Yes, I know it looks unprepossessing, but...
Proper oatcakes. Not those little biscuits folk eat with cheese and come in Army field ration packs that you can crumble up and make porridge with, but the Staffordshire Oatcake, soft and dinner-plate-sized, beloved by generations in the Potteries before tortilla wraps, tacos, khobez, chapatis and naan were even known in these islands. And now in most supermarkets, you can get almost any flatbread of foreign devising, but not these native delicacies.
The brother and I were in Staffordshire the other day: In Biddulph, to be exact: birthplace of our maternal grandmother and the home of Povey's Oatcakes, which made a frequent appearance at table in our family.
"Standin' on sacred ground, we are, here," the brother said to the lass at the counter as we queued for our oatcakes by the dozen bagful. "Heart of the world-famous Povey's Oatcakes." The staff were gratified to learn that he had long been buying them by mail order from Yorkshire, and I myself, from Shropshire.
You'd think, by the look of the place and its modest dimensions, that it was merely one of several retail outlets across The Potteries, supplied by some huge factory on some industrial estate, but no - it all goes on in this tiny shop: the mixing of the oatmeal and the proving with yeast at the back, and the cooking of them on a griddle at the front, just behind the counter.
They are consumed as an affirmation of regional identity in North Staffordshire, but leavened and griddled oatcakes of a similar kind were once common all over the North and the West Midlands - but the Lancashire Oatcake, the Shropshire Oatcake and the Derbyshire Oatcake have all but disappeared and are now almost only found in heritage cookbooks.
There is nothing like a full English breakfast served between a couple of Staffordshire Oatcakes, warmed up in the bacon grease in the pan the breakfast was made in. And the Biddulph Cafe, a few doors away from Povey's, will do that for you. Guess where we had breakfast.
At least four generations in my family have been making them at home, too, and Mrs. Badger also makes them. Recipe available on request.
A coffee with milk, loaded with freeze-dried coffee, with industrial sliced bread for toasting, with olive oil and honey. I feel sorry to see that toast so lonely on that big plate, but my breakfast depends on how much physical activity I do on that particular day, or not, hahahaha.
