Cheese and onion quiche, soup, sandwiches, pear, Black Forest gateau

After weeks of me whinging raising constructive criticism about the (lack of) food here, I’m suddenly getting almost¹ more than I can eat. In the interests of honesty and accountability between blogger and readers, I will admit that I ate too much yesterday, and paid the price by feeling a little sick for much of the evening.

As I was still not fully hungry after my generous pasta lunch, I decided to keep it light for supper: a small slice of quiche, a round of sandwiches (anything except cheese, as I also need to cut down on my dairy intake), a mug of soup, and some fruit from my own stocks.

Unfortunately (not really, it was great), tonight’s Trolley Superstar was intent on feeding their residents: “just one slice of quiche? Have two. Or three. And you will have a piece of gateau, won’t you? Go on…”

So I had two pieces of quiche, either still warm from the oven or reheated in it, so the pastry remained really crunchy, and the inside was that texture somewhere between fluffy and creamy you get in a well-made quiche. It was nicely cheesy, but stopped from being too rich by whatever green vegetable was in there (the tops of the onions? ). I was glad I accepted the gentle arm-twisting and had two pieces.

The soup was once again a delicious mystery. Orangey-yellow in colour, sweet and creamy with a hint of spice (maybe lots of black pepper, maybe something else as well), and with a very savoury quality to the aroma that makes me think it was made with meat stock rather than vegetable. (As I have commented on a few RMHP posts, I don’t think there are any vegetarian residents, as otherwise this would be downright rude.)

Sandwiches were tuna mayo and the corned beef I have rediscovered my love for thanks to my stay here: it’s going to be a regular feature on my shopping list for a while after I get home.

I then had a pear, having finally discovered how to find out if they’re ripe (give your pear a gentle squeeze around the base of the stem: if it’s soft, it’s ripe. If it’s hard, it’s not. It really works, or at least it did on the one I had). And then a slice of Black Forest (chocolate and cherry) gateau, which is interesting because for pretty much all of my life I have hated chocolate – really, genuinely loathed the stuff, to the point of (apparently) turning green in the face at the mere scent of it.

I have noticed before that, when I’m ill, I suddenly develop an insatiable sweet tooth, and become temporarily able to tolerate chocolate. This time, though, not only has this persisted after I have started to feel better, it has gone further and I now actively like chocolate. I can’t tell you how strange it is to have something that I have loathed for all my adult years suddenly become both appealing and delicious, and that’s at least part of the reason I gave in to the offer of a piece of cake, just to see if it was still happening.

I’m very pleased (if more than a little confused) to say it is, and I really enjoyed the light, chocolatey cake with the sweet cherries. And the cream, of course. Tomorrow I really will steer clear of anything dairy, except for the custard on the pudding at lunchtime, which doesn’t count. Why doesn’t it count?

It just doesn’t, OK?

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1. Only almost because I am, let’s face it, a bit of a 🐷 when it comes to food! ↩︎