The Night Mail

[AndyID]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It certainly passes Bear's yumminess test - though searching for any lumpiness in the jam would prove fruitless (see what Bear did there?)

 

I suspect they add coloring too. The nice Polish stuff we get has no added coloring which is why it's more maroon than red. It also has nice chunks of real strawberries in it.

[polybear]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

....and chocolate ice cream .

 

Dave

 

 

Milk Chocolate?  🤣

 

(Incidentally, Bear's favourite - and very rarely seen, sadly, is Turkish Delight Ice Cream; it used to be available from a seller near the Magpie Chippie in Whitby).

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Food evangelists can be just as tedious as other over-focussed people. 

As far as I'm concerned, as long as it isn't UPF garbage (the consequences of which impact heavily on the NHS and other health systems) eat what you want.

 

Steak and kidney pudding, mash and green beans, followed by spotted dick and custard? If made from scratch with good quality non UPF ingredients, why not.

 

The only caveats with eating what you want (ieven if good quality non UPF) are the usual: carbohydrates, calories, cholesterol (and to a lesser degree as homemade) salt and sugar.

[Dave Hunt]

26 minutes ago, SM42 said:

My lifestyle is not good and I'm slowly falling apart 

I think that recognising the problem is probably the first step to solving it. 

 

I wonder if retiring will help.

From my experience, yes.

Dave

[Northmoor]

16 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

As far as I'm concerned, as long as it isn't UPF garbage (the consequences of which impact heavily on the NHS and other health systems) eat what you want.

 

Steak and kidney pudding, mash and green beans, followed by spotted dick and custard? If made from scratch with good quality non UPF ingredients, why not.

 

The only caveats with eating what you want (ieven if good quality non UPF) are the usual: carbohydrates, calories, cholesterol (and to a lesser degree as homemade) salt and sugar.

When did bread suddenly become A Bad Thing?  I hear so many people say they avoid it now as it's so fattening.  But in various forms it's the staple food of the whole flippin' world.  Good bread is absolutely amazing; I was brought up on my Mum's homemade bread and Dad still makes the odd batch.

 

I made a batch of (random size and shape) wholemeal rolls this weekend and only once the breadmaker had nearly finished kneading, realised I'd forgotten to add the salt.  The bread looks exactly as I would expect but is possibly slightly more dense - it's always denser than bought bread anyway - but is strangely lacking in flavour.

 

Oh BTW I am not making steam and kidney pudding or any other pie from scratch.  There aren't enough hours left in my life.

[SM42]

If only I could afford to retire. 

Maybe another 2 years. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

10 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

When did bread suddenly become A Bad Thing?  I hear so many people say they avoid it now as it's so fattening.  But in various forms it's the staple food of the whole flippin' world.  Good bread is absolutely amazing; I was brought up on my Mum's homemade bread and Dad still makes the odd batch.

 

I made a batch of (random size and shape) wholemeal rolls this weekend and only once the breadmaker had nearly finished kneading, realised I'd forgotten to add the salt.  The bread looks exactly as I would expect but is possibly slightly more dense - it's always denser than bought bread anyway - but is strangely lacking in flavour.

 

Oh BTW I am not making steam and kidney pudding or any other pie from scratch.  There aren't enough hours left in my life.

 

I think bread became a bad thing with the Chorleywood process. 

 

It may be a staple worldwide, but most of the world doesn't sit down all day like we do and they probably make their bread in traditional ways rather than mass produced in a fraction of the time. 

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

37 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

Milk Chocolate?  🤣

 

(Incidentally, Bear's favourite - and very rarely seen, sadly, is Turkish Delight Ice Cream; it used to be available from a seller near the Magpie Chippie in Whitby).

 

Considering that it was ice cream I would suspect that a fair amount of milk was involved. It was fairly dark, though, and quite yummy.

 

And no, I don't know what the sugar content was 😊

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

4 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I think bread became a bad thing with the Chorleywood process. 

 

It may be a staple worldwide, but most of the world doesn't sit down all day like we do and they probably make their bread in traditional ways rather than mass produced in a fraction of the time. 

 

Andy

 

Spot on Andy. The Chorleywood process in my opinion turned everyday shop bought bread into soggy cardboard.

 

Dave 

[AndyID]

34 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I think bread became a bad thing with the Chorleywood process. 

 

It may be a staple worldwide, but most of the world doesn't sit down all day like we do and they probably make their bread in traditional ways rather than mass produced in a fraction of the time. 

 

Andy

 

I had to look that up 😀

[iL Dottore]

Nothing wrong with bread (or carbohydrates for that matter) it just depends on what the bread is (or what the carbohydrate is for that matter). As has been posted above, there is a world of difference between industrial Chorleywood process bread and proper baker/home-made bread made out of nothing but flour water salt and yeast (likewise both potatoes and high fructose corn syrup are full of carbohydrates, but only one of these is bad for you).

