a flexible plastic pouch.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 60.

Burgundy wine? How posh. Was there real burgundy in the meal? If so, how much?

One thing I've noticed about these processed meals. They almost all come with rice. I guess that was easier to have preprocessed than rice.

More of the customer's view of 1970s pub food

Let's see how our three pub customers reacted to some more questions. Starting with a very early 1970s activity: driving to a country pub.

When you are out driving what prompts you to pick a particular pub for a meal break?
(a) In the summer, I most certainly look for a pub with outside chairs and tables - or perhaps a garden at the rear for customers — so that I can eat drink in the open. In the winter I tend to stop at the cosy pub rather than the imposing hotel type inns. I suppose I must relate the cosiness to home-cooking.

(b) The secluded country pub - better still one by a river. If the car park is well-filled then I am more inclined to stop because the pub must have something, even if it's only an attractive barmaid. The various "meals served-here” signs do help a suppose, but they are not greast enough publicity and so you don't know what standard to expect.

(c) As a matter of fact I usually to a ............. pub if there is one in the area. More often than not they have good and food and are pleasantly decorated. If I am in an area served by them then I go for a country pub which looks as though it has got a history. Because most of my time is spent in town during the week I like to get out of the dirt and grime and never really see town pubs other than at weekday lunch-times. I should imagine they can be pretty lifeless during the day at weekends.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 56.

As we've been seeing, your chances of getting genuine home-cooking might not have been great. However cosy and traditional the pub might have appeared.

Would people really drive to a pub just because it had a pretty barmaid? Knowing blokes, and especially 1970s blokes, I think that's not only possible, but extremely likely.

Were town pubs really that dead during the day at weekends? That wasn't my experience of pubs in the centre of Leeds. Which would be packed, at least on a Saturday. Sunday was another matter, though. That were scarily dead everywhere. How I hated Sundays.

How do you find the standard of food and cooking in pubs compares with other eating places?
(a) By and large I think they compare very well. The thing is that with the new gadgets for quick-cooking the cleanliness and hygiene of the food can never really be in question, which is quite the reverse to some of the restaurants and cafes I have been in.

 (b) In the lunch-hour they seem to have so much to do in so little time that the quality suffers in some pubs. Things are slightly underdone, spilled, badly served and so on, In one pub I have visited in the past not too much attention was paid to the washing of plates and cutlery.

(c) In my local, both at work and at home, the quality is good if unspectacular. I think that this is probably one of the things which attracts me to the particular pubs I use. Their consistency. In restaurants one can find that the chef will have an “off" day but in pubs with cold snacks and pre-prepared foods which are just heated they seem to be able to eradicate the "human" element to quite a large degree. I have found that in some pubs where the licensee's wife experiments in foreign dishes they don't turn out quite right. Perhaps more attention should be paid to their training if they are going to a pub with a high meals trade.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 56.

Were pub diners not very critical of the standard of food? Or was it really mostly OK? Mr. c seemed to actually prefer the prepackaged stuff because of its consistency. Which is an interesting take. And probably just as true of some punters today.

 

How pub catering worked

It would be easy to imagine that in the past pubs were serving nutritious, home-cooked food. Not like the pre-prepared muck sold in today's pub chains. Well, you'd be very disappointed.

Advances in food technology in the 1960s were taking the pain out of pub catering. The aim seemingly to remove all actual cooking from the process. It all sounds wonderful.

Basic essentials. An essential consideration is cost that doesn't add value — cost of marketing, preparation, wastage and cooking. To which may be added possible overwork for a licensee's wife or, if the call for food is high, the problems associated with a kitchen staff. Fortunately, advances in food processing by forward-looking manufacturers have eliminated all previous barriers to pub meals. There are now no foods that cannot be obtained in oven-ready and convenience pack form-from snacks to full haute cuisine meals.

