“The secret of a happy life is to know when to stop—and then go that bit further.”
—Inspector Morse, classic British television police crime solver
The very least I could do during two weeks spent in England’s lovely West Country was to ingest my gout medicine each and every morning without fail—preferably washed down with a pint of cask-conditioned Bitter from one of those pubs nearby, already dispensing it, but in a pinch, grudgingly conceding the utility of mere tap water.
Yes, I know: Fish do IT in THAT.
The solution? Eat more fish, especially with chips.
Somewhere a health fanatic reads and brays with dismay, but have no fear. It’s only despairing, defeatist clatter of the sort Winston Churchill wouldn’t have countenanced, even after his morning bottle of champagne, and these naysayers are inaudible to me, fully muffled by the cacophonous sizzle of a traditional English breakfast frying atop the stove, even that waxy tomato from Tesco’s, because it is destined for maximum exposure to hot oil just like all the rest.
Queue the Elgar, and consider this partial list of foodstuffs joyfully consumed during my holiday, including both local “English” fare and widely available culinary options borrowed from elsewhere.
Anchovies fillets (fresh)
Bacon
Baked beans
Bangers and mash
Black pudding (i.e., blood sausage)
Cornish pasties
Crab sandwiches
Egg rolls
Falafel
Fish pie (not Stargazy pie, alas)
Gajrati (regional vegetarian Indian)
Haddock and chips
Pie, mash, eel and liquor (the latter is gravy)
Pizza (loaded)
Smoked salmon
Spanish tapas
Steak & kidney pie
Thai red curry
Yorkshire pudding
Alas, I digress.
It generally is my custom to entertain and inform in purely fermentable measures of prose, and yet on this English holiday in July, 2013, I found it quite unthinkable to separate the culinary from the ale-mentary.
Overall, ways of the new were not my objective, and I did not search for top chefs flashing their own branded aprons and sauces. Rather, my task was to focus on the glories of the much maligned traditional English table, and to accompany them with the native genius for classic ale-making.
Mission accomplished.
First, let’s review the liquidity to be found in a reference volume.
Just after purchasing plane tickets, and before any other arrangements had been made, I purchased the essential book for ale hunting in the United Kingdom: “Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide,” edited by Roger Protz, and fully revised for publication each year (and yes, there now is an app).
CAMRA is the beer world’s oldest...Read more
