Category: shop bought

Christmas is a time when you indulge in nice stuff you might go easy on at other times. Among my best this year I was given a box of “all butter, caramel & sea-salt biscuits” (aka cookies) from Harrod’s. They were crumbly, sweet and firm without being too hard....

Christmas is a time for nuts, specifically nuts in shells. We eat shelled ones such as peanuts and cashews all year round, but at Christmas it’s good to sit by the fire to roast chestnuts and shell walnuts, hazel nuts and Brazil nuts. I had to import the last...

I bought a friend a hamper for his birthday. It was from John Lewis and contained orange marmalade, 3 fruit marmalade, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, chocolate chip cookies, traditional fudge, lemon curd, cranberry & port sauce, Cumberland sauce and blackcurrant jam.  Wow!  Delicious!  And after eating it all he...

It’s been a UK staple for 85 years (since 1932). Terry’s chocolate orange is a ball-shaped assembly of orange flavoured chocolate segments. You tap the ball at one end and the segments fall apart. Production was moved to Poland after the York factory closed in 2005. It’s a great...

The “champagne” is vintage cava, which is actually better than the cheaper champagnes, and quite a good deal better than prosecco. But it must be vintage cava. I usually buy it when it’s reduced to about £7 for a 75cl bottle. The ‘caviar’ is Onuga, a created name designed...

This Christmas treat never featured in my childhood Christmases.  I think it’s become popular fairly recently.  It’s a German fruit bread with chopped candied fruit, nuts and spices.  This one from M&S came bristling with nuts, maybe too many, instead of the more traditional powdered sugar, and I couldn’t...