Chips - Seasonal Celebration in British Supermarkets - National Chip Week, Health & Safety

I love potatoes, any kind of potatoes, for health baked potatoes in their jackets, but children like finger food such as chips. Every high street in Britain has a fish and chip shop, often open late after the coffee bars serving sandwiches have closed.
   Cheap as chips? We used to say, 'Chips with everything'. (To readers in America, French fries are those spindly things you get with burgers, more fat, less potato, more calories, even less healthy than the great British chip.) National chip week in London, England in 2014 is/was (depending when you read this) Feb 17th to 23rd.
   Nowadays you can pick up a free magazine of recipes in many supermarkets. I have a Waitrose card which gives me free coffee and a newspaper in Waitrose - even the expensive Sunday Times on Sundays. Free newspapers such as Harrow Times drop through the front doors and can be picked up free in supermarkets, estate agents and other shops.
   But you can read the UK newspapers anywhere in the world - on line when you are in the USA, Singapore or Australia. In the same way that I can read American news in the Daily Mail on line, and the Singapore news on line when I am in London.
   If you are not near a fish and chip shop, you can cook your own at home. I don't for safety, but other members of my family do.
  Shops in southern England will offer you salt and vinegar to go on your chips. Unhealthy, maybe, but so good. And it's giving me vitamin C. But what of healthy - and safety?
Fire Safety
   As a landlady I provide fire extinguishers and smoke alarms in kitchen to protect my tenants and their families. Plus my property. And the other people living in the building. And neighbours - fires can spread. Providing fire exits and fire extinguishers and smoke alarms - yes, it is all required by local and national regulations. Plus insurance companies.
   On another of my blogs, in my diary, you can see the horrific pictures of smoke after my neighbour's garden caught fire, black smoke higher than the house - their neighbours entire garden fence and Cypress Leylandii - whoosh of red flames - then all gone like a rocket.
    Fires inside the house can start quickly from over heated attended and unattended chip pans. Use a high sided pan. Don't fill more than a third full. If it starts smoking it's too hot already. Never leave the chip pan unwatched. Stay beside it. Keep children away. How to control the temperature? News to me - a thermostatically controlled electric deep fat fryer for chips. Never throw water on a chip pan fire. Use a fire blanket. Turn off the gas/electricity. Call 999. Get out! Have a fire exit plan. Test your smoke alarm weekly. Replace your smoke alarm batteries or the entire alarm - read the instructions on it and/or the box. Consider oven chips instead.
   Advice on fire safety from Facebook.com/firekills and http://fireservice.co.uk/dafety/chip-pans.
www.harrowtimes
chips.lovepotatoes.co.uk/facts-figures
www.potato.org.uk
see wiki lists food days and food months. Global days include bacon, beer, chips, coffee, egg, vegan, vegetarian, water. Italy has an espresso day. Luxembourg has Pretzel Sunday.
US potato chip = UK crisps  UK chips =

