English products
Posted: Thu 27 Apr 2017 09:13
Is there anywhere that sells English products in the region?. Marmite, baked beans, and all the other favourites...
I'm tempted to say "favourites for who?": that's what I'm escaping from. But the big Intermarché in Argelès has a reasonable selection.GuyJ wrote:Is there anywhere that sells English products in the region?. Marmite, baked beans, and all the other favourites...
Why would you want to escape from products that might have been favourites in another part of your life.martyn94 wrote:
I'm tempted to say "favourites for who?": that's what I'm escaping from. But the big Intermarché in Argelès has a reasonable selection.
.
I was being facetious, to a degree, a bad habit of mine. But I did have a quick look at your website, and much of the stuff seems either disgusting (Bisto? Mr Kipling's cakes?) or inexplicable (English Persil? English cat food?). Or just mediocre: two or three decent jars of marmalade, and two dozen feeble ones. Britain had something of a head start with really shoddy industrial food, and it has evidently retained its claim on our affections.Allan wrote:Why would you want to escape from products that might have been favourites in another part of your life.martyn94 wrote:
I'm tempted to say "favourites for who?": that's what I'm escaping from. But the big Intermarché in Argelès has a reasonable selection.
.
I love living in France, but that doesn't mean everything here is better. The wonderful world of eCommerce means I can have the best products from anywhere that I have lived.
I buy local products where I can but if I want a decent steak or mint biscuits then I just import them. Shopping these days is brilliant, you can have the best of all countries.
Facetious and cynical - what a combination.martyn94 wrote: I was being facetious, to a degree, a bad habit of mine. But I did have a quick look at your website, and much of the stuff seems either disgusting (Bisto? Mr Kipling's cakes?) or inexplicable (English Persil? English cat food?). Or just mediocre: two or three decent jars of marmalade, and two dozen feeble ones. Britain had something of a head start with really shoddy industrial food, and it has evidently retained its claim on our affections.
But thinks for the link anyway: I'm running out of decent tea.
I am sometimes cynical, but I don't see that I have been so here. I genuinely don't miss the vast majority of UK industrial brands, any more than I buy their French equivalents. When I do have the occasional yen, it passes if I go for a bracing walk. The few UK products which everybody regards as good food - Worcester sauce is the example that comes to mind - are not in a ghetto in the supermarket, and I buy them like anyone else.Allan wrote:Facetious and cynical - what a combination.martyn94 wrote: I was being facetious, to a degree, a bad habit of mine. But I did have a quick look at your website, and much of the stuff seems either disgusting (Bisto? Mr Kipling's cakes?) or inexplicable (English Persil? English cat food?). Or just mediocre: two or three decent jars of marmalade, and two dozen feeble ones. Britain had something of a head start with really shoddy industrial food, and it has evidently retained its claim on our affections.
But thinks for the link anyway: I'm running out of decent tea.
I grew up in the south of England and didn't discover real fish and chips until I moved to Yorkshire where a standard order includes a tub of mushy peas and one of chip shop curry sauce. I have usually been disappointed with fish and chips in Scotland where they seem to forget to remove the skin and bones. I recently took a group of French friends to Edinburgh and tried to enrich their lives with a visit to a fish and chip restaurant. I really struggled to find one.martyn94 wrote: I am sometimes cynical, but I don't see that I have been so here. I genuinely don't miss the vast majority of UK industrial brands, any more than I buy their French equivalents. When I do have the occasional yen, it passes if I go for a bracing walk.
And of course I enjoy many of the dishes from my youth, and cook them. Really fresh haddock and chips are the food of the gods, done well, though I cannot imagine ever wanting your garnish: you certainly didn't get it in the chip shop in Pittenweem when I used to go there, before they mucked up the Fife haddock fishery.
There's a great fuss, apparently, that Britain's real favourite food - houmous - is currently out of stock at Sainsbury's and M and S. It's available from your online supermarket for €3 and rising for a smallish pot, plus postage. Or about €1, and better, and fresh, made at home in two minutes. I could afford to buy it online, but I would die of shame.
