Is Leon The Only Fast-Food Restaurant, Where You Get Personal Service?
When I ordered my full English pot in Leon a few minutes ago, they were temporarily out. So the assistant told me to sit down and he brought it to me a couple of minutes later.
This regularly happens in Leon and it’s one of the reasons I go!
CoolRail To Cut Carbon Footprint Of Fresh Food
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette International.
These first two paragraphs outline the plan.
Food logistics company Euro Pool System has launched a thrice-weekly CoolRail dedicated temperature-controlled service to transport fresh produce between Valencia in Spain and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
This is intended to be first route of planned network of CoolRail services which would link Spain with Germany, Scandinavia and the UK.
I can see this method of fresh food transportation growing, especially as CoolRail claim it is as fast as by road and cuts CO2 emissions by 70 to 90 %.
It also appears that the UK through the Channel Tunnel is in CoolRail’s plans.
Fish, Lamb And Beef To Europe
The obvious British export, that could use the service the other way to Europe is probably fish, as a large proportion of UK-landed fish goes to Europe at the present time.
This page on the Seafish web site, gives details about fish imports and exports.
Quality meat, like Welsh lamb and Scottish beef could also be sent to Europe, after being slaughtered in the UK.
What About Quality Food And Drink?
This page on the Scotch Whisky Association web site is entitled Scotch Whisky Exports On The Up in 2018.
This is two paragraphs from the page.
In 2018, the export value of Scotch Whisky grew +7.8% by value, to a record £4.70bn. The number of 70cl bottles exported also reached record levels growing to the equivalent of 1.28bn, up +3.6%.
The United States became the first billion pound export market for Scotch Whisky, growing to £1.04bn last year. The EU remains the largest region for exports, accounting for 30% of global value and 36% of global volume.
That means that Scotland exported to the EU, the equivalent of 461 million bottles of whisky, that is worth around £1.41billion.
A twenty-foot shipping container has a volume of 33.2 cubic metres., so with allowance for packaging, one could probably hold 33,200 bottles worth about £100,000.
To accommodate all Scotch Whisky exports to Europe on the 2018 figures, would need 14,000 containers per year or a very civilised thirty-eight containers a day.
Conclusion
There’s certainly a large market for food transport by rail across Europe and to the UK, some of which will be in containers with refrigeration and some without!
Mojitos On Display By The Tills In Dalston Marks And Spencer
As this picture shows, the well-publicised Mojitos are handy in Dalston Marks and Spencer, which is perhaps thirty metres from the London Overground at Dalston Kingsland station.
They are the two light-blue cans on the left of the shelf.
I had just relieved the shop of two bottles of my favourite 0.5% Southwold Ale.
Incidentally, I have never drunk any alcoholic drink out of a can, without using a glass as an intermediary.
These days, I don’t even drink soft drinks directly out of a can.
If Transport for London allowed sponsorship of rail lines, perhaps the North London Line would be sponsored by Marks and Spencer, as they have stores very close to the following stations.
- Richmond
- West Hampstead
- Hapmstead Heath
- Dalston Kingsland
- Hackney Central
- Stratford
I think there will be more.
Leon Goes Posh!
I took this picture in the Leon Restaurant on Moorgate yesterday, where I often go for breakfast.
I’m not a lover of plastic cups and in that restaurant, I can have a big mug of tea with my gluten-free full English in a pot!
As you can see, those who don’t like plastic cups or mugs sized for builders, can now have their beverage in a real cup and with a posh saucer.
A Neat Cup-Holder On Chiltern Railways
The picture shows a cup-holder on a Chiltern Railways’ train.
It is neat and well-designed.
It probably didn’t cost a fortune too!
The Lucky Seven
Why the Lucky Seven?
Because i’m drinking them! Does that make us the Lucky Eight?
The seven were the last on display in Marks and Spencer on Finsbury Pavement.
The City is a good hunting ground for this excellent beer!
Luton – An Unwelcoming Town For Coeliacs
On my visit to Luton station, I decided to take a walk to the town centre for some lunch.
I took these pictures.
Except for the town hall, I saw nothing of any architectural merit.
Gluten-Free Food In Luton Town Centre
If like me, you need gluten-free food, then I suggest you don’t go near Luton.
All I saw was two ageing sandwiches in the Marks and Spencer, which is closing on May the fourth.
If there’s a worse town in the UK, for gluten-free food, I haven’t found it.
Blackburn, Bardford, Crewe, Middlesbrough and Sunderland are all several times better.
Bean About Town
I liked this name when I saw it on a coffee stall outside Kentish Town station.
I also noted that the stall was selling the mandarin and chocolate chip gluten-free cake.
I’d have had some, but I had just had breakfast.
When I’m in the area I’ll check them out properly.
My First Fast Food Burger In Twenty Years
As a coeliac, I do eat burgers, but only from the upmarket chains and proper restaurants, who say everything is gluten free.
I also trust McDonalds chips, which with an orange juice make a stomach filler.
Today I got an e-mail, which said that Leon now do gluten-free buns with their burgers.
The char-grilled chicken burger was very nice.
I certainly didn’t have any adverse reaction.
Bremen
I took a detour from Bremen Hauptbahnhof, when I changed trains to walk to the centre.
If there’s a convenient hotel, it looks like it could be a place for a pit-stop or overnight stay.
By the way, the sausage appeared to be gluten-free, as I certainly had no reaction and German sausages usually are.
The Anonymous Widower 