Anticipation

This week has been, and will continue to be, rather rushed. It’s why I’m only just sitting down to start the blog now, at 9pm, rather than having spent the last three hours ponderously typing out the first few paragraphs while I potter round our various social media pages adding insight and cat pictures.

The week is busy because after a lovely but hasty weekend with Barny’s side of the family he went into surgery on Tuesday to have a chronic back problem operated on. Bad timing in some ways, as next week is our only holiday of the season and this weekend is his transition from 20-something to old. As it stands though, the summer is nearly full, which is fantastic but does mean that we don’t really have room for two week recuperation periods anywhere, especially not in a tent at a festival in the middle of nowhere.

So he is currently parked on the sofa in a daze of prescription drugs working his way through Netflix with strict orders not to move any more than necessary, and this week the toastie prep is down to me.

It’s a big week, with our latest visit to Digbeth Dining Club on Friday followed by the much anticipated launch of Brum Yum Yum on the Saturday where, if twitter is to be believed, every single food blogger in a thirty mile radius will be descending on Kings Heath to sample the Midland’s greatest street food. They will possibly also be accompanied by secret shoppers on behalf of the BBC Good Food Show, who are the judging this years award for best street food in the Midlands. So, you know, no pressure.

Tomorrow then, I will be solo-prepping 100 toasties, while trying to stop Barny helping and getting the menu ready. This will include a brand new toastie for DDC with some smoked wood pigeon from the local hunt and two new toasties for BYY, the Manwich and the newest in our gradually growing collection of sweet toasties: Rhubarb and Custurd. In development terms the sweet ones are the hardest, so the last week has seen most meals followed by a rhubard and custard in some form or other.

I think the issue is that there is no point putting food into a toastie unless you are going to improve it. While melted cheese fundamentally improves every savoury ingredient from a standing start, there is no such formula with desserts. Cheese won’t help us here.

We have had a fair few abandoned concepts because although we can make them tasty, they wouldn’t actually be any better than the original. This weekend the R&C will make its début and, after much selective testing, will be the first sweet toastie served on brioche.

Hence the anticipation. Generally for all of the above rather than just the brioche. All in all I’d probably put in in my top three least disconcerting breads, but there we go. Bring it on Friday, I’m off to bed.