Friday, March 15, 2013

Have a butcher's down Tonbridge High Street....


Fabulous that there's now a proper butchers on Tonbridge High Street. Long may they be in business. This morning I did what I very rarely get time to do what with running my own business and all. I went and did a bit of shopping. First I went to the Post Office who opened just about dead on 9am. A minute or two late perhaps but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Then on to the Angel Flea Market where I came out empty handed but not before I was able to browse the many treasures on offer there. Then I had to do mundane things like buy some shaving gel and smellies from Boots. Needing some lunch and snacks for later I thought to myself "I've still got time to visit the Country Market" (sometimes still referred to as the WI Market or, as I fondly like to call it, The Old Lady Market) I could only get the pudding half of my lunch as the lady who makes the lovely quiches hadn't bothered today. "Outrageous!" I thought to myself but, then again, since I only visit the market about every seven months, I can hardly call the shots! So I had a brief moment of panic. Would I have to go to Sainsbury's after all? or maybe the Co Op or Waitrose for a sandwich? There's always the Pepper Grinder for a trusty Tuna and Mayo roll. Someone mentioned the suject of meat and then the perfect solution popped into my head. The new Butchers beckoned.
What a lovely sight it is when you walk into Ian Chatfield's. All that fabulous locally produced British 100% meat. Over to the deli counter I went and soon I was in a conversation about how they make their sausage rolls, what meat they use, whether I wanted honey roast or boiled ham in my baguette?? You know like a proper traditional High Street shop should be. Most of us can only vaguely remember this and many of you have maybe never had the experience. The taste of the honey roast ham and mustard baguette combined with the fabulous sausage roll was absolutely divine. Forget Tesco Finest/Taste the Difference nonsense. Get yourself down to the new butchers and let your taste buds tell you the rest. This is how shopping should be and they've definitely got more rabbit than Sainsbury's! But there wasn't a horse in sight!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

They sell some nice sausages in there. The Hadlow Hop ones are probably the best I've tried.

Paul Bailey said...

You're somewhat behind the times with this story, TB. Ian Chatfield's excellent Butcher's Shop has been trading for several weeks now.

Tonbridge blogger said...

Oh dear oh deary me PB. Yes I may be a little behind the times visiting the newish butchers but this was the first time I'd sampled their delights so thought it worthy of a post on TBlog. You may recall that a few weeks ago on this blog I did mention that they'd opened their doors. So maybe it's not just me behind the times PB!! But seriously though, if you haven't tried them yet I do urge you to do so. In fact my mouth is watering at the prospect of eating the last bit of the sausage roll I bought there yesterday. Probably because I haven't had breakfast yet. To use a twitterism *stomach rumbles*

Tonbridge blogger said...

Oh and by the way PB, as a long standing reader of this blog, maybe you'd like to make a donation to help keep it going. All you have to do is hit the Paypal button on the right and make an appropriate payment. Say £1million for all the grief you've given me over the last few years!!

Paul Bailey said...

Come now, TB, blogger as we all know is free, so requests for donations to keep Tonbridge blog going seem rather miserly on your part! Even hosting links to other blogs and websites doesn't cost you a penny, so stop being so sanctimonious.

As for me giving you grief, well at least I've contributed the odd comment or two over the years, which is more than most of your other three readers have done!

Tonbridge blogger said...

Touche PB!!

Tonbridge blogger said...

Oh, and look at the number of page views as displayed on the right. Over 200,000 and that's since converting to Google blogger from a different hosting platform a couple of years ago. So double that for a more accurate figure since the blog started. But who's counting. As you know I do it for the pure joy of writing!...

Unknown said...

Who's counting? Well, you are I suppose:-)

Nickname unavailable said...

I agree with Tm James about the Hadlow Hop sausages - very good