Sussex Food Awards

I was lucky enough to be at the Sussex Food Awards with a bunch of great friends. It was to be our Christmas party (as all good retailers know Christmas parties are always in Jan). We had an ok sparkling (not quite the fantastic "Champagne quality" Nyetimber from West Sussex) reception then on to dinner. 5 courses so thankfully I was very hungry. The most memorable part of the food for me was the main, we had beef steak (fell apart - very good) and then in its own suet pudding was the kidney. I thought this was done very sympathetically for the non-kidney-eaters amongst us. The suet was a little thick but boy did I enjoy that kidney....even ate my neighbours!

Our parents and grandparents ate far more offal than we do today. It was cheap then, like the great cuts of meat that used to be cheap but then Fergus Henderson and (more high profile but less interesting) Jamie Oliver came along and promoted these cuts, now they're a little pricier. I really enjoy a devilled kidney (especially St.John's devilled rabbit kidney) starter or ox-heart main. P loves bone marrow (another Henderson delight) and thought my haggis pie was a goer. So this year I'm going to invite more and more interesting meats/offal (or dodgy meat as an old friend would have said) onto my table.