The story goes that one of the chefs at El Bulli, Ferran Adrià’s now legendary restaurant in Roses, was tasked with knocking up a post service snack for the team. He was completely knackered so just grabbed a pack of crisps and a few eggs and made this in minutes.
Packets of crisps, or chips as the Spanish and Americans confusingly call them, are the iconic pub snack, perfectly suited to accompany any cold beverage.
Many a decent pub used to have an inviting jar of pickled eggs sitting on top of the public bar, a welcoming sight, though probably not advisable for a first date. Clearly though, if you’ve gone to that sort of a pub for one, you’re not that bothered and have no aspiration to snog anyone.
Like pickled eggs are another visual and salivating aid, at least to me, to sit on the bar. They can be eaten alone but they go superbly with cheese in a Ploughman’s Lunch. Towards the start of October onwards you should begin to see small ‘pickling onions’ in the greengrocers. To make pickling vinegar, wrap …
There are so many stories on the origin of the scotch egg. It is often suggested, falsely, that they were invented by Royal grocers Fortnum & Mason. Whitby put in a bid. In ‘The Culinary Delights of Yorkshire’ by Peter Bone, he claims that they originated at William J Scott & Sons, covered, not in meat but in fish paste!