The only exotic travel my husband and I have ever taken was our honeymoon. We visited England and Scotland. The tickets for the flight were a wedding gift and my newly-minted spouse and I found cheap lodgings and meals for the trip.
In looking for inexpensive eats, we ventured into the pubs. The best deal was the Ploughman's Lunch. My husband and I would find a quiet corner of the pub to sit for a spell (we were sight-seeing for hours each day) and split a plate of ploughman's. In its most basic form, ploughman's lunch is bread, cheese, butter, pickled onions, and a piccallili relish or chutney. In our experience, the lunch was served with fresh apples in some pubs and fresh tomatoes in others. Boiled eggs or cold meat were also available as extras. In all pubs, the entire meal was served cold and sort of do-it-yourself style -- break off a bit of the hunk of bread, slice off a knob of cheese, dab on some relish and enjoy.
I understand that now there's something called a Posh Ploughman's -- more along the lines of a bread, meat and cheese platter to put out for gatherings. Not at all what my husband and I enjoyed.
When I'm working, I often make myself a ploughman's style lunch -- slice some bread and cheese, add some butter, and wash an apple.
Last night, dinner was very rushed. Time got away from me and I needed to throw together a quick meal. I sliced up homemade bread, cut up some cheese, made apple wedges, added butter and pickles, plus some leftover cooked greens and rhubarb gelatin. I called this Ploughman's Dinner. It was not only fast to make but had virtually no clean-up except the cutting board and a knife. Dinner was tasty, made with simple, wholesome foods, and a heck of a lot cheaper than take-out. A winner all around.
I can see how this would make a good lunch for a workman, as it's quick to make, relatively balanced, highly portable, and depending on the quantity of cheese and bread, this could be quite filling. Have you enjoyed ploughman's lunch before? Anyone remember piccalilli relish?
