{"id":127,"date":"2016-08-21T01:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/21\/special-an-english-sunday-roast-the-long-read"},"modified":"2022-10-14T13:09:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T05:09:09","slug":"special-an-english-sunday-roast-the-long-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/special-an-english-sunday-roast-the-long-read\/","title":{"rendered":"*Special* An English Sunday Roast – The Long Read"},"content":{"rendered":"
 The Humble Sunday Roast<\/b><\/div>\n
 <\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now, let me first start by saying that this doesn’t necessarily happen in every household throughout the UK on a Sunday. But…<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
with that being said, I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find a household that isn’t doing this on a Sunday, in one form or another. Lunch time or Dinner time, this is how it goes down:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This picture accurately sums up the (now becoming more dated, I admit) English appetite: meat, two lots of vegetables, and a portion of potatoes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Let’s talk about the meat, first of all: <\/b><\/div>\n
Here, we have lamb. In my family, lamb is something we try to eat sparingly because have had the privilege to have eaten some delicious lamb over the years (as we bread our own sheep), therefore we find it difficult to get a good piece and we treat it lovingly when we do. Other popular meat alternatives include beef, pork, chicken, turkey and duck (very rare in our household).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Our lamb was roasted in the oven on a fairly low heat for a long time. Nothing added to it at all, just the way I like it! I am all for a garlic rub or some rosemary with my lamb, but sometimes it’s nice just to let the meat speak for itself.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Next, let’s talk about the vegetables:<\/b><\/div>\n
Broccoli and carrots we have here. I am a big fan of broccoli and try to eat it as much as possible. However, carrots I tend to eat less of. Both of these vegetables are boiled with just a little salt. However, my favourite roast dinner vegetable dish is cauliflower cheese, closely followed by roasted parsnips. Cauliflower cheese is basically cauliflower with a cheese sauce sloshed on top, and baked in the oven \u2013 cheesy bliss! Roasted parsnips are fairly self explanatory, but you have to make sure they are thinly cut and nice and crunchy, yum yum!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The penultimate talking point is most certainly the potatoes:<\/b><\/div>\n
Here we have a very simple, no fuss, new potato boiled. Chopped in half, seasoned with salt and boiled for around 20-25mins, it oozes simplicity. However, never look past the roast potato! I absolutely adore roast potatoes, but, the best ones are done with goose fat \u2013 insanely high in fat and salt… \ud83d\ude41 Other popular potato dishes are mash (boiled potatoes that are drained, and then mashed together with milk and butter to create a potato paste), dauphinois (thinly sliced potatoes layered with a cheese sauce and baked in the oven) and also the potato gratin (tiny straws of potato mixed together in a bowl with a white sauce, cheese and egg, then moulded into pancakes and fried in the pan). We are certainly a creative bunch when it comes to potatoes!<\/div>\n
 <\/b><\/div>\n
 <\/b><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
 <\/b><\/div>\n
 <\/b><\/div>\n
Finally, the real discussion can take place \u2013 the gravy (a sauce made from the cooking juices of the meat, or Bisto):<\/b><\/div>\n
I don’t like gravy, there, I said it! As an Englishman, not liking gravy is like the Taiwanese equivalent of not liking XO sauce, it’s sacrilege. Whenever I state this amongst Englishmen, the question most often asked is: \u201cDoesn’t that just make everything really dry?\u201d. No, absolutely not. If your meal is so dry that you need to drown it with a viscous, brown sauce that barely resembles anything at all, then whoever cooked it (sorry to all mums, dads, chefs, cooks, grandmas, grandads who make a sunday roast and then drown it in gravy) has done a poor job! The meat should be deliciously moist and juicy, the vegetables should still retain their integrity and give off enough juice, too. If you insist on using a sauce to compliment your meal, then for lamb use onion sauce or mint sauce, for beef use horseradish sauce, for pork use English mustard or apple sauce, for chicken use a cranberry sauce, for turkey use bread sauce and for duck use a cherry sauce. Don’t feel obliged to pour over that brown, tasteless sauce just to make everything slide down that little bit easier, branch out a bit!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Venting \u2013 complete.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What’s your favourite meat for a Sunday Roast? Veggies? Potatoes? Gravy or no gravy? <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 The Humble Sunday Roast   Now, let me first start by saying that this doesn’t necessarily happen in every household throughout the UK on a Sunday. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/taipei-city-miacucina\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":0},"title":"Taipei restaurant – MiaCucina","author":"eatingintaipei","date":"September 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Updated October, 2022Menu\u00a0 updated \u00a0 Vegetarian food is something that I haven't had a great amount of exposure to living in the UK, however, I have had more than my fair share of exposure to such food in Taiwan. There are over 8 million Buddhists currently living in Taiwan (statistics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vegetarian"","block_context":{"text":"Vegetarian","link":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/category\/restaurants\/vegetarian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/2015-09-292b11-23-491.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13493,"url":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/michel-bru-%e7%b1%b3%e6%a6%ad%e7%88%be%e5%b8%83%e7%9b%a7-taipei-food-delivery-box\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":1},"title":"Michel Bru \u7c73\u69ad\u723e\u5e03\u76e7 Food Delivery Box","author":"eatingintaipei","date":"July 23, 2021","format":"image","excerpt":"A week of gourmet Western meals to your door? Yes, please!","rel":"","context":"In "European"","block_context":{"text":"European","link":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/category\/restaurants\/european\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9769,"url":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/cheesecake-1-taipei\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":2},"title":"Taipei dessert \u2013 Cheesecake 1, Taipei","author":"eatingintaipei","date":"March 17, 2018","format":"image","excerpt":"Show-stopping Cheesecake that takes 52 hrs to make!","rel":"","context":"In "Cafe\/Dessert"","block_context":{"text":"Cafe\/Dessert","link":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/category\/restaurants\/cafe-dessert\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dsc05773-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dsc05773-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dsc05773-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dsc05773-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dsc05773-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10872,"url":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/february-edition-eating-with-the-seasons\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":3},"title":"February Edition – Eating with the seasons","author":"eatingintaipei","date":"January 25, 2019","format":"image","excerpt":"Taiwan\u2019s fruit is genuinely something to behold, nicknamed \u201cThe Kingdom of fruit\u201d by some, and you can certainly see how and why.","rel":"","context":"In "Special"","block_context":{"text":"Special","link":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/category\/special\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/london-flat-iron\/","url_meta":{"origin":127,"position":4},"title":"London – Flat Iron","author":"eatingintaipei","date":"January 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Updated September, 2022Prices and opening hours updated Value for money: 10\/10 Cleanliness: 9\/10 Service: 8\/10 Quality of food: 8\/10 Overall: 9\/10 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Apologies, but there is no outside pic to accompany this post - It was lashing it down with rain throughout our short stay in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/dsc07419.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/dsc07419.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/dsc07419.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14780,"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/14780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatingintaipei.com\/staging\/5148\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}