Two weekends ago, one of my oldest pals, Mike "Walshy" Walsh, came to stay. Whilst in Brighton he would be paying a visit to some old colleagues, playing some football for Kemp Town FC (incidentally the football team that he started), and collecting a guitar amp. The primary reason for his visit to the coast though was the Sussex Beer Festival. As he would be staying at my house for the duration of his visit he seemed like the perfect person to accompany me for a breakfast that weekend.
We had visited the Sussex Beer Festival the previous year and had a jolly good time. It had had a warm and bubbly atmosphere, no doubt a result of all the delicious warm and bubbly beverages that were available for drinking. As expected there was an excess of large, middle-aged men who thought that comedy hats were de rigueur, but there were also a large number of ordinary people so things never felt too awkward. I even spied the lead guitarist of British Sea Power sitting in a corner with some cronies, supping on summat dark. All in all it was a great experience and one that we both wanted to repeat in 2013.
Before this, however, was football training, and before this was a cooked breakfast. We needed to lay a solid foundation for an afternoon spent imbibing a heady mixture of light and darkness from all across the British Isles. For this purpose, we had opted to pay a visit to the Fiveways Deli, a place recommended by a friend who had been there a couple of times previously (along with a mysterious bakery, a few yards up the road, about which I had heard several top reviews). We were both excited about travelling to a relatively unexplored part of the city (for us, anyway), having had the majority of our breakfast experiences in the Kemp Town area.
It was early that Saturday morning when we arrived at the Deli; a small venue with wooden flooring and furnishings that initially yelled out words like artisan and rustic. It felt homely. This homeliness was underlined when we had our orders taken in person and newspapers offered to us within minutes of entering. Heart FM soundtracked these exchanges. There was also a covert quirkiness to the Deli though, in that the seating seemed to be sourced from various disparate places. A church pew sat modestly next to the service counter, whereas the table we chose to use in the near corner was serviced by some seating that must have formerly belonged to a cinema. These touches were subtle, but were effective in making the venue feel different to every other rustic, artisan delicatessen.
Walshy and I discussed three main topics whilst awaiting our food. Unfortunately, due to the heavy quantities of light and darkness that I encountered throughout the day, the finer points of these conversations elude me. We certainly talked about film. Walshy is a keen follower of film. No doubt he recommended some upcoming feature length for future watching. No doubt we shared scepticism about the Muppets sequel that would be have Ricky Gervais as a cast member. We also talked about the fortunes of Aldershot Town FC, Walshy's favourite team. They had recently appointed a new manager, Andy Scott, whom he was feeling very positive about. At the time of writing, the Shots had been enjoying a six game unbeaten run before falling to a tight 2-1 reversal at the hands of high-flying Burton Albion. It looks as though he could be the one to turn their season around, after a period of fairly dull, uninspiring football under the previous manager.
The other thing I can remember talking about is Walshy's change in academic focus. For the last few years he has been focusing his considerable energies in applying for physio courses, unfortunately meeting little success despite a wealth of experience in related work (particularly as a personal trainer at the Samson Centre, a great supportive centre for people with multiple sclerosis). He has now decided that he will instead be applying to train as a paediatric nurse; an equally exciting project and one that I have no doubt he would be excellent at undertaking. He is a man who is both caring and hungry for success, and it is this hunger that drives him from project to project. Hopefully his hunger for success will rub off on this project.
And so, the breakfast:
Full Veggie
...
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| Full Veggie - £5.25 |
When the plate arrived I was served with the sight of 2 fried eggs, tomato, beans, mushrooms, roast vegetables and two slices of toast. Exciting! Roast vegetables! Toast that may have begun its life at the mysterious bakery up the road!
I immediately had to sample the roast vegetables, having never experienced them in a breakfast context before. For those unable to discern the different variables, the vegetable selection consisted of red onion, courgette and a variety of coloured peppers. And probably mushrooms as well. See, these had the compact juiciness of roast veg, along with a hint of smokiness. These were truly superb; succulent and flavoursome. Definitely mouthfeel (see last week's post). The taste they offered was up their with the best you can expect from roast vegetables.
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| Mike Walsh - hungry for further adventure |
They stood out against the other veg options; the tomato was well-cooked and had a good texture but could have been sharper. Similarly the beans were pleasantly fruity but only had a slight tang. Both these components could have done with a bit more edge to their flavours to bring them up to the standard of the roast vegetable selection. They were undoubtedly pleasant nonetheless.
It was the non-vegetable items that let the dish down slightly. The whites of the fried eggs had a firm consistency, but suffered from the overly watery yolks. I like my yolks to have a certain thickness to them, as though you are supping upon sunlight, and these were just not robust enough. It seemed as though the exciting bread was trying to compensate for this. Despite being deliciously seedy and thick, I found that the toast had been overdone to the point of being overly crunchy. When the bread is as thick as this was you need the bread to have a certain amount of give in order to make the eating process quick and simple. If you wanted to nitpick then you could also criticise the positioning of the eggs on the toast as presumptive. I want to nitpick. This is normally where I would position my fried eggs once fastbreaking has commenced, but what if I fancied a change? What then!?
It was interesting and reassuring for a vegetarian that the vegetables were the best part of the dish. Sometimes it feels as though vegetarian options are merely there in order to tick boxes, but it felt as though some thought and care had gone into this, or at least a knowledge of how to prepare vegetables that one would expect from a delicatessen. This was welcoming indeed. It was a shame that the other elements were not of the same high quality as these, and indeed of the wonderful warmth of atmosphere that the deli had (is this something that all delis share?). I would be interested in returning here for lunch sometime, as I imagine they must provide excellent sandwiches. That is a mission for another day, and perhaps that day will be soon; I neglected to take a photo of the Fiveways Deli's exterior and so another jaunt up there is required. I hope to also pay a visit to the mysterious bakery (more commonly known as Ravens Bakery) which, on our departure from the Deli, had an impressive queue streaming out of its doorway and onto the pavement. All of this hearsay and conjecture is giving out mystical cultic overtones. Has sorcery finally returned to these shores?
Function: very homely, could be more hearty 3/5
Adherence to canon: Yes
Taste: scintillating vegetables, room for improvement elsewhere 3/5
Value: relatively cheap for decent quality 4/5
Presentation: eggs look like eyes, but presumptive eyes 3/5
Venue: had that 'deli magic' going on 5/5
Overall: showed promise, just needs more heart - 3.5/5
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