Tally Ho! at the Romsey Show

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Most of you know that Jay is a great cook. He really misses his Food Network cooking shows (Emeril and Alton Brown) so I thought it would be a great idea to go to a food show. There were five cooking shows in southern England over the weekend. The Hampshire regional show at Romsey (located a few miles southwest of Winchester (see map below right)) seemed most interesting.

The cooking show turned out to be more of a county fair. There were carnival rides, a display of antique farm machinery, a military band, arts and crafts tents, food and clothing vendors, a church tent, a cooking demo tent and three large food tents with produce, beer and baked goods all produced in Hampshire. The setting was a green meadow surrounded by graceful willows, oaks, firs, and pines that must be 100-200 years old judging from their size. The trees in southern England are so lovely that I could spend a summer drawing and documenting them.

What impressed us most at the show was the display and judging of fox hunters, horses and hounds. One of the images that immediately springs to mind when you think of the English landed gentry is riders in bright red jackets, black velvet caps, and knee-high leather boots urging horses across rolling hills, with baying hounds lusting for the kill. (we found out that mink and hare are also hunted). The hounds looked like some of the happiest and best cared for dogs I've ever seen, particularly the beagles (see photo). The children in the audience were allowed to come in the ring to pet them. The announcer made it clear that although the beagles loved to be petted, they are a pack hound and do not enjoy sitting in front of the telly with the family.

The announcer also said that there is a movement in England to ban fox hunting because it is cruel to animals. The Scots have already enacted a ban- a result of which is that foxes are being shot, almost to the point of extinction there. I'm not sure why except that foxes may kill chickens and other livestock. As an animal lover, I'm inclined to sympathize with the fox. Fox hunting helps keep the number of foxes down to a manageable level- but the fox suffers a savage death.

About the food- right! We had tender roast beef sandwiches with horseradish, and sampled ales, beer and hard cider. Jay bought a six-pack of "Skew" ale from Suthwyck - delicious! The British are great at making ale and beer but the Germans and Poles make the best sausage. We think the sausage here is too much filler and not enough meat. We tried frozen yoghurt with berries and apples. The berries here are plump and flavorful. We sampled olives (don't know where they grow them here) stuffed with sun dried tomatoes. I like them better than the olives I had in Crete. They were so good we bought some even though w'ed just bought some Italian olives at the Basingstoke market just that morning.

There were meat-filled pasties, scones with Sultana raisins and Danish pastries covered with icing. We broke down and bought a couple of cinnamon Danish to eat at breakfast the next morning. The Danish turned out to be a lot less sweet than I thought they'd be. That's good because I think there is way too much sugar in baked goods made in the U.S.

You might think we are becoming huge eating all this great food. We walk a lot and I do yoga almost everyday so I think we will return at about the same size we were when we left. Jay works hard and doesn't have much chance to eat during the work day.

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