The King's Head, High Beach

On the 5th November 1815 the Treaty of Paris made the Ionian islands into The United States of the Ionian Islands and place them under British protection. As part of the spiritual preparation for our sojourn to the Ionian Islands we undertook an excursion through that part of our green and pleasant British Isles that lies between Buckhurst Hill, Chingford, High Beach and Loughton.

After a hard afternoon trekking through Epping Forest on a surprisingly warm May's day the King's Head made a most refreshing sight. Following appropriate rehydration we ordered the cheese board pictured above and fearing that the repast might not be hearty enough on it's own we augmented it with a bowl of chipped potatoes.

As you know we are always delighted to see food served on a chopping board. The bread-to-better ratio was entirely correct if one only includes bread in its strictest sense, however, some would argue that crackers should also figure in the calculation. The cheeses range was more than sufficient if one classifies the dish as a ploughman's; as indeed was the choice of pickles. The foliage was essentially decorative but in that sense one should perhaps say that the meal did what it said on the tin.

The Great Bake Off, Hedge Fund Towers, Soho

Sugar is the crystallised juice of the Saccharum officinarum and S. edule plants. It has been cultivated in India since ancient times but the process first became industrialised during the Arab Agricultural Revolution from the 8th century onwards. In the 12th century William of Tyre wrote that sugar is "very necessary for the use and health of mankind". We would very much dispute this pointing to sugar's role in the Atlantic slave trade and more recently increased levels of obesity in the Western world

That aside when we were invited to participate in a baking competition images of sponge cakes emerging from ovens in Ye Olde Merrie Englande filled our mind. We aligned ourselves with a group of partisans coming in from the South East of the city attempting to bring down the system from within using the techniques of low-sugar baking. These advocate using sugar as little as chemistry allows, combined with as much use of home-grown produce as possible. The group submitted a chocolate and home-grown pear cake, a victoria sponge cake and a lemon drizzle cake. The judges gave the mantle of victory to a carrot cake whose wholesomeness none could question and, in second place, a rival victoria sponge. Nonetheless we are not bitter...

What has all this to do with the hearty ploughman's you may ask? In fact very little other than that this contest to place at the time when the rustic gentleman would set plough aside for his hunk of bread, cheese and condimentary items. Indeed, we would not have troubled you with it but for the demands from our readers for commentary on this event.

North Point, Hong Kong

Tea is the leaves, leaf buds and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant. Opium is the dried latex of the Papaver Somniferum plant.

From the mid-17th century onwards a significant trade imbalance arose between the British Empire and Qing-dynasty China due to strong British demand for tea and low Chinese demand for European goods. In the 18th century British traders started importing opium from India into China to address this trade imbalance. As a result opium was banned in China. The continued smuggling of opium ultimately lead to the Opium Wars. The first Opium War ended with the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 which ceded Hong Kong Island, Stonecutter Island and Kowloon as far north as Boundary Street, to Britain.

We visited Hong Kong recently, in part to add to our collection of antique opium pipes. Although we found that there were many very good restaurants, we were unable to locate a ploughman's lunch.

Consequently we took matters in to our own hands. A short stroll to the local Saint Honore Cake Shop provided us with a pineapple bun. From a grocers in Central mysteriously called City Super, we obtained a piece of Bavarian smoked cheese. We were disappointed in the produce of City Super finding it to be almost entirely imported and decidedly overpriced. We received the gift of figs from a Carmelite nun in Stanley, for which we were most grateful. This plain but wholesome meal we found most fortifying particular accompanied as it was by the brewings of the Camelia Sinensis plant.