My Christmas Stories For Speeches

Snow and chills are more likely to hit London, England in January, February and March than in December, so if you bet on a no-snow Christmas you are likely to win. The further north you go in winter, the greater your chance of a white Christmas, the sort you see on Christmas cards showing Victorian England with sparkling lights in Christmas trees, and happy families skating on ice, or trotting past fir trees to glowing churches.
   The cold month of Christmas turns cities into mock snow scenes. Decorations transform dark Britain into a red and white fairytale grotto for children. The lights are turned on in Regent Street. Mock snow of cotton wool or white paper lace like doilies is stuck on windows.  Regent Street's Hamleys toy store, attracts crowds. Other department stores, Selfridges in Oxford Street, Harrods in Knightsbridge, have dazzling displays in windows.
   Everybody is preparing for the UK calendar's Christmas, which culminates with the exchange of present on Christmas Day December 25th. To attract shoppers, from the start of the month of December the streets have lights sponsored by shops. Celebrities turn on the lights and make speeches.  Carol singers on corner collect for charity. For the religious, churches display scenes of baby Jesus in the manger. For secular celebrations, Father Xmas appears wearing the jolly red coat made popular by Coca cola, like an ageing Toastmaster. Ho, ho, ho.
   Where can Father Christmas find a speech suitable for children? To find jokes about Christmas go onto websites of one-line jokes created by and for children. Adult sites are cynical, saying that Good King Wenceslas of the Christmas carol, was neigh, neither good nor a king. But Wenceslas is the hero of the Czech Repugblic, and his statue stands in Prague at the top of the hill in Prague's main shopping street, so it would be prudent to say only good things about kind Wenceslas in that country.
   The internet pages of Xmas jokes by and for schoolchildren, however, are not troubled by anything so cynical and serious. A children's joke, taking the words of the Xmas carol, goes, 'How does "Good King Wenceslas" like his pizza?' Answer: 'Deep and crisp and even.'
   There are many sentimental songs about snow and Father Christmas. I'm dreaming of a 'white' write Christmas, was written by a Jewish songwriter. Every Christmas a new number one song celebrates Christmas.
    Newspapers like to run stories about 'What Jews do for Christmas?' I wish I were writing a hit song about Christmas. Many Jews, Hindus and other Non-Christians will be saints in disguise, dressed as Father Christmas, working in hospitals and other essential services so that Christians can stay home to celebrate Christmas with their family.  The Father Christmas in the children's ward in your local hospital is usually not a Christian but somebody of another religion, happy to make children happy.
  My late father-in-law was father Xmas at the BB Evans department store in Kilburn High Road when he was a member of staff. After he retired he again applied to be a Father Xmas in a department Store.
    As an adult, with two or more members of my family and friends dressing as Father Christmas, in Santa Claus costumes which I bought on the internet for under £5 each, I am naturally a non-believer in the idea that there is only one real Father Xmas, who rides through the sky on a sleigh.
    Even as a trusting and naive child I found all the Christmas make believe confusing. For a long time I thought Father Christmas was the father of baby Jesus. Then I found that Father Christmas was also called St Nicholas. And the father of Jesus was Joseph. And Christians weren't Jewish. But Jesus was. After you were baptised you became a Christian.
   Then we went on holiday to Spain where December 25th Xmas lunch was not traditional turkey as in England but sardines on a sandy beach. I discovered that in Spain they celebrated the birth of baby Jesus on January 6th with three Magi, not men wearing white, riding on camels, speaking Arabic, Aramaic or Hebrew, but Spanish-speaking men, wearing black, on horseback throwing sweets to Catholic crowds in the streets.
    You can imagine my surprise on going to America and finding they had Christmas shops open in summer, staying open all year. Another Christmas summer struck me when I went to Australia, where the sunshine and snow seasons are reversed. In Bondi you go for a barbecue by the beach on Christmas Day. Some Australians celebrate Christmas in England's mid-summer when Australian weather is colder. Over in India, hotels in Delhi have plastic Xmas trees in the hallways to make foreign visitors feel at home in the heat. The Russians treat their children to a secular Grandfather Frost.
