Stone soup

I'm reading "Never had it so good", Dominic Sandbrook's history of postwar britain. It's a social as well as political history and contains this wonderful description (from Egon Ronay) of what was on offer in a West Country hotel in 1957:

"Grapefruit cut into segments which were put back with all the pith left on, sour but heavily sugared. Minestrone which was some sliced vegetables in coloured water. Scampi, the Mediterranean fish but still tough and tasteless, served with 'mayonnaise' poured from a bottle into a sauceboat round the corner. Roast beef, cut thin, overcooked to brownness, lying in weak beef extract gravy..."

My father used to like to go to places like that - starched tablecloths, shiny silverware, high prices and bloody awful food.

I get the feeling that this is the kind of stuff that the Spread Eagle would have been serving until quite recently. The setup in the old still room said it all: the dumbwaiter up which the unfortunate chunk of meat would be sent, the old hot cupboard to keep it warm and the wee aluminium rings that remind me of school dinners which were to keep the plates apart.

We've been mopping up the odd bottle of nice pink wine from the Co-op along with kettle chips and dips. Tonight we had run out of dips and chips and the co-op was shut (Sunday you see) so I went to Alldays which is open later. The only dip they had was a "Pringles sour cream and chive" dip which, when we opened it tasted like cheap salad cream mixed with wallpaper paste. L suggested adding yoghurt.
"What does it need now?"
"More yoghurt"
We added more yoghurt, paprika and lime juice after which it was just about edible. Perhaps they should put the following instructions on the jar:
Step 1: Open jar
Step 2: Empty jar down sink
Step 3: Fill jar with something that vaguely resembles sour cream and chive dip

Still, the pink wine and kettle chips were nice.