Mall Food

It was shaping up to be a quiet afternoon, two family members gone-down-south to fulfill a shopping list, one family member being a redundant J, hangin' with the doppelganger.

So, the first-born descendant joined me for a trip up the A1, past the Angel of the North, all the way to the industrial grittiness, the working-class reliability, of Newcastle/Gateshead. Oh yes, and the mall there. Now, I'm not a big 'mall person', when I visit America I quickly get my fill, and, truth be known, last weekend I visited that big mall in Manchester. But only because I had to kill some time... this week, no excuse, I CHOSE to go to Gateshead.

My telephone took this photo

It probably was not a typical Gateshead afternoon, because of all this World Cup business, everyone visiting their favourite watering hole, if you will, rather than digging the newest of the new fashions at Miss Selfridge. What I'm trying to tell you is- the place was deserted (mmmmm... dessert...). We did all the typical mall things, as one does, but pretty soon it was time for a cup of tea. As one does.

We found a place, they had a variety of cakes, but their special deal was- cream tea for two, for under five quid. Well, boy howdy, I'll have me some o' that!
Jus' special for all you furriners who can't be bothered to google it, here's what cream tea is: a scone or two, with whipped or (preferably) clotted cream, and strawberry jam. And tea. So you pile heaping piles of jam 'n' cream on your split-open scone, and politely sip your tea, because it's civilised.

Four pound ninety-five is a great deal for cream tea x2, Joe Bob says check it out.

After our snack things started to feel a bit Twilight Zone-ish, becuase we were the only people in the mall. Well, not really, but it kind of seemed that way.

It was time to start considering our evening meal!

As I drove away from Gateshead, I made a mistake I've made many times, a character flaw on my part, most likely... when suddenly faced with the decision, to either select "A1 North", or "A1 South", I pick the wrong one. See, I needed to go south, I should've picked "south". But, since I was in the north, I picked "north". Rather than turn around and look for a meal on the way home, I noted that my errantly northward projection put us smack dab in the middle of a town. I had nary a clue as to the name of the town (Gateshead, perhaps?), but it looked like there was plenty of food there. The people did NOT look starved. Plus, there were LOADS of cops, just everywhere. We found this place:

So there you have it- we were in "Swalwell". A town perhaps not easy to pronounce, I really don't know. I should've asked someone how to pronounce it, but everyone seemed so pleased about the World Cup, it just didn't seem like a decent thing to do.

I selected Pata Lata Chicken, and it was excellent! Perfect, just great, amongst the best I've ever had. Will I ever visit Swalwell again??? I hope so!!!


First-born had a "Speciality" dish, because it had potatoes, she really digs potatoes in her curry (get it?), called "Paneer Chicken". This, again, was a new one for us.

But she didn't feel that it was outstanding, and would not order it again.

Our restaurant-supplied dessert chocolate looked like this, only smaller: