Amazon exiles discussion
Don't Kill Snails with Salt ... Creme Eggs & Toasted Teacakes ... Biscuits & Bench Stories, Life, the Universe, & Everything!
Yep! ... just had a yell of confirmation! - LOL!!! ... ;o> ... ;o> ... ;o>
Just had a week's break in Carnwarl. Ah, home of the good ol' pastie.Checked out Port Isaac, or Portwenn as Doc Martin would call it. Had to watch some back episodes then, to see the areas we had trodden.
Also got to see somewhere I'd wanted to visit for some time - The Eden Project. Nice place, and a photographer's dream.
A surfer to Newquay did head.
On arriving he felt so unfed.
He wolfed down a pastie,
Which turned out a nasty -
No surfing, to toilet he's wed.
Suze:A takeaway, what's your desire?
To order them you'll never tire.
Chinese or Indian,
Which one's the windy one?
Too hot, and you'll sing 'Ring of Fire'.
;0
Oooh lucky you, P!!! ;o>I used to spend 2 to 4 blissful weeks in Devon and Cornwall every year on our family holidays when I was a child. M&D didn't really have any money to spare on treats or wanted to spend much time in the Villages either and so almost every day was spent in rambling for miles all over the Moors and around just about every inch of the Coastline Paths ... such incredibly happy days indeed! ;o>
P wrote: "Suze:A takeaway, what's your desire?
To order them you'll never tire.
Chinese or Indian,
Which one's the windy one?
Too hot, and you'll sing 'Ring of Fire'.
;0"
I've never actually had an Indian Meal in a Restaurant or as a Takeaway. I hope to know someone one day who will be able to take me out, or to order one in, based on their own experience of having eating Indian food before. I haven't got a clue as to what to try ;o>
I do know, for sure, that I would never like almost all kinds of Thai food however and so that is the reason why I have never tried that either - I definitely don't like Coconut whenever it is used in any savoury dishes.
I hate coconut in or on cakes etc. but don’t mind it in curries. What I can’t stand in Thai cuisine is the all-pervading lemon-grass. Yuk!
Lemon Grass does add a lovely luscious flavour to Baking though ;o>
Don’t think I’ve had it in cakes or anything, I love the actual plant though.
I've used it to great effect in Fillings and Icings and also in Teabreads as well ... Yummy! ;o>Oooh, I almost forgot - using Lemon Grass to flavour Buns and Scones is also delicious as well.
suzysunshine7 wrote: "I've never actually had an Indian Meal in a Restaurant or as a Takeaway. I hope to know someone one day who will be able to take me out, or to order one in, based on their own experience of having eating Indian food before. I haven't got a clue as to what to try ;o>..."Suzy, have you tried the ready-made curries from a supermarket? They're fairly true to the real thing. The younger Little Miss D loves Asda's butter chicken with naan bread and perhaps a bit of rice. She doesn't like spicy food so she goes for this, which has a lot of flavour but no heat. The jalfrezi is quite good, too, and a bit spicier. It's a relatively cheap way to find out what you do & don't like before trying the real thing from a restaurant/takeaway.
Suzy, if you like something tasty but not too hot, try a korma. Gordon’s right about the Asda ones, they’re pretty close to the real thing. I’ve not been to many Indian restaurants but I’ve found that the waiters are very good at describing the food and suggesting what you might like. Also they do tasting platters where you can try lots of different things.
Gordon have you ever tried Korean food? We’ve been to a really good place in Edinburgh, delicious food and great value. No obvious canine touches.
I have had Chicken Tikka Masala many times over the years although only as a Canteen or as a Café meal - and I enjoyed a Jalfrezi at a Food Fair and have bought a couple of those as Ready Meals. M&D definitely aren't keen on the idea of even just trying out an Indian Takeaway - it took me about 10 years just to get them into trying and then finding out that they like Chinese Food - LOL!!! ;o>
It probably sounds a bit of a cop-out but I don't think that I'd have the nerve now to go and sit in a Restaurant all by myself. I used to before I got disabled but unfortunately my confidence has been very badly knocked over the last few years.
