Super Sunday Lunch

So, what are Sundays for? Catching up with the housework, tackling the ironing pile, seeing friends, visiting family, watching the Eastenders omnibus, recovering from a hangover? Here at the Oakeley Arms we think that Sundays are just made for a delicious Sunday lunch….. take some good company, delicious food, naughty pudding and a big glass of wine and enjoy with the whole family. You just can’t beat it.

The good old Sunday lunch is a decidedly British tradition, but just where did it come from? Why do we go all out on a Sunday afternoon and not on a Saturday? And why is good old roast beef a firm Sunday favourite?

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Well, beef is traditional British meat that goes back centuries. Cows are hardy animals and so can survive long, hard British winters. Historically, a family often kept a cow for it’s milk, and so beef products were a happy by-product of cows and their calves. Roast beef is so ingrained into the British identity that one of the French nick-names for a British person is “le rosbif” (translation not needed……).

The origins of the Sunday lunch probably date back to a time when most of the nation would head off to church on a Sunday morning, and then enjoy a large (and hopefully delicious) meal when they got home. Sundays were a day of rest after all, so nobody worked on this heavenly day. Another theory is that Sunday lunch dates from medieval times when the majority of poorer families didn’t have their own oven, but used a communal one in the village. On Sundays the ovens weren’t used for baking bread, so instead were stuffed full of joints of meat.

These days of course we have the luxury of being able to enjoy a “sunday” dinner any day of the week, but a great Sunday dinner is almost unbeatable. So what makes the perfect Sunday dinner? Well, some good quality and well cooked meats to start with (or a delicious nut-roast for the veggies!), nice firm (and definitely not soggy…) vegetables, crisp and golden roasties and all the right accompaniments – it’s impossible to have beef without yorkshire puds, or pork without apple sauce, or chicken without stuffing.

And the one thing that makes it extra special? When someone else does the washing up!! So, why not come and join us for a Sunday Carvery at the Oakeley Arms this weekend. It’s absolutely delicious…. and we promise to do the washing up!

See you Sunday