the food rant thread

[Mrs Pingu]

The nearest Waitrose to us is Edinburgh. Not very close, doubt that would count as an essential journey. They do deliver to Aberdeen but it seems like it's a very exclusive club to get a delivery slot.

[nicknack]

Plenty in our Waitrose. I've given up on ever seeing tomato puree again though.

I've got a half tube in the fridge. What will you give me for it?

[hellymedic]

Plenty in our Waitrose. I've given up on ever seeing tomato puree again though.

I've got a half tube in the fridge. What will you give me for it?

I still have ¾ of a tube in the fridge. I'm fairly sure Sains listed it on their website when I last looked, which implies it's available in NW London.

[Wowbagger]

We can get tubes of tomato puree, but I like those little canisters sold by Cirio. The puree leaves its nest with a reassuring "Splat!" when you succeed in persuading it to come out. WE haven't had one of those for some weeks.

[ian]

Seriously, there's no tomato puree in the big supermarkets in Surrey. Maybe the bears got a taste for it. I have a couple of tubes, it's still findable in smaller shops. It's a curious thing to be consistently out of stock.

I got nabbed yesterday for messing with the Daily Mails (I always hide them behind the Croydon Guardian). There was a big tut from behind me. People won't be able to find them, she says. The point, succinctly. She seemed to agree and wandered off. Hopefully, I'm not on some kind of Waitrose blacklist. Don't make me go to Sainsbury's, I get itchy thinking about it.

[T42]

The IT manager for the UK HQ of a large canning company once told me that their low-end tomato puree was actually recovered pineapple mush with colouring. Back in the 70s, that was: probably not true these days.

Anyway, if you're out of puree and you have a spare pineapple, go for it.  You might have to experiment with salt etc.

[Kim]

recovered pineapple mush

Presumably that's a euphemism for liquefied spiky bits.

[Mrs Pingu]

Thank you for the tomato puree reminder. Not only did that alert me to the fact we have none in reserve (stop deleting things from my favourites list, dammit), but also to the fact that I had not defrosted the passata for tonight's pizza.

Furrybootoon Sainsbo's appears to have all manner of tubes and tins of tomato puree.

[T42]

recovered pineapple mush

Presumably that's a euphemism for liquefied spiky bits.

It was the cores after they'd, well, cored the fruit to make pineapple chunks.  He didn't mention the rinds.  I heard once that the spikes are slightly toxic.

[orienteer]

Waitrose have tins of coconut milk again, and also dried coconut milk.

[mrcharly-YHT]

What, is there some sort of national coconut milk shortage now? Are there thousands of tins lost in a container at Folkestone Felixstowe?
I can't get the stuff reliably, Sainsbo's subbed me a super expensive tin of Amoy last week which was fine but now they deny all knowledge of it.

I was going to distress purchase a 4 pack of Biona Organic from Ama$on but their reviewers swing wildly between 'amazing' and 'fucking vile'.

There's none in the house and it's the weekend and I don't have a sodding piña colada!  (Oh, the huge manatee).

Sorry, it is our fault.

MrsC has been stockpiling the stuff (along with dried pulses in 10 varieties. Bought in 1-2kg amounts each).

I think we currently have over 10 tins of coconut milk, plus coconut cream.

[pcolbeck]

There also seems to be a Marmite shortage. Maybe its because it is (or at least was) based on a  by-product of the brewing industry. Presumably with all the pubs closed there is a shortage of yeast extract.

[tiermat]

There also seems to be a Marmite shortage. Maybe its because it is (or at least was) based on a  by-product of the brewing industry. Presumably with all the pubs closed there is a shortage of yeast extract.

Allegedly that is so, but logic tells me it's is rubbish as all the breweries I know are running full pelt just to stand still (Bad Co, Brass Castle, Three Brothers to name but three local ones)

Maybe it's just those that rely on the On-sales market (InBev) that are suffering?

[Jakob W]

Yeah, I'd have assumed (dangerous I know...) that Marmite would get its yeast from an industrial brewer - not sure anyone else would produce the necessary volume? IIRC there's a bit in Mark Dredge's Lager book about visiting Carling(?) in Burton, and tanker-loads of spent yeast heading to Marmite from the brewery yard.

At-home drinking is obviously up by a lot, but AIUI overall beer sales are heavily down by volume for the past year.

[L CC]

Marmite (Unilever) isn't going to be getting waste from nice breweries who make craft beer. They'll be getting it from industrial processes who have reduced their output.
We (as a society, not as a household) drink nice beer and nasty wine at home, but nice wine and nasty beer when we're out.

[Mrs Pingu]

What, is there some sort of national coconut milk shortage now? Are there thousands of tins lost in a container at Folkestone Felixstowe?
I can't get the stuff reliably, Sainsbo's subbed me a super expensive tin of Amoy last week which was fine but now they deny all knowledge of it.

I was going to distress purchase a 4 pack of Biona Organic from Ama$on but their reviewers swing wildly between 'amazing' and 'fucking vile'.

There's none in the house and it's the weekend and I don't have a sodding piña colada!  (Oh, the huge manatee).

Sorry, it is our fault.

MrsC has been stockpiling the stuff (along with dried pulses in 10 varieties. Bought in 1-2kg amounts each).

I think we currently have over 10 tins of coconut milk, plus coconut cream.

 
We now have 2 tins of light milk (too thin really), 2 small cartons of coconut cream (to be diluted and assessed for suitability) and a block of creamed coconut, for emergencies and experimentation.

[Mrs Pingu]

It's Friday night, and Pingu is currently in the kitchen experimenting with a tin of light coconut milk and a block of creamed coconut. He doesn't look very impressed 

[Mr Larrington]

Hoist that gin pennant!

[Mr Larrington]

The person responsible for the design of the lid-cum-grinder on the top of the wee jars of Hot & Smoky Chipotle sold in Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles needs badly to be tracked down and sent into internal exile in Edmonton with only dried chilli flakes and dead dogs to eat.

[ravenbait]

The person responsible for the design of the lid-cum-grinder on the top of the wee jars of Hot & Smoky Chipotle sold in Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles needs badly to be tracked down and sent into internal exile in Edmonton with only dried chilli flakes and dead dogs to eat.

That's worthy of a found poem.

Sam

[Mr Larrington]

It's the result of some Lobachevskian research into the literary estate of my late chum Mr Sunshine.  And of course the kitchen floor being liberally festooned with Hot & Smoky Chipotle.

[rafletcher]

There also seems to be a Marmite shortage. Maybe its because it is (or at least was) based on a  by-product of the brewing industry. Presumably with all the pubs closed there is a shortage of yeast extract.

Checking today, our Tesco has loads of Marmite containing products (crunchy and smooth peanut butter, Hummus) but no actual Marmite 

[hellymedic]

Marmite-flavoured products are HUGELY priced, compared with the individual components.

[Mrs Pingu]

They call it 'adding value' in marketing I believe.

[hellymedic]

I know but I don't even LIKE Marmite.
And I'm mean...