Food

[plantfit 7,601]

1 hour ago, philmayfield said:

Lucky you. We’ve got curry tonight. I think it’s our moral duty, just once a week, to appreciate how those poor people in foreign countries have to suffer with their disgusting food.

That's good that you think of people from London, Leicester, Bradford, Manchester and Hyson green, credit to you Phil

 

Rog

[MelissaJKelly 2,124]

We've had bangers and champ mash tonight with carrots, tenderstem brocoli and red wine jus. Very nice it was as well!

[Beekay 5,154]

What on earth is 'champ mash' Melissa? It's a new one on me.

[MelissaJKelly 2,124]

Hey Beekay! It's an Irish recipe I believe but is essentially mash, milk, butter and chopped up spring onions. Delicious!

[MRS B 522]

Melissa do you chop up the onions small and raw and add them to the mash, milk and butter ? Sounds very Irish (with scallions” as they call them) I have loads of spring onions ready to harvest at my allotment so this would be good to try. Be nice to have as a bubble and squeak type thing the day after too if you made extra.

[LizzieM 9,511]

Good chance it’s Irish Mrs B, with Melissa’s surname.   I love spuds in any form, as has been documented frequently on Nottstalgia, so will try Mel’s idea.  

[MelissaJKelly 2,124]

Hey Mrs B and Lizzie. Yes finely chop and stir them into the mash. It would be lovely in a bubble and squeak as well. Hope you both enjoy!

[katyjay 5,091]

We recently took a river cruise, ending in Amsterdam.  We then bussed to Bruges and Paris. Hubby Googled British food shops, thinking we might find food to take home with us. The only shop he could find on our itinerary, was M & S in Paris. Great, and it was very close to our hotel. We walked to find it, (in a mall) and went inside. It was a French suoermarket. We have never been more disappointed in our lives! Visions of picalilli, Branston etc, gone. We are still scratching our head why M & S are there, selling nothing but French food.

[IAN FINN 808]

Katy did you bring some frog legs home for a treat?

[philmayfield 6,144]

Compared with some of the disgusting animal parts you see in the French shops frog's legs are not that unpleasant. A bit like chicken. Snails are soaked in a garlic sauce so all you experience is the cheweyness.

[Oztalgian 3,298]

6 hours ago, philmayfield said:

Snails are soaked in a garlic sauce so all you experience is the cheweyness.

Whelks are a marine snail and for chewiness beat the common snail hands down. You can chew on them for hours and absolutely nothing happens. Methinks it's a bit akin to chewing on a Goodyear tyre.

I didn't mind the odd pot of winkles or cockles and loved mussels, all with vinegar of course and sometimes with mushy peas.

[Oztalgian 3,298]

Shrinkflation - Decided to forgo my usual Sunday full English breakfast (minus black pudding - yuk) this morning and opted for a bacon and egg muffin. Popped the muffin in the toaster and gave it the 2 times needed to get it golden brown. When it "popped" up in the toaster you could not even reach the muffin and barely so when you lifted the eject thingy manually. If they get any smaller you will never be able to get them out of the toaster and will have to revert to the gorilla in the oven.

[plantfit 7,601]

everything is getting smaller but the prices remain the same or higher, the food company's think they are doing you a favour by keeping prices down but in effect they are reducing the size of the goods, just another way of ripping the customer off

 

Rog

 

[benjamin1945 16,163]

1 hour ago, plantfit said:

everything is getting smaller 

 

Tell me about it Rog.....

[plantfit 7,601]

I'm with you on that one Ben  

 

Rog

[Oztalgian 3,298]

Opened a new box of "man-sized" tissues today, people must be getting smaller these days and they were so thin a good blow would go through them so you have to double up. The same goes for toilet paper, smaller squares and thinner so you have to use double for safety reasons. The barstewards are getting you both ways by making things both smaller and thinner so you have to use double the amount and charge you the old price for it.

This morning it was time to open a new jar of marmalade for my toast and immediately noticed the jar was smaller than the previous one with obviously less in it. At least they did not "cheat" by having the same size jar but with less contents. Still at the old price though!

