General Chat Thread II

Hotblack Desiato

It's UK labelling, all green bins here accept all (clean, dry) plastics. Shoddy from ALDI

Dial Hard

Which still all mostly goes to be incinerated, but that's a discussion for a different thread/Board!

igCorcaigh

So, I bought a chayote for the first time, and made a type of slaw from it with Dijon, white wine vinegar, creme fraiche, mint, lemon juice, olive oil and s&p.

Interesting. It doesn't taste of much at all, perhaps a little like apple or cucumber, with no sweetness, but it has a lovely crispy, refreshing quality.

Definitely one to experiment with; I hear that it can be cooked too.

€1.30 for one piece.

EDIT: Of all of the spice jars that I could have knocked out of my cupboard right now, it had to be a full glass jar of turmeric. Kitchen is fluorescent orange now. 😂

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122176110#Comment_122176110

Aldi think we're just an offshoot of the UK. Aldi Ireland is a subsidiary of Aldi UK; their customer care quote Scottish law for everything etc. Officially all soft plastic/plastic film is recycling bin here; and some other companies do have the "recycling bin in Ireland, not recycled in UK" on packages.

Compare this to Lidl where Lidl Ireland is a direct subsidiary of the parent firm and all the packaging accurate.

L1011

Today I attempted to recreate a side dish I had on Iberia in business class a few months, which was green beans with bacon bits; and was absolutely delicious. (the rest of that meal was great too - filet mignon and creamed potatoes. The blunt table knife supplied was unable to cut the filet mignon very well, though!)

Tried to render fat out of a few chopped up slices of streaky bacon, and only got a fairly dry grainy result from it. Blanched beans, drained and threw them in, the small amount of water on them made the dry grainy fat somewhat more useful; and added a few crushed garlic cloves just before the end.

The garlicy bacon was delicious; but the green beans were a bit harsh still; and the overall flavour a bit wrong - but I'm comparing on the ground to an 8000 foot pressure altitude; which changes flavour. Anyone made anything similar before? I think pancetta might have been a better choice in hindsight but the bean flavour was the issue.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122179334#Comment_122179334

Did you salt the green beans enough when blanching?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122179380#Comment_122179380

Probably not.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122179382#Comment_122179382

Green beans can be quite astringent. I know that some Chinese recipes dry blister the beans, which I guess caramelises the starches, but that wouldn't really work here.

Maybe it's the quality or age of the beans too could be a factor, I dunno.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122179399#Comment_122179399

Centra's "finest" picked up today; tbh that branch usually has pretty high quality veg - its huge as Centras go and the owner has always had a bit of a tilt towards high end products.

It'll be re-tried anyway. Did it with chicken kyivs, croquettes and gravy today - will try it with steak some time. Would be interested in seeing what both a creamier sauce and a red wine sauce (like the plane) are like with it.

confusticated

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122179326#Comment_122179326

I've found Lidl just as bad if not worse recently - a lot of their soft plastic packaging just says "Do not recycle" which to be is a worse message than "not currently recycled" or whatever!

igCorcaigh

Tuna… the canned type.

I just made a mayo based tuna salad, basic enough, but I found the Shines is too soft for it. Added some Rio brand. I think I prefer the regular cheaper canned tuna for this purpose.

I do get Oriz as well sometimes, but I'm not sure if it's worth it for my uses, which is mostly tuna salad or pasta.

Maybe the more expensive brands like these are better for a tuna bean salad, where I keep the texture more together, rather than mashed up.

Muahahaha

Anyone know some places that are a reliable source of dried chickpeas, have been to two Tesco's but no joy and I don't think Dunnes stock them, Aldi & Lidl definitely don't. Tried Holland & Barrett too but none there either.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213862#Comment_122213862

That's a bit surprising. Any health shops like Holland & Barrett or preferably some indie place etc. should stock them, as would Indian stores perhaps, but they may be split chickpeas like chana, rather than whole. Where are you based?

sammyjo90

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213862#Comment_122213862

Supervalue definitely have them.

