Winchester in Interesting Times

As that old Chinese curse goes "May you Live in Interesting Times", and that we do people, that we do. It seems like mere minutes ago that I was enjoying what turned out to be our last meal out for a while at the beginning of last week at Chesil Rectory (review soon!) a couple of days later the government announced the wise decision that we must all stay indoors.

Apart from the obvious - the number of people succumbing to this thing and the people trying desperately to look after them (plus all the other key workers, thank you guys!), one of my main concerns is all the independent cafes, shops and restaurants we have in Winchester that don't have financial backing from parent companies. Will they be able to reopen after this is all over? Sadly some of them have had to shut up shop completely, whilst some have diversified and have started to offer home deliveries and takeaways offering cooked food, veg, baked goods, meats and cheeses, and of course wine... I am constantly featuring these companies on my Facebook Page, so please do check there too!

As we are very much staying indoors for the foreseeable, I will be supporting as many of our businesses as I possibly can in the coming weeks, it's the least we can do. I will also be featuring a few store cupboard recipes on here, I don't claim to be some kind of chef, but years of living abroad (with supermarkets that were closed more often than open!) has stood me in good stead when it comes to creating or recreating recipes with few or missing ingredients... Watch this space...

In the meantime, if you have a local food or drinks business that could do with a bit of promotion, or you need to tell people about some changes to the way you are running things, then please shout so I can feature you somewhere across Winchester Eats.

Stay healthy everyone.