Food 'they' don't make any more

[oddoneout]

We haven't seen the Nuremburg sausages we used to buy regularly at Lidl. My wife reports that Aldi is even more "English".

Those little pale spicy herby ones? They've become erratic denizens in my local Lidl, but as there are too many in a pack for me to get through fresh anyway I buy a pack when I see them and put most in the freezer, which has worked pretty well. The Aldi store is rather "English" but it has been like that since it opened a couple of years ago so not like the creeping Lidl changes, which I have found tiresome. As the two stores are across the road from each other I am increasingly doing mix and match shopping trips, and if, as I hope, I get a bus pass in a few months that may well increase as I won't need to take the car - the bus may only be hourly but it goes from door to door - and I can reduce my visits to Morrisons.

[gurnemanz]

They've recently planted an Aldi a few hundred yards from our house, installed in a building converted from a Land Rover sales showroom. It is cheap, eg grapes half the price of Sainsbury, but in some respects has become less interesting. When Aldi first arrived a few years ago there was an on site bakery giving access to excellent fresh rye loaves identical to the ones in Germany.

[Serial_Apologist]

Those little pale spicy herby ones? They've become erratic denizens in my local Lidl, but as there are too many in a pack for me to get through fresh anyway I buy a pack when I see them and put most in the freezer, which has worked pretty well. The Aldi store is rather "English" but it has been like that since it opened a couple of years ago so not like the creeping Lidl changes, which I have found tiresome. As the two stores are across the road from each other I am increasingly doing mix and match shopping trips, and if, as I hope, I get a bus pass in a few months that may well increase as I won't need to take the car - the bus may only be hourly but it goes from door to door - and I can reduce my visits to Morrisons.

Interesting that - could the return to "Britishness" in food be part of the turn back to the imagined "good ole' days"? Before I first moved to this part of London back in 2004, I did a tour around most of the big supermarket chains, in the half-expectation of not finding my comparatively traditional British foodstuffs available. I can laugh now, but at the time it was an element in the considerations. In fact I had no need to fear, and regularly avail myself of the wonderfully friendly Brixton Tescos branch, which is hardly frequented at all by white folks such as myself, but not only stocks the regular supplies I could previously get at the Romford branch, but a whole new realm of exotic fruit, veg, tinned stuff and herbs. I understand that the "trad" offerings are specialised by the two local visiting farmers' markets!

[Cockney Sparrow]

.......Cheesy loaf of bread. This was really nice - from Sainsbury's back in the day, I recall. Must have been about 20 years ago, I recall, since I had ham sandwiches with this bread, so was before I went veggie.

I meant to mention - my local Morisons (with in-store bakery) sells Cheese Rolls as part of the pick / mix selection. Not just Cheese put on top, but in the dough. I slice them and toast the slices.......

Have to time my visit though - the Cheese ones sell out after a while.

[Joseph K]

Not just Cheese put on top, but in the dough.

Sounds good.

[oddoneout]

Interesting that - could the return to "Britishness" in food be part of the turn back to the imagined "good ole' days"? Before I first moved to this part of London back in 2004, I did a tour around most of the big supermarket chains, in the half-expectation of not finding my comparatively traditional British foodstuffs available. I can laugh now, but at the time it was an element in the considerations. In fact I had no need to fear, and regularly avail myself of the wonderfully friendly Brixton Tescos branch, which is hardly frequented at all by white folks such as myself, but not only stocks the regular supplies I could previously get at the Romford branch, but a whole new realm of exotic fruit, veg, tinned stuff and herbs. I understand that the "trad" offerings are specialised by the two local visiting farmers' markets!

Lidl's approach to its food lines is a reflection as much as anything of what sells well/best here, in a traditional rural area without a significant chattering classes element. The sizeable Portuguese and Polish/Eastern European element of the population have opened their own shops to cater for their more niche requirements so don't create demand. The irony I find is that it is much easier to find British sourced/ made products in either Lidl or Aldi than the likes of M'sons, Tesco or Iceland (the other supermarkets available in town) since both have made a big push to produce,process and manufacture their food lines in the UK.

[oddoneout]

Sell by date 7 May 1977?

Hah. They're bad but not quite that bad!

[Roslynmuse]

Reminds me of my student days, when I used to frequent the small "VG" store (bit like Spar), which was not overly fussy about sell by dates. I bought some cheese, checking that it was in date - it was, by a day, or so I thought. When I opened the pack it was the most revolting fermented mould, and a closer examination of the sell by date revealed that it wasn't one day IN date, but 364 days OUT...

[Serial_Apologist]

Reminds me of my student days, when I used to frequent the small "VG" store (bit like Spar), which was not overly fussy about sell by dates. I bought some cheese, checking that it was in date - it was, by a day, or so I thought. When I opened the pack it was the most revolting fermented mould, and a closer examination of the sell by date revealed that it wasn't one day IN date, but 364 days OUT...

My parents told a WW2 story about obtaining a pork pie from a local shop - a rare extravagance at that time - and getting it home, only to discover it had got mould all around the meat inside. Being hungry they ate it nevertheless, and then rang the doctor wondering what to do. The latter said they would probably be OK, but if unsure should drink a pint of very salty water, at least - which they did, with violent expected consequences!

[Joseph K]

Lately, having recently discovered them in Morrisons, we've taken to having some very tasty cheese ciabatta rolls with soup (which we've just done). They're so good and inexpensive that my mum said she can't see herself buying the cheese muffins again - or making cheese scones! And now with energy prices increasing so much anything that doesn't require heating up, or that requires energy to make, is a plus...

[Joseph K]

Items that have recently disappeared from the shelves -

Topic chocolate bar

Baxter's Spicy Jalapeno Relish

[Pulcinella]

Items that have recently disappeared from the shelves -

Topic chocolate bar

Baxter's Spicy Jalapeno Relish

Still made and available, according to their website.
Worth ordering half a dozen jars for Christmas?

https://www.baxters.com/products/spicy-jalapeno-chilli-relish

Or here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baxters-Spicy-Jalapeno-Chilli-Relish/dp/B09BWBQJQR/ref=sr_1_2?adgrpid=1183075422833018&hvadid=73942431565403&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=41843&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-73942368309524%3Aloc-188&hydadcr=14007_2302071&keywords=baxters%2Bjalapeno%2Brelish&qid=1667734555&sr=8-2&th=1

[Bryn]

Items that have recently disappeared from the shelves -

Topic chocolate bar

Baxter's Spicy Jalapeno Relish

In the larger of the two Tesco supermarkets here, a considerable paucity of eggs yesterday. Only those from specified breeds of hen and a few from caged hens were to be had. I will check out Waitrose his afternoon. No urgent requirement. Just an observation. Ironic that, a few days ago, I found a pack of six named breed eggs at less than half price in the Tesco short-dated cabinet. They were there purely due to superficial damage to their box. None of the eggs inside were cracked. I got two delicious omelets out of them.

[cria]

Zero eggs in my Aldi yesterday

[Joseph K]

Still made and available, according to their website.
Worth ordering half a dozen jars for Christmas?

https://www.baxters.com/products/spicy-jalapeno-chilli-relish

Or here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baxters-Spi...55&sr=8-2&th=1

Thanks. I suspected that the product itself hadn't been discontinued - just seemed odd that it (along with other kinds of relish) had disappeared from both Sainsbury's and Morrison's in Redditch.