Some dunnes would have them in the health food section

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213862#Comment_122213862

Eurasia, who are about to start expanding beyond one shop but are currently still in Fonthill are where I buy everything like that. Any generic Asian store will have East End or a similar brand though.

igCorcaigh

<rant>

It bugs me when Americans call pasta "noodles", and even use spaghetti for Asian noodle dishes. Just, weird. They are very different things.

</rant>

Can spaghetti with butter be a thing??

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216353#Comment_122216353

Yes, it can, it's delicious, especially with lashings of parmesan.

What makes the difference is the Italian butter - milk products taste much different because of what the cows eat (think industrial greenhouse tomatoes out of season and tomatoes left to fully ripen in the sun).

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216513#Comment_122216513

And I thought that Ireland had the best dairy products! 😂

Marketing to blame I guess!

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122213918#Comment_122213918

thanks, the health store in my town in Wicklow does sell them but at a pretty stiff €4 for 500 grams. Everything in that store is way more expensive than Holland & Barrrett. Whereas Tesco have the same quantity of dried chickpeas for €1.09 which is why Id hoped to get them there but no joy. Will try Supervalue as the other poster suggested.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214356#Comment_122214356

thanks, might be in there later in the week as Ive to get tamarind paste, chiankiang vinegar and chinese cooking sherry too.

Any ideas what other locations Eurasia are setting up in yet?

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216590#Comment_122216590

It's not 'best' or 'worst', it's just different (unlike tomatoes). Butter and milk and cream in Italy taste much sweeter, butter from the mountains is richer, too.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216513#Comment_122216513

Afaik Italian and Irish dairy cows are very similarly fed - mostly pasture with some supplementary grain over winter. I'm not aware of any material differences in quality between either butters, tbh, unless we're getting into seriously artisanal territory, in which case there are probably contenders from both countries.

But yes, pasta with butter can be absolutely delicious.

New Home

Taste it and see it next time you're on holidays.

Grass/hay are different because of the soil and the amount of sunlight. Very little silage with fermented hay.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216710#Comment_122216710

I've tasted it many times. The biggest difference as far as my palate is concerned is that Italian butter is generally unsalted, which foregrounds the cream aspect compared to what we're used to.

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216730#Comment_122216730

Even unsalted Irish butter doesn't taste similar to the Italian ones.

Just wondering, did you taste it on its own/on toast or only with food? Same q about the milk. There's a reason why cuppas don't taste as nice abroad, and it's not just because of the UHT treatment.

If it makes any difference, coriander to me taste like dish soap - not sure if it's a gene thing with dairy, too.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216675#Comment_122216675

Former Iceland on Talbot Street and one of the supermarket units in Adamstown it seems

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216353#Comment_122216353

You're not going to like this but : noodles and pasta are pretty much the same thing and I see no problem subbing spaghetti for asain wheat noodles because, well, to all intents and purposes, they're the same thing!

The Chinese invented pasta.

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217694#Comment_122217694

The way they are made changes their texture. And I'm comparing Chinese noodles to spaghetti (made by extrusion), not to tagliatelle, like they do here.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/asian-noodles-and-cooking-times-4057072

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218222#Comment_122218222

A very good article.

It does include the following, though, "Plus, it's often possible to substitute Italian spaghetti, vermicelli, or angel hair for Asian egg noodles."

There are many, many different styles of noodles which all differ from each other but I don't see Italian/Asian as being any more different from each other than other types. I mean, spaghetti is way more similar to Chinese egg noodles that Chinese egg noodles are to glass noodles, for example.

I think that we just associate spaghetti with certain styles of food and "noodles" with another style but I'd almost guarantee that if served a bowl of Asian soup noodles made with spaghetti, the majority of people wouldn't bat an eyelid unless told.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216843#Comment_122216843

I would have had it on bread. I can't say I'm really in the habit of eating butter on its own!

I used to absolutely loathe coriander for the same reason but I frickin love the stuff now. Even though I can still totally get the soap aspect 🤷

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218877#Comment_122218877

When Utterly Butterly came out first I used to eat dollops of it out of the tub with a spoon like ice cream. They've changed the recipe since though and it doesn't have the creamy taste any more.

When I can afford it I'm still prone to cutting off a big slice of real butter, putting salt on it and sticking it in my gob 😋.