Swedes at Toby Carvery -- It's what's for lunch

There aren't many lunch options at the Reading office. A sandwich cart comes to the office every day at 11:15 that serves cold and hot sandwiches, salads and soft drinks. I bought sandwiches from the sandwich cart the first day, but they were so pasty and tasteless that I had to ask if there were any off-site options. That's when I learned about the carvery

Toby Carvery
On Tuesday of last week, my co-worker and I went to Toby Carvery. A few minutes after we sat down to eat, our server asked us if we wanted more time to look at the menu or if we wanted to go for the carvery straight away. Honestly, I thought she was asking us if we were ready to order our entrees, so, knowing how slow European service can be, I quickly said, "yes." As she snatched the menus from our hands, I realized there had been a misunderstanding… I interjected, "ma'am, what exactly is a carvery?"

"Right," she said, "you can just go up to the carver and order whatever cuts of meat you like."

"All right, brilliant," I said. (Obviously, I don't speak English very well!)

So, I went up for some meat. The options were turkey, beef or gammon (ham). Each of the cuts was great, and the vegetable selection reminded me of home: broccoli, carrots, peas, cauliflower, potatoes… but there was one mysterious, mashed orange substance. Naturally, I plopped the substance onto my plate, and sat down to have a bite.

After eating the mystery vegetable for a week, we decided that someone had to ask about its identity. Today, while waiting in the carvery line, my manager inquired upon a kindly, English man. With a thick accent, he said something like "sweet." We all agreed that he was probably mistakenly calling this mashed substance sweet potatoes. A second opinion (we are auditors after all) from our server confirmed that the vegetable was, in fact, "swede." Subsequent googling informed us that swede translates into American English as rutabaga. Not a bad tasting vegetable, I might add, and it's good for you too!