Big British Food Map An East Anglian feast

Date Published:

15/09/2008

Andrew arrived in East Anglia ready to feast

Food for thought

Popped in to the excellent Gladstone's cookery bookshop today for a mooch round and a chat with owner, Rob Gladstone. Downstairs are new books – there are all the familiar names grinning out at you from the shelves, as well as an excellent section on the history of food.

Upstairs however is an elephant's graveyard of brilliant books from yesteryear. There are loads of books on things like cooking for your freezer and getting the most from your microwave. There's the British museum cookbook, the axis of evil cookbook, the Friends of the Earth cookbook, and finally this book featuring a very scary looking Clement Freud - brilliant!

Not a soul in Southwold, well on the beach anyway

I've headed down to Suffolk now; home to Adnams Beer, beach huts and some interesting looking places on the Map, added by you guys.

I've pitched up in the beautiful village of Southwold. Being the fag end of the season it's lovely and quiet, bit nippy mind. I'm heading to Shawsgate Vineyard and winery tomorrow for a Suffolk tipple. I'm here all week so if you know of somewhere in the surrounding area that's fab, add it to the Map.

Whole chickens on the left, ready-prepped chicken cushions on the right

Victoria added John Hutton's family butchers to the Map saying: "I'd recommend the marmalade sausages." This sounded interesting so I went along to find out more.

The bangers in question are made with a hot marmalade made locally by Jules and Sharpie. It lends a sweet sticky citrus flavour to the sausage plus a little bit of heat - very nice.

John Hutton Butchers

The rest of the shop is pretty good too. As well as regular cuts John offers ready-prepared items. "Years ago it was just joints, they'd feed a family for days, we still have those but also offer ready-trimmed and prepared ones," he says.

So, there's a boned leg of lamb stuffed with apricots, pork loin with apple, and chicken breast cushions - all ready to just pop in the oven. And if that wasn't enough there's a small cheese counter, deli items and fresh vegetables.

Thursday 9th October - Eat Anglia

Maria Johnson from Eat Anglia

Round the corner from John Hutton's shop there's Eat Anglia, run by Maria Johnson who originally hails from Brazil. Maria's background in event catering stood her in good stead when she took over the shop in 2006. It's part deli, cafe, gift shop and off-licence. All the cakes for sale are made by Maria, as are the daily specials and ready meals in the freezer.

Last year there was nearly a riot over her coleslaw. "We make it with Savoy cabbage and only use a little mayonnaise," she says. I try a spoon full - it's bright and crunchy and doesn't have the claggy, gloopy taste you sometimes get with commercial-made coleslaws.

Blackberries - yum

Autumn, I love it. Pulled over in a country lane today as I caught a glimpse of these ruby and ebony beauties peaking out at me from the foliage. Blackberrying is free, healthy and in the case of Sylvia Plath,inspirational. These little fellas will report for crumble duty this weekend.

I've also been indulging in a spot of the ancient art of scrumping. I was in a pub beer garden and there were loads of windfall apples on the ground, so I took the liberty of 'liberating' some.

Last week Andrew was in Peterborough.

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