What is a Substantial Meal? 

As lockdown 2 ends in England, many places will be moving into Tier 2 restrictions, where one can only purchase a drink if you also purchase a ‘substantial meal’.  This has led the editors of the blog to speculate as to what exactly is a ‘substantial’ meal.  Here we reproduce some of our discussions with the images we have found.

Editor: Is this a Tier 2 substantial meal?

Another Editor: Pie-eyed again?

Yet Another Editor: It does raise the question- what exactly constitutes a “substantial meal”?? I think the government’s working definition is :- “The amount of edible material that Boris Johnson wouldn’t give a hungry child, but Marcus Rashford would”

Editor: that’s a very clear metric!

Editor: Having a substantial meal in the pub…

Another Editor: Food minister George Eustice has just suggested that a scotch egg could count as a substantial meal or even a starter!

Yet another editor: 😂😂 ??? “And often that may be as a starter” – I know I’m running the risk of coming across as an effete middle class softy, but I have never before run into that particular dish being billed as an hors d’œuvre…

Another editor: TBH I did see a ‘deconstructed scotch egg’ on a menu once – I think it involved a quail egg. Is that effete middle class enough!

Yet another editor: 🤣doesn’t sound like the kind of place that EVER serves up a ‘substantial meal’ – with or without a drink! I wonder if the public health agencies need to be clearer on this topic: “Any dish described as deconstructed is only allowed in restaurants in Tier 1 locations or in extremely bourgeois areas where other food may not be available”

Finally, here is Matt Swan’s (from Twitter) attempt at making a substantial meal calculator.

Other Stuff we have seen

Millennium Bridge, London Thursday evening – we didn’t know what it means but maybe an answer here

Distancing warden patrolling the corridors of a Swedish University

What we are Reading

Sharp and salty story of what happens between empires, between languages and between bodies, as told by Gertrude Stein’s cook.

What we are Watching

Le Bureau des Légendes – French spy thriller that looks at the toll of deep uncover work – intelligent and gripping – the type of series that Homeland wanted to be.

Finally, He’s still sulking! Sad