Romanian meal

Stuffed vine leaves – Potato and ham salad

Constantin runs the site canteen with his wife and several other staff. From 7am to 4pm he is cooking breakfasts and lunch non-stop, before clearing up, ordering and preparing the food for the following day. Constantin is from Romania and I was keen to do a meal with the canteen which anyone on site could buy. His suggestion for vine leaves was great, but in order to prepare them, he and his wife spent Sunday with me in the site canteen in what is a very labour intensive meal. The result was wonderful and was quickly consumed on Monday lunchtime.

Lithuanian meal

Beetroot soup with sour cream, and chicken potato bake.

Mantas came up with this suggestion and again it was cooked by Antoin at Mud Dock. For lunch with Mantas were three other Lithuanians, Polish and Russian site workers. The beetroot soup was the most fantastic colour and tasted great too.

Pie and mash

The suggestion of Terry, a brick layer originally from the East End. For authenticity I went to Manze’s, an historic Pie and Mash shop on Deptford High Street. George Manze invited me to watch him preparing the pies from 5am, in a shop and according to the recipe his great grandfather first used when he opened for business 112 years ago. What a great morning and what a gentleman. Two pies, mash and Liquor were served on site to Terry and a group of his friends at lunchtime of the same day.