St Anne’s reminds me of my secondary school. Concrete. Northern. Questionable amount of dark wood veneering for anything past 1970. But still quite welcoming. The Hall is a vast collection of panels which look like they could have been reclaimed from my nan’s lounge when she fi nally let 1982 give up the ghost.
On this occasion, however, I was surprised. Honestly, there is quite a good selection. I’ve been for clunch here before. The spring rolls were stodgy, the noodles claggy. I was left full of carbs, but disappointed. I’m not quite sure how anything works. There’s no signs indicating cost, so I pile everything onto my tray and just hope. The selection is better than average. I question my friend’s choice of getting a salad comprising only of iceberg lettuce, but the salad bar is reasonably stocked.
Despite two meat mains of an indiscriminate nature, I decide to plonk for the veggie option. I’m not a huge fan of pasta. But the pesto linguine with pine nuts is actually pretty decent. I mean, its pretty hard to get pasta wrong, as hard as some college kitchens may try. The accompanying rosemary focaccia is slightly over-toasted, but still greasy enough to feel like you’re really greasing those joints up with olive oil.I may be round when I complete my degree, but at least my joints will be in tip-top condition.
But the dessert was something else. Personally, I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to baked goods. The less cooked, the better. There’s something incredibly pleasing, indeed almost sensual, about an underdone loaf. It brings back fond memories of my days as a fi ve-year old who’d eat nothing but -underdone pastry. St Anne’s banana bread is claggy, under baked and in some parts questionably not baked at all. For a culinary weirdo like myself, it’s perfect. They’ve got it so wrong, it’s right. For people with more refi ned palates, it is, however, a nightmare. Smushing some of the under-done dough into her fork, my friend pulls away and leaves me to feast on my undercooked goodness. St Anne’s food is hardly glamorous, but I’d definitely go back for thirds.