   But surely this popularity of a jovial gift-giving grandfather figure has spread worldwide, a long way away from the origin of Father Xmas? If you really want to research Saint Nicholas, you will find he is popular across Europe and America, claimed by warmer countries such as Turkey, as well as the colder ones such as Finland.
   I must admit I love the lights decorating the streets, the Christmas trees in London and Singapore, though trees may be pagan, imported by Prince Albert for Victoria and Albert's children. What of the Santas in the grottos? Surely you never find them in real snow. You do, nowadays.
   When I worked as a travel writer I was taken by the Finnish tourist board on a trip around Finland. Far from England's Xmas turkey, America's turkey, buffalo, and beefsteak, in Finland I discovered that rheindeer provide meat which we call venison - which is very expensive in the UK. So I ordered steak instead. When I sneaked a peek at my hosts' dinner bill I was horrified at what I had done. My steak had cost my hosts twice the price of the venison I'd wanted to try. At the second restaurant I corrected my mistake and ate venison, feeling guilty about poor little Bambi. However, deer are so abundant in Finland that nobody worries about Bambi. Even in England we are secretly culling deer to prevent damage to forests, and serious road accidents on motorways caused by straying deer. Yes, you can enjoy venison in Finland where venison is cheaper than steak because snowy countries have more deer than cows.
    In Finland we went to visit Santa in his grotto. I asked Santa what he would say to people who don't believe in Santa Claus riding through the sky on a horse or rheindeer-drawn sleigh. He said he travelled by horse-drawn sleigh. He must have had this question before. He asked how I had travelled to Finland. I replied, 'by plane'. He retorted wittily, 'I don't believe in planes. I don't see how a plane can fly.' What makes that funny is that he has echoed my thought about sleighs.
And the naive or inexperienced don't believe planes can fly either.
   Back in London, more news about the 'myth' of Father Christmas. I read that a vicar had aroused the wrath of the parents in his congregation by telling the children that Father Christmas did not exist. This seems to happen in a church or school somewhere in Britain every year or two. The result was that some of the disappointed tinies burst into tears. parents were furious. Perhaps parents should give children badges warning, 'Father Xmas - he knows, you know', or 'Regarding Father Xmas, please pretend - he doesn't know!'
    Whilst I will happily wear a Christmas hat and decorate with fireproof fake snow, unlike some people who decorate, I don't believe in Father Xmas, fairies and witches or ghosts. I was all set to tell my own children the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Father Christmas. It's a popular pagan myth which brightens the short, dark days with bright lights, cheerful colours, and goodwill gifts to the rich and poor alike, goodwill to all. As a teacher of English I was determined to be straight forward about the origins of everything from Xmas cards, crackers, green fir trees, red suits and sleighs, with any pupil who asked.
    However, this changed when a little Korean girl asked me if I believed in Father Christmas. I opened my mouth, and hesitated, trying to frame a reply. Then she interrupted, 'My father said that if you don't believe in Father Christmas, you don't get any presents!'
    This made my life difficult. I was rather hoping to get a present from my pupil's father. In adddition, I did not wish to destroy her faith in her father by contradicting him. Nor did I want her to be denied the pleasure of receiving Christmas presents. Neither she nor her father would ever forgive me.
   What should I have said? I talked evasively around the topic, saying most children in England, and worldwide, believe in Father Christmas, but some adults don't. You have to get used to the idea that other people don't always recognise what you think is the truth. But it makes life easier if you don't contradict them, but smile politely, and continue to believe what your parents believe.
    So, my dear adults and children, have a wonderful Christmas, all seasons, all year, up north or down under. I hope you will believe in Father Christmas, whether you are on the beach in Bondi, or dreaming of a white Christmas. Meanwhile be good all year, to be sure that next Xmas you will get lots of presents.

