Anyone who reads Pratchett will be forewarned about the bangers.

Oh goody - a British teeth thread! Haven't had one of these in a while...

Two Dogs Farking: Oh goody - a British teeth thread! Haven't had one of these in a while...

Seeing jokes like that is like watching your dad on the pull.

"we british sure eat crap"

St_Francis_P

Anyone who reads Pratchett will be forewarned about the bangers

But they're high in fiber!

mmmmm pressed peanut sweepings.

Dr. Raven Sable unavailable for comment.

It's all blood and guts, everything, blood and guts, don't these people eat anything else?

We were shocked to hear about the Chinese vendor making buns mostly out of 60% pulped recycled cardboard and 40% fatty pork. Now we see him as visionary- although apparently 8% pork might work even better.

/it was a hoax BTW

Yum!
/srsly

Two Dogs Farking: Oh goody - a British teeth thread! Haven't had one of these in a while...


Now, you're making it into an 'Americans are retarded' thread.

Well done.

/like my 100% meat steak

JesterGirl: Yum!
/srsly

The hell?!?!?

RoxtarRyan: The hell?!?!?

You think it's easy making a pig gay?

ElPresidente: RoxtarRyan: The hell?!?!?

You think it's easy making a pig gay?

It's also difficult sneaking a pig into a sauna.

/just sayin'

I would like to take a moment to state that I am really not impressed with how that article was written. I don't know--maybe all of those comparisons and statistics, if they are going to use several examples, should be in a chart to the side or something.

Aldi's FTW

The article talks about how the German stores Aldi and Lidi are beating the tar out of the UK grocery stores by selling higher quality food at lower prices.

We don't have Lidi in the States, but we do have Aldi.

Aldi's US stores are called Trader Joe's.

Same company, same higher quality food at prices equal or lower to those in most big US grocery chains.

I'm surprised that there was no mention of Marks and Spencer. They don't even carry non-own-branded food items--even the whiskey is specially made for M&S (ok, I think the wine might be non-M&S). I have no idea what percent of real food is in their food, but I can't imagine they're that much better than Sainsburys and Tesco--they just charge more and put it in a nice-looking package.

I wish Lidl and Aldi were closer, but they're easily an hour round-trip away. There aren't any convenient supermarkets near me, other than the M&S Simply Food and a Sainburys Local. The Sainsburys central on the Kingsway is a bit better, but it still hurts my brain when I see, at best, two differing brands of any one product, and the completely lack of hyperreality that is prevalent in American supermarkets.

fappomatic: It's also difficult sneaking a pig into a sauna.

The voice of experience?

RandomRandom: The article talks about how the German stores Aldi and Lidi are beating the tar out of the UK grocery stores by selling higher quality food at lower prices.

We don't have Lidi in the States, but we do have Aldi.

ONE OF Aldi's US brands is called Trader Joe's.

Same company, same higher quality food at prices equal or lower to those in most big US grocery chains.

ftfy - we have Aldi's all over the place. Maybe not your place, but from Indy down through Columbia, SC (visited family for Tday).

Purina Poor People Chow.

Real food should only be for those smart enough to be born into money.

Hersheys knows this.

RandomRandom: Aldi's US stores are called Trader Joe's.

I thought Aldi was Aldi, and that they sold crap. Turns out you're right about the connection. Very interesting.

Now, I'm going to go to Aldi to buy some crap.

RoxtarRyan: JesterGirl: Yum!
/srsly

The hell?!?!?

omfg, it's a real product (new window).

/rofl, I'd try it.

"In many cases the German-owned discount chains also have higher-quality food than the bigger chains."

Now with 50% more Unerwünschte Völker!

Beans + Rice
Beans + Rice with a vegetable
Beans + Rice with some meat
Beans + Rice with some fruit
Beans + Rice with Salsa Lizano

It's nutritious, easy to prepare, filling, and freezes and reheats great. And yummy and not boring. And cheap.

RandomRandom: The article talks about how the German stores Aldi and Lidi are beating the tar out of the UK grocery stores by selling higher quality food at lower prices.

We don't have Lidi in the States, but we do have Aldi.

Aldi's US stores are called Trader Joe's.

Same company, same higher quality food at prices equal or lower to those in most big US grocery chains.

