General Chat Thread II

It's UK labelling, all green bins here accept all (clean, dry) plastics. Shoddy from ALDI

Today I attempted to recreate a side dish I had on Iberia in business class a few months, which was green beans with bacon bits; and was absolutely delicious. (the rest of that meal was great too - filet mignon and creamed potatoes. The blunt table knife supplied was unable to cut the filet mignon very well, though!)

Tried to render fat out of a few chopped up slices of streaky bacon, and only got a fairly dry grainy result from it. Blanched beans, drained and threw them in, the small amount of water on them made the dry grainy fat somewhat more useful; and added a few crushed garlic cloves just before the end.

The garlicy bacon was delicious; but the green beans were a bit harsh still; and the overall flavour a bit wrong - but I'm comparing on the ground to an 8000 foot pressure altitude; which changes flavour. Anyone made anything similar before? I think pancetta might have been a better choice in hindsight but the bean flavour was the issue.

Probably not.

Centra's "finest" picked up today; tbh that branch usually has pretty high quality veg - its huge as Centras go and the owner has always had a bit of a tilt towards high end products.

It'll be re-tried anyway. Did it with chicken kyivs, croquettes and gravy today - will try it with steak some time. Would be interested in seeing what both a creamier sauce and a red wine sauce (like the plane) are like with it.

Eurasia, who are about to start expanding beyond one shop but are currently still in Fonthill are where I buy everything like that. Any generic Asian store will have East End or a similar brand though.

thanks, the health store in my town in Wicklow does sell them but at a pretty stiff €4 for 500 grams. Everything in that store is way more expensive than Holland & Barrrett. Whereas Tesco have the same quantity of dried chickpeas for €1.09 which is why Id hoped to get them there but no joy. Will try Supervalue as the other poster suggested.

thanks, might be in there later in the week as Ive to get tamarind paste, chiankiang vinegar and chinese cooking sherry too.

Any ideas what other locations Eurasia are setting up in yet?

Afaik Italian and Irish dairy cows are very similarly fed - mostly pasture with some supplementary grain over winter. I'm not aware of any material differences in quality between either butters, tbh, unless we're getting into seriously artisanal territory, in which case there are probably contenders from both countries.

But yes, pasta with butter can be absolutely delicious.

I've tasted it many times. The biggest difference as far as my palate is concerned is that Italian butter is generally unsalted, which foregrounds the cream aspect compared to what we're used to.

Former Iceland on Talbot Street and one of the supermarket units in Adamstown it seems

I would have had it on bread. I can't say I'm really in the habit of eating butter on its own!

I used to absolutely loathe coriander for the same reason but I frickin love the stuff now. Even though I can still totally get the soap aspect 🤷

Why cant this make a comeback here too ?

My partner is away for a week, so I've a good run of "just cooking for myself" which means I can do what I want! I've a few things that I usually do when she is away (she is not a fan of grains, pulses or beans) but I'm open to suggestions for something more out there. Something new sounding or whatever - I realise what's new for some people might not be for others obviously. But still.

Cassoulet as fancy option or a sausage and bean stew as a simpler option? Handy batch cooking options as I can find hard motivate myself to cook from scratch everyday when it's just myself.

Your average salsa doesn't have a bell pepper type flavour.

Tomatoes, onions, garlic, lime juice and coriander (and chillies, if allowed) would be the bones of most salsas.

Has anyone seen non-wheat cereals in shops? Her allergies mean she cant eat white rice or any type of wheat cereals.

Her usual cereal is too expensive now for what it is.

Porridge? That's oats, not wheat.

Or are Oatabix still a thing? Basically Weetabix, only made with oats instead of wheat.

Sadly none of these, she's been doing well on the oatabix but they are too expensive now and we looking for alternatives(oat based as we know that works for now)

So I picked up some of this. Not used it before. Going to try it in a whiskey sour tonight, but more food wise, what do people recommend including it with?

Will do a mac and cheese at some point no doubt. Open to suggestions.