Tuesday 26 March 2004

Another quiet morning in our little village of Kildown, Kent and after some home made, hot cross buns for breakfast we drove the short distance to Rye, on the river Rother and not far from the coast of the English Channel.

After a walk around looking at the castle and some old guns, Lady P spies a cute Anglican church (St Mary’s) and we poked our heads in for a look (that’s two churches so far this trip). Well, blow me down, just down the road was the Catholic church of St Anthony de Padua. As many of you know, St Anthony is the favourite saint of my mother and is credited with many miraculous events involving lost causes, so in we went for another look inside a church.

Hard these days to light a candle when no one has cash. Then I noticed a card reader off to the side with a little note, saying that the church gladly accepts cashless donations by way of a card reader.

Lunch at the Standard Inn pub in the high Street (built in the 1300’s - that makes it almost as old as St Anthony), we had a small plate of white bait and something called lamb Scrumpet. Both very generous for entrees and went well with a half of shandy and a pint of Romney Best Ale. Lamb Scrumpet is slow cooked lamb that is pulled, compressed into little squares, crumbed and then deep fried. How could you possibly go wrong? Served with home made pesto and pickled red onions, too. Very good!

Heading home we drop in to a farm butchery renowned for the quality of its meat and recommended by our hosts and pick up a kg of rump steak for a red wine casserole and two very big Barnsley chops. These are double lamb loin chops and are quite famous. We will grill them and serve with some organic mushrooms and a rocket salad tonight. We did and they were great.

Why are they called Barnsley chops, you ask? Well, a farmer once went to a pub in Yorkshire and asked for a big chop. “You know, them big ones, like you get in Barnsley.” So that’s how a double loin chop, 1” thick, gets called a Barnsley chop - and for a butcher, it doesn’t matter where he’s from, it’s a ‘Barnsley chop!’

Red wine casserole made for tomorrow night. Huge potatoes purchased for the mash. All is good with the world. Well, at least here.

Hat shop in Rye

Only a 4"

The castle with a 32 pounder at either end. That's a bit better!

Lamb Scrumpet, white bait and a couple of drinks

One of these two looks happy. Just back from a  walk.

A view of Rye

Now, that's a chop!