ACID

I was having lunch with an old friend in my local pub, the Crown.  I was having the Tuna melt (above) which is pretty reliable, and my companion was having a sausage sandwich and chips because his wife doesn’t let him eat that stuff at home.

 

And as we ate we overheard the two blokes on the next table discussing Landrovers while they waited for their fish and chips to arrive.  Ah, Essex!

 

Now, when we’d first sat down I’d noticed there were two bottles on the table.  The first contained malt vinegar, and the other contained a light coloured liquid, which I supposed was white wine vinegar.  And I thought, ‘Two kinds of vinegar – the Crown is getting sophisticated.’  But I am a malt vinegar man so it didn't matter much to me.

 

The fish and chips arrived at the neighbouring table and one of the blokes, evidently a sophisticate, put lashings of what he thought was white wine vinegar on his food.  Then he realized (as in fact I had some time earlier) that it wasn’t white wine vinegar at all.  It was hand sanitizer.

 

he described his plight to the waitress who said, ‘Well that was a silly thing to do,’ but she did give him a new plate of fish and chips, which I thought was pretty good of her.

 

Above are Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks when they were in Vinegar Joe.  I cannot tell you what kind of vinegar was preferred by Joe.