Tag Archives: Lincolnshire

Food for Thought serves up haggis and chips

Burton Road Chippy logoIt’s been a while since a new episode of Food for Thought. I’ve been relaxing since creating my Christmas specials, but now I am ready to continue finding out about the best food in Lincoln.

Over the past year the Burton Road Chippy have been talked about a lot across the city. After winning the title of best fish and chip restaurant in the East of England they are now preparing for Fish and Chip Awards final in London. I went up to the restaurant to talk to the owner Des Anastasiou to see what it takes to be one of the top 10 chippys in the UK.

Also on this week’s programme, how Burns Night is celebrated in Lincoln. The poetry of Robert Burns is celebrated on Burns Night in Scotland with a traditional meal, usually including haggis. The Vice Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste has organised an evening to honour the poet, and I went to find out why.

You can listen to this week’s podcast right here:

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Burton Road Chippy in Lincoln | Photo: Charlotte Reid

The excitement is building for the Burton Road Chippy as they will soon find out if they are the best fish and chip restaurant in the UK. To get to the finals the chippy had to compete in regional competitions. So to be in the final in London they are already the best restaurant in the East of England.

To find out more about the nomination process I went up to the Burton Road Chippy to meet up with owner Des Anastasiou.

Listen to the interview with Des below:

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Next week’s Food for Thought will be following the Burton Road Chippy down to London to see how they do and find out more about the industry too.


St Andrews flag | Photo: Katie Dalton via FlickrThis week also sees Burns Night, a day to celebrate the life of Scottish poet Robert Burns. To commemorate the day it is usual for people in Scotland to have a Burns Supper but this tradition also takes place in England sometimes too.

The Vice Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste, Professor Muriel Robinson, has introduced a Burns Supper to the university campus and this year’s is the biggest celebration so far. I spoke to Professor Robinson to find out how this tradition started.

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If you have enjoyed this episode of Food for Thought then make sure you listen to Siren FM on Wednesdays at 2pm.

Deck the halls with bowls of food

In my head it has been Christmas for a few months because I have been planning the festive edition of Food for Thought. There has been a lot of planning, thinking and editing and I am rather proud of what I created. I know it is only talking about food, but getting so many people to talk about the different aspects of the day has been really interesting.

To get yourself inspired for Christmas listen to Food for Thought in full here:

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To kick off this Christmas special is my trip to the Lincoln Christmas Market. The four day market has all sorts but this year I visited with my focus on food. The market also seems to have become synonymous with mulled wine, I didn’t grab a glass as I went at 11am by myself, but I did chat to some people serving it… dressed as monks.

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A few weeks ago Food for Thought regular Sam Pidoux and I went to a Christmas Food and Gift Fair at the Lincolnshire Showground. It was a chance for local producers to show off their Christmas foods. We went to find Christmas food essentials such as wine, cheese and the bird.

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Traditionally the panic of Christmas Day comes from cooking the turkey, so I chatted to Lincolnshire chef Rachel Green to get some tips. As well as passing on her advice for preparing the turkey she also has some recipes for what to do with any leftovers.

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I have chatted in the past few weeks, about how I am not a huge fan of Christmas cake. My favourite part is the marzipan, which doesn’t do many favours to the cake. However, I wanted to find out more about how to make it and decorate it so I chatted to a cake making professional.

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To end this week’s show was a brief chat with the organisers of the Lincoln Oktoberfest about what kinds of food Germans like to eat at Christmas time.

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If you haven’t had enough, then there is another Yuletide edition this week. Listen to Siren FM on Wednesday at 2pm or Saturday at 3pm. As well Christmas songs galore I have also been finding out about what to make for the Christmas Day meal if you are vegetarian and reviewing Christmas sandwiches.

Christmas time is coming to Food for Thought

I have been against talking about Christmas yet, but it has slowly dawned on me that we are less than a month away from the day itself. There have been a few signs, the Christmas lights being switched on in Lincoln, seeing the Coca-Cola advert and I found myself at a Christmas Food and Gift fair last weekend.