I'm not really all that keen on Ready Meals - but I will take a look at Asda and see what they have got offer - thanks guys! ... x ;o>
No, I don't think I have tried Korean, Lez. I've had the strange experiences of eating Thai food in Hong Kong (not great) and Indonesian food in Malaysia (better, and incredibly cheap), but no Korean food anywhere.I don't think I've eaten dog, either, but I've had a few unidentifiable things in Kowloon. On the rare occasions when I'm in exotic locations I make a point of eating in places where there are no tourists, which can make ordering quite difficult. I was attracted into a place in a back street of Kowloon by a sign in the window advertising "roast pig tendon". I didn't try that, but whatever it was that I ended up getting was very tasty.
The elder Little Miss D is off to university this weekend to study Japanese for the next four years, including a year in Japan. She's keen on all kinds of east Asian culture & food but has so far only consumed it. Let's hope she starts producing some soon.
I’ve never had Japanese food. My niece’s husband was given a voucher for a Japanese cookery course (they went to Japan for their honeymoon and loved everything about it) but hasn’t had the time to use it yet. We’re all waiting for some delicious meals.It still seems odd to my sister and I and others of our age group, that people holiday in Japan.
I find that with all restaurants and take away regardless of cultural origin is that you are pretty much at the mercy of the chef and his individual interpretation of the dish he is preparing so it is pot luck with what you order. Our local chinese used to do a lovely curry sauce until a few years ago, now it is a watery, pale, bland concoction which has that horrible floury taste (their spring rolls are still the best on town though). To be fair most of them are acceptable but very few stand out from the crowd so if you do find a good one ng on to it. Ready meals are ok but not very adventurous on keeping with the usual suspects unless you have giant superstore on your doorstep which may offer a wider range. These days I stick to DIY, experimenting with different ingredients, spices etc, Patak's sauces and pastes are another option tor authentic results with consistency. They do quite wide range from milder dishes to the "volcano" ones and usually have a guide to their strength on the label.
yeah, martin, it was obvious in the extreme when the chef at our (ex) favourite indian cairy oot quit, because his 'south indian chicken chilli garlic' was (probably still is somewhere else now) just about the best thing in the world to eat - unspeakably toothsome! - until the time the delivery consisted of some inedible crap that i wouldn't even have fed to rod stewart if he was starving! it was a time for weeping! :(suzy - the ideal indian dish for you to start with would be the ultra mild phaal or the, practically bland, vindaloo - then you can work your way up from there!
:)
HA HA HA HA HA!!! - I have to make separate Curry and Chilli up for myself because I like mine to be much hotter and stronger in strength than M&D do. I have tried a couple of spoonfuls of someone's Vindaloo once - and the only reason that I wasn't too keen on it was because it was very bitter with all of the added heat and I couldn't taste much else except for that bitterness.I like lots of full-on flavours and it is M&D that prefer bland food ;o>
I've always preferred the "What haven't I tried yet?" approach and have found very little that I haven't liked unlike Mrs Grizzly who, in order of preference likes Korma, Korma and Korma and won't even have a taste of whatever random item I've chosen.
"Nope, don't like it!", is her standard answer, to which I reply "You haven't even tried it!"
Takeaways have always been a fairly rare event for us and are normally the last but one resort - the last resort being Mrs Grizzly entering the kitchen with the intention of "cooking"!!
"Nope, don't like it!", is her standard answer, to which I reply "You haven't even tried it!"
Takeaways have always been a fairly rare event for us and are normally the last but one resort - the last resort being Mrs Grizzly entering the kitchen with the intention of "cooking"!!
Awww, we love Mrs Grizzly on here ;o>
Martin wrote: "Yep, the woman is truly a saint!😇"
But a lousy cook!!
The last time I asked her to cook, I was looking forward to slow-cooked lamb shanks with chunky veg. What I came home to was almost soup with a few flakes of meat in it.
Mrs Grizzly had cut the meat off the bone and then trimmed off all the fat, finely chopped all the veg then cooked it all in the oven for nearly four hours at 200 degrees!