UK delayed train compensation

In the UK look for leaflets and websites and news articles explaining your rights to compensation and how to claim if you paid for a journey which is cancelled or delayed. You may need to keep a ticket or photocopy of it and a record of the time your train should have departed and reached destination and when it did so.
   Why would anybody want to cancel their journey or claim compensation? Restaurants often give away your booked table if you're late. Some restaurants allow you 15 minutes. Other  only five.
   Apple Store's one hour one to one lessons told me that you are allowed to be only six minutes late. A business meeting or job interview may be cancelled. Or you might not get the business or job. Your date standing waiting under the station clock to meet you will have given up and gone home. There's a limit to the number of cups of coffee and bags of crisps you can consume. 

Patisserie Valerie

I always wondered about the origin of the name of this patisserie. Then I had lunch and read the back of their menu. It says: 'The original Patisserie Valerie first opened its doors in 1926, in Frith Street, when Belgian born Madam Valerie decided to introduce a taste of the continent to the English.
Patisserie and Valerie have a great rhyming sound and rhythm, don't they!
They have a great range of cakes/tarts as well as chocolate wedding cakes.
www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk

Rococo Chocolates London

Chocolate shops - wander in at your peril. They are all terribly tempting and terribly expensive. I asked, "Any special offers?" We fell for the four chocolate blocks for £16. They are usually £4.50 each and we would have bought two. We chose Lavender, Crystallised Ginger, Rococo Rose and Orange and Geranium. The heart shape chocolates and boxes are great for special occasions. I liked what I thought was a chocolate tree, gold leaves and gold foil wrapped chocolates - turns out the gold decorations are Balinese wood painted gold. But what a great idea, a chocolate tree. Just don't turn on the fire, or candles or all your chocolate decorations will melt! 

Where is it? Just round the corner from Belgrave Square, with all the embassies, and Petrus restaurant.

Rococo Chocolates, 5 Motcomb Street, London SWIX 8JU. Other branches in London in Marylebone Street, and Chelsea, also in Chester.

rococochocolates.com

Port - the sweet drink from Portugal

• The name of the country of Portugal comes from the castle of Portucale in the Douro region of Northern Portugal. Mateus Rose was the pink drink of the Sixties and Seventies, a Portuguese rose wine which the British found reliable, appealing and attractive. The bottle features a Portuguese palace of villa, and you could even buy a cheap kit to convert your stable, wide-bottomed, curvy green bottle into a table lamp.
• So if you ever had a bottle of Mateus Rose, you will recognise the company name on the bottle, Sogrape. (Sounds like so grape!) Mateus is a village and a palace. People tried to tell me that Mateus was a popular plebs drink but if Queen Elizabeth II had it when dining at the Savoy for lunches in the 1970s and 1980s, then it is good enough for me. Mateus also featured in a song 'getting juiced on Mateus', the Yellow Brick Road by Elton. The same company has Sandeman Port, 20, 30 or 40 years old.  
•  www.sograpevinhos.eu
• Port is very strong, 20% alcohol, so a little glass goes a long way.
• If you are going to stay in Portugal look for a chance to book one or more of the Pousadas, historic buildings converted into hotels.
• Want to stay at a winery? Quinta Nova has a hotel restaurant. You can have wine tasting, follow a walking trail or take boat trips down the river. The estate is run by ladies.
• www.quintanova.com
• One name you are likely to recognise is Cockburn's port. The name goes back a long way. The company was founded in 1815 in Portugal's second city, Porto. The founder was Robert Cockburn, who was from a Scottish family, and who served under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular war, in Portugal. 
• I liked the Cockburn's Special Reserve which costs only about £14 in supermarkets. Sometimes there's a special deal and you can find it reduced to £10-12. This port comes from the Symington Family Estates. Another port to look for is the Graham's Six Grapes with the symbol of a bunch of six grapes on the label. The six grapes means top quality, a bit like a five star hotel. 
• Port is always sweet, or sweetish. and tastes great with dark chocolate or chocolate mousse and cheeses such as Stilton or a ripe white cheddar.
• Rafa means red in Latin and Rufo means drum in Portuguese, which you might guess from the drum on the label. (See my picture of the bottle above.)
• Another company is Nieport. The name is pronounced like knee-port. One of their amusing labels is Drink Me.

More details from:

www.wine-partners.at

La Dolce Vita - another new eating place in yummy, humming Hatch End, Pinner, North London

La Dolce Vita - the sweet life is the name of a new eating place in Hatch End.

The fascia says Gelateria Caffe Pasticceria. Italian for Ice cream parlour, Cafe, Pastries. They opened in fab Feb 20th 2014. TheY feature freshly made ice cream. I sampled coffee ice cream, then strawberry. The drinks include a freshly brewed coffee, a brand which is new to me but won an award in the past year. The hot food includes waffles. Savoury dishes include sandwiches and paninis. I liked their warm welcome, and the cosy corner with red semi-circular seats and Italian mural.

The owner is Amita Weaire. She's helped by her niece, Roshni Kotecha.

La Dolce Vita

385 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, HA5 4JN.