Toad, in the hole: rolling-you-home football catering thread

(and Palace is the place to eat - not that expensive and really lovely)

Well I will be sure to send a report from my inaugural visit to the AFC carvery - £30 for 3 courses and a match ticket. I feel as though ILF would consider it a very 'real' venue for a League 2 meal.

― Blandford Forum, Thursday, July 4, 2013 3:32 PM (3 hours ago)

If we're doing a football catering thread, I'd like to contribute Middlesbrough left-back George Friend's review of the Riverside Restaurant http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/local-news/boro-full-back-george-friend-riverside-3670079

"if roast beef is ever on the menu, nine times out of 10 it will be my inevitable choice"

― oppet, Thursday, July 4, 2013 7:04 PM (4 minutes ago)

Because the finest dining is that served from a hatch to a scrum of 400 blokes in thirty square yards, with five minutes to gulp it down. Post your gastro delights and disasters here, and especially bump any time you happen across an unexpected treat.

Palace isn't anything to do with football btw I don't think - it's a Korean in New Malden, and shock frontrunner to host this year's ILF Awards.

yeah I've heard terrifying things about the Selhurst catering

an ILF Awards would be cool. nominate yourself and nakhy to enrobe Windsor Davies in the Ceremony of Assumption

Windsor's been here more than a year now - unlike this 'imago' poster - so he'll've graduated to doing security at least.

Speaking of our Win, the balti pies at Villa have hit the spot possibly more than anything else I've devoured at a ground in recent years.

had a really, really excellent pie at Wembley FC's home ground (where Hendon were playing their home games)

I have good memories of Tannadice pies. I once broke my tooth (OK, chipped off half a filling) on a pie at Hampden, yet another piece of evidence in my ever-increasing list of reasons why it is the worst place in the world.

i remember the bitter disappointment of a trip to Saltergate in the late 80s when there wasn't any pies on sale, just those overpriced grab bags of crisps and yr standard Wagon Wheel. proper pie stand should be a league requirement imo

Pies at Bury are great. There's a chippy outside the away end at Rochdale which is incredible, and they have a huge pile of scraps available on request.

Also, I only discovered how good bovril is at the end of last season. Can't believe I'd been making do with shite tea.

Hampden, yes - proper scotch pie and bovril were integral to young Ismael's matchday experience, a salt-umami-and-fat combo that cannot be beaten. 'Til I tried repeating the formula at Hampden last year - I could just about get the crust down, but jeez the rest

Dug my keyboard out from beneath 3 feet of paperwork to note that Villa Park's balti pies are totally foul and only a heathen with defective tastebuds would think otherwise. That aside, appreciate the sentiment upthread fellas. Always nice for a (relative) noob to feel like one of the lards

Investiture, that's the word I was looking for. Not Assumption. Your appearance was a necessary condition, it seems

and lo:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ryan-giggs-and-gary-neville-to-open-a-footballthemed-hotel-and-a-restaurant-8688890.html

Their Café Football restaurant in east London will open in November, while their Hotel Football, near Old Trafford, will open shortly afterwards.

GG Hospitality’s managing director, Stuart Procter, said Giggs and Neville had been “heavily involved in the development” from “picking the cutlery” to choosing the locations.

you can, if you so wish, get yourself a (presumably plastic) glass of wine from the normal punters catering area during h/t at loftus road

ponce that i doubtless am it hadnt really occured to me as being particularly odd tbh but the yid i went with who'd pointed it out was in hysterics

the little milk sachets at The Emirates are conspicuously marked 'organic'

I passed up the opportunity to open next season's account at Livingston on Saturday - hadn't expected to be attending a game at all, would've gone easy on lunch had I known. I had a tropical Capri Sun, that was all. The Wolves lads were getting stuck in to some round pies with a very dark filling - I believe they may have been advertised as 'steak'.

I dined at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. The away fans' area is an elongated space with red paint and corrugated walls; a kind of industrial urban chic that owes more to suburban business parks than to Williamsburg. Service is good - around five minutes at halftime - though access is a slight worry, with the toilets at the far end, necessitating a migration through the kiosk queues.

Otherwise it's actually rather pleasant, an airy area with eight big screens, half showing last year's Arsenal highlights, half showing the denouement at Old Trafford. Confusingly, they're set at angles in such a way that you can't help being drawn to watching the wrong thing; like you'll see Palace bearing down on the Utd box, then ten seconds later realise at some point your attention switched to Cazorla knocking one in against Newcastle instead, and you missed how Palace were cheated this time. But they've made efforts to be nice to the visiting support, a little Arsenal crest above the counter, framed photos of Wilshere and Bendtner on the wall, etc.

I had the chicken balti pie. It came in an attractive blue & black shell and was a rich golden brown colour. The crust was good: dry where it should've been dry, only a faint grease left on the fingers. It spilled its contents around halfway, but this was due to my oaf companion trying to rip a piece off instead of taking an honest bite; the whole structure was weakened, where I felt it would've borne the weight well. The cumin seeds baked into it worked well - they spread the warmth throughout the pie, rather than contrasting pallid pastry with warm filling. The filling was nice; the meat was soft, the sauce tangy and not overspiced.

I had the capri-sun, which I regretted a little. Its sweetness and strong notes of orange left drink and pie competing noisily and unflatteringly on my tongue, like two armies attempting to slap one another into submission. The Oaf chose tea, a PG Tips blend with a full body which complemented the pie's passage far better.

We shared a Dairy Milk for dessert; the shape seemed newfangled to me, but I generally don't indulge. In any event its swift dissolution never disappoints.

At a little south of eight pounds all in, it's not cheap. You feel management know it, hence the welcoming touches for away fans. My feeling is that with the chicken balti pie they've just justified the premium. 7/10.

Just quietly leaving this here for future mushy reference:

I went to Rochdale 3-0 Newport yesterday. Dale looked pretty good; Newport were prob the worst team I've ever seen. The matchday pies were excellent and only cost two quid, but the big news was that for £1 more you could get a massive pile of mushy peas on top. The old-school feel was enhanced by a Nati0nal Fr0nt demo outside the ground.

― "Left-wing" poptimism: An infantile disorder (oppet), Sunday, 13 October 2013 18:39 (54 minutes ago)

Slightly troubled to notice I've gone the Capri Sun route at both games so far this season. When did Capri Sun become a thing? I don't recall ever seeing it growing up, and I drank my share of juice I tell thee.

capri sun was the high roller's juice of choice in my school packed lunch days... always a murmur in the crowd when that touch of silver class came out

lawl

https://twitter.com/SundayShoutsFC/status/369549515155456001

Saint Agur, nice

1994
• Capri-Sun becomes market leader in the USA.
• Capri-Sun production starts in Turkey.
• An agreement with Coca-Cola/Schweppes Beverages for the production of Capri-Sun for the UK market is concluded.

That cheesy chips is amazing.

The Pie Factory: fucking bullshit. Fuck off Millwall