Big British Food Map A peek around Peterborough

Date Published:

15/09/2008

Andrew popped to Peterborough for a bite of pork pie

Melton Mowbray Pork Pies - soon to be protected by the EU

Dorothy posted a short review of Dickinson and Morris, the famous pork pie shop in Molton Mowbray, to the Map. But I had another reason for dropping in last week. You see, the Melton Mowbray pork pie has, as of this weekend, taken one step closer to meeting EU regulation 2081/92, or PGI (Protected Geographical Indication). I nipped in to the shop for a chat with Stephen Hallam who, along with others, has fought for this for over 11 years.
There's a celebration happening about this momentous event at the East Midlands Food Festival on the 5th and 6th of October and I intend to be there where I'll give you a more indepth report. In the meantime, as it's British food week, what other British food do you think should get a protected status? Cornish pasty? Haggis? Chip butty? Opal fruits?... let me know at bigfoodmap@channel4.com. And if anyone fancies meeting up at the food festival and having a beer, I'm in.

Like father like daughter

Jeanieallergy added D B Freeman & Daughters to the Map saying: "The sausages are worth driving 120 miles for!" Well I've done 9125 miles on this trip so far, and can confirm that they're a pretty good banger. They're made with shoulder pork, 16lb of lean to 4lb of fat, 4lb of rusk and 8oz of seasoning. The daughters in question, Kim and Tania, are fifth generation butchers, and seeing a woman butchering is a rare sight indeed.

Ford's food for thought

Yesterday I had tea with Brian J Ford, a scientist who wrote a book called Future Food back in 2000. It's a good read, I recommend it. Anyway, I photographed Brian back in July 2007 and we've stayed in touch ever since. He used to present a show called Food for Thought on Channel 4 way way back in 1984, when the Channel was still in nappies and I was still in shorts. So it's fair to say he knows his onions when it comes to food and science and matters of the mind.
We talked over a range of topics, such as raw milk, local foods, GM crops, creationism, The Large Hadron Collider, and the history of East Anglia. It was a very enjoyable two hours.

Today I spent the morning exploring the village of Holt in Norfolk. A nose round revealed P&S Butchers who'd just got the first of the new season's game in. Partridge, pigeon were present, as well as the more obscure, but just as interesting, teal and hare - all from local shoots. I got chatting to joint owner, Simon Wade. "We did over 16,000 game birds last year," says Simon. It seems the people of Norfolk remain fans of fowl.
The shop is well stocked and offers customers choice. Take guinea fowl, for instance, which for the inexperienced is an easy way to try something gamey. "We say it's like a cross between a chicken and a pheasant," says Simon. Not only that, but they offer just the breasts as a supreme cut, meaning you get just the breast meat and you can even cook it in a pan or under the grill. So there's no excuse for not trying something new. "We're seeing a lot more younger people come in looking for something new and different," says Simon which is also good news.

Coffee on the coast

Visited Cookies Crab shop yesterday for some grand seafood. Afterwards I went for a long walk along the beach. I love beaches out of season, they're so peaceful. Unless of course two RAF Tornadoes are practising dog fighting overhead. It somewhat ruined the tranquility. Anyway after a while I found this fella selling coffee so bought one to warm myself up a bit. I asked him how business was: "It's OK, there's been a few dog walkers and bird watchers drop by." He didn't seem to have a care in the world.

Last week Andrew was in Leicestershire.

Next he's off to Norfolk.

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