Allan wrote:martyn94 wrote:
I think the houmous issue is that customers had discovered that it tasted awful and thought that it wasn't supposed to.
Yes, of course. It's encouraging, I suppose, that people remember what the supermarket versions are meant to taste like. But it's a bit dismal that none of them seem to know how it's made, or what of, or how easy it is to avoid the "production problems" that have left them bereft. But then I enjoy manipulating food as well as eating it.
On a whole other tack. I remain staggered that anyone, let alone someone of your obvious good taste, could eat Branston pickle with haddock and chips (I will eat pickled onions with anything, not excluding cornflakes). But just look at what it's made of nowadays
Vegetables in Variable Proportions (54%) (Carrot, Rutabaga, Onion, Cauliflower), Sugar, Barley Malt Vinegar, Spirit Vinegar, Date Paste, Salt, Apple Pulp (Apple, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite)) , Modified Maize Starch, Tomato Paste, Colour (Sulphite Ammonia Caramel), Spices, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Onion Powder, Natural Flavouring
martyn94 wrote:Martyn, there are few foods that cannot be improved by accompanying them with Branston Pickle. Looking at your list of ingredients it looks like my entire '5 a day' is contained in the one jar. I have tried many artisanal chutneys but none of them taste as good, however lovingly prepared or high quality the ingredients.Allan wrote:martyn94 wrote:
I think the houmous issue is that customers had discovered that it tasted awful and thought that it wasn't supposed to.
Yes, of course. It's encouraging, I suppose, that people remember what the supermarket versions are meant to taste like. But it's a bit dismal that none of them seem to know how it's made, or what of, or how easy it is to avoid the "production problems" that have left them bereft. But then I enjoy manipulating food as well as eating it.
On a whole other tack. I remain staggered that anyone, let alone someone of your obvious good taste, could eat Branston pickle with haddock and chips (I will eat pickled onions with anything, not excluding cornflakes). But just look at what it's made of nowadays
Vegetables in Variable Proportions (54%) (Carrot, Rutabaga, Onion, Cauliflower), Sugar, Barley Malt Vinegar, Spirit Vinegar, Date Paste, Salt, Apple Pulp (Apple, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite)) , Modified Maize Starch, Tomato Paste, Colour (Sulphite Ammonia Caramel), Spices, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Onion Powder, Natural Flavouring
Perhaps there is an addiction additive.
It's a shame they don't specify the quantities of each ingredient or you could make your own.
Out of interest, where do you source your pickled onions?
As for my good taste, or lack thereof, my first criterion is always the taste and other then a general concern over sugar and salt content I rarely look at the list of ingredients.
We eat out quite a lot but it is practically always for pleasure rather than to satisfy hunger so I have left many a meal largely uneaten because the taste wasn't sufficiently good that I could be bothered to eat it.
Allan wrote:martyn94 wrote:Anywhere I can find pickling onions, which is to say never recently, though I made some OK pickled shallots a few years ago (you need the non-clustering kind, which are equally hard to find). I've had OK pickled onions in Australia, imported from India, but not so good as to cart back home.Allan wrote:
Out of interest, where do you source your pickled onions?
The thing I remember about Bird's custard powder, from about 55 years ago, is that it initially goes a distinct pink colour (from one of the dodgy food colours which ultimately produce the yellow colour to mimic the egg yolk that it doesn't contain). I had thought that this might be false memory, but apparently it's still soGus Morris wrote:I took a look in our cupboards. The only item of UK origin is a tin of Bird's custard. We cook most of our food from scratch and bake our own bread. Don't know about Five Continents for British food but it is where we get ingredients for Asiatic cuisine.
It's worth taking a look in the shops across the border for stuff you can't buy in France. The choice of flour, for example, is much more varied. Digestive biscuits are also regularly available.
Gus