Hoorah for Lidl!

[Millymollymandy]

It's 'English' day at Lidl France and I've been specially because they had mega cheap (for France) cheddar cheese. Most the supermarkets here sell cheddar at really silly prices and it's nearly always been frozen , so much for the French and their love of/understanding of cheese.

Am now the proud owner of 5 packs of Staffordshire mature cheddar, unfrozen, which is good until the end of Jan. I could have been really naughty and bought more but I thought I'd leave some for other people cos I'm so nice.

Have also got some jarred sliced Jalapeno peppers from their Mexican promo last week which is lucky because we were running out! (strangely enough for a country that has a Mexican section in every supermarket they sell everything in the Old El Paso etc range except jalapeno peppers!).

Also got some sweet pickle and mint sauce, but it's quite funny what they think are important 'English' food items. They are still labelling crisps as 'chips' and they had some chocolate and CHILLI chip cookies!

Do you have 'French' promos in Lidl UK?

[Graye]

I'm on my way, thanks!

We've been buying a French cheese called Cantal which is a pretty good substitute but if the Cheddar is a similar price then I will have to buy some. I just hope all the other local Brits haven't beaten me to it...

[Millymollymandy]

That's the cheese we normally buy at Lidl and the cheddar is €7.48/kg, which is cheaper than Cantal! Get in quick!

And with Cantal you have to cut off the smelly rind so price/weight wise it works out a little bit more because of it.

[Green Aura]

Stick the rinds in a pot of soup MMM. Nigel Slater recommended it last week - works for parmesan so why not for your cantal

[Millymollymandy]

Maggie have you ever smelt Cantal rind???? It's not a hard dry rind like parmesan. This is wet, moulding, reeking, slimy, minging FRENCH stuff.

[Mrs Moustoir]

OMG - I forgot about this!!!

Off to Lidl!

How sad are we - desperate for that (cheap) taste of home. Yes, we buy usually buy Cantal or Comte - but nothing melts like cheddar on toast.

[Odsox]

That sounds like the cheddar we have all the time although there are several different "grades" from mild to extra mature and white or red.
I think it normally costs €3 or something like that for 400g block.
The only foreign cheese we get in Lidl is Camembert, Brie, Edam, Parmesan and some sort of goats cheese.

Funnily, I've never seen a French promo here .... it seems to alternate between Greek, Italian & Spanish.

[Graye]

Thanks for reminding me. I arrived to find four lonely packs. They are now all mine!

I agree, Cantal rind is horrible. But the cheese is OK isn't it? It doesn't quite have the bite of a mature Cheddar but it works well.

There are very few things on my "must have" British food list. Probably only Yorkshire teabags, orange squash, Marmite and decent cheddar. I can improvise for most other things - gravy, stuffing, custard etc. And we make our own pickles and picallilis. But there is just something about decent Cheddar on toast...

This reminds me of when OH was still being a touring musician despite us living almost full time in Spain. He had gone back for a weekend Festival with just an overnight bag and guitar. He then had a hard time with Spanish Customs on his way back through Malaga airport. He had to try to explain the six packs of Yorkshire pudding mix packed around his guitar and the two pounds of parsnips packed in with his boxers and socks...

[Millymollymandy]

I'm perfectly happy with cantal until I taste test it next to cheddar then it pales in comparison! For those of you who don't know it, it's one of the few French cheeses with a cheddar like texture and it is a good cheese & pickle sarnie type of cheese.

This reminds me of when OH was still being a touring musician despite us living almost full time in Spain. He had gone back for a weekend Festival with just an overnight bag and guitar. He then had a hard time with Spanish Customs on his way back through Malaga airport. He had to try to explain the six packs of Yorkshire pudding mix packed around his guitar and the two pounds of parsnips packed in with his boxers and socks...

[ajs88]

We had a French week at our Lidl's in London, I bought those extremely buttery 'breakfast' biscuits, tinned gratin dauphinois and french cider. All were fantastic especially the tinned dauphinois which I thought sounded a bit dubious but my french manager recommended saying that you just need to add more creme friache, he also said that the french do a tinned breakfast which is extremely unhealthy but fantastic hangover food

[Millymollymandy]

What's in the tinned breakfast? Croissant and jam?

[Alice Abbott]

Dammit I missed that offer. I could have squeezed a couple of euros from the weekly €5 to get a pack... I know there was a topic on things you would miss by being self-sufficient and I haven't got much battery power this morning to go searching (for some reason the laptop takes its sweet time to power up even when its plugged into the mains until it gets a certain amount of juice into its innards).

However good cheese is one of the things I miss. Well, to be truthful any cheese really. We can make butter and cottage cheese but a nice slab of something which would melt on toast? Mmmm! Then I have to think we don't actually have anywhere to toast it so it's not really an option for us at the moment.

I also desperately miss cranberry juice. I sometimes dream of a huge glassful... It will be one of our first purchases when we get ourselves back on budget!

[Green Aura]

Lidl up here sells something called a London Breakfast, in a tin. I've never tried it but it looks truly disgusting - if the picture on the front is accurate it's closely akin ti a transport caff breakfast - canned (canned version not cafe type )

[Millymollymandy]

So that'll be like the tins of Heinz beans with pork sausages then (which I like!) but with egg and bacon thrown in and a bit of soggy toast? Sounds absolutely disgusting!

And why blame it on poor old London - don't the Scots ever eat bacon and egg for breakfast or is it only porridge (with salt , no nice milk and golden syrup like us southeners )?

[mrsflibble]

the thing i miss about france is proper croissants. the ones over here just arnt right, but saying that i am sure if i lived in france i'd pretty soon be the size of a house lol.