Glorious Food

I like many different kinds of food. I like lots of healthy food - - - almost all fruit and vegetables, wholegrain pasta, brown rice, lentils - - - all that kind of thing. I love, for example, raw cauliflower and raw carrots and any salad that doesn't have gloops of mayonnaise all over it.

So it's a bit of a shame that I also like almost any kind of pie - savoury or sweet, and cheese, and chips, and curry, and any Chinese dish that ends "fried rice".

At the moment I am a bit thinner than I've been for some years. Not a lot, mind, because although I've been doing quite a lot of exercise recently, I am prepared to make any sacrifice in my attempt to lose weight - - other than actually eating less.

Some people don't eat the pastry crust on their pie and this astonishes me. Are they insane? If I was being extra virtuous, I wouldn't have the pie in the first place. But once it's in front of me - - well, I'm having the lot, no question.

Today I've been to the garden centre, and then to the splendid Wellington pub, (thank you Silverback for introducing us to this magnificent eatery: we hope to visit it again soon, with you!) For Easter they have a special offer of the carvery plus dessert for £5 which has to be the best value in Leeds.

Roast turkey, roast potatoes, carrots, swede, peas, sweetcorn, cauliflower is what I had and then apple pie and custard, which I wouldn't normally eat since I'm diabetic but it's Easter: and anyway, everyone knows that food eaten outside the house doesn't count, and especially so on a Bank Holiday weekend.

That's my kind of meal. And then we went for a walk in the Spring sunshine to work it off. Excellent.

The only kind of food that, in general, I don't like, is when I can't tell what it is. And hence, I greatly enjoyed this letter of complaint to Richard Branson about the food on a Virgin flight from Mumbai to Heathrow.

"Award-winning food" it may have been (that's what Virgin said in their defence) but it's simply impossible to tell what it is. And I just hate that. I think it's arrogance on the part of whoever introduced this menu to assume that everyone who was about to eat it would know what they were eating.

I like food that's simple, and fresh, and well-cooked. I like to be able to tell what's in it. I don't like it when some posey chef has combined duck, raspberry jam and chocolate into some very small but extremely expensive starter. Bring on the steak pie, and make it with top-quality steak and light pastry, and I'll be in heaven. Though a bit on the plump side.