These prepared foods may be in chilled or deep-frozen form, accelerated freeze or air dried, canned and otherwise packaged: in convenience packs properly apportioned to suit the formula of the meal and the number of persons served. Preparation is simple and quick. Explanatory instructions are given by the manufacturers who also are only too pleased to render assistance in the planning of meals.

Of equal importance is minimal kitchen equipment. Basic requirements are for a low temperature storage cabinet; a refrigerator for short-term storage of perishable foods; a cooker with boiling rings, a micro-wave oven, a deep fat frier; equipment for hot snacks; a washing and drying machine. Some of these must be available, whilst others are needed according to the products handled.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 58.

Note the assumption that the landlord's wife would have to do the cooking. A bit of casual sexism for you there.

Quite a bit of kit was still needed. Though no more than you would find in most kitchens today. Not sure why they called a freezer a "low temperature storage cabinet". Because I'm certain that's what they meant.

What sort of food was being prepared? A full three-course meal could be assembled from processed foods. With no processing more complicated than boiling water required.

There are 15 flavours in the Heinz-Erin range of air-dried soups, including all the favourites. They are simply added to the water, brought to the boil and simmered for 15 to 20 minutes with an occasional stir. The equipment needed is a gas or electric range for preparation service bain-marie on the counter for service.

For main-courses, Heinz-Erin market five casserole-type dishes in ten-portion packs. They are smoked fish, vegetable and prawn curry, chicken curry, savoury beef with vegetables and beef curry. Preparation of each is the same as for the soup mixes, as is also keeping in a bain-marie for service. Each may be served with Heinz-Erin patna rice and one of the vegetables from this concern’s range of air-dried or canned vegetables.

Also produced is the means for making Pizza pie, unique by virtue of the fact that for the first time this attractive snack may be prepared quickly and economically from a packet. The product is a complete pizza pie containing tomatoes, anchovies, capers, oragana, herbs and spices. Tailored to suit the British palate, this full savoury is ready to eat in twenty minutes. Each carton contains a can of pizza sauce and a sachet of powdered dough mix.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 60.

Tinned and packet food. That's exactly what I want when I go out for a meal. "Tailored to suit the British palate" doesn't bode well for the authenticity of the pizza.

There was another big reason pubs would go for this approach. In addition to the convenience. Cost.

Economics are indicated by typical menus taken from the Heinz catering range. A snack comprising a bowl of soup, slice of Pizza pie and coffee has a selling price of about 4s. 9d., for a materials cost of approximately 1s. 7d. A light meal comprising a bowl of soup or fruit juice, a casserole type dish served with rice and one vegetable, and coffee could sell at a minimum price of 6s. 9d. The materials cost here is approximately 2s. 8d. Labour and heating costs are not accounted, but these should not make great inroads into the high margin of profit available.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 60.

Those are huge markups: 19d (1s. 7d.) to 57d (4s. 9d) and 32d (2s. 8d.) to 81d (6s. 9d.). Which must have been very attractive to a landlord. AS well as the lack of cooking needed.
 

What annoys you most about pub snacks?

In 1970, the Brewers' Guardian interviewed three customers about pub food. It gives us a little insight into the attitudes of publicans and diners.

At least that's what I'm going to claim. The reality is that I've a couple of weeks of travelling coming up and I need to string out a stack of posts before I go. Maybe I should make this interactive. You can tell me what you find annoying about pub snacks.

I'll go first. Not enough of them, too expensive. My favourite? A simple hard-boiled egg. Which is something you find in old-fashioned Amsterdam pubs.

What annoys you most about pub snacks?
(a) Well, it's terribly difficult to generalise, of course, but I suppose my pet hate about pub snacks or meals is the awful smell of cooking that hangs around some bars. It hits you as soon as you walk in the place and if you stay for any length of time you can smell it on your clothes when you get home. I don't mean all pubs are like this, but there are plenty of them and when I come across one I can't even drink there, let alone have something to eat.

