If there’s no good spuds, in your neighbourhood,
Who you gonna call? Roast Dinners Around Reading.
If there’s a mass-produced dinner,
And it doesn’t look good,
Who you gonna call? Roast Dinners Around Reading.
I ain’t afraid of thick gravy,
I ain’t afraid of thick gravy,
If you’re seeing watery jus, running off your plate,
Who you gonna call? Roast Dinners Around Reading.
Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire puds,
Sleeping in your bed,
Who you gonna call? Roast Dinners Around Reading.
I ain’t afraid of thick gravy,
I ain’t afraid of thick gravy,
Who you gonna call? Roast Dinners Around Reading.
If you’re sexy and alone,
Pick up the phone,
And call Roast Dinners Around Reading.
I ain’t afraid of thick gravy,
I hear he likes hot girls,
I ain’t afraid of thick gravy,
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Who ya gonna call? Roast Dinners Around Reading.
Yeah………………maybe not.
So we have laid our dear departed Roast Dinners Around Reading to rest forever. And we thought it most appropriate that we should have the wake at The Crown in Playhatch. The number one roast dinner around Reading. He/she/it would have wanted it this way.
We have tried our best to replicate the amazing writing skill that the ever so talented and beautiful Roast Dinners Around Reading had. Apologies if we have not quite captured the delicate essence and unique hilarity of this most edible of bachelors. We tried to programme an algorithm to write it for us but all it did was write the words “gravy drug sex” over and over – with a few other bits inserted about (or into) Keith Vaz.
A lot of people were invited. Not many people came. Nearly half of those that promised to come didn’t turn up. Everyone was late. Was it something he said?
Probably.
For those that don’t know, and there should not really be any reason anyone is reading this that hasn’t been, The Crown is a carvery. But not like a Toby carvery. It does very nice meat, gorgeous…oh wait a minute that’s what the review part is for. Oh and it is miles better than that place next door run by the witch that hated our hero, our legend, our beautifully derranged creative master that really deserved to be paid lots of money for writing such wonderful reviews. Well, quite a bit better than next door anyway.
Have I waffled on enough yet?
The price has gone up since last time – now £15.00 a head. But has the quality gone up to match or is this Farageinflation?
Once everyone had arrived, we were advised to go up. The first person grabbed a plate. The rest waited a few minutes for some more plates to arrive. There was enough gravy for the first person in the queue, but then we had to wait a few more minutes for a new vat to arrive. A whole new vat of gravy, just in his lordship’s honour.
It was possible to have carrots but I decided against it, as all the potential ways to describe carrots (including comparing the taste to anus) have been used by our dearly departed leader.
Likewise I shunned the red cabbage. There could be no disrespect.
The broccoli cheese, however, was excellent. Very creamy, somewhat cheesy – the cream stayed separate to the gravy and didn’t infiltrate. The broccoli itself (I can spell actually it without a spellchecker) was perfectly crunchy, but not too much so. Absolutely spot on.
However, the roast potatoes were not. I had about 28 roast potatoes (it being a carvery), and they had all been roasted. Some time ago. Quite fitting, I guess, but they were a tad tricky to eat, quite hard to slice through, chewy to…chew. But still actually properly roasted.
Also a disappointment were the Yorkshire puddings. Not massively so but they had been cooked just slightly longer than ideal, and therefore were rather too crispy. Otherwise an excellently largish size, softish bottoms (like when I used to squeeze his lordship’s arse on occasion, normally after a crystal meth pipe) – just a bit overcooked.
I sneakily asked for some pork after asking for beef and lamb – but this isn’t the Toby Carvery, and they do not limit you to the thinnest, tiniest strips of almost ghost-like meat.
The pork was excellent, a loin of pork, with a thin layer of tasty fat going on overhead. Which reminds me – shout out to Edible Reading. Easy now, bro. Glad to hear the pigs no longer have you on their suspects list. Wicked news, innit. Now get back to writing, you fucker. Even if it is Erotic Reading. Yes, maybe you could review brothels as your new venture? The Queen of Gravy would have loved that. Yeah, you missed your chance to have dinner and smoke crack with her. You snooze, you lose.
The lamb was good – unspectacularly good with not really much to say about it.
Oooh whilst I remember, we ordered some crayons for the child at the table (no his Lordship has passed away – another child), and they never turned up. Thankfully we had an imaginary train to keep us all amused.
Onto the beef – the beef de resistance. It was rather pink in the middle, slightly rarer than medium-rare. Very succulent, very soft, very, very nice.
And finally, what you have all being waiting for (apart from to find out whodunnit) – the gravy. Well, it was close to perfect. Very gravy-like in taste, lots of bits from the meat inside, lots of juices – and pretty thick too. Not too thick for most southerners, not anywhere near as thick as the weirdo wanted. But easily the best gravy around Reading.
But no longer the best roast dinner. Given the disappointing roast potatoes, and slightly disappointing Yorkshire puddings, this trip only gets an 8 out of 10. Maybe their standards have dropped – or maybe, probably more likely, they just were not quite on the ball this afternoon.
I would like to say thank you to all the guests that actually made it, we had a good mix of Europeans, a token Brexit voter, a gay, a Greek (yes his bank card worked) – it was massively lacking in druggies but they were probably too fucked to eat. Only one of the Spanish models that he featured the other week turned up, and his sister did too, who is an occasional mini-reviewer for Time Out, but obviously we cannot share her details as it would give away who he was. Anonymity must be preserved. Maybe she will be the famous blogger that he dreamed and deserved to be.
If we can ever get the algorithm working, then we are going to go to Japan to try to find a robot to go around and review roast dinners, but at this rate, this seems many decades away. Most robots in Japan seem to only be for sexual pleasure. If only he had had the opportunity to review sex robots – that would have made a great blog. Or even a vlog. Just imagine – he could have been as famous as Zoella.
So The Crown has lost its crown. How fitting as we say goodbye to one of the most-loved writers that the world has ever seen. In the fullness of time, I have little doubt that his works will be thought of as lovingly as Shakespeare is now.
Rest In Gravy.