Guest Blog Entry: Heaven in a Plastic Cup: Banana Custard at Sutton Village Hall

There is something often overlooked in any food review: context. How critical one can be when eating is a nicety not a necessity. Many diners might feel they deserve outrageously expensive food after a hard day at the office. Similarly, reviewers might expect their meal to be more art than food, given the ubiquitous cliché that we eat with our eyes. Lavish, delicious, exotic, exquisite etc – choose your adjective.

I would like to add a slightly different perspective.

At various points on Saturday night and Sunday morning I ate the finest food known to man. The highlight of these assorted mini-feasts was cold banana custard served in a plastic cup and eaten with a plastic spoon. Sheer liquid wonderment.

Perhaps I should add some context. This weekend I was participating in the Wessex100, an annual event during which competitors aim to walk 100 miles in 48 hours. At various intervals along the route, checkpoints served a variety of food and drink to keep the walkers fed. At least, that was their outward appearance. In fact, I found their role to be far more: to give walkers respite, morale-boost, confidence and encouragement to keep going. And what better way to do that than through the gloriously simply, yet tasty and nutritious delight that is banana custard? (I should another element to the context: custard seems to appeal to long distance walkers more than any other group I have met. I have even heard walkers suggesting filling their water bottles with it.)

Each checkpoint was run by a different regional walking club and so featured a different culinary delight. Offerings included sandwiches, beans on toast, quiche and potato salad, soup and bread, full cooked breakfast. Most stops also had fruit as well as chocolate in some form such as Jaffa Cakes and Swiss Roll. While the nutrition value of these can be debated, the psychological boost factor can not.

And this is the point I wanted to make: when you have been walking over 12 hours and covered 35 miles, your feet hurt, it’s cold and dark outside, the simplest food is wonderful. When you are in this condition and you still have another 65 miles to walk, you want comfort food that will give you a boost. For me, it was that banana custard. Served in fine bone china or a plastic cup, no-one really cares at this stage; it’s the food that counts.

In normal circumstances, I enjoy what the majority of the population describes as ‘good’ food. I try to eat out in different places and experience different cuisine. However, I doubt I will ever have another dessert that I will enjoy more than the banana custard at Sutton Village Hall at 1.30am last Sunday morning.

G.