(b) Apart from the obvious things, like bad hygiene, I think what I dislike most is that one can never really tell how long the food has been standing in the warming cabinet. It’s easy enough to spot a curled up sandwich or a piece of mouldy cheese but if you fancy shepherd's pie or sausages I am put off by the thought that they may have been re-heated from the morning session. Perhaps I am too nervous.

(c) I would say that 99 per cent of pub snacks are really good value for money, but occasionally you can be grossly overcharged for a sandwich in a pub. I went into a pub in the West End [of London] the other day and was charged 3s. 6d. for a cheese and tomato sandwich and the only tomato I found in it was a few pieces of skin. I don't know how some of them get away with it.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 56.

It's weird complaining about the small of food at a time when pubs were blue with fag smoke. How could you have even smelled the food?

Sometimes it's best not to think too much about what the food might have been through before hitting your plate. Just like in Wetherspoons. Who knows what horrors might have befallen it.

Let's put that 3s. 6d (17.5p) into context. The average price of a pint of Bitter in 1970 was 10.7p. Making that spartan cheese and toamto the equivalent of seven or eight quid today.

We'll move along to the next question.

Do you ever go to a pub for an evening meal? If so what special features do you look for?
(a) I never go on spec., as it were. If I have been recommended to a pub or inn then most certainly I will go, but in general I do not like eating in a room separate from the atmosphere of the pub. I like to be in amongst the noise and entertainment, which after all is a good slice of the attraction at the pub.

(b) No. If I want to eat out then I will go into a proper restaurant where the preparation of food is their whole livelihood and not just an extremely profitable sideline. Apart from this, I feel that there is not enough variation on a pub's menu to warrant it. Roast beef and steak seems to be about the usual limit, whichever language they print it in. Also pubs that serve decent sweets are few and far between.

(c) Yes I do. There are some very nice little restaurants above pubs or in annexes to them. If one is prepared to be adventurous, spend some time searching and, perhaps, be prepared to make a mistake or two. then I think the search can be rewarding. One small complaint is that many pubs, especially in towns, only cater for the lunch-time crowd. If a snack is available in the evening it is often re-heated from the lunch-time session.

I'll answer this one. No. Well, maybe I have at sometime in the past. But I can't think of an occasion off the top of my head. In contrast, I've eaten meals at midday loads of times.

I agree with Mr. a. If I'm in a pub, I want to feel like I'm in a pub. Not a restaurant.

Food in 1970s pubs

Rising living standards after WW II led to an increased demand for food in pubs. Though the form that food took varied considerably. From cold snacks to full meals.

In 1970, the head of Watney Mann’s catering department, Mr. F. MacPhillips, identified four different categories of pub food:

1.    Full meals.
2.    Speciality restaurants, such as steak or fish.
3.    Warm snacks.
4.    Cold snacks. 

The latter two of these categories being the most common.

Brewers were in an odd position when it came to food. In tenanted houses, they had no direct financial interest in the catering. As it was run purely by the tenant. However, knowing that the provision of food encouraged custom, and hence beer sales. So, food did benefit brewers indirectly. In managed houses, however, the catering was run by the brewery, as was everything else.

Customers weren’t totally satisfied with pub meals. Especially the prices. This punter had some harsh words on the subject:

But some of the prices charged are really monstrous. Publicans obviously use this side of their trade to pay for their holidays or the wife's new fur coat. They seem to push the prices to their limit, like they do with foreign lagers. And when they do attempt to keep the price down either the meals shrink or the plates get bigger something happens to the size of the portions anyway.
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, May 1970, page 56.

Another complaint was that, as most urban pubs concentrated on serving food at lunchtime, in the evenings everything had been reheated. Insufficient seating meant meals and snacks often had to consumed in crowded conditions or even standing up.
 

The food value of beer

One of the things teperance nutcases kept banging on about was the destruction of food in producing alcoholic beverages.

Especially in wartime. They saw it as a handy excuse to press for total prohibition. Excpet there's one massive flaw in the argument: turning grain into beer doesn't destroy its food value.

