Search is on the for healthiest children's menu

The Publican magazine should be congratulated for launching a search for the healthiest children's menu. All of us with families have experienced the dire quality and choice offered to our children in many pubs with a high quality and nourishing meal a rare find on the children's menu.

The Healthy Children’s Menu competition 2007 requires pubs to show what improvements they have made to the children's menu and the winner of the title will also get an outside play area worth over £5,000.

Let the battle begin and we can all watch our kids enjoy the benefits.

Today's pub walk: The Grandstand in Hereford, Herefordshire.

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Value For Money More Important than Quality of Pub Food?

According to a new study of eating habits by the British Pig Executive (anyone heard of them?), value for money is the main factor for 25% of consumers when they choose a pub to eat at. The Publican covers the story and says that quality of the food is a lower priority at 18%.

It is interesting that the report, ‘Pork in Foodservice’, highlights convenience or location as the primary factor for eating out generally (rather than for pubs specifically) and this is thought to be due to time pressures.

It leads me to wonder whether pub walkers would place a greater emphasis on the location, or should I say walk, rather than elements of the pub. Certainly I would but maybe this could be an interesting survey to carry out later ...

Today's pub walk: Ye Olde Whyte Harte in Hamble, Hampshire.

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TV Turnoff Week: 23-29 April 2007

There is a national "week" for just about everything these days and many of them are of little interest to most of us and go by virtually unnoticed. However I think TV Turnoff Week warrants a mention in my blog - and not just because we now have headline-grabbing proposals for the government to intervene and limit the amount of time young children spend glued to the box.

For me the best counter-attack to television addiction is to create family time out of the house. We all know walking is great exercise and it can easily be made into an enjoyable activity for the family to share, maybe by turning it into a nature trail for example. And when you consider that so many pubs these days see families as their target clientele, well, the choice of a suitable place to eat afterwards is growing all the time.

So, time to turn off that TV!

Today's pub walk: The Castle Inn in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.

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No switch to plastic glasses in pubs

I get a growing sense of unease when the misdemeanours of a small minority start to be used as a reason to restrict the pleasures or behaviour of the law-abiding majority. As pub walkers we may be about to see this happen to our enjoyment of drinking from a traditional GLASS beer glass as Police start to promote the use of plastic "glasses" instead due to a rise in glassing incidents.

Although there is general support for a targeted application of this change to higher risk pubs, any proposal to make this change mandatory across all pubs should be condemned and resisted.

If you agree that the traditional pleasure of a pint of real ale from a real glass simply cannot be matched by one from a plastic cup, then please add your name to the Morning Advertiser petition. Its easy, just sign here.

Today's pub walk: The Woodman in Wild Hill, Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

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Mass trespass on Kinder Scout

This weekend sees an important anniversary. An organised mass trespass of over 400 ramblers took place 75 years ago on Kinder Scout, the highest hill of the Derbyshire Peak District. The protest was against the English law of the day that denied access to land and footpaths that had previously been public rights of way.

The mass trespass resulted in imprisonment of its ringleaders and is widely considered to be the most significant event in the campaign for the rights to roam we enjoy today. So this seems a good excuse (if one was ever needed) to get out into the countryside this weekend and exercise our rights!

Today's pub walk: The Three Horseshoes, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

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