The most expensive food I could find at the supermarket came as something of a suprise.

a reply to: nonspecific

It is called Onuga caviare substitute.

lololol!! In what world will anyone EVER need a substitute for caviar??

Do the old-rich get sniffy when the nouveau-rich start handing out the Onuga on Ritz crackers? Or do some of the wealthier backers of Greenpeace get to keep up appearances without being hypocrites? I bet Bono eats Beluga caviare all day long and says it's Onuga lolol

I imagine its a way to make huge profits from people who want to look posh but can't actuall afford the real deal.

There are a few more expensive items than the ones I posted like dried mushrooms ect but they are known to be expensive, I was trying to show some things that you might not see.

Tesco sell saffron at a very reasonable ten grand a kilo for example

a reply to: Kandinsky

a reply to: nonspecific

i call it designer stubble that i use for the food banks . every little helps ask tesco

i am with you on the 7,30 supermarket sweep , get friendly with the person who does the reducing bribery/ or blackmail will work

If i spend a £ 10 in a week i think that is a lot as i grow quite a bit and i figure things out in 100 grams when i shop

Jesus i am tight

For me it is not just bieng tight it means I can eat far better than most for far less.

I once came out of tesco with a whole cooked lobster. I still have the recipt for 10p somewhere.

A lot of people I know say that they don't have time to do the reduced isle run and still complain about the cost of food.

To me it's an adventure as you have no idea what your having for dinner the following day. It also makes you push the boundries.

I would never have made my better halfs favorite starter of mooli baji's if I had not bought some for 5p.

a reply to: douglas5

a reply to: nonspecific

If you want to get really really tight pretend you are a commando at 2 am when you climb the fence behind Tescos for the bins at the back

I knew a junkie years ago that used to shop that way , and the stuff he used to pull out was crazy i used to buy it for the dog , most of it was still in date yet they chucked it .

The soup kitchen i work at gets loads of stuff from the supermarkets we cannot give it away sometimes , i had a week off last night and got a knock about 8 and got handed 3 bags of steak etc

happy days

a reply to: Kandinsky

As you mentioned it, yes.

Beluga is often the caviar of choice for no expense spared luxe eating, I am not that keen on caviar.

Aldi were naming their inferior sturgeon caviar as Beluga and renamed it due to demand.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Discount supermarket Aldi has decided to rename its cut-price 'Beluga' caviar after food experts complained that it did not meet the requirements for the famous delicacy.

Well known for its bargains, the German supermarket managed to thrill even the most frugal of shoppers with a recent announcement that it would sell the caviar at just £10 for 20g.

But as Beluga caviar retails at £215 per 100g at Fortnum and Mason, it wasn’t long before fine food experts began to question its credibility.

Beluga caviar consists of roe from the Huso huso sturgeon only, as outlined by the World Health Organisation’s codex for international food standards, which also includes guidelines for labelling hybrid caviar from different sturgeon.

Dear me Dougal do you not know that skip diving is theft by finding and a criminal offence in the UK?

Besides they all use compactors these days. I have a lot of friends who live very well from skipping. I have had the pleasure of eating with them after they did there regular trip to the skips behind a row of deli's.

I don't think I have ever eaten so well, Fine cheese's air dried hams, sourdough breads, olives and antipasi galore.

I have a mango I bought for 6p about a week ago and it's still not ripe, I think they short date stuff on purpose so people will throw it away, thats why it very often says "Best before" date and not if you eat this tommorow you will die date.

I get really exited doing a reduced run because you never know when you will hit a seam as it where. I bought 15 blocks of tesco's finest extra mature cheddar for 30p a block and stuck them in the freezer, that was cheese for about 3 months for £4.50

My freezer is chockablock.

a reply to: douglas5

Slightly off topic but it's my op,

I was once headbutted by a sturgeon and got quite a nasty black eye.

Maybe that should have gone into dougals whats the strangest thing that ever happened to you thread.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

originally posted by: nonspecific
Slightly off topic but it's my op,

I was once headbutted by a sturgeon and got quite a nasty black eye.

Maybe that should have gone into dougals whats the strangest thing that ever happened to you thread.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

had to run to the toilet after reading that one

a reply to: nonspecific

I think you should add it.

About weird food things, I worked in hotel management for a while and one of them was live in. The chef was a fallen from grace previous top chef turned drunk chef, he used to pop to the bar for a glass of brandy, whisky etc a few times a day pretending it was for recipes.

I normally ate out elsewhere though one night I decided to make chicken goujons in tempura, after dipping the raw chicken, I left the batter mixture in a tub in the walk in fridge, away from the rest of the things, stored appropriately.

The next day, the drunk chef served it to the director's daughter as 'cauliflower soup' that in his drunkenness, he imagined he made. He hadn't made any soup all week. Needless to say she ran to the bathroom and the chef was ''off sick' for a while.

Drunk chefs aren't worth it.

I can not imagine anyone who has worked in the food industry is ever comfortable eating out knowing what goes on.

I worked as a chef for over 10 years and was acually fired once for refusing to doctor the date labels on chilled food.

Basically any food in the fridge has to have a label of a different colour on it to denote how long it's been in there, the quite common solution to avoiding food waste is simply swap labels on out of date food so if inspected you don't get in trouble.

This contradics what I said earlier about sell by dates but theres a big difference between feeding yourself and feeding the public.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

by vigilantly shopping for specials and hand making many things (bread, sauces, crisps, chips) I have managed to reduce my monthly food costs to about 200. It takes up alot of time but with wife unable to work due to mental illness its all i can do on just my income. you'd be amazed at how much you can save and still eat very well when you make things from scratch.

