LIVERPOOL
The old saying goes: ‘You are what you eat’. Which perhaps explains why the French have been known to refer, insultingly, to the English as ‘les rosbifs’, who’ve contributed to the cross-Channel slanging match with the term ‘frogs’, while denigrating the Germans with the monicker ‘krauts’, for good measure. So, it follows that Liverpudlians are ‘Scousers’. Although, in this case, the monicker has been far more favourably received — embraced even.
Scouse — in case you didn’t know — is a stew. In fact, it’s traditionally been Liverpool’s most popular dish. Scouse can contain potatoes, carrots, onions and, depending on the whim of the chef, beef or lamb. Proper scouse features a side of red cabbage or beetroot; ‘blind scouse’ is the usual stew minus the meat. The more you learn about scouse, the more you realise it’s less a defined dish and more a vague philosophy of flinging odds and ends in a pot.
“There’s no right or wrong with scouse,” says Carly Lea, of Maggie May’s Cafe Bar, in the city centre. “You can use whatever you have.”
According to Carly’s regulars, Maggie May’s serves the definitive scouse. The dish before me is thick, piping hot: fuel for sailors wrestling rigging through Atlantic squalls. Most of the clientele in the cafe are locals, Carly tells me; she gets a lot of
