Since the tread has meandered from take aways to supermarkets, may I suggest a further meander...?
I have just got back from 3 days in
sunny wet and windy Devon. We stayed in a reasonably classy hotel, £200 per night.
Now for me, a treat of such a weekend has always been the full English breakfast. In earlier parts of my life, that would be a slice of bacon, a sausage, an egg (always fried) and maybe a slice of tomato or some mushrooms.
Nowadays, even a reasonably upmarket hotel, the ‘default’ full English seems to be large sausage, two thick bacon slices, two eggs, a whole tomato, a big pile of mushrooms, bubble & squeak, and fried bread. I had it each morning, and it was quite delicious. Only trouble is, having wolfed down all that food, there’s no way I could indulge in my other holiday treat, which always used to be fish & chips for lunch, eaten from the paper whilst strolling the pier.
Evening meals were just as OTT. In one establishment, other half ordered a chicken dish that offered an option of either “half chicken” or “whole”. I expected the chickens involved to be small but they were not. The Whole Chicken, meant to be a single main course and when served to an adjacent table, turned be the same size bird I’d cook at home for Sunday lunch when feeding 4 adults or more. Thankfully, she ordered half but even so, it robbed us of the opportunity to try some of the tempting deserts on offer.
All this does contrast with two recent holidays in France. Breakfast each time was a self serve buffet, but plates were quite small, vs the modern British ‘dustbin lids’, so it easier to show restraint. Evening meals, we were always able to enjoy two or three courses, without being overly stuffed.