Lidl

/no charge

@DKinMN

Nice to know. I travel around quite a bit and have never seen an actual Aldi's here in the states.

Then again, when I'm out of town on business I don't do a lot of grocery shopping. I can see how I would have missed them.

SOmetimes when things got really bad in the USA, I could always go to Canada, Japan, or the UK.

Now I read this abou tthe UK's groceries. I'm appalled.

For my Brit pals I ahve a simple question. Can you go to the store and just buy "food" in frozen bags, you kno wlike frozen chicken breasts, without it being some part of a processed and repacked "meal"?

Oh and Here's to the Season (new window)

THanks in advance and cheers

MinnesotaJack: SOmetimes when things got really bad in the USA, I could always go to Canada, Japan, or the UK.

Now I read this abou tthe UK's groceries. I'm appalled.

For my Brit pals I ahve a simple question. Can you go to the store and just buy "food" in frozen bags, you kno wlike frozen chicken breasts, without it being some part of a processed and repacked "meal"?

Oh and Here's to the Season (new window)

THanks in advance and cheers

No, we're a backwards country, so incredibly simple we think McDonalds serve food.

Sorry no, I mean wtf are you on about, your country invented TV dinners.

Twat.

RandomRandom: Aldi's US stores are called Trader Joe's.

Or they're simply called ALDI.

They have something like a thousand stores in the US.

RandomRandom: Aldi's US stores are called Trader Joe's.

There are also a lot of regular Aldi stores in the US, and the ones I've seen friggin' SUCK. You have to deposit 25 cents to "rent" a shopping cart. It's refundable, but in a way that's worse, since that makes it COMPLETELY F*CKING POINTLESS. I'm pretty sure they also charged for shopping bags (because they're such a frivolous luxury, you know).

As far as the store itself, it's basically like a Dollar General or other ghetto department store, just with more of an emphasis on food. It's a completely disorganized mess, full of random piles of generic gravy cans next to stacks of box fans.

Amazingly, I keep seeing more and more of those godawful things cropping up. Who actually shops at those hellholes, and WHY? Are they that shiatty in Europe, too?

IMHO, Big Lots is by far the best place to buy disturbingly-cheap food here in the States.

The point is so that you don't leave your trolley where your car was.

I hope this clears things up.

Though it's pretty obvious if you think about it. I won't insult you further by explaining the bag charge.

Big Lots was horrific, at least the one I went to. I'll never go again. I have never seen an Aldi here in California; however, we have a lot of Trader Joe's. I think I will be going back to my local one next weekend. I have tended not to shop there as they are generally more expensive than Lucky, but they have a lot of unique food so it is fun sometimes to see what you find.

Pestifer: Beans + Rice
Beans + Rice with a vegetable
Beans + Rice with some meat
Beans + Rice with some fruit
Beans + Rice with Salsa Lizano

It's nutritious, easy to prepare, filling, and freezes and reheats great. And yummy and not boring. And cheap.

I like to mix in different beans. Red Kidney beans, black beans, baby lima beans, and those big yellow butter beans. MMMmmmm.
This has alot of fiber in it, I think its a good before-bed snack, won't make you fat.

ElPresidente: fappomatic: It's also difficult sneaking a pig into a sauna.

The voice of experience?

When the pig stands up and starts singing, and her towel starts slipping off, believe me the staff is alerted

/try the steam room next time

I love Aldi stores. Their store brand foods (Grandessa, among others) has higher quality ingredients and flavor than a lot of the stuff at the regular grocery store, and at a serious discount. Yeah, you have to put a quarter deposit on your cart (and, as was mentioned, you never ever have to play "dodge the trolley" in the parking lot - and they don't have to pay people to go wrangle them, which cuts costs). And you have to bring your own bags/boxes for packing up, but you should be doing that anyway.

I'll agree that sometimes it seems a bit disorganized - flats of food are just stacked up, and not nicely arranged on shelves. But dude, a can of tomato sauce tastes exactly the same snagged from it's shipping box as it does lifted from a carefully arranged endcap pyramid, only it costs less because they didn't have to pay someone to make the display pretty.