The article below gives the Food Controllers detailed response to this allegation. While at the same time refusing to allow more beer to be brewed in munitions areas.

"FOOD VALUE OF BEER
OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON VEXED POINT.
Aberavon, Port Talbot, and District Licensed Viituallers’ Association forwarded the Food Controller a resolution pointing out the fact that a large number men had been brought to their district on war work, and that the restriction of the output of beer, therefore, caused greater hardship to the locality than was the case in districts where the adult male population had been greatly reduced by recruiting and migration to munition areas.

In reply the Ministry of Food stated that the various questions arising out of the consumption alcoholic beverages and the materials used in their manufacture were constantly occupying the attention of the Ministry. Having set out the Various representations made on the subject, the letter adds:—

In view of these conflicting representations, a careful survey has been made of all facts of the case, and the following conclusions have resulted:-

1. The present consumption the manufacture of alcoholic beverages less than one-third of the consumption in the pre-war period. This is due  (1) to the limitation of brewing, and (2) to the  prohibition of the distillation spirits. The effect has been to reduce the average alcoholic content of beer by nearly 30 per cent., and a considerable quantity beer at present brewed now contains only about 2 per cent. of absolute alcohol, as compared with 1 per cent. which is permitted non-intoxicating beverages.

2. The total waste of food due to the use of grain and saccharine substances in brewing at the present restricted rate is somewhat less than per cent. of the total food supply of the ration, or about equivalent to one week’s total of food in full year. This result is arrived at by crediting to beer only the solid food which it contains and allowing no food value to alcohol. As between the use of grain in brewing and the production of meat or milk, solid food recovered in brewing (excluding the alcohol) is about twice great that recovered in meat or milk from the same quantity of grain. This due to the fact that the conversion grain into meat or milk only between one-sixth and one-fourth of the food value of the grain is recovered in the meat or milk. The prohibition

3. The prohibition of brewing would involve immediately the substitution of other beverages in the dietary those who at present consume beer, and since food material is used in most beverages the whole of the materials used in brewing could not be saved unless all beer drinkers substituted water as a beverage.

The actual saving, if any, would be the difference between the food materials used in brewing and that which would be consumed in other beverages such as tea, coffee, and cocoa, with added milk and sugar. If additional supplies of these commodities were not obtainable, the increased consumption of them in re-placement of beer would lessen the present supply available for non-beer drinkers and especially for women and children.

The estimated domestic consumption of milk in fluid gallons in the pre-war period was considerably greater than the present bulk of beer brewed. Probably at present it is approximately the same, viz., at the rate of about half a pint per head per day of the entire population, men, women, and children.

If the total grain used in brewing at present were all diverted to milking cows or used to re-place other foodstuffs used for milk production, the additional milk supply could probably be increased by about 23 per cent., on the other hand, a corresponding or possibly greater quantity might be consumed in tea, coffee, and cocoa used in re-placement of beer. The saccharine substances used in brewing are not of kind which are at present used for domestic purposes, and even if they Could all be diverted to other food uses than brewing, they would provide less than 1 oz. per week per head of the whole population.

4. The question whether, in case it becomes necessary to ration bread, there should be a deduction from the bread ration corresponding to the beer consumed by individuals, and, indeed, the subject of alternative rations generally, is being fully considered. It is thought by some authorities that any scheme of alternative rations to beer should aim at putting the various classes of consumers on a level in respect to beverages rather than to make beer and bread alternative. In this connection it is obvious that the needs of women and children would require be safeguarded as far as possible. The considerations above noted make it doubtful whether this would result from the further limitation of the supply of beer.

5. The reply to the contention that the present quantity of beer is inadequate is that any increased supply would inevitably under existing conditions involve less of other foodstuffs, and would, therefore, inflict hardship upon the non-beer drinking population. The maintenance of the food supply at its present level is already a matter of considerable difficulty, and it is therefore, quite impossible to increase the supply of any commodity involving use foodstuffs to any particular section of the community. It will be obvious that the problems involved are of a very intricate character, but in any case the principle of, equity to all classes of the population will be considered far as is practicable. Mutual toleration must be exercised by all classes, and especially between those whose habits in the consumption of food and drink are at present widely divergent.

