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shopping in France just got better!


mint
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[quote user="idun"]
  Mint......in my opinion I really do not consider Hellman's  is  a proper mayonnaise. Taste is simply creamy, and no mustard in it. I find it sickly and fad.

Can't you buy melasse anywhere???

Just found this:

[/quote]

Id, I agree about Hellman's.  In the distant past, I always used to make my own but, as we have both got older and in view of my compromised immune system (chimio), I thought I'd better not poison ourselves with raw eggs.

Will look at your link later when I have a bit more time, thanks

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Hey Mint .. did you not like my post ? Or is Solera not to your taste ?

Mint wrote : Strange that you should mention Bien Manger. We get a food parcel (kids obviously think the elderly pair could do with it) every year from BM.

Never having heard of them before, I had a look and I have found some sherry on their site :

https://www.bienmanger.com/1F37559_East_India_Solera_Xeres_Ans.html

Perhaps you could pass this link to your offspring as an alternative to the cheese offerings ?.
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Sorry, guys, I was chez la coiffeuse.  Then faire la popote, eat, clear up, sprawl in front of telly.....I tell you, just SO much to do[:D]

Yes, Sue, LOVE the sound of the sherry:  tasting of noisette, café et pruneaux and then, in the mouth, écorce confites, chocolat, figue......  These descriptions of wine always makes my mind boggle!  But, of all those things, there isn't one that I didn't like[;-)]

Pomme, like your site too.  And, Id, that mélasse is very cheap; or it would be if I lived anywhere near Limoges[:P]

Thanks, everyone.  I'll work out a devious way to get hold of some of those goodies.....

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  • 1 year later...
Thought I'd revisit this thread as it was such a light-hearted sort of thread with no arguing and, let's face it, haven't we all done rather a lot of shopping during lockdown?

So my latest finds are lemon grass paste and garam masala.  The lemon grass paste, besides being green bears no resemblance to fresh lemon grass but it's OK for a lazy person like me as, even if I could find it, I'm too idle to bash it, cook with it and then fish it out of the final dish.

The garam masala is another matter.  There is an épicerie (cum delicatessen, I suppose we'd call it in the UK) that I have visited dozens of times.  This last time, I found a small shelf of spices and there was the garam masala in a small squat bottle with a wonky label.  The label is simply printed (fait à maison like the contents, I think) on ordinary paper and is slightly too big for the bottle.  On an impulse I bought it and it smells and tastes wonderful.  The spices are quite coarsely ground, nothing like the over fine commercial spices and I have found every opportunity to sprinkle it on dishes.

As some writer has said:  Les jours se suivent et se ressemblent tous.  It's been a long, long year and the weather has been dreary.  So maybe now's the time to re-stock cupboards and prepare for the summer?

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We are lucky in that we have 3 Chinese/African/Indian shops within walking distance to keep our curry/spice/herbs shelf up to date.

However, I only recently discovered that there are two different types of Cinnamon, the common hard barked stuff we we use and the softer Sri Lanka one which we have yet to find. Its much more expensive. Have you by any chance, Mint, tried it?
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Well, Lehaut, I have been to Sri Lanka and I had a Sri Lankan friend who used to come to our house and cooks her special curries to treat us and all our guests.

If anybody knows their spices, she does.  She'd only have to sniff a bottle to know exactly what spices are in it.  She's never said anything about the cinnamon being of different grades though she liked using whole spices.  So a bark's a bark?  I can't say I have ever tried it, Lehaut.

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Pomme, that is a really interesting piece.  Now I have read your article, I seem to remember a lighter (weight and colour) cinamon in Sri Lanka and in my friend's cooking.  I saw many people working in the cinamon trade in Sri Lanka and yes, cutting the bark and filling the "tubes".

Now, like Lehaut, I shall have to go looking for the real McCoy[:)]

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mint, I would drive for well over an hour to stock up on things that I wanted to try or needed. Now I know that this last year or so has been un-natural, but I do believe that driving to shop somewhere with a good and exotic selection is rather nice.

In fact here in England, I drive for about an hour to one particular shop to stock up on some things. As I did in France, I just have to watch the dates.

I remember after one of my long drives in France, I came home with some odd looking fruits, never seen them before, and they were delicious, mangosteins as well as some 'fresh' lemon grass, although frankly, I  later doubted just how fresh it really was.

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Yes, mangosteins are nice, so are rambutans but I don't fancy those dragon fruits!

Have you tried plantains?  Don't quite know how to deal with them.  Also, have you tried other tubers than potatoes and sweet potatoes? Manioc, for example?

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We used to eat all those fruits when we lived in the Far East, but are not tempted to buy them in Europe, as they taste nothing like the fresh versions.
Bananas are about the only ones we can eat here, but they are totally different from when properly ripened on the plant and picked fresh.

We had lemon grass growing wild in the garden but regarded it as a very poor substitute for lemon. We preferred to buy those little plastic lemons.

On the other hand it is wonderful to buy the fresh produce where we live now, so we have no need for exotic (pretentious?) produce.

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Of course, nomoss, fruit or veg that have been picked and brought thousands of miles away can never compare to fresh produce picked maybe only earlier in the day.

If you don't eat other than fresh and local, do you then never eat avocados, drink coffee, indulge in chocolate, long for a Middle Eastern date?

Nowadays, it's always better if you could avoid "foreign" produce, especially from the environmental point of view.  I now do not eat avocados since I read about how they are produced but I'd be hard pushed to give up on coffee.

It's ok to be curious about exotic fruits and veg and sometimes some of these products are now produced locally.  You can, for example, buy sweet potatoes grown both in France and in Spain so no need to buy American or Israeli.

I have every sympathy with idun on wanting to taste foods other than European because I, too, have a curiosity about them.

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nomoss, I daresay that in the far east mangosteins are far from exotic, and the city where this remarkable shop with mainly chinese, but also far eastern goods were on sale, was a comprehensive selection, and  gave me a chance at least to try something new.

Yes, I have bought plantains, the very first time I bought them they were delicious, the second lot I bought were awful, did not taste nice at all, and my OH said not to bother again, and I haven't.

So maybe worth a try but look up when they are just right to cook, I have a feeling that the last lot were past their best.

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RE good fruit and veg in France. Well our two local markets sold very poor stuff, and expensive. The vans that came up from the Rhone Valley sold good fruits, but HORRIBLY EXPENSIVE!

OK I didn't live amongst peach trees, or bushes or however they grow, but the dept did have soft fruit growing. Locally they grew peche de vigne those flat ones that look like donuts........... beurk, pink fleshed and did not taste nice at all. The local wines were excellent, as was the charcuterie and cheeses.

The best ever fruits I have ever ever tasted was in Tivoli above Rome, every last thing we bought was sweet and dripping with juice, we had to eat leaning forward as the juice dripped down our chins and onto the ground..... divine!

And I have had some lovely french fruits in the UK....... making me wonder if the best were for export?

Would I have moved to a region with better markets, say SW France, never, is all I can say. 

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