Food snobbery

[Feckingfeck]

DM always buys "good eggs" I mean nearly £4 a box from Waitrose. I ate one. Wasn't really too impressed- I mean not sure what I could hope for from an egg really?!

What things do you insist on buying branded?

Are there things you simply wont skimp or get own brands of?

AIBU to think any free range egg is just the same as the next?

@LakieLady I tried local honey for my hayfever too and it really worked (maybe auto suggestion too!). Also it tastes really lush and rich compared to the supermarket version. £6 quid a jar though so it's a medicinal teaspoon rather than slathered on buttered toast.

I agree with this. I'm quite particular about my foods. I enjoy trying new food and brands, and do love a bargain but generally (and unfortunately) it's the more expensive ones that often win on flavour and ingredients / health.

• Streaky Bacon is Tesco Finest
• Bacon Rashers are Finne Brogue Naked Nitrate Free
• Most meat comes delivered from a local farm
• Eggs we mostly buy 60 at a time from the local farm, but we do prefer Clarence Court for taste (just don't buy 60 at a time!)
• Milk is organic and almond milk is Califa
• Rocket, organic bananas, citrus fruits, dark chocolate, chicken wings, pork roasts, salami always from M&S
• Cheese is either brand name or specialty from a deli.
• Seeded bread is from Hovis for the kids

Come to think of it almost everything we buy is name brand or from a smaller local independent brand / company. The only no-name thing I can think of that we buy is Tesco pasta. When things are meant to have a strong flavour I can really notice poorer quality.

I like good quality food but don't want to have the wool pulled over my eyes. Just because something is a brand name does not make it better. Sometimes it is but often it isn't. I can tell the difference with some eggs because I used to have chickens. We don't really eat a lot of meat so there's no point going out of my way to a farm shop for a bit of chicken breast and ham. I grow some veg and herbs as it's lovely to have it fresh right from the garden and also handy, and I just like doing it. Good quality fish is quite hard to come by here unless I order it online which is very expensive- and DD2 hates fish other than tuna anyway. If there were a fishmongers I'd use them though. I don't seek out bakeries as I don't want to be tempted to eat lots of lovely baked goods which are pretty disasterous for my diet and digestion. I wouldn't be arsed to seek out a cheese shop or deli regularly unless I could walk to it. Aldi vintage cheddar and stilton are lush anyway.

I find M&S food particularly dreadful unless you are having a picnic. Really overpackaged, overpriced and not that great. It's aimed at wealthy pensioners who prefer to heat things up. Which is fine, but that isn't me.

What improved my hayfever was doing yoga regularly. DD1 found the same after having singing lessons. Learning to breathe properly/controlling breathing seems to be the common factor, plus yoga goes to work on the fight/flight reaction in the body, so the body doesn't go "Oh fuck it's an allergen!" quite so much. (That's my explanation, I am not a scientist)

Wow I've never heard of M&S food being dreadful. I agree with you about the type of clientel it's aim at though.

Well I am a pensioner but certainly not wealthy and I like M&S food. I don't buy the heat up ready meals though.

Their fruit and veg is very good quality and no dearer than most other supermarkets. In fact some of it is cheaper. Their bakery section has lovely bread and rolls.

I think their baked beans are much much nicer than Heinz or Branston and cheaper. Also their crunchy peanut butter is delicious. I don't buy any other brand now.

I do think quality produce does cost more- as does high welfare animal husbandry and proper soil/land management. I am happy- and able to afford-locally grown fresh produce direct from local farms/growers and/or farm shops. We have our own hens/ducks and we farm so also have access to our own produce. We have soft fruit and a small orchard, as well as a poly tunnel for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers etc.

we also buy locally produced meat and poultry- also slaughtered and butchered locally. I know they are free-range, slower growing and high welfare (or organic) and not transported all over the country to be slaughtered. This is important to me for ethical reasons- I think animal welfare is important, buying locally supports Local businesses, reduces the carbon emissions associated with food transportation. Proper land management is also important too- I know I am supporting that by supporting these growers. We are lucky to be able to afford that, but it is not “food snobbery”. The happy by-product of that is that I do think the food is far better quality than that I would get in the supermarket (chicken/bacon not partially saline which shrinks away when cooked, meat is properly hung and so more tender and because it’s been outdoors and active the meat tastes better. The vegetables are very fresh and so taste better).

Again, it’s not food snobbery to think that all produce is of equal quality and you generally have to pay more for better quality and higher welfare.

Thank god. I thought it was just me! Their marketing is great but for the price you pay, a lot of the food is processed, too much packaging, too many additives and not enough organic, local or properly sustainable high welfare options. I don’t rate the quality of their meat or fish at all.

Wrong thread?

I don't buy cornflakes often but they have to be Kellogg's. Coffee can't be supermarket brands, they're far too weak. I only buy British strawberries, the imported ones are tasteless and I'd much rather go without for the rest of the year than eat them.

Eggs have to be free-range. I try and buy fruit and veg with the least amount of plastic packaging, I don't understand why fruit and veg such as bananas, apples and onions are pre-packaged in a plastic bag.

Washing-up-liquid, washing powder, toilet paper and shampoo have to be branded. Other than that, whatever they have available is fine by me.

To be fair although I think a lot of food snobbery is in the marketing (I don’t think people really try other brands of things enough to tell) I do like proper meat. I get a meat order from a wild game supplier. Its healthier as low fat high protein, British and not farmed.
Pheasant wellington is delish. It’s cheaper than it’s organic free range chicken counterpart.

Kellogs rice krispies/corn flakes
Diet coke
Chocolate Weetabix
Babybel

However, I only buy them when they are on offer, never at full price. So sometimes bulk buy if we haven't had these for a while (babybel for the kids lunch boxes)

Jacks11 Yes, I'm sure before the animal was stabbed in the throat it breathed a sigh of relief that it was high welfare and free range....

Well a quicker death than being eaten alive in the wild or starving to death.

Or do you think animals live long happy lives and die peacefully of old age?

( also think about all the animals that are sprayed, shot or mashed up in the machines for your vegetables. Or the ones that don’t exist at all because unlike farming meat in wildlife friendly fields you can grow veg in massive poly tunnels that take up all the land)

By a mile

Lightisnotwhite Standing on a kill line waiting to die is in no way comparable to the animals dying in the wild.
I would much rather die a in the wild than to be lowered upside down in to boiling hot electrified water before having your throat slit.

Pay day treat on Thursday, I'm off to buy some of these eggs! 🤣

Rola Cola is a Peter Kay joke - represents cheap generic cola.

Thanks for explaining! I'd never heard this before. Or realised there were so many brands of cola flavour drinks. I know the stuff in pubs from the taps is usually foul, as I used to work in a pub many moons ago and know how it's made. But didn't realise there were loads of different brands of generic cola from shops readymade. I guess because I don't look!

The eggs debate I completely get I have my own free range chickens (cream crested legbar) and the eggs are honestly some of the best I've ever had, didn't really think about it before having them but now I find eggs when I eat out nowhere near as nice

Coffee, fizzy drinks, peas (In Ireland and they have to be batchelors as do our beans), tuna and dog food. Not fussed on other things.

Oh and Tayto crisps. Could not have a replica crisp and will not deal with the northern Irish ones either. Horrible fake fucks in their yellow packaging.