Posts Tagged ‘food’

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Pasta Evangelists psst wanna buy some cheap meat guv?

June 18, 2022

A strange e-mail from Pasta Evangelists offering a job lot of meat half price, well almost half price, £32 for what was claimed to be £60-60 worth of meat.

It was like a spiv during rationing in WWII offering me a job lot of meat. Or maybe down at the docks, laundered horse meat burgers.

But why was a company selling fresh pasta offering a job lot of meat?

  • 8 Jumbo Pork Sausages
  • 6 Butcher’s Pork Sausages
  • 6 Chipotle & Cheese Sausages
  • 4 Classic Seasoned Steak Burgers
  • 6 Lamb Koftas
  • 4 Extra Trimmed Rump Medallions
  • 2 Aberdeen Angus Burgers
  • 2 Fillet Steak Burgers
  • 2 Pork Loin Steaks

And what was I to do with all this meat?

I let Pasta Evangelists know I was not interested. I buy quality meat from local family butchers.

I would rather buy from my local family butcher, which will be better quality. 

Their reply bizarre. Gibberish, does not address what I have raised, followed by unsubscribing me from their newsletter. It was news to me that I had subscribed.

Thank you for this valuable feedback.
 
I have looped in our Head Chef who will most certainly take your feedback on board and discuss with the CEO if changes need to be made. As a small business, your feedback is really important to us.
 
We often trial new dishes as we feel it is important for us to showcase the wealth and variety of Italy’s pasta heritage, as well as allowing our customers to taste lots of different dishes. Whilst this is something we’re proud of, we do understand that these don’t always match all of our customers’ tastes and preferences.
 
This will be taken seriously as an opportunity of improvement for us. We look forward serving you better and making 5-star meals in the future.
 
I have forwarded your email to our tech team and they will arrange the removal of your account.
 
I have removed you from our newsletter so you should not receive any more emails from us.

A few days later, another e-mail, invited to attend a butchery course. Stranger still, butchery and pasta making

My curiosity piqued, I clicked on the link to find it is not Pasta Evangelists offering the meat, I am directed to a catering supply butcher, Donald Russell, award winning butcher.

When you see ‘award winning’, always ask what award? The entirely worthless Great Taste Award, which pay for.

Donald Russell owned by food conglomerate Vestey .

Why is Pasta Evangelists pimping for a catering supply butcher, Big Business?

Do they also own Pasta Evangelists cf Mindful Chef owned by Nestle?

Pasta Evangelists claim to be a small business. They are not. They are a typical start up, hype, Vulture Capitalists, hype, then sell to Big Business.

Pasta Evangelists were sold in 2021 to Barilla for a reported £40 million.

I then asked local butchers to give me a ball park figure for this job lot. The first £36 the second £40.

What I do not know, shipping costs if any.

Cross selling is one way businesses are now abusing customer data for profit.

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Natura Well

April 26, 2022

A tiny, barely more than a kiosk, takeaway.

A classic Diet for a Small Planet: cornucopia of vegetables, fruits, seeds, pulses, grains, nuts.

Fake meat, ultra-processed crap, bad for health, bad for the planet.

Food for Thought in Covent Garden, sadly no more, would never have dreamt of insulting clientele with fake meat.

Superfood a meaningless claim.

Deliveroo, worker exploitation. Those who have taken the trouble to visit are treated as second class citizens. A long wait whilst Deliveroo serfs granted priority is not acceptable .

Staff trial half a day shift unpaid is one way of getting free labour.

When I visited, empty, a staff member emerged from the back, no customers. Contrast with common complaint, long wait for order.

Location not good. Ten minutes walk from city centre to Coffee Depot, a few more minutes down the road to the takeaway. A better location would have been a side street in the city centre.

If wish for a coffee, visit a coffee shop. If wish for vegetarian, try Bailgate Deli.

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Super Lincs

April 22, 2022

Rough end of the High Street, large supermarket with excellent selection.

Ronanian, Bulgarian, Asian aisles, bakery, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Excellent supermarket in an otherwise run down area of the High Street.

I wanted sauerkraut. The only place I could find that stocked

Polish owner very helpful. I wanted for Ukraine recipe slow-roast belly pork from Summer Gardens by Olia Hercules. Helpful owner recommended with carrot.

