Middle Class Problems

We always insist on toast after breakfast, it's no good before if you want it with marmalade. Also hate the mass produced watery scrambled eggs. We did go to a funny old hotel near Ross on Wye where the scrambled egg was freshly made and on wholemeal doorsteps, dripping with butter. Naught but delicious.

Something that has annoyed me at many an hotel breakfast -the waiter brings a rack of toast before anything else, which means it is stone cold before you get to it. They aren't happy when you hand them the rack and ask for 'some HOT toast, please', after the e & b have been disposed of.

My granddaughters love to use my old toast rack, whenever they stay the night they set the table with all the jars of jam, marmalade, honey etc and out comes the rack and toast is dutifully stood at attention in it(their words), It's the only reason I have held on to it as I'm usually too lazy to use it for myself and my husband prefers his toast hot and buttery.Still trying to decide if I am even approaching middle class when I shop at Aldi but then remembered being beaten to a few bargains by Harrod shopping bag wielding ladies, maybe Aldi is the new In thing

They'll be selling free range bread next.

Am mystified bags - are they implying the grains used grew in the unpolluted outback? Middle class alive and well here in WA evidently.

Of course Sel nothing else would do. Except for perhaps a bit of kitchen roll?

I once had a toast rack. Wonder if ex-H took it with him for Hyacinth Bucket (ie 2nd Missus).

Agreed with toast but served in artisan wicker basket with organic linen napkins to cover and keep it warm

I associate toast racks with old school B & Bs. Hot and cold in all rooms and colour TV. I did grow up in Morecambe

Me too Nelliemoser the softer and soggier (and the most melted butter) the better for me. I can't be doing with that crunchy stuff. But there again I am very much working class so it's only to be expected.

I like soft warm toast freshly made so the butter sinks in, not cold and dry in a toast rack. Is that showing my lack of style?
We never seem to have collected any toast racks along the way.

I remember Posie Simmonds. Quite often I didn't have a clue what she was on about.

Do they catch it in snares or nets? Or do you have to shoot it to catch it?

Sign seen this morning:
Wild Organic Bread

I'm also classless because I am Serf Efrican. Doesn't mean a thing to me! An American comedian on telly the other night (on HIGWFY) said 'Class is a way of discriminating against someone who looks just like you do!' I thought that was quite funny

Cartoon in the guardian when I was a young thing! Still works, in a way.

books.guardian.co.uk/posysimmonds/archive/0,,852391,00.html

Who?

Anyone remember Posie Simmons?

I've got one but my toast won't fit it.also, I rarely eat toast!

The problem with a toast rack is it makes me want to finish up all the toast.

As far as I know I've never eaten samphire, I'll have to look out for it.

Hot toast piled on a plate goes a bit soggy, a toast rack is an absolute necessity for me.

I buy samphire from the village market, the fish van sells it. I live in Suffolk, though, so it doesn't travel very far. I don't think it will disappear, much of it grows in fairly inaccessible places. It's very salty, so best soaked first a couple of times, and kept in water it lasts for maybe four or five days, if you change the water every day. I think agonising over something and worrying in case it is ethical is a very middle-class trait, so maybe people will stop eating it anyway, which will solve the problem.

Anyone who worries constantly about whether they are doing 'the right thing' a la Hyacinth is wasting their life. Grayson Perry's programme on channel 4 was perfect. It was called 'In the Best Possible Taste' and had the classes perfectly defined (in my opinion). I can't believe I used to spend a whole day polishing all the blasted silver I inherited, twice a year. But now I don't think anyone would know or care where I came from, my cockneyish ex-husband got rid of the plum in my mouth and I am no stranger to second hand clothes shops, I have friends from all walks of life and I think that, for most people, the class distinctions have blurred so much as to be invisible. But here is a link to a few minutes of the 'lower middle class' section of his series, if anyone is interested.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/in-the-best-possible-taste-grayson-perry/video/series-1/episode-2/s1-ep2-the-middle-class

My son goes to a private school, and sometimes I watch the odd aspirational mummy and just laugh and wonder how long it took them to get ready for doing the school run. Then curse them as they take up two spaces in their huge minibus-sized cars. On the whole though, most of the parents are struggling with fees just as much as we are, and are not paying out fees to try to raise their child's class (impossible now in a private school anyway), but to try to solve learning problems, or to board them because of having to move around so much for work.

I appear to have written an essay!

We love vine tomatoes , they have a different taste , sweeter somehow.
No more expensive than ordinary , well in Lidl or Aldi anyway .

Popped out to M/S earlier for a few bits , just for curiosity asked if they had samphire , they didn"t , could not be bothered to go on to Waitrose .

Mind , I have had it before and rather enjoyed the taste of it .

Funny how these celebrity chefs come up with things people have been eating for donkeys , as if they have just invented it .

Still that is what cooking is all about , always has , always will be , introducing people to new flavours and tastes .

lots of it here .

Nonsense, Anno - you are top class!

I'm Scottish, therefore classless.

I take them off the vine and weigh them as ordinary tomatoes. They don't seem to taste any different, anyway.
I often wonder if the aristocrats who become very friendly with mega-rich pop stars or sportsmen from normal backgrounds actually sneer at them in private. I am a very cynical person.