I think there is a time and a place for convinience foods but agree that by clever shopping and understanding the actual science of cooking as opposed to following recipes you can eat far better and healthier than by buying premade foods.

Heres an example of the kind of trick being played on us.

The following is the ingredients list for one of the UK's most popular ready made sauces. It is called Lasagne sauce.

Now we all have a different view of how to make the best lasagne but how many of us would use the following.(Ingredients have to be in decending order or percentage in the UK, not sure if thats the same elsewhere. Also if an ingredient is part of the main description it must show the percentage)

Water, Sunflower Oil, Modified Maize Starch, Butter Oil Powder (Butter Oil, Lactose, Milk Protein), Sugar, Fat Powder (Palm Fat, Lactose, Milk Protein), Natural Flavouring (contains Celery), Broth Powder (Sugar, Flavourings, Yeast Extract, Dried Glucose Syrop, Salt, Palm Oil (Fully Hydrogenated), Sunflower Oil, Smoke Flavouring, Milk Protein), Salt , Acid (Lactic Acid), Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Milk Proteins, Antioxidant (Rosemary Extract).

This product sells for £1.80 ($2.88) Bear in mind that you also need to buy the Tomato sauce another £1.80 ($2.88)

The meat, pasta and cheese and things are mounting up fast.

a reply to: Daavin

a reply to: nonspecific

I started in catering management for Grand Metropolitan in the late 80's then Whitbread, both good standards of hygiene and top quality training. Grand Met paid for me to live in a hotel for 6 months whilst training at a restaurant, lots of expenses paid weekend and weekly training in London, staying at decent hotels. The training was so thorough, I spent 2 months in each area, kitchen, floor, bar, office, learning in depth aspects of all, from making dough, serving at the bar, to P&L forecasts, all tested with professional certs.

When I got to my own restaurant, I raised the bar for everything, hygiene, standards, the lot and it was well worth it and showed on profits.

The standards these days for comparative restaurants in my experience isn't anywhere near comparable, on the floor, the kitchen, nowhere near the standards I was trained in.

I am very fussy where we eat now, and getting fussier. I resent paying top dollar for half decent service and mediocre food that I can make better at home.

My main concern with eating out now is not hygene but "resteraunts" serving ready made meals bought from wholesalers.

I can look at a menu and see so many things which are the equivilant to supermarket readymeals at 600% markup straight from the microwave.

I worked at a large chain resteraunt (Harvester for those in the UK) and nothing was made fresh on site, even the mashed potato's came prepacked and the veg was all delivered precut in plastic bags. all of the starters and vegatarian options were frozen and either went into a fryer or a microwave.

It was a soul destroying experience.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

a reply to: nonspecific

I never buy jars or packet sauces, a waste of money and they taste plastic IMO. You could never make a decent lasagne with that.

My lasagne recipe is my fave, really rich sauce, ragu style, plenty of bechamel, and costs less than the packet or ready meal versions.

a reply to: nonspecific

Practically everywhere that isn't top notch is like that now. Never been keen on Harvester. Places like Frankie and Benny's are all like it, apart from their pizza, Cafe Rouge is okay for middle market, some decent food.

Those sorts of places use the term 'chef' loosely. Not the best way to use years of catering college skills.

At least there is more awareness being offered on TV etc, Jamie Oliver, etc championing real food. Kind of ironic that it takes a celebrity who eventually gets his own rady mean range but I guess that's the nature of consumerism these days.

This one actually made me laugh out loud when I read the description.

It is for a Dolmeo Carbonara recipe base pouch, It's basically a 170 gram pouch with the base ingredients that you then add other items to to make a carbonara sauce, I don't know whats worse, the evil genius of the company selling this or fact that people are stupid enough to buy it.

It costs £1.50 ($2.40)

"Just add: pasta, bacon, onion, mushrooms, cheese and cream

100% natural ingredients

45 mins preparation

Serves 4

Suitable for vegetarians

We've taken our time, and used our very best ingredients, to create this sauce concentrate so that you can make a classic meal even tastier. Rest assured, our Recipe Base is made with 100% natural ingredients.

Mama always knows how to cook up a tasty meal See her hints and tips on our website www.dolmio.co.uk
Information
Ingredients:

Water, Lemon Juice, Cornflour, Cheese (from Milk) (4%), Garlic, Cream (from Milk), Salt, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavourings, Spices"

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

a reply to: nonspecific

Some people are gullible. It takes 10 minutes to make bechamel and add cheese. It can even be made with multi purpose flour instead of cornflour.

Schools should be educating children about basic housekeeping, traditional style. Store cupboard basics that can be made into anything.

Flour, oil, butter, herbs etc, the basics for sauces and simple dishes that can be expanded upon with experience.

At secondary school, we had Home Economics class, part cooking part sewing, in cooking we learned basic sauces, made hot pot, smoked haddock with cheese sauce, potatoes and sweet corn, casserole, scones, swiss roll etc, basic things that are useful to know instead of cup cakes.

I don't think is by accident that we are not being taught how to cook food and have to buy it readymade from large corperations.

The best thing about that sauce base is that you have to add all of the ingredients to make the sauce to the sauce base??

And thats not even carbonara, carbonara is cream eggs and parmasan cheese with a bit of salt and pepper.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth