Viva Lewes Issue #114 March 2016

food
Edible Updates
The pilot of The Crunch - a new ‘interactive dialogue’ event from
the Wellcome Trust that aims to get people thinking about food, our
health and our planet - has been the food highlight of my year so far.
[thecrunch.wellcome.ac.uk]
Over two days, I enjoyed performances of ‘verbatim theatre’ inspiring
me to think about food in its broadest sense; lively discussions; Q&As
with experts, and a group brainstorm about how to change our food systems for a brighter future.
It all inspired me to start a (feeble drumroll) Facebook group, ‘Lewes Foodies’, to hopefully continue
some of the debate. Lewes already has many progressive initiatives in the food sector: co-ops, conscientious
businesses and charitable groups. I hope Lewes Foodies will support communication and help to
create further positive collaborations: please join facebook.com/groups/LewesFoodies
It seems to be working already. Without Lewes Foodies, I wouldn’t have known that Annabella Ashby
is hosting a Waste Food meeting on 16th March, 7.30pm, at the Town Hall, Yarrow Room for anyone
interested in supporting waste food activities in Lewes.
It’s a bit of a leap, but in other news we have Mother’s Day, which is - in my own interest to say - not
throwaway. The team at Lewes Hamper have put together a perfect Mum gift, see leweshamper.co.uk,
and Pelham House is offering a special three-course roast on March 6th, with a present for ma thrown
in. Good news from Cheese Please also, who are now stocking artisan truffles made by a small, familyrun
chocolatier, and just in time for Easter too. Chloë King
Illustration by Chloë King
Needlemakers Café
Where eggs ain’t just eggs
Pauline and I have a bit of a disagreement as to where to have
lunch, and I have to actually collect her from the place where
she wanted to go, where she’s already sat down, to take her to
the Needlemaker’s Café, my choice.
I’m buying, of course, and we both go for the same thing off the specials board: Eggs California, which,
if you pay a quid extra (making it £8.95), you get with bacon rashers, too.
When the dishes arrive, looking splendid, Pauline points to said board, asking me if I can make out a
word she can’t read. I turn my head, read out the word, and when I turn back I realise she has speared one
of my eggs. A revenge of sorts. Her face is all innocence, but there is yolk visible on the tip of her fork. I
say nothing.
Some poached eggs would have virtually disintegrated in the circumstances, but, such is the high standard
to which this one has been prepared, the only evidence of her act of violence is a zig-zag of yellow in
the mustardy-cream of the hollandaise sauce the eggs have had poured over them.
The egg whites have the sort of robustness about them that contains most of the yolk even when you cut
it, any spillage is mopped up by the brown sourdough toast everything’s sitting on. This lot is surrounded
by leafy salad and, rather incongruously, a little pile of couscous.
We wash it down with San Pellegrino grapefruit juice, which offers a glorious tangy sweetness to affairs.
A perfect lunch? There would have been hell to pay if it had been anything else. Alex Leith
Photo by Alex Leith
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