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I have cooked a small handful of roasts in the last five or so years but nothing particularly extensive. A gammon, the odd bit of pork and of course a reasonable number of whole chickens but usually only with one type of potato and a couple of vegetables. In fact it was usually done purely on cost base of the amount of leftovers it would give or because I was running a bit short on ideas for meals and just wanted to find a way to narrow the thinking process down a little.

As for Yorkshire Puddings well I fully know how to make them and indeed I did but trying to explain them to Americans is a little bit complicated; A savoury pancake but done in the oven in a cupcake, sorry muffin, tray in hot oil or fat without the door being opened and they become these round things that have risen and become light and airy. It is safe to say they were not fully appreciated or perhaps even enjoyed.

But did you know it is incredibly difficult to get hold of something like lamb in the US? I don’t even think I seen a single sheep in the field for basically five whole years! So yesterday when we turned up at Toby Carvery and they had lamb do you know how excited I got? And it was so good. Not just because it was the first time I had it in years but because it was actually cooked really well, full of flavour and melted in the mouth.

Oh and the good thing about a carvery (if you don’t understand the term it is basically a place where you choose the meat-s, grab a Yorkshire Pudding and then you can have as much potatoes and vegetables or other trimmings that you want) is that I could also have a few slices of gammon too. I never went for a little bit of pork instead of the gammon but the crackle didn’t look significant enough to feel like I would get full enjoyment from it. There was also turkey and beef as well. You could technically have a small amount of all five if you wanted but that just seems like a bit of a muddle along to me.

Whilst I will admit that my eyes were very much so bigger than my belly I just got super excited and went into what I refer to as happy wiggle mode. Roast potatoes in beef dripping (non beef dripping options available), scallop potatoes done in a butternut squash sauce and mashed potato (though I didn’t have any of that) were the potatoes on offer. The roast potatoes could have maybe done with a little more crisping up on the outside and cooking in general but they were still fluffy enough and a delight to eat with good flavour on the outside. The scalloped ones were like butter and the sauce didn’t overwhelm them at all and provided as a good contrast of sweetness cutting through the other elements.

Additionally there were dumplings. Yes, any long-standing friends you read that correctly, dumplings. I don’t know if they were done right or not because again I haven’t had them in a long time but I think I could have done with putting a bit more of the sauce on them or some of the gravy specifically on them. They were the one thing that I didn’t particular enjoy because they were a little on the drier side to what I am used to.

Everything else though BIG HEART FACES; White cabbage, cauliflower cheese, carrots, peas, the gravy and oh the stuffing. The stuffing! I made myself stuffing in the US once when I was going to be alone for one of the numerous Thanksgiving or Christmases that happened to be the case and whilst I did it correctly it was another one of the whole ‘the USA just doesn’t seem to do it right’ moments. Having UK stuffing again felt like trying a delightful forkful of some grand thing for the first time. It’s the simple things after all eh?

Oh sad note though, whilst they had the veggie and meat gravy amply topped up where was none of the other sauces and because we went around 4pm on a Saturday it was in a bit of a staff shortage to point it out to them. I could have really taken a bit of mint sauce. Next time though.

But now that I have finished gushing over the actual food how was everything else? My coffee was good. I did the whole “can I just have a basic coffee please?” and got bombarded with a list of options. We eventually agreed I just meant a Black Americano. Ah yes… the place where I went from a very occasional coffee to a commonly choosing coffee over tea when out and about sort of person. It was decent coffee though and stayed hot for a surprisingly good length of time; the cups were a good hand feel and super thick too so it isn’t really of any surprise. The coffee did slow down the drink delivery process though which given it was very literally just a black coffee is a little disappointing.

The staff that were there were very friendly and chatty. You could see they were trying to keep a face on their smiles whilst working at 110mph doing more tasks or tables than I think they perhaps should have been. But I also know they happen to be attempting to hire more staff so at least there is an attempt being made on that front!

And finally, whilst I have no experience of quality or how it actually works out, they are part of the Too Good To Go scheme for several different meal times so if you know you will be in the area, driving by the motorway on a long trip at the right time or want to grab yourself a bit of a random bargain at the same time you could check out that app. If not consider getting reward points through the companies app directly too. In time I will go back to cooking my own roasts, making more and more elaborate sides, but for now having this sort of thing as an option again is wonderful and a real simple treat.

Dare I say it? Maybe I have indeed missed some bits of the UK more than I would like to admit and roast dinners/carveries might just be amongst all of that.