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Dinner for Ukraine

April 14, 2022

Hosted by Jamie Oliver at Jamie Oliver HQ.

You are going to get to try some very authentic Ukrainian food. — Jamie Oliver

No more beautiful way to speak out against the war than through food. — Alissa Timoshkina


After drinks on arrival, shown to our tables, Jamie Oliver welcomed everyone and explained Cook For Ukraine. He then passed over to Alissa Timoshkina and Olia Hercules co-founders of Cook for Ukraine.

Cook for Ukraine was founded by Alissa Timoshkina and Olia Hercules, with the help of Clerkenwell Boy.

Their aim was to celebrate Ukrainian and Eastern European food while raising awareness of the humanitarian crisis facing Ukraine as well as emergency funds.

Alissa Timoshkina expanded on the founding of Cook for Ukraine.

Olia Hercules gave an emotional account of relatives in Ukraine and her fear for their safety.

Dinner for Ukraine a fundraiser for Cook for Ukraine.

By the side of each invited guest, a menu and cutlery wrapped in a yellow or blue ribbon.

The food prepared by Jamie Oliver and a Ukrainian chef Yurii Kovryzhenko, served by a team of willing helpers, all volunteers.

On the table a large plate of fermented vegetables. Help yourself, washed down with Dima’s vodka, a three-grain Ukrainian vodka.

Followed by soup, borscht, a beetroot soup.

Followed by slow roast belly pork served with new potatoes.

Followed by dessert, dumpling filled with I think apricots, together with cream and raspberries.

Part way through the dinner, a lottery draw, with prizes which included a complete set of signed Jamie Oliver cookbooks. Myself and my guest twice missed by one number, then me by two.

I have never tried Ukrainian food before, I had no idea what to expect, the names meant nothing. Would I even like?

Menus wrapped in ribbons, alternated blue and yellow along the table and across the table.

The food was amazing. As was the white wine and vodka.

Special thanks to Jamie for an amazing evening, excellent food, and to all his willing helpers, who volunteered their time for free.

I had spoken to Jamie earlier, I have an idea. We like ideas, we must discuss later. But sadly did not see later to discuss or to explain the idea.

Last year I met Mad Heads, a coffee roastery in Kyiv. Excellent coffee. I have have been in contact with them recently. Yes, they can ship coffee to Ukraine.

i would ask, please talk to your local specialty coffee shop. Would they like to stock and serve Mad Heads as guest coffee?

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Risotto primavera

June 16, 2021

Pot of vegetable stock.

Chop and dice carrot and onion, fry in large frying pan for 15 minutes.

Add Arborio rice.

Splosh of white wine.

Asparagus, bend and break off wooden stems, drop into vegetable stock pot.

Slice tips off asparagus stems, slice stems into short sections.

Ladle stock into frying pan to stop drying out. Continue for twenty minutes.

Add last ten minutes, asparagus stems, sugar snap peas that have been topped and tailed.

Last five minutes, add asparagus tips and peas.

Add a knob of butter and Old Winchester cheese.

Serve, with a little Old Winchester cheese as dressing.

Accompany with glass of white wine.

Follow with slices of watermelon as dessert.

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Risotto primavera

June 11, 2021

Literally risotto with spring vegetables.

Pot with vegetable stock.

Slice and dice carrot and red onion. Fry in large frying pan for 15 minutes.

Add rice. Critical stage, do not let dry out.

Bend and snap off woody stems of asparagus. Woody stems crush, drop in vegetable stock.

Pod peas, top and tail sugar snap peas.

Splosh of white wine to stop rice drying out

Note: It should have been white wine, by mistake I used red wine

Ladle vegetable stock into frying pan.

Further twenty minutes for contents of frying pan.

Prior to last ten, minutes, add asparagus stems and sugar snap peas.

Last five minutes add asparagus tips and peas.

Add a knob of butter and sprinkling of crumbly hard cheese. I used Old Winchester. Save half to sprinkle on final dish.

Plate and serve.

Enjoy with a glass of wine, should have been white, but never mind, it was red, my mistake.

