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Hardly fashionable in these vegetarian and indeed vegan times, but I can’t resist starting this with a quote from the cult film Withnail and I , where one of the heroes, probably emerging from overindulgence on booze and drugs, suddenly blurts out “I want something’s flesh!“.
Well I don’t actually blurt it out like that, and I never bother with any drug except The Electric Soup (usually of Belgian pedigree), but when lunching out I do usually like something meaty. Many of you will know of my penchant for Full English Breakfasts, and there are such things as All Day Breakfasts, but (slightly) classier establishments also put out Mixed Grills – which I suppose might be deemed The Thinking Man’s/Woman’s All Day Breakfast – and when done well, these can delicious, like the one above.
So I’d taken a camera to lunch and, when this feast arrived just couldn’t resist some photos – without seeing what was missing. And just as I’d finished the photos, we were treated to the spectacle of the pub’s manageress sprinting frantically towards us carrying a small plate (now that’s what I call service!) >>> on which was the 4oz, well done steak the cook had forgotten to crown this sumptuous feast with.
So you’ll just have to imagine the steak but, working clockwise around the plate, the other constituents of this feast are as follows. A jug of very tasty pepper sauce; chips; onion rings; a slab of grilled chicken, complete with dark scorch marks from the grill – which I always like to see; a grilled mushroom; half a grilled tomato – two halves would have been be even better – they are simply delicious with gammon and bacon, and they add moisture to what can be a rather dry repast (see below); a good, thick, tasty slice of gammon; a runny fried egg, which is almost obscuring three scorched and tasty pork sausages; and peas >>> on top of all of which went the 4oz steak. I can only say, delicious, and certainly something for a cold winter’s day. But glad I didn’t decide to “upgrade” (what a wonderfully awful term … 🙂 ) to an 8oz steak …
And what else? Well, MOUNTAINOUSLY important, the meal was served on a warm plate – serving any hot meal on a cold plate is, to me, total sacrilege. And lots of salt and tomato sauce, the latter especially important as these grills can be a little dry. And two pints of chilled Stella Artois lager which, despite all my snobbish jibes, is really not at all bad accompanying a meal like this. And a steak knife, which is both practical and which also serves to add a tiny element of ritual.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid profile; inverted, to heighten the effect of the lighting; south Bristol; 19 Feb 2020.
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