pumpkinstrokemarrow

3 days to the 'Dark Horse', an eating pub said to be under new management. Good line in vegetables which appear to be cooked on demand. Meal 1, was sunday lunch (lamb), which was substantial but the meat component of which seemed to be meat that had been cooked and sliced some time previously, rejuvenated with a powerful dose of hot Bisto. Meal 2, was Bembridge crab mornay, which meant 2 scallop shells, one containing prawns topped with a cheesy sauce and grilled and one containing (white) crab topped with a cheesy sauce and grilled. Tasted better than it sounds. Meal 3, moved into a higher gear altogether with mackerel, something the man from Hastings does not do very often. Two smallish mackerels each, which appeared to have been caught earlier in the day. Rather sketchily cleaned and grilled with a topping of garlic and butter. Not bad at all but they would have done better to have cleaned the things a bit more thoroughly and to have omitted the butter and garlic.

3 days chicken. Organically reared and suitable for vegetarians. One day hot, one day cold, one day in the pot two days old. Traditional chicken soup with barley as it turned out that one can procure pearl barley in the Isle of Wight. An island which, we learn, was rather independent, in the way of the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, until the middle of the 13th century when the lady of the island chucked her lot in with the chap in charge on the mainland. Richard II I think. I guess that, from his point of view, independent meant far too good a spring board for interference in his affairs.

2 days spag. bol. - the buy mince and stir in sauce variety. The first time we have ever done such a thing. BH made herself feel a bit better about it by adding an onion. Not as flavourful as we had feared although we were not sure why the manufacturers found it necessary to include sugar in the sauce. We never do.

1 day pie and chips.

1 day veggie; new potatoes and broad beans.

1 day meat pie and veggie; new potatoes and broad beans. Pie from a stall up the village, not bad at all.

1 day paella, or at least something sold by that name in the 'Ryde Castle'. We knew that it was going to be boil in the bag, but had thought it would be better than it was. Not helped by a distinctly sour flavour. No idea where that came from although cheap tinned tomatoes can give things odd flavours. Oddly enough, they made up a bit with quite a decent cheesecake. Might even have been cooked rather than jello'd.

1 day pork soup, more or less Epsom recipe with tenderloin from a butcher in Ventnor. Not a bad butcher despite having to double up as a grocer to make ends meet. Added some scraped new potatoes and used rather less cabbage than usual. Decided that I was not very keen on cast iron cooking pots. Le Creusott? Far too heavy and this one had a scarred bottom. Couldn't even be sure that one's soup was not going to catch. Furthermore, the knob on the lid, the thing one used for lifting the lid, was most unhygenic. The knob - which could get very hot - was a bit loose despite its screw being unmoveable - and the open joint was full of dark brown gunk which one could not clean out.

1 day lobster. Two cooked but entire lobsters from Bembridge, £15 a pop. Very nice they were too - although I am not sure that I would bother too often at that price. Served with vin blank de chile via co-op. A Carmen Gewerztraminer which I rather liked. See http://www.carmen.com. Followed by Ryde's finest chocolates, that is to say an organic truffle selection from Thorntons. I thought they were a bit dear, relative to what the £10 would have bought in M&S or Waitrose. Maybe we should have gone for the two big boxes of milk chocolates knocked down to £3 for 2, but that seemed a bit sus..

Having done that lot, thought to settle down in front of the Sky-enabled giant telly that came with the holiday cottage, only to find that the top 5 channels all had ladies' programmes. A docu-drama about a Victorian chemist plus 4 reality TV jobs. A chap creeping round hotels, a chap creeping round his own factories, a home from hell (whatever that might be) and a vet. About time they retired all these pushy lady programme controllers and brought back some Maigret - to name one decent series which could do with another airing. Or maybe they could give us the French version with sub-titles for a change. There must be one. And if it is done by Belgians - where the chap came from after all - one might even be able to understand it.