I rather like 'chains' coming to East Dulwich (Lounged)

[Keef]

Don't start all that again.

Do you ever use things from a jar like pasta sauces or curry sauces or do you make everything from scratch?

[SeanMacGabhann]

;-)

I know it sounds like I'm being facetious every time I bring it up but I genuinely don't mean to be

Do I ever use cook-in sauces? Once in a blue moon I will get on to see if they are as bad as I remember. They are usually worse, so yeah I either make it from scratch. The taste from any jar is always so artifical I feel genuinely gross afterwards so it's never an option. It's not a health thing.. that doesn't bother me (obviously!) - it's the knowledge that it's vile tasting

If laziness overcomes then the options foe me are

a) light snackage (black pudding on toast or summat)

b) eat out or takeaway

Obviously getting takeaway flies in the face of most "good food" chatter I spout, but a decent curry from a decent place is at least something that's cooked properly. Or I don't pretend that I'm really eating "not JUST ANY chicken, but..." etc etc

[Jeremy]

I here what you're saying Sean, but I was really just trying to point out that a shop like M&S or waitrose *would* be offering something not currently available locally.

There's also the age-old issue of opening hours... it would be nice to be able to buy some vaguely OK food on the way home from work.

[Keef]

I agree about cooking sauces, luckily Mrs Keef makes a fine pasta sauce with tomatos she grows in the window box grow bag thingy. However, I would say that Lloyd Grossman sauces are pretty good, especially the tomato and chilli pasta sauce, and the rogon josh.

Back on topic, Jeremy is right about opening hours, and sometimes after a long day it would be nice to have somewhere you could grab something half decent that you can chuck in a microwave.

Oh, and black pudding is so so wrong, that from now on I will never listen to anything you ever say about food... It's conjealed blood and fat for christ's sake!

[SeanMacGabhann]

* ahem*

Carefully seasoned and cured congealed blood and fat I think you'll find

Mrs MacGabhann doesn't care for it either but there you go. Nowt wrong with blood (steak anyone?)

Having somewhere that sold half decent meat (a bit of steak mince for a bol, say) in the evenings would be useful - but even Somerfield does that now (juuuust about getting back on topic) if I'm stuck

[mockney piers]

Why oh why does every thread end up about congealed blood and fat on this forum; and how many times do i have to tell you, it's great!?!

[SeanMacGabhann]

hey amigo - we are shoulder to shoulder on this one...

[Administrator]

Moving this to the Lounge

[Curmudgeon]

-- moved topic --

[SeanMacGabhann]

Michael P - this one is as good as any of the others.... 'ave at ye!

[Michael Palaeologus]

Can I involve in fantasy lions and pregnant donkeys?

[Michael Palaeologus]

Can I involve fantasy lions and pregnant donkeys?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Dear Michael, every Saturday I dream of fantasy lions.

[RosieH]

I don't understand - are we now making black pudding out of fantasy lions and pregnant donkeys?

that would be an expensive pudding and no mistake - tasty though I bet

[Michael Palaeologus]

DM eats lions.

[SeanMacGabhann]

lol - I turn my back for 2 seconds and MP turns it into one of his "rooms" - weeelll it is the lounge I guess

But if we are going to discuss:

Forget any of the moral/environmental/good/badguys arguments - bottom line is, if LL looks like Swindon/Bracknell/Ilford/Croydon in 5 years time will you mind?

If you don't mind then all argument is redundant because you'll be a happy customer. But you must be able to see why some people wouldn't want that - again for reasons nothing to do with the above. and without judging them as "holier than thou"

And whilst a mix is probably ideal you don't have to be a died-in-the-wool idealist to know that that isn't how corporations work - they expand aggresively and wipe out as much competition as they can/ They are legally obliged to - otherwise the shareholders can sue. So it's idealistic to say a mix can and will happen.. It might be happening now as the area transitions but it won't be for long

So some people aren't bothered by that. But many people are. And supporting greenpeace has nothing to do with it. So they are a big organisation? Where are they in LL??

But the ability to know where your stuff comes from should be important - otherwise we could well be eating our Solyent Greens in the future. Ok ok - - I took a massive leap there. But the principle is the same - it's why the GM companies are so keen to get "in". Forget the health scares that make the papers.. it's about owning the food chain. it's about suing farmers in China for growing rice because now some company owns the patent.

Loz is right when he says the big supermarkets have the power to be a force for good. And they have done plenty of good. But they balance of powere has swung too far in their favour IMO. Supermarkets will only do what's profitable. So if the consumers have the power they should exercise it. Then again if the consumers aren't that fussed..

If you wanted to control the food chain, what would be easier - to take on all the indie establishments one by one, with their multiple suppliers and local habits - or to hoover up one or two big companies?

[Keef]

One thing at a time man please!

One could argue that "the stong survive"... In fact, I think MP already mention Darwin didn't he? I'll shut up and leave it to him.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I know, I know - I did stretch things a little but are people really arguing for a "survival of the fittest" or "the strong survive"

I thought the whole point about us evolving was to get away from that - aren't several forumites in the caring professions? Are they wasting their time?

If you mean in a business sense then you have to aske what makes one business strong and one weak - it's isn't just down to the size of the business or the quality of the product. Strong communities tend to have roots with local business making both stronger... Weak communities.. I listed some above and I've lived in most of them.. tend to favour malls and chains. Is there a connection? or am I making everything up?

[Michael Palaeologus]

*Wanders in wearing a stove pipe hat and a large bushy beard*

"I seem to have lost one my giant Galapagos tortoises, has anybody seen one sprint by?*

[Brendan]

I have never seen a Byzantine emperor in Victorian dress before. Interesting.

[Michael Palaeologus]

I am, for once, not wearing a dress in The Lounge..

and dont call me Shirley.

[Brendan]

Surely not?

[florian]

if you don't like what you see, then don't look. What makes it a depressing place to shop??? Is it because its not as "fancy" as the other bookshops?? Its what makes it an honest place to browse for books. As they say, "Never judge a book by its cover".

[florian]

The essence of the Chener Bookshop is, that apart from the staff being very helpful and the shop being well stocked with a variety of books, in itself is a reminder of the Britain of a generation ago.

In itself, it represents, sadly disappearing, a period when Britain was British through and through.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Florian

I like a lot of what you say - but why is

in and of itself A Good Thing? Apart from being impossible to define, I can't think of any country where substituting that country for British in that sentence is any good either. My own country (Ireland) was, for generations, ill-served by Devalera's idea of a mythical ireland where maidens danced at crossroads

I'm reminded of the butler character in Remains of the Day - so, so, saddeningly, maddeningly married to an outmoded idea of "proper" that he failed to see the present and future until it was too late

Chener has it's charms (I was in there today) but to hold it up as an example of something we should be hanging on to (buckets for dripping ceiling? peeling signage? credit cards "a bit of a problem") at the expense of say... review bookshop in Peckham.. I fail to see why that would be a good thing