Meals On Wheels

After our recent trip to England and Scotland, my opinion about railway food has changed. The GNER (typically pronounced as GenieR) is one terrific high speed (125 mph) train with comfortable coaches and serious First Class service.

We boarded the train at Edinburgh. The Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) operates the East Coast Line from London's King Cross Station to Edinburgh with a train every hour. It takes around six and half hours, to cover 1,000 miles between London and Edinburgh with York and Newcastle as principal stops. What interested me is the fact that GNER employs 100 chefs and provides its own award-winning catering aboard its trains under the brand name of Go Eat. It is the only rail operator in Europe to provide a full restaurant service using produce sourced from local suppliers along the route.

We could have gone to the dining car for breakfast done up in old-fashioned Orient Express style silver service. But we stayed put and enjoyed the snacks delivered every 30 minutes by a friendly steward. The ride was splendid and the first half gave us an expansive view of lush fields and small towns with ancient churches.

Their current menus have been created by the celebrated McCoy brothers, the culinary force behind the Tontine restaurant near Northallerton and the food at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art - one of the landmarks visible on the GNER's approach to Newcastle. Also featured are dishes from well-known British culinary establishments from along the GNER route and Go Eat's own award-winning chef Samantha Scott, based in Edinburgh.

We were offered Menu C, which had a range of dishes created by chef Samantha Scott, chosen as ‘Chef of the Year’ in September 2004.

I enjoyed the Chilli Lentil and Lime Soup (£3.50) which is a prize winning recipe of Scott. It is deliciously spicy with chilli, ginger, garlic, coriander, cardamom, coconut and limejuice in a perfect blend of flavours. The accompanying breadbasket was replenished from time to time. The kids are comfortable eating chicken so we ordered Panfried Free Range Chicken (£15.50) made up of chicken breast with a cassoulet of chickpeas and chorizo, topped with minted crème fraiche. Though cassoulet is originally French made with white beans, this variation with chickpeas was creative (and chickpeas, is a familiar sight for our girls!). Chorizo is a Spanish sausage, quite full of flavour. The hint of mint in the crème fraiche added some intriguing notes to the slightly tangy and nutty cream topping. Then it was Fresh Monk Fish (£15.50) with pan fried medallions of monkfish on a leek compote served with a mussel sauce. Monkfish is a type of anglerfish and used to be considered trash fish and discarded by fishermen. The flavour is often compared to lobster. The flesh is sweet and quite firm. However, I don't agree that it tastes like lobster. It does have a slight shellfish flavour, probably because shellfish are a large part of the monkfish's diet! Leek Compote was the typical golden hued young leeks baked in butter and olive oil sprinkled with salt and sugar. And the herbed mussel sauce with a lot of tomatoes reflected just a hint of garlic.

At the end of the meal, we were offered some very good coffee and the kids got chocolates as gifts. I think Go Eat proves a point. And from this all restaurateurs should take a tip or two - that it is worthwhile being driven by a passion for recipes that showcase the very best fresh, local ingredients!