Big British Food Map Essex eats

Date Published:

15/09/2008

Andrew's eating like an Essex girl - make that an Essex boy

Hot water bottles are much better than patio heaters

Visited the Maldon Deli at the weekend, added to the Map by Jon. He's right about the friendly and jolly staff. There were loads of little things that impressed me about the place. First off, the seating outside. Each chair has a blanket and a hot water bottle with a knitted cover. If you are a little chilly, bring it in and they'll fill it. "We didn't want those horrible patio heaters that destroy the planet," says owner Liz Murphy who came up with the great idea. Another one of Liz's brainwaves is the take-home pizza. You buy the frozen dough and sauce, and then select your toppings from the deli counter. When you get home you simply roll it out, sauce it and pop your toppings on. Another nice touch is the Deli baby food range she stocks, made by 'an actual mum', called Kate. I'll be back to try some of new girl Catherine's all ready legendary coleslaw.

Pomegranates weren't on the menu when I was at school

Gordon added Five a Day Fruit & Vegetables Ltd to the Map, waxing lyrical about their exotic fruit selection. I went along to meet owner, Darren Bacon, to find out more. It turns out that Darren has sold the shop in Ongar and concentrated the business on the wholesale side of things. What's more, there's no stockroom to look at either, everything is bought from the market that morning and delivered that day. "You don't want veg hanging about," says Darren. Five a Day supplies a lot of schools in the area. "We've seen the effect of Jamie's School Dinners," says Darren, highlighting that the cooks - and the kids - are getting more adventurous. Darren's always on the look out for interesting veg at the market, limequats, baby pineapples, different types of mango and even ugly fruit. If you want to try some of Darren's carefully sourced produce and don't attend primary school in the Chelmsford area, then try a canteen in the city whom Darren supplies.

Sluurp, ahhhh. A perfect pint.

There was an interesting article in Tuesday's G2 highlighting that five pubs a day are closing in the UK, with the 'tied' system coming in for particular stick. This is nothing new however, in The Local - A history of the English Pub author, Paul Jennings, talks about pub closures being a problem as far back as 1907. As you've probably realised by now, I'm a huge fan of pubs, so this comes as worrying news. On the plus side you've added over 300 pubs and bars to the Map as your favourite places, so are obviously still frequenting them on a regular basis. Finally if you've ever wondered about setting up your own, check out Risky Business starring Neil Morrissey which starts on Channel 4 next week.

Emergency stop, emergency puke

Urgh... Seem to have had a bit of a stomach bug which came on suddenly on Wednesday - very suddenly, in fact. In 30 minutes I went from feeling a bit gassy to having to perform an emergency stop for a tactical puke! Ewwww. Sure it was just one of those things that 'goes around' and that you can catch anywhere. Still, nothing a bit of a lie down, a read of the papers and a slug of Pepto-Bismol couldn't fix. Maybe I should have made ice cream out of it like this guy. Anyway this is all a bit gross, normal service will resume shortly - I thank you.

Take cover

Returned to the silver chariot to find the local bird population had used it for target practice during the night, the buggers! And so, after a trip to the car wash, it's so long Essex, over the Dartford Crossing and on to Kent.

Last week Andrew was in Cambridge.

Then he moved on to the South Coast.

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