Lesson learned - in future I'll leave detailed instructions :)
But a lousy cook!!
The last time I asked her to cook, I was looking forward to slow-cooked lamb shanks with chunky veg. What I came home to was almost soup with a few flakes of meat in it.
Mrs Grizzly had cut the meat off the bone and then trimmed off all the fat, finely chopped all the veg then cooked it all in the oven for nearly four hours at 200 degrees!
Lesson learned - in future I'll leave detailed instructions :)
And everyone knows that Soup is good for you ;o>
Tech, had a similar experience with a meat pathia from the local Royal Bengal some years ago, a real culinary tragedy. It wasn't until my early twenties that I first discovered the real taste of foreign cuisine when I left home and worked in Weymouth for a summer season. My first encounter was in a cafe where after perusing the menu I plumped for Spag Bol, expecting something akin to the tinned variety i was taken by surprise when it arrived. Where was the orangey sauce and whispy strands of pasta, then greeted by the unfamiliar phrase "Do you want any parmesan?", I was totally flummoxed. Trying to do my best impression of urbane and sophisticated nonchalance I stuttered "Err.... ummm... yes please" it smelled like week old socks as it melted into the hot sauce. Tentatively I prodded gently with my fork then took a mouthful, I can only describe this first taste as a revelation on a par with Paul on the road to Damascus, an explosion of flavours on the tongue that gently slid down the esophagus into my stomach. Up until that moment food had been merely sustenance, my mother had many virtues but an adventurous penchant for cooking wasn't one! Great food, like great music is a universal language that crosses all cultural barriers and binds us within our diffrences and teaches us tolerance.
Get her a basic cookbook - Delia Smith or the sainted Mary Berry.
Lez wrote: "Get her a basic cookbook - Delia Smith or the sainted Mary Berry."
And spend the rest of my days drinking soup through a straw? :)
And spend the rest of my days drinking soup through a straw? :)
My first taste of foreign food was in 1957 when my friend Alma (the one who wrote episodes of ‘Morse’) took me to a Chinese and I had curried eggs. Started going every week on my day off after that. I’ve moved on from curried eggs since then but Chinese food is still favourite. I don’t like parmesan and I don’t understand this weird ritual when they bring it to the table - why not just leave it for diners to serve themselves? Same with the ginormous pepper dispensers. Just silly.
Grizzlygrump wrote: "Lez wrote: "Get her a basic cookbook - Delia Smith or the sainted Mary Berry."And spend the rest of my days drinking soup through a straw? :)"
Well, we all know now that she is an expert at making Soup? ... ;o>
Suze:Word of mouth recommendation is a good way to judge a Curry House. All about the standard of their chef. Waiters will always explain or recommend dishes and if you like the sound of one, you can ask for it to be milder or hotter than the norm.
Currently, I have taken a liking for a side dish called Aloo Gobi, which consists of potato and cauli cooked in spices - delish!
We have found a great restaurant near us. The choice is wide but the quality is great. Find one like that and it needs to be kept.
If you don't like coconut, you ought not like korma, nor our favourite nan bread - Peshwari nan, which is different in each restaurant, but often has coconut and dried fruit and is drizzled in honey.
Actually we have one of the very best Balti places around here in the next Village to ours - but M&D definitely are not interested in trying it out and so I doubt that I'll ever get to go there or to order in a Takeaway from them that is only just for myself. Still, you never know though? ;o>
I really do like Coconut very much, just not in Savoury dishes - as I don't like any kind of sweet and savoury things mixed together. The Bread sounds really delicious and I'm sure I'd enjoy that just so long as it was eaten on it's own as a Dessert Course and not eaten with the Curry! ;o>
King prawns and scallops are cooked, parsley sauce made and poured over - just waiting for the spuds to boil so I can mash them and put them on top of the rest.
