Eating in England

Until I was twelve, my English mother took me home every other year to see my grandparents, who lived in Bebbington on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula where we stayed for three months.

My Mother

We would sail from New York Harbor to Liverpool on a Cunard White Star liner, the M.V. Britannic. 

M.V. Britannic

It was on this well-loved ship I leaned to swim in a pool filled and heated with water piped in from the surrounding Atlantic Ocean. It was also where I first became aware of how much I liked to dine.

We had breakfast in the dining room; then steaming cups of consommé on deck at 11:00 a.m. Next, back to the dining room at 1:00 when luncheon was served, followed by the 8:00 p.m. evening meal. While serving, the steward wore white gloves and stood at each person's left side and used two silver spoons held in one hand to serve the food onto each diner's plate rather than carrying plates already filled with food to the table. My favorite meal was freshly-baked hard rolls with sweet butter, leg of lamb, peas cooked with mint, and craggy roast potatoes.

On Board Ship

I ate caviar for the first time when I ordered it off the menu for myself while sailing home after having learned to read while I was enrolled at The Rock Ferry Convent School during my stay in England. I had just turned six years old.

The steward got a funny look on his face, and my young and beautiful mother looked at him and said in her most English accent, "As she eats olives and anchovies, I imagine she will eat caviar. Please bring it to her as she requested." It came on a plate with little pieces of toast and tiny cubes of aspic, which turned out to be only a decoration.

My mother was right. I happily ate the salty caviar on the dry crunchy toast.

My grandfather's house

My grandfather Charles was a pork butcher. At his house the food was good. For tea we ate crumbly, pale orange Cheshire cheese, Hovis whole wheat bread sliced thin by hand, then gently buttered, eggs boiled softly after being plucked from under the bottom of a reluctant hen, green onions on their stems, and cherry tomatoes. Sweets were only presented at the end of the meal when we had company, but in the kitchen there was always a sponge cake, a plate of hand-shaped triangular current scones, and some ginger nut biscuits available for the taking.

Orange Currant Scones from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

I am sometimes able to get Mrs. Appleby's Cheshire Cheese at my food store, and I do buy it when I see it, but mostly what I crave from those days are soft-boiled eggs, always good but even better when I am able to get them from local hens. I eat them, as at my grandfather's, in the early morning, with salt and pepper on the plate to dip my spoon into as I then use it to scoop up the lovely soft interior of the golden yolk. 

Appleby's Cheshire at Neal's Yard, London, October 13, 2017