BTW making a steak and kidney pudding from scratch, or any other pie or pudding for that matter, really does not take that much time.. In fact, making a pie or pudding with suet pastry is a doddle as suet pastry is probably the most easy to make and most forgiving of all pastry out there. If you are adequately organised, you can have your steak and kidney pudding in the steamer cooking merrily away in less than 30 minutes.

[pH]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

And no T0ssers to tolerate either - even though I had this uncontrollable urge to choke the living sh1t out of them....

“Uncontrollable”? - when do you get out?

[SteveyDee68]

All this chat about food and UPF is making me crave … a chicken and mushroom pot noodle! 🫢

 

I know, I know … in my defence, I may only have one every three months or so but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they had investigated everything in a Pot Noodle and decided that everything good in them actually cancels out everything bad in them exactly, so the net result is zero good/bad. So, my brain goes, Pot Noodles therefore don’t exist, despite the fact that there is a plastic pot full of gently steaming plastic noodles awaiting eating…

 

So a Pot Noodle is perhaps the equivalent of Schrodinger’s Snack?

 

TIME FOR BED SAID ZEBEDEE!

Edited June 2 by SteveyDee68

[J. S. Bach]

Off to have a snack (thanks to all y'all!) so, Night Owl from the Piedmont.

 

 

 

Edited June 3 by J. S. Bach
To correct a typo

[jjb1970]

9 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

What exactly is moon cake? When I sent some anniversary cake to my son in Australia I had to get clearance from the Australian embassy and list all the ingredients and it was stated on the paperwork that under no circumstances would moon cake be allowed.

 

Dave

 

They look like a kind of pork pie filled with a very dense bean paste like red bean paste. They often have egg in them, a full boiled egg (another similarity with pork pie there), the top crust tends to be very ornate. However the pastry crust is softer than a pork pie pastry. I think they're one of those things we describe as an 'acquired taste'. The filling varies greatly as there are lots of sweet been pastes, lotus seed pastes etc, it's really not my thing. They're a common gift at important holiday times and often come in beautiful packaging that is frankly much nicer than the cakes (probably more accurately described as a pie).

 

That said, displaying the entrepreneurial flair and talent for finding business opportunities that seems to come so easily in China and the Chinese bubble there's now a big market for moon cakes formulated to appeal to a wider audience, primarily non-Chinese tastes. Things like oreo moon cake, chocolate etc. The champagne and truffle one we were given was beautiful (in all ways, presentation, pastry decoration and taste), they don't fully abandon the moon cake tradition and the filling is still a dense paste but more amenable to people not overly keen on mung bean paste or whatever.

 

I really don't know why they'd be prohibited in Australia, I could see it might be a concern over Chinese food safety but those you can buy outside China are made locally and Singaporean food hygiene controls (for example) are as stringent as those in the western bubble. 

Edited June 3 by jjb1970

[jjb1970]

In fairness to moon cake, it's marginally less awful than the other big gift at new year, mid-autumn and such like, abalone. At least with moon cake the boxes are handy (they really do go to town on the boxes), abalone is just awful.

[jjb1970]

1 hour ago, SteveyDee68 said:

All this chat about food and UPF is making me crave … a chicken and mushroom pot noodle! 🫢

 

I know, I know … in my defence, I may only have one every three months or so but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they had investigated everything in a Pot Noodle and decided that everything good in them actually cancels out everything bad in them exactly, so the net result is zero good/bad. So, my brain goes, Pot Noodles therefore don’t exist, despite the fact that there is a plastic pot full of gently steaming plastic noodles awaiting eating…

 

So a Pot Noodle is perhaps the equivalent of Schrodinger’s Snack?

 

TIME FOR BED SAID ZEBEDEE!

 

People think I'm extracting the you know what when I say that if they want to experience the authentic taste of Asia then go and buy some instant noodles from an Asian brand like Indomie, Samyang or Prima, but I'm being serious. People in East and SE Asia are fuelled by instant noodles and eat the things in vast quantities, often customizing them by adding cabbage, bean sprouts etc.

 

I recommend Korean buldak noodles for those who like spicy food, or Singaporean Prima laksa or curry noodles which are excellent and pretty close to restaurant quality laksa or curry broth.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I really don't know why they'd be prohibited in Australia, I could see it might be a concern over Chinese food safety but those you can buy outside China are made locally and Singaporean food hygiene controls (for example) are as stringent as those in the western bubble. 

 

 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-04/pork-filled-moon-cakes-turned-away-amid-fears-of-swine-fever/11668730

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  We had a very good meal yesterday afternoon based round Wild Boar,  various pate based starters the a huge sea food platter a sorbet laced with pineau, then roast boar with the chefs secret sauce over it.  Grape based and delicious. Cheese then a large profiterole for dessert.  No UPF to my knowledge. 