  • PHOTOS Risotto primavera



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Riverford delivery

May 8, 2021

Each Riverford delivery has proved to be different.

Order a recipe box late Wednesday at the latest and delivered Friday morning.

Order more than one recipe box and receive a discount.

I learnt recently, can also order fruit and vegetables, not restricted to a veg box, but a minimum £15 order.

More recently I learnt, can add to existing order for a recipe box, thus not limited by the £15 minimum order.

My first order, two recipe boxes to obtain a discount. One large box, partitioned in two. Top half the meat to go straight into the fridge, the bottom half two more boxes containing vegetables and other ingredients.

My delivery of fruit and vegetables, an open box with the fruit and vegetables inside.

My next delivery, an open box with fruit and vegetables, a smaller box with side by side, meat and a box with the vegetable and ingredients.

Overnight, leave out empty boxes, these are collected when delivery arrives in the morning.

Thursday night I did not leave out empty boxes due to heavy rain.

Friday morning, an open box with vegetable order, a bag containing a recipe box for a meal, Thai mushroom and peanut noodles.

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The Truth About Takeaways

February 28, 2020

BBC are to be complimented on The Truth About Takeaways looking at how bad takeaway meals. [broadcast BBC One 2000 GMT Thursday 27 February 2020]

If not seen a must watch.

Takeaway meals bad on every measure can think of, weight gain, damage to arteries, fat levels in bloodstream, fitness, lethargy, alertness, cognitive skills, sleep deprivation.

A two week trial of half a dozen fit students. They noticeably deteriorated and looked worse for wear during the two week trial

I felt sick looking at the food they had to eat, and that was without the disgusting smell. I had a sample of the disgusting smell of junk food at the weekend from a travelling junk food circus.

One family was addicted to takeaways. They lived on junk food every day, and no, they did not look well. A professor of food psychology weaned them off the junk food. At the end of two weeks they looked healthier.

Where I would criticise is failure to differentiate the different types of fat, not lump all fat together.  [see Big Fat Surprise]

When deciding what is healthy what is not, we should ask how far has it travelled,  to what degree heavily processed, look at the list of additives.

Do not be taken in by the Big Businesses vegan scam peddling highly processed crap.

We are being fed a false argument vegan v meat. No, the issue is industrial farming v regenerative agriculture.

Grass fed herbivores, the grass mitigates temperature, absorbs carbon, improves the soil structure, which in turn absorbs carbon, soaks up water.

Similarly with chocolate and coffee, direct trade, bean-to-bar chocolate, trees grown under the shade of trees, will also always be superior to plantation grown industrial chocolate, commodity coffee.

A warning on Deliveroo, and not only that they are an exploitative company like Uber, serfs working for an app. They are setting up their own kitchens, cutting out the middle man, current takeaways and restaurants unthinkingly supplying the data to destroy their own businesses.

Deliveroo are also a contributory factor in the destruction of town centres. High Streets need footfall. Deliveroo is taking away footfall.

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Carluccio’s

December 27, 2019

A chain eatery, thus my expectations were low, and they were not exceeded.

I was only there because Madame Waffle opposite closed and a friend had said the coffee was good (I think she was taking the piss).

Soulless as would expect from a chain eatery.

Cappuccino ordered. Served with chocolate on top.

Why oh why does no one know do not put chocolate on top of a cappuccino? Not unless trying to disguise that is crap coffee. At the very least ask. And a good coffee shop would not dream of asking as would not wish to insult their clientele.

Cappuccino taken back.

Next attempt, oddly in a different cup, not good, cheap catering supply coffee.

A young fellow asked how was my drink? I said not good, very poor compared with Madame Waffle where can get an excellent cup of coffee. He scowled and walked off. Why ask if do not wish to be told the truth?

It was then to Coffee Aroma for a decent cup of coffee.

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Posted in food, Lincoln, NotoCosta | Leave a Comment »

kebab house serving disgusting food

December 1, 2019

On my return from Exarchia Square I ate at a kebab house I had passed earlier.

I wish I had not, the kebab house was serving disgusting food.

Open until three. I noticed it was three and expected to close. No three in the morning not three in the afternoon.

I have in the past passed what look like good places to eat in Exarchia. This kebab house not one of them.

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