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Can I Have Cheesy Chips Please?

My Guilty Pleasure - Mobile Catering

By Sophie JacksonPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Can I Have Cheesy Chips Please?
Photo by Somia Lone on Unsplash

I blame weekends and sunshine.

Those two things combined in a heavenly format mean only one thing - oh yes, burgers cooking on a grill, sausages sizzling and the divine aroma of chips.

Now, when I say chips, I need to explain I am a Brit and thus I am not referring to the thin shards of fried potato that come cold in a plastic bag - those are crisps. No, I am referring to fries of the chunky variety. Fat, thick chips, the ones you get with your fish at the chippie. It isn't called fish and fries, after all.

Gloriously brown, greasy chips. Still so hot from the fryer they burn your fingers and have to be doused in tomato sauce (ketchup) before they can be eaten.

There is only one thing better than chips and that is cheesy chips.

Camping at a dog show is not the same without cheesy chips

I discovered this heady combination one summer a few years ago. I was at a dog show, my big passion, and I went up to the mobile catering van and asked for chips. They asked in response, 'do you want cheese on them?'

I gasped in astonishment - cheese upon chips? Why had no one told me of this before?

That was it, I was hooked. I am a bit of a cheese freak at the best of times, but load up some cheap cheddar on my greasy chips and I am happier than - well, an extremely happy thing.

Of course, like all things, we become connoisseurs of our favourite food and I soon discovered that some people knew how to do cheesy chips and some simply did not.

Even this relatively simple dish could be ruined by the wrong caterer (in general a redundancy of cheese and the melt factor are the two prime failures). I started to know which mobile caterers I preferred my chips from and, trust me, I had quite the opportunity to explore them.

You see, my big passion is dog agility and most weekends in a normal year will see me at a big dog show, often camping in my caravan. These events are almost always catered, with some sort of food van on site. Preferably one that can do a range of foods, though bigger shows have specialist vans come along too.

M&B Caterers at a show

It was at one of these shows that I discovered M&B Caterers and they quickly became my favourite mobile cafe/takeaway.

Let me set the scene. It is August, but this is England, so the skies are laden with rain and there is a good chance it will hail soon. Also the wind is on the rise and the many flags dotted around the dog show are beginning to look perilously close to blowing down.

It is a silly time in the morning, because dog shows start early; it is not unheard of for campers to be seen wandering around the courses in their slippers and dressing gowns.

Most of the stall holders that are present at the show are closed, their proprietors sensibly not opening until a reasonable hour in the morning, but floating across the showground is the unmistakable aroma of frying bacon and like bees to flowers, all those hungry, half-awake (and in some cases hungover) dog show attendees are drifting unerringly in the direction of that smell.

It is coming from M&B Caterers, where Martin has been up since silly o'clock too, and is preparing breakfasts not just for the hungry contestants, but also for the judges who need something to kick start them.

The choices available are the sort to get the cholesterol pumping - bacon baps, bacon and egg baps, sausage baps, sausage and egg baps, sausage, bacon and egg baps. If you wanted a fruit salad or cereal, you are out of luck. This is the sort of food to warm you up on a cold summer's day.

Martin is always a cheerful face on the stand. Always ready for a joke and a laugh. He calls you 'Princess' and treats you to a smile as he asks the question that always causes people to halt in indecision - 'What bap do you want? We have white, seeded, cheese, wholemeal, long, round, crusty...'

By Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

Martin is a very familiar face at the local shows I attend, sometimes it rather seems as if we are stalking one another. We reached a point when he just had to see me in the queue and the first thing he would ask, would be 'Cheesy chips?'

Martin's cheesy chips make a freezing, blustery, rain-soaked Saturday all the more pleasurable. Outside his mobile stall will be a trio of metal chairs and tables, along with the table stacked with condiments. On a good day, these will not have blown away, or be swamped by wasps. He has endeavoured to do his bit for the environment by switching to wooden forks and knives instead of plastic ones.

The tables are always full, even in bad weather and the customers are a happy band, contemplating their latest disasters in the ring, laughing about what the rest of the day might hold.

An egg bap is a good comforter when you are having a bad day, as long as you don't spill the yolk down your shirt or trousers.

But Martin's catering talents go beyond such simple delights. Since many of these shows are several days long and there will be numerous campers on site, he arranges special evening meals. A firm favourite is the Thai buffet night which is prepared by his wife and is always popular with long queues of tired, hungry contestants. It can sometimes be quite a hike from your caravan or tent to the food van, but you will make the effort for that Thai buffet.

The impressive thing about these caterers is the hours they put in. They are up early and to bed late to make sure they feed everyone. They prepare special meals for the judges at the show. I once was invited to one as I had assisted on a ring and it was a help yourself beef casserole with a choice of dessert afterwards. All prepared in the relatively humble confines of a catering van.

I applaud these caterers, M&B in particular, for keeping my spirits up on a dull day, keeping my hands warm with cups of tea in cardboard cups on cold days and, of course, providing the vital carbohydrates necessary to fuel our bodies through those long hours of running around with our dogs.

Ok, so maybe the carbs are not precisely necessary, but you get my point.

So the next time you happen to be at a dog show, in England - to be pernickety, the East Coast of England - keep an eye out for M&B's van. Expect a warm welcome and a good choice of food, and the best part of it all is that it will not cost you a fortune.

Cheesy chips, anyone?

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About the Creator

Sophie Jackson

I have been working as a freelance writer since 2003. I love history, fantasy, science, animals, cookery and crafts, (to name but a few of my interests) and I write about them all. My aim is always to write factual and entertaining pieces.

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