 

Bethe learned how to make Paris-Brests at her latest patisserie class.  I had the truly horrible job of helping to quality control them. 

 

As to the increase in obesity, just watch the film Woodstock.  Very very few of the young people in the crowd were overweight in 1969.  The soundtrack is outstanding as well. 

 

Jamie

Edited June 3 by jamie92208

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Oh, dear. The standards of taste among TNMers is declining catastrophically.

 

Dave 

I’m not surprised. It’s not so much what they eat, but the quality of what they eat. When the diet is sustained by emulsifiers, stabilisers, setting agents, hydrogenated fats, artificial colours, flavourings and preservatives, it’s no wonder culinary discernment gets shoved to the back of the queue.

 

Take the Chip Butty. Now whilst not my cup of tea, I can see the beauty and appeal of properly cooked chips (crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside) sandwiched between two buttered halves of a freshly made bap (it goes without saying that the bap should be made by a baker using only flour, water, yeast and salt), with just a touch of a quality ketchup or brown sauce. I would certainly try that sort of chip butty if “down the pub” with some TNM mates.

 

But soggy, oily, cheap chipshop chips stuffed between two slices of Chorleywood process white sliced, smeared with margarine, nop Not For Me

 

14 hours ago, polybear said:

 

As a fellow Connoisseur of fine cake

That made me larf.
 

Given the aversion to anything with cream, nuts or coffee in it and a penchant for 3 for £5 industrial LDC (and a severe allergy to paying for patisserie cake) Bear may be a connoisseur, but it’s certainly not of “fine cake”.

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Nothing wrong with bread (or carbohydrates for that matter) it just depends on what the bread is (or what the carbohydrate is for that matter). As has been posted above, there is a world of difference between industrial Chorleywood process bread and proper baker/home-made bread made out of nothing but flour water salt and yeast (likewise both potatoes and high fructose corn syrup are full of carbohydrates, but only one of these is bad for you).

BTW making a steak and kidney pudding from scratch, or any other pie or pudding for that matter, really does not take that much time.. In fact, making a pie or pudding with suet pastry is a doddle as suet pastry is probably the most easy to make and most forgiving of all pastry out there. If you are adequately organised, you can have your steak and kidney pudding in the steamer cooking merrily away in less than 30 minutes.

I wonder what Jamie92208, Polybear, Northmoor and Skipepsi find so funny about decent quality food and cooking things from scratch?

[polybear]

8 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I had to look that up 😀

 

It's OK, so did Bear....

Incidentally, Bear has just messaged a certain local chain of Bakers (I'm sure Puppers @PupCam can guess which one) to ask if they use that process, and also to ask what ingredients they bung in the bread.  Watch this space.....

I do know their loaves aren't 80p though ☹️

 

8 hours ago, pH said:

“Uncontrollable”? - when do you get out?

 

Bear already is - and walking amongst you.....😈

 

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

That said, displaying the entrepreneurial flair and talent for finding business opportunities that seems to come so easily in China and the Chinese bubble there's now a big market for moon cakes formulated to appeal to a wider audience, primarily non-Chinese tastes. Things like oreo moon cake, chocolate etc. 

 

Bear sees an opening for Lemon Drizzle Moon Cake....over to you, CCi GMbH.....

(And that's a Beary challenge - we'll need photos - and Bear n' Puppers will need taste tests too, at the next Brains Trust.....)

 

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

abalone is just awful.

 

Bear had to Google that.  I wish I hadn't.....

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, pH said:

“Uncontrollable”? - when do you get out?

“Get out” or “let out”?

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Given the aversion to anything with cream, nuts or coffee in it and a penchant for 3 for £5 industrial LDC (and a severe allergy to paying for patisserie cake) Bear may be a connoisseur, but it’s certainly not of “fine cake”.

 

Three for a fiver?  I wish.

No, Bear's high-end LDC costs £3.25 EACH.....

 

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I wonder what Jamie92208, Polybear, Northmoor and Skipepsi find so funny about decent quality food and cooking things from scratch?

 

I very much suspect it was the "30 minutes" that cracked us all up....

[Flying Fox 34F]

The way of life has changed considerably in the last 50 years.

 

Consider the simple irritating mantra, ‘Work, Eat, Sleep, Repeat!

 

Over the years a combination of Food Producers and Distributors have created products that I meant to make life easier.

The result is that the amount of time in preparation is drastically reduced.    Consequently, you end up with more people either, working longer hours or commuting further for better pay, or lounging around staring at the TV, or Smart Device, whether they are employed or not!
The general population gets lazy and then resorts to Take Away’s instead of attempting to cook.  

Does Officialdom care?  Publicly, Yes!

Off the record, probably not.  Think of the ultimate savings to the State, in not having to provide pensions.

 

Paul