When I was entering the job market in early 2023, I caught up with my friend Fadeke. She had just started a really good job at DigitalOcean. She shared her process with me, and let me know that she did fewer than 20 job applications. This quantity was a really helpful anchor for when I […]

When writing about dining out, the media tend to focus on restaurants, independent cafes and bijou little nooks, also pubs, hotels and takeaways. But there's one place you're always guaranteed a hot meal at a bargain price and that's a supermarket cafe, the unsung destination of choice for many a prudent diner. Assuming you can still find one, that is. The supermarket cafe is usually to be found in a quiet corner somewhere near the entrance, just past the trolley park, the rack of magazines and the backs of the checkouts. Here a long counter awaits the weary shopper, perhaps several, with an array of packaged goodies, plated treats and hot cooked staples awaiting your delectation. The range is generally limited and traditional - all the elderly crowd pleasers - often with a proper breakfast option if you arrive early enough. The drinks machine has long been a fixture just before the till, but these days more likely to generate something frothy than a pot of tea. Warm desserts with dolloped custard were alas phased out long ago in favour of something ready-sliced. And when your tray's full just pay the bill, pick a table and enjoy a leisurely natter, safe in the knowledge your meal out hasn't broken the bank. As long as you go to the right supermarket, that is. Asda on the Isle of Dogs where the supermarket cafe is still a pleasingly retro experience. Step behind the rack of flowers to discover a single white counter, lightly-staffed, and beyond that a puce-walled corner with perches, banquettes and proper tables. The food queue starts by a stack of brown plastic trays, then come the wraps and baguettes (would you like that warmed?), then the slices of sponge under plastic domes with tongs on top. The selection on the hotplate looked very limited but if you wanted the battered cod or lasagne you'd be able to select a portion straight away. By the till are more cakes plus a rack of Walkers crisps and a pleasingly old-school Coca-Cola dispenser, and if you insist on ordering tea there are six options but they're all Tetleys. What's not to enjoy? Asda hot menu Mains (all £6.75): cod and chips, scampi and chips, lasagne, stew & dumplings, chicken tikka masala, beef chilli, cheeseburger, double chicken burger Veg options (£6.50): mac & cheese, sweet potato & spinach curry Fry-up (£6.10): cooked breakfast/all-day brunch Soups (£3): tomato, creamy chicken, hearty veg (all served with roll and butter) Sides: garlic bread, chips, fries, peas, baked beans, side salad, onion rings, chicken nuggets It could still be 2005 with that list, maybe 1995 but probably not 1985. Also I note that a lot of the mains don't require a lot of chewing. Your supermarket needs to be a certain size before its worth having a cafe, so large sites with big car parks are the most likely locations. In rural Norfolk there are plenty, for example, although you have to drive a fair way to get to them. The edge of any provincial town will have an in-store cafe offering, or indeed that retail park by the bypass, such is the culinary allure of the out-of-town supermarket. But Tower Hamlets is not well blessed with the things, so I wondered where my nearest cafes were at other supermarket chains. Tesco cafe Typical lunch items: Chilli Con Carne Jacket Potato, Brunch Burger with Hash Brown Bites, Scampi and Chips, Harissa Chicken and Chorizo Toastie My nearest: Beckton (5 miles), then Woolwich, then Meridian Water. Sainsbury cafe Typical lunch items: Chicken Tikka Masala, Steak & Ale Pie, Sausages & Mash, Avocado & Eggs on Sourdough My nearest: There are none in London, the nearest being at Northfleet in Kent (ah, I see Sainsburys have plans to close all 61 of their remaining cafes, sad face emoji) Morrisons cafe Typical lunch items: Gammon, Egg, Chips & Peas, Ultimate Mixed Grill, Crispy Breaded Falafel Burger, Battered Sausages, Chips and Mushy Peas My nearest: Stratford (1 mile), then Chingford (because proper cafes are rare) Waitrose cafe Typical lunch items: Beef Bourguignon, Mozzarella & Pesto Salad, Chicken Tikka Flatbread, Goat’s Cheese, Fig & Caramelised Shallot Quiche My nearest: Canary Wharf (1 mile) (but it's a bit posh and they also have an olive bar and I don't think this properly counts) It seems my best options for cheap comfort food and chatter are Asda at Crossharbour and Morrisons in Stratford, and that's about it within easy travelling distance. Other low price sit-down locations are of course available, but a bite at Wetherspoons or a perch at Kebabish will never match the retro canteen experience. The supermarket cafe lingers on and is much appreciated by many, but the days of piling up your hot meal on a tray may already be numbered.

As an East London resident I've received a 20-page booklet through my letterbox about the opening of the Silvertown Tunnel in April. If you didn't get a booklet you can download one here. Eight pages are given over to information for drivers, which makes sense given most of the tunnel's users will be drivers. The eight pages are mostly about what you have to pay and whether you have to pay it. You might therefore expect that one of the maps in the booklet would be aimed at drivers. Not so. There is such a map, it's on the TfL website and you can see it here. But it never made it into the booklet because someone thought two maps aimed at bus passengers and cyclists would be sufficient. Let's Make This Bus Map Unnecessarily Complicated department has been at it again. It shows the three routes which make up TfL's commitment to running 21 buses an hour through the two tunnels. One is the existing 108 through the Blackwall Tunnel, one is the extended 129 and one is the new Superloop SL4, both of which will use the Silvertown Tunnel. LMTBMUC department is obsessed with routes rather than stops. • I don't care which bore of the Blackwall Tunnel the 108 will use, nor all the ridiculous twiddles the 108 and 129 have to make to enter the bus station at North Greenwich. I might care that the 108 makes several extra stops northbound on its detour to the tunnel but the map doesn't show where they are, nor does it have arrows to show which way the loop goes. • I don't care about the twiddles on the 129 either, whereas I would really like to know where the first stop beyond the tunnel is going to be and how far it'll be from anywhere useful. I'd also quite like to know where the 129 goes next but the next four miles through Newham are not shown, only a box saying that the route terminates at Great Eastern Quay. I bet most people have no idea where that is and the booklet doesn't enlighten them. • I can see where the SL4 runs but because it's a limited stop route I really need to know where I can catch it, and on that there's nothing. That's key because on the north side of the tunnel it won't stop anywhere in Newham, only in Tower Hamlets, and heading south it won't drop anyone off in North Greenwich, only two miles away up the A12. The next page of the booklet does at least say "Express service stopping in key town centres between Westferry Circus in Canary Wharf to Grove Park via Silvertown Tunnel". But it doesn't say what those key town centres will be, nor does it mention the three-mile non-stop section, and you're not going to attract any passengers like that. Cyclists don't care what ridiculous one-way circuits the shuttle bus has to make, they only need to know where to board and where it'll drop them off. The red blobs alas get somewhat lost amid the red lines. What is it with TfL and overcomplicated underinformative maps? Drivers, bus passengers and cyclists who might use the Silvertown Tunnel would really like to know.