Any measures considered necessary will be devised with a view to the conclusion the war, and the Food Controller relies on all classes to comply with them in this spirit."
Western Mail - Tuesday 09 April 1918, page 3.

It had crossed my mind before that with millions of youn men out of the country, a big proportion of beer drinkers were gone. You would expect a smaller supply of beer to have been adequate. Unless, of course, like Port Talbot or Carlisle, the population had been swollen by an influx of minutions workers.

Even - unfoundedly, in my opinion - excluding the food value of the alcohol, it was still more efficient to grain grain into beer than into milk. Pretty obvious, when you think about it. A lot of the food value is used to keep the cows warm and moving around. That's one of the reasons meat production was so limited during WW II. The government knew it was an inefficient use of scarce food resources.

That beer drinkers would have to find a replacement drink if there was no beer is not a point I'd considered before. It makes sense, though. Both for refreshment and for nourishment.

There were many in government during WW I - espcially in Lloyd George's own Liberal party - who were sympathetic to the temperance cause. Thankfully, the pragmatists were victorious over the ideologues and beer continued to be brewed. The effect on morale - as Churchill realised in WW II - would have been disastrous.

Mexico

Grant is a little late. I’ve been hanging around on the porch for 20 minutes when he trundles up.

He comes bearing gifts. In beer form. The best form there is. There’s a growler of Bohemian Summer Beer and a bottle of East India Porter. Both my recipes. Notice how many Lager recipes of mine have been popping up in San Diego. There’s a reason for that. Which I may tell you one day. When the scars have healed.

It doesn’t take long to get to the border. We’re quickly through. A border guard checks our passports and looks in the boot. A dog comes a sniffing. Then we’re in Mexico. Directly into the chaos of Tijuana.

We take to the motorway which runs right up against the border. It’s pretty eerie. The twin fences, no-man’s land a proximity of a built up area conjures up an image from the past. The Berlin Wall. Except this one is to keep people out rather than keep them in.

We’re headed south. To Ensenada where there are a couple of breweries where Grant knows the brewer. The landscape is much the same as the other side of the border. The buildings are very different. More random. Shacks and palaces intermingling like a cosmopolitan football crowd.

Part of the route is lined with shops selling ceramics a weird metal statues of dinosaurs. What exactly do you do with a 2-metre tall T. Rex? Is it meant for in- or outdoors? I'm weirdly tempted to buy one. Just as well it's 100% impractical.

I’ve been to a lot of breweries in the last few years. In all sorts of buildings. But never one assembled from containers. As Aquamala is.

It’s owned by a friendly couple, who show us around and feed us beer. It’s a fairly small operation. In the taproom on the first floor there’s a view of the Pacific and a cooling breeze. It’s cool in both senses of the word. The garden leading to the sea supplies various ingredients for their beers. I’m impressed by their blackberries. Already ripe.

Water can be a problem. They use the town supply and that’s pretty erratic. Which is why they have a large tank filled with water. So they can still brew when the mains water is cut off. I can see brewing this side of the border brings extra challenges. Though water is likely to a problem soon in California, too.

Next stop is Wendlandt, also in Ensenada. It’s a bigger affair in more conventional business premises. The brewer shows us around and pours us beer from the conicals. It’s pretty nice stuff. Even the one hopped with Mosaic. A hop I thought I didn’t like.

“Why is the brewery called Wendlandt?” I ask Eugenio, the owner and brewer. It doesn’t sound very Spanish. “It was my grandmother’s surname.” That’s fair enough.

Eugenio suggests we grab some lunch at a restaurant in the fish market, appropriately enough in the fishing harbour. A couple of his friends are drinking beer outside. The restaurant is popular. Too popular: we’ll have to wait more than an hour for a table. So instead we go to Boules, a restaurant owned by another of his friends.

