Inspired by umpteen Buzzfeed Food posts and now I'm thinking about it, probably stolen from a post that Salina has done previously, I hereby list the top things that I miss eating now that I'm a bit of a nomad (albeit one with a residency permit for Mauritius).
This list is also partially inspired by a recent conversation that I had regarding 'how posh I am' and how I've been 'hiding my posh', which I feel the need to qualify in some way. I'm just extremely pretentious about food, because food is the greatest thing in the world.
I enjoy a lot of different food, from fried chicken to foie gras. I'm now remembering a conversation with Helen at our house in London about the Waitrose delivery, when I described the fact that they don't deliver "whole rabbits" as "inconvenient" because I didn't have time to go to the local butcher "whenever I wanted to make a game pie". Probably that's not a concern all people have, but I usually qualify such a statement with "I'm from the country!". This is sufficiently random to halt any further interrogation. I've never even had rabbit at home, in the country, but using this line works in a variety of situations, probaby because people are then too polite to comment.
Please bring me:
1. Gluten free bread that is fluffy, light and only twice the price of normal bread. Instead of this five times the price stuff they import from France. Pah.
2. Pho from the proper Vietnamese place in Dalston. Or, in fact from Vietnam. Yes. Bring me it!
3. Stebbings bacon. It's like normal bacon, but it comes from a Stebbings home grown, hand reared, happy-go-lucky Welsh pig and cured by the fair hand of skilled artisans (my mother). It's like the bacon you normal people eat, but in fact it's MUCH BETTER and you probably don't even know what bacon should taste like. Do you know the only thing better than bacon? That's right, it's 'double bacon'.
4. A Duck and Waffle from Duck and Waffle.
5. Aperol. And Camden Pale Ale.
6. Almond butter. I've already had four opportunities to tell someone how much I love almond butter since arriving in Mauritius and on each one, they are surprisingly disinterested. You can get it here, but it is ten pounds for a small jar. At this price, eating it from the jar with a spoon feels a bit OTT, particularly when you are unemployed like me. At Whole Foods you can get a kilo for ten pounds. If you brought me some then you could say things like "5% of my baggage is almond butter".
7. Mango chutney. This isn't just me, we all want it. Plan is to make some once the fruiting begins...
8. Clotted cream. Gaaaah it's just so delicious.
9. Any item on the menu at Leon's.
10. Yorkshire tea. 'Nuff said.
Luckily, I also have a list of things I love to eat in Mauritius to counter the things I miss from my old life.
Delicious things that I can eat here and are amazing:
1. Fresh fish, at any time. Tuna, marlin, oysters, octopus. Cheap and direct from the guy that caught it. Wonderful!
2. Amazing locally grown fruit available everywhere... avocados, pineapples, passion fruit and soon it's mango and lychee season. Such joy!
3. Dohl puri - like a soft pancake naan bread but with chick pea flour.
4. Fried crispy snacks, particularly samosa.
5. Cane liquor. Almost rum, but only five quid a bottle.