(aka a blatant attempt to flatter a favourite company into taking notice of me)
Vegetable soup; sandwiches; Graze Salt and Pepper Protein Nut Crunch; yoghurt; cupcake
In a day – a week, even – filled with small mysteries, here is the one currently perplexing me: what have I touched this afternoon that has dyed the palm of my left hand a vivid, unremovable shade of neon pink? I can’t think what it could have been and, whatever it was, it’s not coming off.
Anyway… supper, served tonight by someone I will refer to by the initial O1, who was very keen to make sure I had enough to eat, even going so far as to offer to make me some scrambled eggs if I so wished. Thank you – genuinely, no sarcasm – for your consideration and willingness to go above and beyond for your residents, and I am so sorry my stupid brain refuses to hold on to people’s names.
The reason I turned down the offer I scrambled eggs, which I would never usually do as I’m very fond of a scrambled egg, was that I had the remains of a bag of Graze’s Salt and Pepper Protein Nut Crunch sitting, looking expectantly at me, just begging to be crunched through, and who am I to refuse?
I have been a customer and fan of Graze for a long time – if not from when they first started sending small boxes of tasty snacky things through the post 15 years ago, then I think from not that long afterwards. For the last few years my favourite of their snacks, now also sold in large “sharing” bags (yeah, right, like I’m going to share my tasty snacks with anyone), has been the Smoky Barbecue Crunch, which does exactly what it says on the packet: it’s smoky and bbq’y and crunchy, and also sort of sweet-savoury and lightly salty, and altogether so moreish it’s a good thing it’s a healthier snack because it doesn’t stay around for long!
But now I think it’s been knocked down to second place, because the Salt and Pepper one is – dare I say it – even better (or, strictly speaking, was better, as the bag is now tragically empty). It’s a mixture of salty, crunchy roasted peas and beans (if you’ve never had a salted roasted pea, I can promise you you’re missing out) with peppery cashews, and it’s honestly a minor miracle that I managed to make the bag last as long as it did.
So, yeah: I love you and your snacks, Graze, I will happily recommend your stuff to anyone in the market for superior snackage, and if you ever fancy doing a collab, or sending me some stuff to review, or even just acknowledging my existence, I would be very happy.
In my slightly pathetic quest for recognition I have already wittered on for rather too long for a Sunday evening, so a brief review of the rest of my supper:
Soup was vegetable, and, as always, very nice: smooth and thick, with a good general veg flavour. I’m really going to have to start making soup whenever I finally go home as I don’t think I’m going to be able to go back to the instant stuff after having really good homemade soup every evening for months.
Sandwiches: two tuna mayo and cucumber, two corned beef. If there’s one thing I have (re)learned since coming here it’s just how much I love a corned beef sarnie.
Yoghurt – mango flavour – not in the headline picture as I took the photo while O was very kindly running back to the kitchen to get one out of the fridge for me when I asked and there wasn’t one on the trolley.
Cupcake: it was a homemade cupcake with brilliantly-coloured2 swirls of buttercream icing on top. What is there to say except “yes, please, don’t mind if I do”?
And so that’s another week done, with a new menu arriving at some point tomorrow morning: like a small child waiting for Father Christmas, I’m planning on going to sleep early so tomorrow arrives sooner (and/or because I didn’t sleep well last night and have been in some danger of nodding off over my phone while writing this, if the sound of gunshots from the western a room neighbour is watching at hard-of-hearing volume hadn’t kept me alert!)
Is it pineapple sponge today? 