Trolley 396

Captured in the Ashmore passage. I had to put the Waitrose trolley at the other end of the string for convenience of wheeling, the M&S food hall trolleys being slightly smaller.

Waitrose regular stack also empty. M&S regular stack non-empty. And while M&S had a very poor selection of spirits, Waitrose could do both Bells and kippers - which last might have come from Craster but which were some way from being red herrings. Yellow herrings more like, at least from the skin side. But the Saturday girl who served me, hoped that I would enjoy the rest of my weekend with a fervour that almost convinced one that she meant it. A for effort.

Home to Quiche Lorraine for lunch (bacon and egg flan to Brexiteers), served with potato salad (potatoes, half an onion, clove of garlic & a moderate amount of Heinz) and green salad; stewed apple with blackberry to follow. Rounded out with some peanuts in their shells from Waterloo Road. Very good they were too, even if we did not boil them for twenty minutes and then serve them with salt, as suggested by the vendor, very possibly from the Chinese community here in Epsom.

PS: later, we wondered about peanut hygiene.Years ago, when we last used to buy peanuts in their shells in a regular way, they had nearly always been lightly cooked, which we assumed to be a hygiene thing to kill off any lurking bugs. This despite the fact that the market in the middle of Cambridge used to sell uncooked, unshelled peanuts in the early 1960's. This despite the fact that uncooked peanuts tasted much better - but to get those you had to buy plastic packets of shelled peanuts, often mixed with raisins. While the present peanuts have not been cooked and have a distinctly organic look about them. They might actually once have been in the ground, as one of their names suggests. This light cooking is also a feature of foreign hazelnuts - kiln dried being a phrase which comes to mind - and don't taste anything like as good as fresh hazelnuts can taste in consequence. Probably a matter best not pursued.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-day-at-library.html. A previous mention of aforesaid kilns. Another day, as it happens for visiting an academic library, as per reference 2. Something I almost never did when I was a student, and then not for the books.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/courtauld-second-campaign.html.