Food for Thought

Mashed potatoes

For reasons too boring to go into here, we ended up in the Marks & Spencer food hall today. It's somewhere I don't like to be. Perhaps it dates back to the days when they had a rather exclusive policy in the manner they hired Saturday staff when I was at school, or perhaps it's due to the fact that they sell themselves as the "it's not just cod, it's creamy Icelandic cod, we're better than everyone else, we're the high class, superior, chic, elegant, wondrous food hall that you should aspire to shop within" (phew). All the Hyacinth Buckets of my youth shopped there, which fitted. I bet they had hostess trolleys to serve it all on as well. Anyway, back to M&S, they sell mashed potato for around £2 and that freaks me out. When, oh when, am I too busy to make freaking mashed potato for myself? This web page gives another great example...

Anyway, today I had to freak out because of their "Gastropub" range. This sums up every bad feeling I have about the food there. (1) I HATE the word "gastropub" and all the pseudo-middle class aspirations that go along with it, (2) it appears to be a way of charging £9 for a pie and (c) if I want pub food I'll go to a pub.

Thank you, but no thanks. I'm off to the pub for a pie.