Christmas food

[nmfnp1977]

NYE we'll be doing the same as we've done for the past few years: buying a load of those overpriced party / buffet / canape food packs, and keeping them coming throughout the evening.

We usually go to M&S or Waitrose for this stuff (y'know, miniature filled Yorkshire puddings; bite-size burgers; things on sticks... that sort of stuff) but Aldi has some interesting looking options.

Booze wise, we'll be drinking all the remaining sparkling wine; plus a very large single malt at midnight.

New Years Day we tend to go to a local Japanese place for sushi and ramen. If that's closed or too busy we'll head to Wagamama.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Traditional Xmas Dinner for me. Most important ingredient is the swede. I usually end up preparing it myself. In my family I'm known as the swede fascist.

Roast potatoes are just not recyclable. They should only be eaten in their hot glory.

But the best Xmas meal is always on boxing day. Bubble and squeak + pickled onions etc. Boxing day is far better than Xmas day. The best day of the year, in fact. Far more relaxed and there's football too.

I always work New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. All very meh. But I usually cook myself a steak +traditional steak shit. This year my neighbour left me half a frozen duck in my freezer after feeding the cats over Xmas, so that'll do.

And whisky and cheese. Always whisky and cheese.

[MsD]

Tesco man came yesterday, before I had to make more cake or have porridge with water.

As I put the food away, it seems unbelievable I could eat all that in a week, but I can and do.

Nothing Christmassy left. Loads of gin, though.

[ad hoc]

Lentils are the tradition here which gives me the opportunity to make my lentil shepherd's pie. It both meets the needs of the locals and blows their minds at the same time

[ad hoc]

PS I am drunk. It's possible I have overstated thar

[Bored Of Education]

That reminds me, we still haven't had that lentil soup. Pizza tonight for the boy's birthday. Chilli and tiramisu for New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow. How far are we taking this? Do we stop saying what we are eating on NY Day?

[slackster]

Going to a NYE dinner with a 10 of us in Tunbridge Wells. And my better half has elected to drive home, so I get to be as sozzled as I want (not very, probably). Italian-themed food, apparently, with the hosts supplying the main couse and beer/wine, and the 4 guest couples bringing fizz and one of canapes/starters/dessert/cheeseboard each.

That sounds very Tunbridge Wells, doesn’t it? I’m now having visions of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie and the grim reaper scene in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. I hope nobody brings Salmon Mousse...

[Bored Of Education]

I waist the third biggest band in Tunbridge Wells for a while and it struck me as exactly as it is portrayed. I am not sure whether somewhere can be a white middle class ghetto but if so, Tunbridge Wells was it. There were little exceptions like when we played a fetish party in the local venue that is an old Roman toilet but, otherwise, it was Reactionaryville.

Enjoy your NY Eve though!

[Benjm]

...the local venue that is an old Roman toilet...

There was a club/venue in some converted Victorian public conveniences under Shepherds Bush Green for a while. I had always thought that 'toilet circuit' was a figure of speech but perhaps it is possible to book a national tour performing only in disused khazis.

[slackster]

That music venue in TWells is The Forum, on the edge of The Common by The Pantiles. A cracking place to watch bands.

I’m guessing the biggest band in TW was the Anti-Nowhere League, who still play a festive set at The Forum. The irony of an “anarchist” band being the town’s torchbearers isn’t lost on most of its Disgusted denizens. It’s still a pretty, homogenous and comfortable place, but the politics is more Wet One Nation Toryism [the only Remain voting constituency in Kent, too] than Reactionary Racist Cunts, tbf.

[Bored Of Education]

Yes, brilliant place and the owner is a great guy who does a lot for other small venues around the land. Yes, it was ANL and, as we had Animal the singer's nephew in the band, we would regularly support them at those Christmas gigs. ANL have always been a very much Tunbridge Wells band in that their whole career seems to be in opposition to the rest of the town. Not sure whether they are particularly 'anarchistic', a bit more nihilistic.

I am amazed TW voted 'Remain'. I assumed it was the beacon of Kentish Little Englander Euroscepticism.

[Gangster Octopus]

how did you wind up having to eat [stuffed cabbage]?

There was a Polish deli in town and my mother used to buy stuff from there. I think that's where our spices, garlic and spaghetti etc. used to come from as well, in the days before these exotic things hit the UK supermarkets.

[Sporting]

Everyone must remember that great 70s classic "24 Hours in Tunbridge Wells"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5-KABA87qs