Kerala

Very cool. Weird that in Kerala where we use every bit of the coconut tree for everything, we don't do this.

Now hungry!

Love a bit of Marmite.

Sandwiches were egg mayonnaise, salmon, ham and coronation chicken. Sweets were date cake with crystalline ginger and butter cream topping, a cookie, chocolate brownie with honeycomb, scones, strawberry cheesecake. Clotted cream and strawberry jam out of shot. The coronation chicken was the surprising winner of the savouries, the cookies and cheesecakes fighting for first in the sweets. Unlimited sandwiches! so we had extra coronation chicken sandwiches, and had to bring back a lot of the sweets in boxes.

Afternoon tea at Tom Brown's in East Bridgford near Nottingham. Savoury sandwiches on the benches, scones and cakes on the table top set upon a green "lawn." Various teas. Kitsch, but delicious and generous.

That looks like an amazing 3 day trip! Hit after hit after hit! It makes me want to add a couple of days in Washington when I finally travel to the USA again.

@Norm Matthewsi I'd go for that most days of the week!

We had friends over. Starter was fried chicken. Main course was lamb biriyani. And tarte Tatin to finish, cos, why not?

Bacon, egg, toast. I buttered the toast, which is unusual for me, and of course it tasted better. The dark bits are crumbled fried chillies. With a moka coffee.

Shepherd's pie from the freezer, with lamb chops just because I really like this meat!

Well, the nutrition facts are funny. Ingredients list is hard to quite believe. Proof's in the puddn': how did it taste?

Uhm... the white bits are feta cheese. Tasted phenomenal with that dressing. And that hunger! _

Seared sea bass with leaves, tomatoes, sparkling water and a ton of sunshine! I made a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and mustard. The whole experience was fabulous, especially after two hours of paperwork and then an hour at the gym and then the pool. Hunger is definitely the best sauce!

That is reassuring. I'll be more adventurous next time I'm there!

My buddy Nigel is over for the weekend. I made the bangers and mash, which looked pretty standard, and Nige made this Yorkshire pudding. Lots of gravy to go with it!

Roast chicken last night so chicken soup for lunch. My mate Nigel is over for the weekend. He's a chef and he just looked at the leek and carrots and they fell apart diced!

I crumbled some fried chillies over these after grilling. Nice with a cup of tea.

Perpignan has been added to The List!

@liuzhou The sardines shown in the documentary and the model sardines at the museum were larger than any I've ever bought in a tin. Having said that, the sardines I've had fresh and grilled in Portugal were larger.

@heidih I am worried that we are harvesting them young.

The museum is about 2/3+ devoted to the sardine canning history. There's a Portuguese black and white documentary shot back in the 50's that feels like a jolly Pathe newsreel, subtitled in English and French. The process shown is very close to the Pinhais factory clips earlier in this thread, so Pinhais at least is staying true to tradition. It's very worrying how much smaller current day sardines are compared to what we see in the documentary and in the representations at the museum.

One of the things I love eating in Portugal is grilled sardines, but they seem to be out of season. I took a day trip to Portamao. The main museum is the converted La Rose sardine canning factory. The tins were stamped and shaped from the sheet metal right on site. , Very interesting museum, great walking through the factory and touching the actual machines. Sardines seemed to have been much plumper in those days. Anyway, I picked up a couple a few La Rose tins from the local supermarket. The wife says I eat a can in a day, so it will only take me a couple of weeks to get through this lot!

The Pinhais above was beautiful with fresh crusty bread and local butter. All my girls are crazy for the bread and the butter!

Well I'm back! I'm back at my mate Eddie's in Portugal, with the family this time. If I squeeze in a can a day it will be breakfast and snacks. I've brought check-in luggage, so i hope to bring back quite a bit of stuff of various sorts.

I just use a plate.