Marks and Spencer food..

[CurlewKate]

I posed a while ago that I was doing a neighbour’s shopping for a while and she only uses M&S. I’m on my own at the moment, and she told me to shop for myself as well, which I was very excited about-I though posh convenience food would be great in this heat. But I’m actually very disappointed- it all seems a bit bland and samey. So far the things I’ve liked best are some Eton Mess cronuts-sadly I can’t live on them , much though I’d like to! And some delicious blood orange and passionfruit cordial. Oh, and a crab linguini (once I added some chilli and lemon juice) What’s your favorite M&S ready meal?

Ah, right. I’m pretty sure they don’t exist anywhere….!

Oh no! I did not know that about the boiled eggs!

My carnivorous friend and I (pescatarian) enjoyed their vegan kiev as part of a meal deal. I do wish they would bring back their onion tarte tatin. It was gorgeous!

@CurlewKate. Cooks are pretty ok and Charlie Bighams not bad at all. - but yes its a different price point

I also love those. The dressing is very tasty.

Another one for the sriracha prawn poke bowl. I only get it when I go to a certain place and can’t really take a lunch and it’s so tasty I really look forward to it every time. Very fresh and has so many different ingredients that I’m never tempted to recreate it, the combo is so good.

Fiorelli pasta is my fave, it’s like a floppy, frilly little sheet. Goes perfectly with a bacon, garlic and herb pasta that I make.

Their fruit and salad is the best and I’m convinced saves on waste. The amount of times I’d bring home cheaper tangerines or apples that were half of them tasteless and unpleasant. The strawberries, tomatoes, and bagged salad is always top quality from the first day to when it’s finished. No more chucking out wilted salad as it survives still looking good for a few days.

All their cheeses - Blacksticks blue and Cornish cruncher are my favourites. Their proper crisps are so much nicer and cheaper than kettle chips, I love the olive oil and truffle ones.

We are very lucky that the local marks is right next to a proper normal food market and also a fantastic Italian deli, so we’re spoilt for choice when getting things for a special treat. The deli, though, is more expensive than markses for things like mortadella and finocchiona which are our most enjoyed salamis/meaty treats and I highly recommend.

I buy cheese, eggs, canned goods, fish in olive oil, sourdough bread.
Their bananas and potatoes are the best but recently the quality of the easy peelers has dropped, now only keep a few days and bought some of the large expensive strawberries and they lasted 2 days before went mouldy and were still in date. I would have taken them back but was going away and was going to eat them on the journey.
Don't buy ready meals except the count on us pizza because of the size and add toppings.
The new cans of cocktails are good especially the limon ones.

Brexit lowered all British standards.

What has changed?

@Snakebite61 I’m the most pro EU person out there but don’t think this is a Brexit thing per se re quality - I think it’s a packaging thing ref customs and EU checks within EU -( which they are rigorously enforcing or have been - believe some changes are coming in) thing is it’s hard for some UK consumers to understand but the UK basically to keep it functioning and not have standstills at ports etc have been quite lax on what they technically should be doing - whereas EU hold all the cards and are rigorously enforcing on imports to there. You can see another example of this at passport gates - we ( until around now) have had the standing in queues, passport stamped palaver when going to EU - no such issues for EU citizens, can still waltz in via the gates to UK . Basically UK citizens have had all the inconvenience , EU citizens - nope- because we don’t have the resources in people or cash to have that kind of rigour . So for all of the Brexiters’ we hold all the cards- nope we didn’t - we held very few

Thank you

@Comet33- thanks- that’s really useful info in case I see it mentioned again