You pay less because they don't waste money on aesthetics. You want to pay extra for manipulative shelving practices and decoratively arranged pasta boxes, you go right ahead. I'll use my saved bucks to buy an extra bottle of 2 Buck Chuck or a few gallons of gas.

Rearden: Who actually shops at those hellholes, and WHY?

Well, I go to Aldi's mainly for things I don't mind buying generic : cat litter, paper towel, soda, frozen pizza, etc. The Aldi's in my area are a tad ghetto, but I also see a LOT of elderly folks shopping.

Piccadilly Sausage Rolls

Most toothpaste shares many ingredients with house paint.

FTA: SOME of Britain's biggest supermarket chains are compromising on quality by selling budget items such as sausage rolls with as little as 6% pork.

Mmm... Emulsified High-Fat Offal Tube!

Hardly shocking to anyone who bothers to read a label.

And not really a big deal in a lot of cases. The article mentions various products (the worst of the worst that they could find, I assume), but doesn't really indicate how the substitute ingredients might negatively affect the food's nutritional value.

A fisherman's pie that's mostly potato and fish stock, rather than chunks of fish, can still be pretty darn tasty and is likely relatively healthy (compared to a lot of other things you might buy for 75p).

First of all, I agree totally with the premise; a lot of people look at only the price, not the contents of the packet. And thus they tend to eat crap that has a lot of sugar and/or fat that have replaced the actual nutrients.

Having said that, FTFA:

Sainsbury's chocolate mousse costs 28p but contains only 2% chocolate. The main ingredients are milk, sugar and cream.


What the F do they expect chocolate mousse to have then? Pure unsweetened chocolate and moosemeat?

I haven't made chocolate mousse many times, but if I were to make it from scratch, I think those would be the primary ingredients. Maybe you'd want to add some whipped egg whites in there too, if you're not squeamish about raw eggs, but that's about it.

Pestifer: Beans + Rice
Beans + Rice with a vegetable
Beans + Rice with some meat
Beans + Rice with some fruit
Beans + Rice with Salsa Lizano

It's nutritious, easy to prepare, filling, and freezes and reheats great. And yummy and not boring. And cheap.


MOTHERFARKING THIS

(although I'm half-Mexican, not costarricense, and after some Googling still have no clue what Salsa Lizano is.)

As a starving grad student, I frequently make a giant pot of beans, a giant pot of Mexican rice (both according to my non-Mexican mom's wonderful recipes) and eat them all week with cheese and/or tomatoes and/or other items. Since I live in the Midwest now, I sometimes throw a bratwurst or two into the mix -- some of the local stores make their own and it is excellent. No particular wealth required.

/have been ranting about "non-food items" in stores for years; didn't know it was getting this bad

sonipitts, your post is right on!

silvervial: Big Lots was horrific, at least the one I went to. I'll never go again. I have never seen an Aldi here in California; however, we have a lot of Trader Joe's. I think I will be going back to my local one next weekend. I have tended not to shop there as they are generally more expensive than Lucky, but they have a lot of unique food so it is fun sometimes to see what you find.

WTF are you talking about? There are no more Lucky markets, since like 1998 they're either gone or become Albertson's.

I live off of $1 Banquet dinners

/Asian Chicken Fried Rice with eggroll & sweet&Sour Chicken with Eggroll FTW!!!
//Hey, it beats ramen everyday
///Cry for me

I live off of $1 Banquet dinners

/Asian Chicken Fried Rice with Eggroll & Sweet&Sour Chicken with Eggroll FTW!!!
//Hey, it beats ramen everyday
///Cry for me

Whoops...glitch in the system...double, now, tripple post!

/Now with 78% less vitamins and minerals!

FTFA: Claudine Spiteri, a 30-year-old mother, lives in east London and runs a corporate entertainment company called Livestock Productions.

Damn right she does, and she she still owes me a copy of 'Barnyard Sluts Vol 4', or a full refund.

As for the story, it's nothing too surprising. The Value ranges are mainly guff, and I'd steer waaaay clear of the meat. Other stuff's not so bad though, if you're not too fussy. The missus is horrified at my love of Sainsbury's Basic Chocolate (23p for a massive bar), aghast at its 25% cocoa solids. Still, as long as their Basics Gin still tastes vaguely gin-like, I'm happy.