What to buy: Tesco Finest* favourites (third part)

A sun blessing of a nice shopping, all done with Tesco Finest*
goods: Conchiglioni, Italian extra-virgin olive oil, Ciabatta bread,
Spanish Mancego cheese, tea scones, Swiss mint dark chocolate.

This post starts with me nibbling at a Tesco Finest* cherry tomato. A gentle sun, albeit mid December, casts its rays onto the only plant my flatmate and I dare taking care of: a purring Leopard Lily. To enrich the quality of the soil, I tried to mulch it with corks. I fancy perhaps the illusion that the different bouquet, trapped inside this delicate oak wood, will help the Lily to grow better. I also fertilized the compost with some exhausted coffee powder, which provides some azotised components.

Leopard Lily and her collection of corks,
as you take care of your plants, day by day, attention
after attention, you have to do the same with food,
every little helps, I would say, distorting Tesco motto.

Anyway, before moving to Waitrose, I find interesting to share the products I appointed to indulge with. Some are belonging to the best British tradition such as relish and butter biscuits; butter squash; marinated beetroots; crackers for cheese; teas and bakery products like scones and crossed buns; mint chocolate and ravishing cakes (cheese cake, black forest and the lemon tart); creamy yogurts; butter (although alas produced in Normandy); and finally sausages and crisps:

Reduced to clear, 0,65£ instead of much more.	Three for two of red onion relish: 2,20£ each jar.
Paquito squash, price according to the weight, very nice if rosted and served with balsamic glaze.	A comparison between chipolatas  [right] (2,50£) and highland venison sausages [left] (approximately the same price): both irresistible and it is nice to combine them together.

Some others are keen selections of continental foods, which the British climate discourages to produce, such as wine, oil and olives, South American nuts; fair traded coffee and cocoa; buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and sweet peppers, durum wheat pastas (as Conchiglioni, Pappardelle and Orecchiette) and egg fresh ones, French, Italian, Swiss and Spanish cheeses and platters of salami; breakfast international choices as Granola and Muesli. What I mainly noticed is the fact niche products cannot be adapted to the British taste, and I am not entirely sure if these goods are meant to keep the continental attention alive. Tesco fears to lose its loyal customers by becoming too choosy.

Pumpkin ravioli with amaretti...mouth watering, 2 packs for 3,50£. Not bad.	Nut Granola, usually 2,65£, I was lucky to buy it for 2£. Quite enjoyable with organic whole-milk!
Bleu d'Auvergne: a purchase done my flatmate Frederick, price unknown, but the taste is closer to gorgonzola, and the cheese texture is creamier than Stilton.	Orecchiette, 1,65£ usually, but these were buy two for one, and I combined them with Pappardelle Tesco Finest*.

The quality of these products on the whole is particularly high. The goods are very well crafted and as I was objecting in two posts ago, the packaging could me more environment friendly, but it is amusing for the eye: the platinum colour instinctively reminds the perception of a jewel.

Two pains au chocolat, reduce to clear at 0,95£.	Three cheeses at the price of two: I choose Stilton, Larcevau Ossau-Iraty and Taleggio (picture bottom left). Also the rosemary focaccia is a Tesco finest product, reduce to clear at 0,95£.
Taleggio, supreme for Risotto & rosemary	Sweet mini peppers: 1, 29£, if I am not mistaken! They contribute to enrich especially Quorn preparations.

My opinion is that Tesco has to deal with a mixed range of customers: the branding is an important stage to bring into the visual mentality of some lazy customers a new product. Tesco Finest* is like a bell that rings to the ears of those who might be uncertain and unsecure of what they are buying but they blindly trust the Tesco selection. For this reason, even if the price of the Tesco Finest* merchandise is more expensive than everything else, still it is reasonably competitive. For instance instead of six croissants you will have two, but the quality of those two surpasses the six paperboard-ish ones you may happen to buy cheaper. For instance, I had the pleasure to buy these croissants at 1,33£ because they where under “price drop” on Sunday 16^th December 2012, and the label states it is an improved recipe.

1,33£ instead of 1,99£, price drop + promotion,
because it is new improved produce: 4 French Butter Croissants,
if you wrap then in foil and warm them up they are gorgeous,
if you warm them up without foil they are outstanding!

Tender stem broccoli, steamed or fried they taste delicious.

The penultimate consideration I wish to offer is the fact that Tesco Finest* goods have a short ingredient line: this implies that the quality of produces is better because the ingredients are less, like when you make your food at home. The use of preservatives is reduced only where it is indispensable and Palm and coconut oil is practically banned. Palm oil is a nightmare for developing countries, because it is procuring high levels of deforestation and “fattening” - especially in Africa - few landowners, corrupted governments and multinational groups.

Deliciously buttery shortbread biscuits: 1,39£

A short ingredient line encircled in red.

1,50 £, excellent salty butter, unfortunately produced in Normandy, despite the UK offers amazing butters.

Buffalo mozzarella from Neaples and surroundings, 2 for 2£: usually it is 1,75£, each.

Lastly, it is always a good tactic that of approaching expensive produces when they are on special offers. At that condition, the majority of the items are not solely more economical yet fairly convenient for treating oneself and for storage: especially when you have the chance to freeze some commodities or to eat them one day after purchasing. This is also a great moral exercise to avoid compulsive and hedonistic shopping, because spending money on expensive food does not really unravel problems, which aren’t usually solvable throughout mechanical expedients.