 

Our media has been reporting that supermarkets in France have been naming and shaming suppliers that practice shrinkflation by putting up large signs so their customers can see what is happening. I'm all for it here too.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

Bring back Izal. You could write your will on that while you were perched on the loo!

[philmayfield 6,144]

Good for tracing and for playing the comb and paper. You can't do that with satin quilts!

[Oztalgian 3,298]

15 hours ago, Jill Sparrow said:

Bring back Izal.

No! No! ..... The loo paper equivalent of 180 grade wet and dry paper.

 

6 hours ago, philmayfield said:

Good for tracing and for playing the comb and paper.

Phil, you forgot to say before being used.

[philmayfield 6,144]

That’s why I could never get a tune out of it! 

[Oztalgian 3,298]

The shrinking sausage roll. The sausage roll is pictured on a standard napkin it cost AU$8 + $1 for the sauce.

(4.30 + .53 pence) in UK money. It was purchased in Cairns North Queensland. It caused a bit of consternation. Don't know if Japanese or Chinese tourists in Cairns eat them.

How big is the standard Greggs sausage roll? I have never had/seen one.

Inflation for August here was 5.2%, up from 4.9 in July. I am waiting for the September figure as petrol has jumped from $1.68 to $2.24 a litre in the last three weeks (88p to 118p)

The worst offenders can be found in the cereal aisles of our supermarkets. Our version of Weetabix (Weet Bix) has reduced in size from 1.2Kg to 1.12Kg yet the box size has remained the same as has the price 

 

Picture from The Daily Mail

[The Pianoman 1,535]

Standard Greggs sausage roll is about twice the length of that one for £1. I am led to believe that Australian sausages are pretty bad, so would that include sausage meat?

[Cliff Ton 10,470]

1 hour ago, Oztalgian said:

The worst offenders can be found in the cereal aisles of our supermarkets. Our version of Weetabix (Weet Bix) has reduced in size from 1.2Kg to 1.12Kg yet the box size has remained the same as has the price 

 

It's called shrinkflation and has received a lot of coverage here.

 

Examples.......

 

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/shrinkflation-on-the-rise-which-reveals-the-items-that-have-shrunk-in-size-but-not-in-price-az2376B4mj5T

 

 

[Oztalgian 3,298]

1 hour ago, The Pianoman said:

Standard Greggs sausage roll is about twice the length of that one for £1. I am led to believe that Australian sausages are pretty bad, so would that include sausage meat?

Wow! Just a quid for twice the length but what do they taste like? I'm not certain, but I don't think we have an equivalent national chain like Greggs.

Many states have their own state-based major bakeries mass producing pies and sausage rolls but, in my opinion local bakeries have far better products but you might have to try a few first. The quality of sausages and sausage meat varies depending on where the bakeries source their meats. Generally speaking it is best to find one that uses a good local butcher and the same for all your meat products rather than the large supermarket chains. My only wish that I could find some good tomato sausages you never see them here. There are butchers that specialise in British products so with care you can get a good Cumberland or a Lincolnshire sausage.

The reason that British sausages are better than those here in OZ is that the standard for UK sausages is that they must contain at least 70% meat. The standard for ours is contain no less than 500grams per Kg of fat free meat flesh and have a proportion of fat that is no more than 500grams per Kg of the fat free meat flesh content.

The standard for a Meat Pie is " A food that is sold as a Meat Pie must be a Meat Pie" I wonder which public servant jobsworth thought that one up?

Do you wonder where I got the info from, well, it was my neighbour who used to be a butcher and we were discussing the sausage rolls at his birthday party on Sunday. What a coincidence!

[Oztalgian 3,298]

10 minutes ago, Cliff Ton said:

It's called shrinkflation and has received a lot of coverage here.

Not surprising given that many food companies are global. They are pretty much the same products that are affected here.

I don't care if they triple the price of chocolate as I don't eat much and if I have a piece it is the 85% cocoa version.

Are the supermarkets in the UK legally obliged to show unit pricing, ours are?