GARY MEECHES stands in his modest apartment in Meriden and shells out a pack of small paintings onto his dining room table like the card dealers at Foxwoods: acrylic paintings of nature in the crisp orange-yellows of a burning sunset, the blue of a seaside sky, the green of summer leaves.
RECOMMENDED DISHES -- Tuna sashimi, grilled shrimp, tricolor salad, crab cake, lobster salad, grilled calamari; seared tuna, beef tenderloin, scallops, seared red snapper; mango napoleon, plum crisp, sorbets, orange creme brulee.
On the three-course £16 dinner menu this week is a starter of smoked ham hock and gribiche; followed by sage, barley and chestnut roast, pumpkin purée, curly kale, beetroot crisp; and orange pannacotta and gingerbread with red wine poached pear for dessert.
Another time I crisped the orange and ginger confit in the oven and served it with wilted spinach.
I used to love going to the cricket with my uncle and grandad; we'd go to the one-day Test matches at Edgbaston with a blanket and a coolbag full of pork pies and sandwiches, crisps and orange squash.
At the present-day market, a customer whose armful of blue delphiniums was attracting oohs and ahs directed buyers to her source: Amba Farms, which also had crisp, deep-orange Nelson carrots (50 cents each) and baby Bull's-Blood beet leaf-chard ($3 per bunch).
Hanna has recreated historical recipes by Gustava Björklund, one of the best chefs in Sweden in the 1800s, from boiled beef sausages with nutmeg to crisp breads with orange peel and aniseed.
Hopefully one day, when we have banned crisps and all orange breadcrumbed food, we will look back on today as the Dark Age Of Obesity.
Crisps, nuts, dates, orange and lemon slices, plus chocolates in big tins to squabble over during the Doctor Who Christmas special.
Still, when the sweet/savory concept works, as in a crisp fennel-and-orange salad with a kick of licorice, it can be pleasant.