The people we met outside tag along. More friends and family turn up. Including Eugenio's wife and cute baby son. Eventually we’re a party of nine, sitting in a garden restaurant. there's no menu crap. The waiters just bring out a series of dishes that we share. One of our party who own a vineyard pours wine from unlabelled bottles. Pretty nice stuff, deep red and powerful.

The meal is a combination of meat and seafood. Crab, oysters, steak, lamb shank, wonderful sausages wrapped in vegeables and a flour tortilla and suaces. Three sauces: hot, hell and Hiroshima.

That's the hot one.

It’s one of the best meals I’ve eaten in years.

This isn’t the Mexico you see on TV. It’s a much calmer, more relaxed place. When I ask the population of Ensenada I’m told: “It’s a small city. Just half a million people.” Odd how the perception of town size varies. Someone in North Carolina was shocked when I called Newark, with a population of 35,000, a small town. She considered that pretty big.

On the way back to Tijuana, Grant suggests we stop at a grocery store he knows. It has a huge selection of tequila and mescal. It sounds like the perfect place to pick up a present for Andrew. The shop is bizarre. From the outside it just looks like a little grocery store. But hidden at the back there’s another room. Crammed with every type of booze. Un smacking my gob takes a while.

After much hesitation, I grab a bottle of mescal. It’s not something you see much of in Amsterdam. I wonder about how I should pay for it, as I don’t have enough pesos. Then I notice that the Mexicans in front of me pay with a combination of pesos and dollars. Seems to be perfectly normal. I do the same.

We’re going to drop by a couple of places in Tijuana. Grant has no satnav, but a brewer has drawn a simple little map. We just need to find a roundabout with a statue of Moctezuma. From there it should be a doddle. As long as we can find Hot Water Boulevard. A plan which seems in a city that finds street signs optional hugely optimistic.

Tijuana is a big city, with a population of well over a million. Amazingly, it works. We find Moctezuma and from there it’s not too difficult. I can't believe it. Hours of hopeful, but ultimately futile, city circling was my expectation.

First off is beer bar BCB. Inside it’s dark, upmarket and with a crowd of staff filling up the space behind the bar. The selection of beer – mostly US and Mexican, but with stuff from all over the world – is impressive. And not too pricey. I’m slightly surprised at Grant’s choice of an Imperial Stout, given that he’s driving.

We only stay for a couple before crossing the road to Verde y Crema, a rather nice restaurant. We sit at the bar and chat with the owner and barman. It has a decent beer selection, mostly fairly local Mexican stuff. I’m rather surprised to see Tennent’s Scotch Ale in the fridge. I didn’t realise they still brewed that.

We don’t eat much. Lunch was too large and too recent for that. But the food is again excellent. It seems Baja California has reinvented itself. Now American tourists, on the hunt for cheap booze, don’t come in the same numbers, the region has concentrated on becoming a culinary destination. Better-off Mexicans from other parts of the country come here for it excellent food and wine. And beer. It’s an eye-opener. Mexico is very different in real life to its image in the media.

Finding the border is a challenge. The signs indicating where it is seem designed to make you drive around in circles. We pass the same roundabouts several times before we finally make it. The queue is like an outdoor market, with people selling everything from hats to hammers. It’s quite late and we don’t need to wait long. Thankfully. I’m feeling pretty tired.

Tomorrow I fly back to San Francisco. But not until the evening, leaving me several hours to full somehow. What could I possibly do?




Cervecería Artesanal Aguamala
México 3
22760 Ensenada, B.C.
Mexico
http://aguamala.com.mx/?lang=en


Wendlandt Cerveceria
Boulevard Costero,
Carretera Federal  1 248,
Zona Centro,
22870 Ensenada, B.C.,
Mexico.
http://wendlandt.com.mx/



Boules
Moctezuma 623,
Ensenada 22800,
Mexico.


