Judith Johnson
  • Blog
  • About me
  • Poetry
  • Travels
  • Projects
  • SWM Extra
  • Miscellanea
  • Pen Portraits
  • Contact/To Buy

Food for Thought

16/3/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
I moved to London just after my nineteenth birthday in the mid-1970s. I turned up at my brother Jeremy's flat in Finsbury Park, and he took me  under his wing. He treated me to a meal at his favourite Greek restaurant in Green Lanes, introduced me to Centre Point in Trafalgar Square, a haven for lonely young people new in the city, and escorted me to the Alfred Marks Bureau to find a job.

One of my first temporary jobs was as a messenger for Terence Conran's firm in Neal Street, Covent Garden. And it was whilst working there that I encountered the wonderful wholefood vegetarian cafe Food for Thought, when they laid out a table for the neighbourhood street party.
 
When I returned to Covent Garden a few years later to work as a theatrical agent, I often bought my take-away lunch from Food For Thought, and ever since, whenever in London, we've often eaten there. It's also a firm favourite of my son's, and as he says, you always come out feeling that your body is grateful for the nourishment.
 
It's a tiny premises (not for those who need a lot of personal space when they eat), but it has great charms, which include really fresh, wholesome, tasty salads, quiches, bakes, soups etc at a decent price, and ever cheery staff. There's generally a queue, but somehow you always get a place once you've bought your food at the counter. The diners eat at wooden tables in the basement, surrounded by multi-lingual conversations. The clientele is always interesting!
 
We bought the Food for Thought cookbook when Thorsons published it in 1987, and it is possibly the best-used cookbook on the shelf! It's been sellotaped where it's fallen apart, it's blotched with past spills and fingerprints, several pages are torn and scribbled on (eg Minestrone Soup: "Did it with no aubergine, but large red pepper. Tom likes extra grated cheese - used Cheddar"). We still use it, and several of the recipes have become Johnson family Old Reliables - one of my favourites being Shepherdess Pie, made with aduki beans. Their potato salad also goes down a treat at parties - there's never any left!
 
We ate at the restaurant last weekend, in between museum visits (blogs to follow!) and we commented on how it hasn't changed in any fundamental way over the last three decades. No need, obviously - as the saying goes: If it ain't broke, why fix it?


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Lifelong bookworm, love writing too. Have been a theatrical agent and reflexologist among other things, attitude to life summed up by Walt Whitman's MIRACLES.

    If you would like to subscribe to my blog, please click on RSS Feed link below:

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Arts
    Books
    Family Matters
    History
    Miscellaneous
    My Fantastic Five
    Natural World
    People
    Running & Walking
    Travel

    Archives

    February 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    September 2009
    July 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009

    RSS Feed