Dinner will soon be served :)
Dinner will soon be served :)
Damn! - I've just made myself a Tuna Sandwich instead ;oOThen again Parsley Sauce made and poured over already? ... (*shudder*)
I'll have mine with Cheese Sauce in future please, Grizzlygrump ;o>
A long day today and an even longer one tomorrow - so I shall wish you ...x Nighty-Night x Sleepy-Tight x and very Sweet Dreams x
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Damn! - I've just made myself a Tuna Sandwich instead ;oO
Then again Parsley Sauce made and poured over already? ... (*shudder*)
I'll have mine with Cheese Sauce in future please, Grizzlygrump ;o>"
That's gratitude for you - I made the sauce from scratch, not out of a packet :)
Sleep well :)
Then again Parsley Sauce made and poured over already? ... (*shudder*)
I'll have mine with Cheese Sauce in future please, Grizzlygrump ;o>"
That's gratitude for you - I made the sauce from scratch, not out of a packet :)
Sleep well :)
I don't like Parsley ... never have, never will ... it tastes like Grass cuttings ;o>
I'm not sure what plans you might have for 'our' Tea tonight but please don't forget that I simply can't bear Celery either, will you? ;o>
Ah well, if you don't like parsley then you don't like parsley.
I've never tried grass cuttings :)
Just had dinner - dry fried turkey fillets served in rolls with plenty of salad and sweet chilli sauce. Will walk that off in half an hour when I go back to see the Doctor again.
I'm hoping that this time he'll let me go back to work :)
I've never tried grass cuttings :)
Just had dinner - dry fried turkey fillets served in rolls with plenty of salad and sweet chilli sauce. Will walk that off in half an hour when I go back to see the Doctor again.
I'm hoping that this time he'll let me go back to work :)
I shall keep everything crossed for you, Poppet ... x x xI'm having a very bad day today and so I'm off to Bed for a while. I hope to catch up to hearing good news from you later ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "I shall keep everything crossed for you, Poppet ... x x x
I'm having a very bad day today and so I'm off to Bed for a while. I hope to catch up to hearing good news from you later ;o>"
Hope you're having a better day today than you had yesterday :)
It was good news from the Doctor - he declared me fit enough to return to work, but only if I felt capable. He is keeping me on the Amlodipine for the foreseeable, advised me to get a 12 month prescription prepayment certificate and has referred me for a local Healthier You Programme.
Got to get back into the routine now - after two weeks away, it'll take me a couple of days to adjust back to 1 a.m. starts, by which time I'll be due a day off :)
I'm having a very bad day today and so I'm off to Bed for a while. I hope to catch up to hearing good news from you later ;o>"
Hope you're having a better day today than you had yesterday :)
It was good news from the Doctor - he declared me fit enough to return to work, but only if I felt capable. He is keeping me on the Amlodipine for the foreseeable, advised me to get a 12 month prescription prepayment certificate and has referred me for a local Healthier You Programme.
Got to get back into the routine now - after two weeks away, it'll take me a couple of days to adjust back to 1 a.m. starts, by which time I'll be due a day off :)
Awww, I am SO glad to hear such fantastic news!!! ... x x x ;o>I'm sure that it has been more than a scary enough time for you healthwise without also having any added stresses of worrying about being passed fit to keep your Job as well.
It really has made my day to hear that the Doctor has given you the all-clear and the go-ahead on getting back on the Road again ;o> ... ;o> ... ;o>
Oooh?! - come here, you! ... (* ! HUGE HUGS ! *) ... !!! ;o>
Finally going out today! - first time in months! ... YAYYY!!! ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Awww, I am SO glad to hear such fantastic news!!! ... x x x ;o>
I'm sure that it has been more than a scary enough time for you healthwise without also having any added stresses of worrying about ..."
Blimey girl, you're stronger than you look!!
You can put me down now :)
It's great to be able to get off my backside (metaphorically speaking) and get back behind the wheel :)
Going anywhere nice?
I'm sure that it has been more than a scary enough time for you healthwise without also having any added stresses of worrying about ..."
Blimey girl, you're stronger than you look!!
You can put me down now :)
It's great to be able to get off my backside (metaphorically speaking) and get back behind the wheel :)
Going anywhere nice?
Phoebe is going to miss having Dad around at her beck and call ;o>Been and back again! ... to go to the Beauty Salon for a Manicure!