BCB Tasting Room
Orizaba 10335,
Neidhart, Centro,
22020 Tijuana, B.C.
Mexico.


Verde y Crema
Orizaba 3034
Col. Neidhart
Tijuana, B.C.
Mexico
http://verdeycrema.com/

The food value of beer

I'm drawing more water from the well of that article about the food value of beer. But this time it's the text rather than the atbles that I'm using as a source.

One of the things that most annoys me about temperance campaigners - and there's lots to get annoyed about - was their claim that turning barley into beer "destroyed" food. Total and utter bollocks, even ignoring the nutritional aspect of beer, the spent grain still has food value for livestock. But, lioke many fanatical organisation, logic and reason were foreign to the teetotallers.

My belly is testimony to the food content of beer. You should see how little I eat. (I realise that's implying how much I drink.)

Another annoyance is their ridiculous "drinks bill", which was based on the preise that anuy money spent on beer was "wasted", effectively thrown away. Conveniently ignoring those who found employment brewing and selling beer and earned their living from this money.

I'll stop now. They really were a bunch of total twats. Who sadly seem to be making a comeback.

First, a definition of food:

"A food has been defined as "Anything which, when taken into the body, is capable of repairing its waste, or of furnishing it with material from which to produce heat or nervous and muscular work." From this definition, which is perhaps as good a one as can be given, it will be seen that the two main functions of food are (1) to provide for the growth and constant repair of the body tissues, and (2) to produce energy.

So far as the second of these two important functions is concerned it should be pointed out that carbohydrates and proteins are equally producers of heat and energy. One, but by no means the only important test of the value of any material as a food stuff, is the amount of heat (energy) which a certain weight or a certain volume of it is capable of yielding to the body when consumed."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 38, Issue 1, January-February 1932, page 85.

Simple, eh? Provide energy or fix up the body.

A lot of the calories in beer, of course, come in the entertaining form of alcohol. Here's somethuing about the food value of it:

"In addition to the carbohydrates and the relatively small proportion of nitrogenous matter contained in beer, there is, of course, the alcohol which has to be considered in estimating the food value of the beer. It has been shown experimentally, and is, I believe, generally admitted, that alcohol in moderate doses — up to the amount contained, for example, in one quart of beer — is completely burned in the body. This combustion, like that of carbohydrates and protein, necessarily liberates energy, and can be made to support the active functions of the body.

Alcohol when taken reduces the consumption of fat and carbohydrate in the body, and is itself oxidized yielding heat and energy. Of this there would appear to be no doubt, and it is obvious that alcohol is entitled to be regarded as a food in the scientific sense of the word. On this point, Hutchison, a medical man, and a recognised authority on dietetics, says: "As regards the general influence of alcohol on metabolism we may safely conclude (1) that it is burned up in the body, sparing fat and carbohydrate in the process, and that (2) the weight of evidence is in favour of the view that it has an important power on diminishing nitrogenous waste." Alcohol being therefore a food in the sense that it is a producer of heat and energy, its calorie value has to be taken into account in arriving at the food value of beer. From careful experiments it is known that the complete oxidation of one gramme of alcohol in the body produces heat equal to seven calories, and this is the figure taken in calculating the food value of the beer samples dealt with in this statement of evidence. From this figure it can be shown that one ounce of alcohol is equivalent, so far as heat production is concerned, to one ounce of butter.
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 38, Issue 1, January-February 1932, page 86.

I'm sure the assertion that "alcohol is entitled to be regarded as a food in the scientific sense of the word" was meant to be used as ammunition aginst the temperance lobby.

One ounce of alcohol equal to one ounce of butter in terms of calories? There's something I didn't know.

Alcohol is far better food than bread, in that it can be converted into energy more quickly and efficiently than, say, a loaf of bread.

