marmite?

[Katieb]

Do french supermarkets sell marmite/bovril or anything similar? I have been looking around and can't seem find anything - our supplies are running low?

Thanks,

Kate

[Ron Avery]

Depends where you live, but generally NO. 

You might find it in the UK sections of the big Hypermarkets like Le Clerc and Carrefour, if you are lucky , but as with Heinz Baked Beans be prepared to pay a lot of money for it.  Best bet is to send to the UK for supplies from visitors

[Mpprh]

Hi

It is available here in very small jars at high prices.

You can find it in local supermarkets with a normally small exotic & foreign foods section.

If all else fails check here for mail order of British foods in France : http://www.bestofbritish.fr

Peter

 

[Mpprh]

Hi

It is available here in very small jars at high prices.

You can find it in local supermarkets with a normally small exotic & foreign foods section.

If all else fails check here for mail order of British foods in France : http://www.bestofbritish.fr

Peter

 

[SaligoBay]

Marmite is also available here in mpprh-land in the Asiatique supermarkets on the RN113 on the way into Montpellier.  Ali Baba and Asia Center, they sell all sorts of weird Forrin Muck!

Definitely much cheaper to get your guests to bring it.

[opas]

Have you two been on the Double Diamond?

Mrs O

Ps , one other good thing about Mr O going to work in the UK is that the car comes beack laden with stuff we crave, mint sauce, branston,picallilly,shreadies,ginger biscuits oh and cadburys chocies mmmmm, any requests SB, we will be up your way again end of November

[Will]

"Marmite Bovril or anything similar" is a bit of a broad brush - Marmite is yeast extract, Bovril is beef-based.

There is no equivalent to Marmite that is widely available in France, Viandox is, I am told, a very good substitute for Bovril, particularly if you want it for cooking with or making into a hot drink. It would be useless for spreading on toast though which is what I use Marmite for (don't like Bovril very much).

It is a common myth, promoted by certain books and other French forums, that the makers of Marmite deliberately prevent its sale overseas in order to create some sort of 'expat mystique' about the product. It seems nearer the mark to say that the makers realise it is a product that appeals almost exclusively to the British taste - even so, it has a far from universal appeal to British palates, as underlined by the makers' own 'love it or hate it' advertising campaign.

You can get Marmite in France - though supplies are limited to foreign food specialists, of which there is a small but growing number here, and a few enterprising supermarkets in areas of France popular with British residents and tourists.

As supermarkets here are franchised operations, what specialised items are stocked is up to the individual store or local group of stores rather than company policy, so don't assume that because you haven't seen Marmite in one Leclerc, other Lecelerc stores won't have it (or vice versa). It's always worth a look - many supermarkets have a section for foreign or exotic goods, a few even have small dedicated English product sections.

I've never seen anything other than the very smallest jars of Marmite anywhere in France, so undoubtedly the best policy is to pick up a big jar when you go back across the Channel (fortunately many of us go regularly) or get visitors to bring some.

[Patf]

Someone we know has a market stall selling british products and she sells Marmite. A 250g jar costs about 6 euro. Her husband goes over to UK regularly to buy stock. Pat.

[sue-J]

Bovril beef-based? Tut-tut. Do the research, Will:

"Tony Bishop-Weston from Foods for Life said today "There have been dramatic changes in the last year - this is just the latest in a long line of examples of manufacturers moving towards veganism "

" The fact that many tasters could not tell the difference and many preferred the vegan version just proves what vegans have been saying for the last 60 years- Why not?"

From The Guardian Fri 19th Nov 2003

The hot, gooey drink that claimed to put the beef into Britain delighted vegans yesterday by abandoning its most famous ingredient.

The celebrated winter-warmer Bovril has ended more than a century of boiling up beef extract - after rigorous blind-tasting found that savoury yeast went down better with most regular drinkers.

"It wasn't an easy decision," said a spokesman for Unilever Foods, the makers of Bovril, which began life in 1873 as the by-product of a Scottish businessman's contract to supply a million cans of beef to the French army. "There is strong affection for the Bovril brand."

But there has been a steady decline in sales, particularly overseas. Concern about BSE has coincided with a rise in vegetarianism and concerns about the religious dietary requirements.

"We think we can grow sales for the new, non-beef drink in the export market, particularly in Asia," said the spokesman.

"In Malaysia they stir it into porridge and coffee, but the government there has been becoming quite restrictive on non-halal meat. Overall, our export market used to account for 20% of sales but it has dropped to seven percent."

The new Bovril apes rival Marmite in using yeast extract, which is vegetarian in spite of its meaty taste. Unilever found that 10% of blind tasters could not tell the difference and more than half preferred the new product.

[Will]

Well, I'll go to the foot of the stairs, no more beef in Bovril. What is the Guardian-reading world coming to? I claim as excuses for my ignorance that I was living in France when it changed, and I never liked it anyway  

[sue-J]

Well, as any six-year-old knows, Marmite is made from recycled Wellingtons, and Bovril is made, er used to be made, from tadpoles..

I'm off now for my morning pint of Wincarnis, and a bag of Werthers Originals.... We ex-pat Daily Telegraph readers have to keep our end up when living abroad. :-)

My neighbours in France are cow-farmers, I was tempted to take them a small basket of English (ec)centric foods, Marmite, Bovril, Frank Cooper's Terribly Fierce Olde English Marmalade, Cadburies Smash, Ovaltine, etc, but I don't want to insult them.

I think I'll just make them some vegetarian Toad in the Hole.

How does that translate into French? 'Crapaud dans le trou?'

sue

[Lizzie15]

Oh no- if Bovril has become a back door Marmite is there room in the market place for both?

Leclerc sell Marmite here-only small pots though,as do Super U.  Happy spreading

 

[Dog]

I have no association with The Daily Bread Cooperative

other than being a satisfied cutomer for many years.

Just see for yourself how much you can save compared to the cost of marmite which is very salty.

I do not know if they will despatch to France as my relatives live nearby and bring supplies out.

Check out:

http://www.ecofair.co.uk

Yeast Extract

Daily Bread

Yeast Extract

400g £2.43

900g £5.17

25Kg £115.54

Meridian

Yeast Extract - Low Salt 340g

£2.97

12 £33.32

Natex

Yeast Extract - Reduced Salt 125g

£1.79

12 £20.08

220g

£1.66

12 £18.63

[Battypuss]

www.epicerieanglaise.com

will send you as many jars as you like

[GRT17]

Lizzie 15 and anyone in the Gemozac area, there is now an English Epicerie in Gemozac, I haven't really needed anything so have not been in there yet.

Gill

[Lizzie15]

Thanks for that Gill.It will be interesting to see who the clientele are-do you think the French will use it or be bemused by it?  I do bring stuff over with me but haven't needed to buy anything especially "English" whilst in France for many years now.The only thing I REALLY wouldn't want to be without is English tea-other than that,it's "go native"