The Lincolnshire Showground was hosting the fair and it was a great day. It was all for my food show on Lincoln’s first community radio station, Siren FM. My friend Sam came along with me, and we were genuinely excited about the amount of seasonal, local food products available. We found a man in Yorkshire (so unfortunately just out of the area for Siren FM) who makes his own chorizo, there was also tasting sessions of chocolate wine as well as orders taking place for Lincolnshire geese and turkey. I also found the largest hog roast sandwiches ever.

I also met some great new people to feature and profile on my Siren show who will be turning up in the next few weeks and hopefully into 2013.

This is merely a bit of a tease though. I am currently working on the Christmas special of Food for Thought, which has plenty of fun ideas including the upcoming Lincoln Christmas Market.

Also on this week’s show I was invited to go try out Lincoln’s latest restaurant Wagamamas. Myself, and my plus one Jon, spent most of the evening trying to figure out if the waiters knew we were reviewing them or not. Turns out they didn’t, which was a relief. The service was lovely and the food very good. Verdict is that it is great that Lincoln has something new which doesn’t offer pizza. As a result the place is really busy so plan when you are going, lunchtime seems to be less frantic.

To entice you further here are some images of the dishes we tried, which Wagamamas kindly gave to me.

Interested? Well you can listen to the edited highlights here, or listen to the show in full on Siren FM on Wednesdays at 2pm or Saturdays at 3pm.

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A trip to London’s Borough Market

Borough Market | Photo: Charlotte ReidThis week Food for Thought has travelled to London. The idea is to find food related day trips for the upcoming summer holidays, but I think most people can see through that thinly veiled excuse for a day in London.

It all started when Food for Thought regular Sam Pidoux asked me if I had ever been to Borough Market. The answer was no. She began to tell me all about the variety of stalls, food and drink all housed in one little market in London. So to find out what was so different about this market to all other markets Sam acted as my tour guide.

You can listen to our Borough Market special right here:

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If you get chatting to people who have been to Borough Market you will find they will not stop talking about how great the place is and how it is a real highlight of living in London. Yet when you get there and walk between aisles of cakes, fresh fruit and then find yourself inside a Spanish deli you do understand their enthusiasm.

A lot of the food you find in Borough Market you could find at any other kind of market, but the difference is they are the best. You need to win your spot at the market and explain why your stall needs to be there to represent the food make up of the UK.

The Boston Sausage stall at Borough Market | Photo: Charlotte Reid

Even in London we found food stalls representing the best of the East Midlands with the Boston Sausage stall as well as a lady selling the famous Melton Mowbray pork pie.

I also liked how the whole area around the market embraced the idea of food. There was all sorts of fancy restaurants, local pubs and delis in all the streets surrounding the market. Sam grew up in Germany and when leaving the market we stumbled across a German deli. Inside was all sorts of spices, chocolates and snacks that I had never heard of but Sam instantly recognised. It was great to find a shop so dedicated to showcasing genuine German foods, even though most people nearby would have no idea that these products existed.

M and M World | Photo: Charlotte ReidWhile we were in London we found a couple of other food attractions to pass the time. A quick tube ride away from Borough Market, we entered M&M World in Leicester Square. If you had ever wanted to know how many items of clothing and pieces of stationary could have the M&M logo on then this is place to visit.

However, the best bit is just the tubes of every colour of M&M. You pick up a bag and are free to pour yourself as many sweets as you want. If you really want you could buy a bag that consists of only grey M&Ms. But there is a childlike feeling that overcomes you when you are given the power of making your own bag of sweets.

To end the day we went to the Haagen-Dazs restaurant, which is dedicated to serving icecream. Flicking through the menu it is amazing to look at the yummy combinations they have made. It is also very decadent to be sitting in a restaurant in central London to only order a scoop of icecream, but it is enjoyable.


If you have enjoyed this rambling food tour of London, then make sure you listen to Siren FM on Wednesdays at 2pm for new episodes of Food for Thought.

A Lincolnshire Show special of Food for Thought

The 2012 Lincolnshire Show | Photo: Jon CresswellEvery year the Lincolnshire Showground plays host to the county show. All county shows are pretty much the same. There is a section to look at large tractors, an area to pet the farm animals and, the bit that I was interested in, stalls of local food.