"It will be understood in connection with the results I have given that the food value of the alcohol in beer is based on its heat or energy producing properties alone. As a food constituent alcohol stands on a some what different basis from that of carbohydrate, protein or fat inasmuch as when taken in moderate quantities it is rapidly and completely oxidized in the body, and so becomes quickly available for the production of energy but not for tissue building. It acts, however, as a sparer of carbohydrate and fat, and possibly of protein, and in this way serves indirectly as a true food, that is, a substance which contributes to build up the tissues of the body."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 38, Issue 1, January-February 1932, page 88.

Beer made up an important part of the diet or working-class men. See what a modest two pints a day yielded:

"Taking the average number of calories needed by a man doing moderate work at 3,000-3,500 a day it will be seen that 2 pints of beer with an average calorie value of, say, 250 per pint and therefore yielding 500 calories, contribute from one-sixth to one-seventh of the total energy needed daily.

So far as it is possible to measure the utility of a food by its calorie value it may be said that a quart of good average beer contains nearly as much energy value as half a pound of bread, two-thirds of a pound of beef and over one pound of potatoes. Quoting again from Hutchison "The large quantity of carbohydrate matter in malt liquors renders them the most truly nourishing of alcoholic drinks.""
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 38, Issue 1, January-February 1932, page 88.

Two pints of beer was the equivalent of about half a meal to a working man. Or half a pounfd of bread or a pound of spuds.  I'll take the beer, please.

Thinking about that more, a 6-pint session would get you half of your required daily calories. Have a proper 12-pint binge and you wouldn't need to eat at all.

Remember this is based on British beer of the early 1930's, which avergaed about 4.3% ABV.

Schlenkerla Eiche and stuffed cabbage

My tea. What could be more interesting? It fascinates me, dominating my thoughts from just after breakfast until just before tea.

Sharing is a very positive word. Couple it with fascination for my tea and what do you have? A beer and food pairing! That I'm sharing!

I just scored some Schlenkerla Eiche. I've been told the smoke character is very different from their other beers.

"Still smells like bacon to me, dad."

"Give it a taste, Andrew, and tell me what you think."

"No dad. I'm ill." [Exit Andrew in wheelchair.]

"How do you think the smoke in the beer goes with the food, Dolores?"

"I told you I don't like smoked beer. Why do you make me try it?"[Dolores takes a sip.] "Happy?"

"Does it go with the food?"

"I'd have cooked Schweinehaxe if I wanted bacon."

"I'd call that complementary."

"Call it what you want, I'm not drinking any more. Can I eat my food now? It's gone cold while you've been taking all those stupid photographs."

The acrid smokiness of Schlenkerla Eiche, like the smell of cordite floating over the trenches of the Somme, perfectly complements the stuffed cabbaginess of the stuffed cabbage.

"How's that Dolores? Does that sum up the flavour combination?"

"Write want you want, Ronald. I'm eating. Lexie will get yours if you don't hurry up."

"I'll take that as a yes."

My Franconian meals

"Dad, why did you photograph all your meals?" "Because I'm certifiable. No . . . . it's for a blog post. Yes, that's it. . . . Eat your pasta."

My holiday meals. What could possibly excite you more? Basket weaving? Curling? Arsenal? The Proms? Eastenders? IPA? Proust? Showers? Sun? Sea? Bathing suits? The first cuckoo of Spring? Thomas Mann?

Compared to all of those, it's bollock-tightening stuff. (In a good way.)

Don't expect any explanation. Except to say that arm is Mike's. Unless it's mine. I'm much fatter and older than he is. No prizes for spotting when it's me.

I missed a few meals. Sorry. Promise to do better next time. Hunger sometimes triumphed. You don't get to be my size by fasting.

I snapped my beers, too. Most of them. There must be something wrong with me. You would let me know if I went crazy, wouldn't you?

It will improve. Word of honour. Tomorrow's post isn't bad. When we get to day three, well, what can I say?That's when I went to heaven. Without the inconvenience of dying.

But I shouldn't give away too much. Those professionals done learned me a thing or two. Tension. Teasing. Timidity. Topiary. Alliteration. Exciting eternal expectation.

Or just getting you to read tomorrow's post.