Actually this Albacore tuna steak was turn off: certainly better than John West, it is not exactly what i was expecting. It is very rare to find good tuna tin in the UK! Yet it is admirable this tuna is allegedly fished with pole and line, 2,39£, price drop!	Beechwood smoked ham from Trieste, the frontier between Italy and Croatia, 1,99£, price drop!
King size prawns: excellent with avocado and lime juice, 2,50£, half price!	Ibleian extra-virgin olive oil: rich and elegant, from the hills of Eastern Sicily, 6,99£

Riesling wine: quite fragrant with a flowers bouquet dominating: refreshing and expressive. On the palate its slightly off dry, acidity is highlighted by vegetables, fish and white meat courses. It gives a jam sweetness, with an aftertaste of delicate bitterness. It is not disappointing, considering it is an imported whine with a capsule cork.

Who's responsable for this modern and audacious way of thinking: a man who was knighted in 2002 and brought Tesco to the podium of the three most fruitful companies in the world, his name is Sir Terry Leahy, as the Beatles he is from Liverpool. He was brought up in a council estate and became gradually and successfully who he is, but he never forgot the hard times of his starting point, and now he points out how the public school system should be reformed:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/tescos-finest-sir-terry-leahy-1804379.html

Tesco Chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy,
ordinary greatness

Back to Italy (2) – Barbecue sausages and cicadas

What obsesses Italian people is the quality of our own food. We apparently eat to fulfil the belly yearns as every other human being, but - more importantly – we wish to warm up the soul. We use food as a social magnet and food becomes always the occasion to gather together, to interlace new friendships, to celebrate, to emphasise, to magnify the importance of a conversation: even a coffee turns into an event, especially if the chosen café combines excellent coffee with superb croissants:

"Cornetto" and croissant are severely different

(picture taken by Barbara Bazzoni®)

Dulcis in fundo, an incredible patisserie

with pretty harsh service:

http://www.pasticceriadulcisinfundobologna.it/

Worthy visiting though: via Murri 39, Bologna, Italy

A very nice happening I was invited to was a barbecue in a joyful location on the Apennines, where we lighted on some chestnut wood and we had the most amazing food: from the grill to the dish. Simon, the friend who organized the escapade, belongs to that exclusive circle of companions I know since kindergarten: he is still very loyal to his true Self. 

If you light it on with Lavender scrubs

a pleasant scent substitues

the chemicals of newspaper 

or other easy tricks.

Besides, the affection for this place is deeply rooted into my heart, cause I used to go there when I was a child and it is absolutely incredible how - after more that twenty years - the same people like to meet up again with the enthusiasm of a new experience. An eternal return of the same, as Friederich Nietzsche would have phrased it:

David Boyd Etching, edition 60, titled "The Eternal Return"

This cot – which now has been transformed into proper cottage - is unique and simple, not even worthy of a picture that will spoil imagination. The whole atmosphere is indescribable: there are woody hills all around and modern vanes, in a distance, that integrate beautifully with the landscape. A little garden hosting garlic, spring onions (although it was September) and tomatoes is often ransacked by wild creatures: unicorns, moles and boars. An abandoned heap of bricks that once was a timbers’ house - my friend’s ancestors – gives a romantic effect and now hosts dark colonies of friendly scorpions.

The wind mills on the horizon

A postcard in the postcard

The enclave of Castel del Rio (River Castel) is nearby Imola, the town where the Brazilian F1 pilot Ayrton Senna fatefully faded out in 1994 (and another pilot, Roland Ratzenberger died the day before, but he was less famous, and a few people remember him, I dwell in this number!) I still keep in mind our primary school teacher asking us to write a composition whether or not it was licit (and wise) to risk human lives for a sport, showing no mercy and compassion to the unfortunate use of courage. It is difficult for me, even nowadays, to express an opinion. The loss was great and both the pilots left a huge void, such as when Hector dies in the Iliad. We, as children, were deprived of a living superhero, and we confronted with a new reality: invulnerability wasn’t an issue anymore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna

Despite this gloomy memory, for which I apologise, the barbecue went on pretty well: the half-mountain air opens the stomach and the smell of grilling meat attracts wolves from all the woody lands…kidding. There are wolves there, but apparently they come out only during the night, hunting hogs and red deer. An Italian barbecue is slightly different from an American one: if you suggest providing some hamburger, for instance, it is very likely that you will be answered with a cluster of reproaches: especially because ketchup, brown sauce, mustard are seen as an unhealthy dressings. I disagree on mustard, but I shall keep this consideration for a different post!

The Marsican wolf

The typical Italian boar

We had sausages and hand made kebabs (obtained putting into a line on a wooden recyclable spit it different kinds of meats, interrupted by vegetables), we had a vegetarian quiche, roasted aubergines, home made bread by Isabel and John and at least three desserts (two cakes and some éclairs):

Several sorts of meat

Pork sausage

After the never-ending supper, when we all were almost light and energetic as a Michelin boy, we went out for separate walks into the woodland with the person we loved the most: some of us collected wild fruits that grow almost spontaneously and I was lucky enough to spot a boletus luridus (literally filthy boletus), of the same praiseworthy porcini family [I may be utterly wrong]. It does turn blue when you cut into its perfumed flesh:

Plums, four-leaf clover, mulberries, and bited wild apple.

The MUSHROOM (boletus luridus)

Yet in the end, what flabbergasted me was a cicada moult, I came across during late afternoon. When the Sun started sinking beyond the distant foliages, the light hit this vacant skin. I had the distinct feeling that the moult summarised not just that enjoyable day, but the entire bunch of emotions called out to surface by the location: we - with all our scattered impressions and sensibilities - were like that cicada envelope in the dying sun. Our feelings were similar to the golden light, which gave consistency to an empty case:

Poetry in the sun