Pub grub

I don't drink alcohol, although it doesn't bother me that others do. Around here, this is a good thing because so much socializing is done in pubs. This is one not far away that you know would be a gay bar in the States:

The food is a bit unpredictable, but they do a nice ploughman's lunch. (That sentence sounds frightfully British to me. I am sure my friends here would roll their eyes or politely look away if I said it out loud.) From descriptions in old English mysteries, I had assumed ploughman's lunch was a dry sandwich of bread and cheese with some pickle. And it may be in some places or maybe once was. It sounded dangerously constipational. But the ploughman's lunches I have run into around here are actually rather nice: real bread, cheeses, fruit, chutneys. Perfect to share with a friend!

My friend Callum tells me that the government at one point decades ago began promoting the ploughman's lunch to encourage people to eat cheese and it caught on in pubs.  Sort of the UK equivalent of the American Got milk? campaign.