Food to go

In the midst of an author tour for a new book, I am confronting both the worst evils of fast food and some surprising exceptions. Writers today cannot simply write books; readers want to see you in the flesh, talk to you, send you thoughts or their own fledgling manuscripts. I actually enjoy the human contact, but the tours are compressed travel, usually one-day excursions to a city crammed with interviews and bookstore visits built around a formal event. It’s a challenge to find something good to eat on the run.

The Hell of Heathrow is filled with those junk-food pizza and burger pit stops which make Jamie Oliver’s blood boil — yet the travelling foodie is not condemned to despair. Most airports now host at least one bar (trading under various names) serving oysters and smoked-fish plates; the one at Heathrow Terminal Three is actually good, very good, the smoked salmon high-quality, the wine list impressive.