As well as chatting to some of the stallholders to find out what it is like to be at the Lincolnshire Show, I also caught a cooking session with celebrity chef Colin McGurran.

Listen to the podcast of this week’s programme below:

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A cooking session with Colin McGurran | Photo: Jon Cresswell

The Lincolnshire Show was a chance for people to get a cooking lesson from some top local chefs. I popped into a session with Colin McGurran, who has recently starred in The Great British Menu. He cooked a few dishes that he would ordinarily serve up in his restaurant in Scunthorpe.

Afterwards I chatted to Colin to find out some of his top tips when it comes to cooking.

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I walked round the food court of the county show to see what other food is available locally. One thing I found a bit strange was for an event that was promoting Lincolnshire there was a lot of stalls showcasing food from Yorkshire and even Norfolk. However, these are some of the best Lincolnshire stalls I found.

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If you have enjoyed these snippets from my show then make sure you listen to Siren FM on Wednesday at 2pm for a new episode.

Sweet business and Lincoln goes continental

I reckon one of the best jobs in the world would be making fudge. The fun of creating new flavours and varieties would be something worth waking up to each day. To find out if the job lived up to my expectations I chatted to the man Behind Deeping Fudge, Les Green.

I also explored Lincoln’s continental market to find out what European treats were available on the city’s high street.

You can listen to the podcast for this programme below:

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Deeping Fudge logoLes Green is in charge of Deeping Fudge so spends his days making, selling and eating fudge. It sounds like an enviable life. Chatting to Les I found out how to make fudge as well as how to come up with different flavours of fudge.

Although Les admits that it isn’t always that hard as one of his award winning flavours, chocolate and chilli, was created by accident. I also asked the crucial question of if you can ever get fed up of eating fudge.

You can listen to that interview with Les Green of Deeping Fudge below:

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Lincoln's continental market | Photo: Charlotte Reid

Every few months Lincoln’s high street gets treated by the continental market. It is organised by Lincoln BIG so to find out more I spoke to Michael Armstrong, who was responsible for the event. You can listen to the interview with him right here:

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If you happened to miss out on the market though you can listen to my audio postcard (a fancy term for a bit of a radio tour). Hopefully it will give you an idea of what stalls were there as well what different types of European food.

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If you have liked what you have seen, and listened to, here then make sure you listen to Siren FM on Wednesday at 2pm.

Interviewing the Greenhouse Coffee Shop

In the second episode of Food for Thought I speak to Pauline Moore who runs the Greenhouse Coffee Shop as well as trying out how to make a three course meal that you could try for yourself at home.

Listen to this week’s podcast just below:

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The Greenhouse Coffee Shop in Lincoln | Photo: Charlotte Reid

Burton Road, which is just beyond the famous Steep Hill of Lincoln, is home to the Greenhouse Coffee Shop. Pauline Moore’s cafe is a little different to what you would expect as she serves up hearty portions of curry as well as a huge variety of cheesecakes. In our conversation Pauline and I speak about what it is like to get people in Lincoln trying out different places by trying out special evenings and using Twitter.

You can listen to the interview with Pauline from the Greenhouse Coffee Shop, in full, below:

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Also on the programme is some recipes for a three course meal spread out amongst the show. If you want more information then you can follow these easy recipes.

Garlic dough balls

Garlic dough balls | Photo: Charlotte ReidThese dough balls can be made quite easily earlier in the day and then just need to be warmed up and covered in heated garlic butter.

You can find the recipe and a video guide here

Tomato pasta

Tomato pasta | Photo: Charlotte ReidIt is a really simple recipe but very yummy and can be made really quickly. And of course the meal has bacon in it which is a guaranteed success.

You can find the recipe and a video guide here.

Chocolate brownies

Chocolate brownies | Photo: Charlotte ReidThese brownies are delicious and very chocolatey, and of course there will be plenty left over to spread across the whole week and not just one meal.

You can find the recipe and a video guide here.

In the meantime you can listen to show every Wednesday at 2pm on Siren FM.