I really do have SUCH an exciting life, don't I?!! ... (*giggles*) ;o>
Still, it was very nice to be able to get to have a face-to-face conversation with someone who doesn't always answer me with a Woof! ... HA HA HA HA HA!!!
I'm always a bit iffy about risking buying Live Plants online but I've just bitten the Bullet and taken a chance with ... 'Tree2mydoor.com' ... as they seem to have extremely good Reviews (bar just the odd one or two) and their Customer Care in the event of any problems looks to be very good as well.I was planning on buying M&D a bouquet of Flowers from my favourite local Florist for their Emerald Anniversary in a fortnight's time - but I wanted to do something a bit different if I could and so I've just found and bought an 'Emerald Lace' Japanese Maple Tree for the Garden instead ;o>
I'm just keeping my Fingers crossed now that it arrives in excellent condition! ;oO
I hope that Granny is safe and snug wherever she is ... x ... I'm so very grateful that we rarely ever get to have such terrifying, destructive and life-threatening Weather over here! ;oO
Suzy, I can recommend Crocus for all plants and garden stuff. I’ve been using them for years and have always been very pleased with them. Brilliant special offers too.They have great customer service as well including advice and answering queries. They’re always a Which? Best Buy. https://www.crocus.co.uk
Thompson & Morgan are good too but more seed-related and a bit more specialist.
I always used to get my Tomtato Plants from 'Thompson & Morgan', Lez Lee. They only arrived very badly damaged once - and that was far more down to quite poor packaging and the Parcel looking very much like it had been kicked around as a Football and then seemingly run over by the Courier Van at some point(!) rather than down to dodgy Plant quality. Thankfully 'Thompson & Morgan' immediately replaced the Order for me free of charge.
They don't seem to be selling their own patented Tomtato Plants though anymore - but I managed to track down and order some similar Plants online from 'Victoriana Nursery' and my Dad is just as absolutely thrilled to bits with them ;o>
I have also bought several amazing Pre-Planted Hanging Baskets off 'Jersey Plants Direct' for a few years now using fantastic deals exclusive to MoneySavingExpert.com - until last year when they sent over-blown and quite obvious end-of-life Plants out, and then they did it yet again with the replacements too when I complained about them, and so I didn't bother with even looking at them this year.
This Summer I bought several trays of Begonia Apricot Sparkle and Bidens Beedance Plants off them instead - and they have all thrived and been simply glorious and they are still in flower now.
I choose 'Tree2mydoor.com' tonight because they sell the 'Emerald Lace' that I really wanted for M&D - and although they weren't the cheapest Seller online, they most definitely weren't the dearest either ... plus they also appear to have some of the best Customer Feedback and Website Reviews around as well.
I just hope that I get sent a gorgeous healthy Tree to gift on to M&D now ;o>
Hmmm? - I must admit that I am rather tempted by the very good price of the 'Emerald Lace' on 'Crocus.co.uk' though?EDIT ... it is smaller in size (a 2 litre Pot and not a 3 litre) but that is not a bad thing? - and it does work out to be quite a lot less expensive than the one that I have ordered too ... and the Customer Feedback AND the independent Website Reviews are really good as well?!! ... OHHH?!! ... ARRRGGGHHH!!! ... I really need to think about this now! ;oO
AND 'Crocus' is also offering 20% off at the moment as well?!! ... !
It surely won't come in as stylish a Delivery Box or with a Gift Card? ... but it doesn't really need to as I can sort all that out myself ... and it really IS a bargain price for the particular Tree that I really want for them??? ... Ohhh?!?!?!?!!
Tree2mydoor.com Order cancelled!!! - I'm going to give 'Crocus' a go instead! ;o>
... I've actually got a Headache now! - LOL!!!
Done! - Cheers Lez Lee! ... x ... I'll let you know how I get on with M&D's Tree ;o>
Amazon exiles
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There's a lot of crashing and banging going on in our Kitchen at the moment? ... so I'm guessing that tonight's Tea might possibly be Takeaway! ;o>