To remind you all to think carefully before moving to a village...

[MindatWork]

...that isn’t covered by takeaways that deliver (or Just Eat etc? I love living here but god I would kill for some readymade dinner right now.

Lighthearted, obv. DH is away on a work trip, 8 month old DD just gone to bed and the kitchen looks like a bomb’s gone off from my (failed) attempts to create tempting and nutritious weaning recipes.

I swore I would never become one of those cringy real life mum memes that bangs on about having g&t for dinner but I think I’m heading that way.

Seriously considering bribing next door’s teenager to go to the chippy for me ...

Glad you cleared that up, Rottnest! It sounded as though it deserved a whole new thread

Go to Aldi and get some of their premium brand pizzas and stick em in the freezer

But just to get back to the original topic, the village shop sells hot pies and pasties. Not many, I grant you, but the shopkeeper is the eternal optimist. Only last year, we saw a police car outside the shop. This is a rare occurrence indeed. However, the police officer had only called in to buy a hot pie. This is an even rarer occurrence. The villagers still talk about it.

How far away are the takeaway places? I’m only 3 miles away from the nearest town but they still all say they don’t deliver to us. However sometimes if I telephone and plead with them (plus chuck then an extra fee quid for delivery) they will actually bring it to me if it’s quiet.

I love living in a village with no take-aways as I'm not as tempted.

Having take-aways all the time is expensive, unhealthy and a ridiculous waste of money. Also places with take aways are messier and rougher, there are often fights at night and the shops themselves are often a mess. Areas with only takeaways and convenience food are markers of high crime and poverty-stricken areas.

We have a take away about once every three weeks at the most from a restaurant, and I'm happy to drive ten minutes to pick it up.

We moved to a village nearly 2 years ago. 7 miles to the nearest town and takeaways either don't deliver to our village or charge £6 or more!

There are 3 indian restaurants in the nearest town, all pretty crap. There are about10 Chinese takeaways and of the 5 we have tried one is pretty good. There is also a decent Thai.

We have never really used takeaways that much as the food is just never that good but we did used to get an indian takeaway occasionally.

I really don't get the love for Dominoes. I tried them a couple of times and thought the pizza was disgusting. So greasy and such a strange colour. Why not make your own and freeze or buy the made up ones in supermarkets and freeze?

Re the lack of "ethnic food ingredients", I used to live in London, and can count on one hand the times I actually used a non-British supermarket (unless you count Lidl!) so I really don't care about that or whatever the latest right-on hipster authentic ethnic Londony shit is. And if I want any if the latest right-on hipster authentic ethnic Londony shit I can go out in London after work. Plus you can get any shit you want online.

You can get fish sauce, thai basil and lemongrass in Sainsbury's and Tesco. Even in Aldi sometimes where I mostly shop. Both are a five minute drive away, in spite of being "in the sticks". Really, unless you are on the top of bloody Rannoch Moor hardly anywhere in the UK is that isolated and you can't get stuff. It's not rural France or Spain. The distances are far, far, smaller.

I do regret, however the lack of good fish and chips and curry - wile our local restaurant is good, nowhere does it like Up North, even on the coast or on places like Brick Lane - not a patch on Fallowfield, Bradford, Stoke on Trent Birmingham. Especially not the portion sizes or cost. Naan breads and flat breads were always about a foot long until I moved to London, where they were half the size and cost twice as much.

while

I, rather embarrassingly, tried to take this up with Dominos. I first challenged it in the branch nearest to us (5.5 miles) when stood waiting for an order and there were a few customers chatting, saying they usually got it delivered. I commented that they’d told us we were too far away, and one lady said that she lived further away than us, but in a different (more populated) direction. The people working in the branch just went a bit blank when I questioned them.

I briefly took to Twitter, quoting distances, no joy. And then I rang their head office. Nada. No shop, restaurant or takeaway in the village (the person with 8 pubs, that must be a bloody big village!

It must be one of the benefits of living very rurally, it just doesn’t feel like it!

Our Dominos delivers to us from 7.5 miles away and couple of other places from 11 miles away. A lot of closer places don't deliver.

Maybe you could start a Dominos discrimination case Bunny We are 18 mins drive away on AA route planner, 7.5 miles, delivered to. Hopefully there will be others who can support your campaign.

(the person with 8 pubs, that must be a bloody big village!)

I was thinking the same thing.

It wasn't just 8 pubs but also a selection of restaurants too.

We have a fish and chip van come round the village on a Thursday

”Having take-aways all the time is expensive, unhealthy and a ridiculous waste of money. Also places with take aways are messier and rougher, there are often fights at night and the shops themselves are often a mess. Areas with only takeaways and convenience food are markers of high crime and poverty-stricken areas.”

Jesus Christ, this was a lighthearted thread about me fancying a takeaway and not being able to go out as I had a sleeping baby upstairs.

Not quite sure how it escalated to these great heights of twattery

(the person with 8 pubs, that must be a bloody big village!)

It literally isn't. It used to be a place that a great many people passed thorough, which explains the high numbers.

This is why it depends on the village you choose, not all villages are completely without facilities.

Domino's pizzas are boakworthy anyway.

P

WhoKnewBeefStew do we live in the same village?!

It literally isn't. It used to be a place that a great many people passed thorough, which explains the high numbers.

You live in a welcome break and I claim my £5.

I agree with that OP. Live in a pretty rural town and only have one rubbish takeaway that delivers. Less than a five-minute drive from my house and still charges £1.50.

Fact not twattery:

Deprived areas 'have five times more fast food outlets'

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44642027

And in any event I was responding (mostly light-heartedly, though I am genuinely concerned about the lack of cooking skills in the country and the spread of convenience food, as the mission of Just Eat and others is to get people to never bother to cook) to other poster's comments about the lack of ethnic food choices rather than the OP.

@floribunda18, I used to go to indian supermarkets roughly every 2 months (usually in East Ham). I bought all my spices there plus, paneer, rice, chickpeas, lentils, proper poppadoms that you cook not the ones already cooked (I have never found them in any other supermarket).

Things like lentils, chickpeas come in bigger quantities than supermarkets usually stock and are cheaper. Spices are also cheaper.

I am still looking for the equivalent where I live now.

I disagree about the fish and chips. When I lived in London and then Essex there were some good fish and chip shops. I now live "Up North" and have given up trying to find a good chip shop. They all taste really horrible. Someone told me they use beef dripping up here which I find really strange if true. Why would you want you fish (or chips) to taste of beef?

I agree about curries in Bradford and Birmingham but sadly neither are that close to us. The local indian restaurants are really not good at all. Much better ones where we used to live

I live in a village and Just Eat have 5 places that deliver. All of them Indian. So if you fancy curry, then you’re in luck! 3 of the Indians are absolute shit, one is really expensive and one is ok but closed a lot.

There’s also a great Chinese and a chippy in the local row of shops. Neither deliver and neither of them take cards. And the only cash point is always broken. I swear, it’s some sort of conspiracy against me.

If you are buying lentils and so on in bulk you could probably order online. I can only get a Sainsbury's sized pack in the cupboard anyway and they only cost about £1.80 and make about twenty meals, it seems a pretty minor thing for me to worry about.