Displaying items by tag: online shopping

Here's a few ideas for Christmas presents to give the food lovers in your life. Mr SuffolkFoodie if you are looking .... I'd like all of these please.

Christmas cheese! A trio of East Anglian cheeses. £25. Check out cheese related Christmas gifts or join the Slate Cheese Club. Slate is a Suffolk based, specialist cheese retailer offering nationwide delivery. Book your December delivery slot quickly. (I've been sent a sample box and can confirm that the cheese arrives in fabulous condition.)

12 Christmas Classics Macarons £25. From Suffolk makers Hilton Macarons. I've eaten a box of these. Black Truffle. Brandy Butter. Christmas Pudding. Eggnog. Mulled Spice. Orange Chocolate. A colourful and delicious selection. My favourite? Christmas pudding. Liquorice and Blackcurrant are also superb if you fancy other flavours.

Something fishy. Sardines from The Tinned Fish Market. Madrid Tray £35.00. Don't you just love the tins?

Loose leaf tea from The Rare Tea Company. Fairly traded and directly sourced. Chinese Whole Leaf Green Tea (White Monkey Paw) is one of my favourites. 25g tin £5.99

Hotel Starlino Maraschino Cherries £9.50. Pop one of these Italian beauties into your Brandy and Babycham this Christmas. Gorrrgeous jar

 A Potato Printer Pawtatoes 2022 Calendar £15.00. Cute!

Ho Ho Ho Christmas Pork Pie from Bray's Cottage. Norfolk £29.95 (last orders 17th Dec) Our go to pork pie to send as a pressie. My family fight over them.

Sandlings Saffron Soap. £5.99 Beautiful hand made soap using Suffolk grown saffron. Grapefruit and Saffron or Aloe Cucumber and Saffron. Their saffron is top class and the Saffron Sea Salt £6 a perfect stocking filler. Just wait for the aroma when you open up an online delivery.

A Pump Street Chocolate Father Christmas £7.50. Big kids chocolate!

A Mostly Foodie Days of 2022 Tea Towel £20.50. You wouldn't want to forget World Trifle Day, would you?

And what better for the lady in your life than a pair of fur slippers with a removable lobster brooch.  £35.

Local hand-made chocolate alert! This rather lovely Spring Selection was sent to me by Marimba, the Suffolk based Chocolatiers. It's a family run business with a chocolate kitchen in Bury St Edmunds and a Cocoa House (chocolate shop and cafe) in Sudbury. The family, David and Jackie Wright, with son Brad and eldest daughter Katherine produce a Hot Chocolate Melt made from flaked chocolate, using top quality cocoa beans from Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, all selected for their distinctive flavours. Be surprised dear readers as I do not usually drink hot chocolate. It's the hot milk thing that I've never been crazy about, but I always try what I've been given and the Spring Selection included a 52% Vietnam Dark Milk flake. It dissolved easily in a mug of microwaved milk and a quick whisk with my aerolatte produced a very enjoyable strong and rich, smooth hot chocolate. I've obviously not been indulgent enough with my hot chocolate before. There's an online shop with fabulous range of hand-made chocolates, thins, bars, buttons and seasonal collections. Spring Sunshine Thins are sweet (I'm double checking as I write) white chocolate, cut through with zingy grapefruit and citrussy orange and a slight tropical flavour of those old fashioned sweets; pineapple chunks. Strawberry and Mint Thins are made with Venezuelan milk chocolate, rich and robust with hints of garden mint, softer than the often strong peppermint found in some chocolate. The little pieces of dried strawberry add some sharpness now and again. I saved the chocolate collection until last. Hands up if you remember violet and rose creams of the 60's? These tasted better - a Rose and Raspberry Caramel, pretty in pink with a delicate rose and nicely tart, not too sticky, raspberry caramel centre. A Lemon and Violet Cream, with a dark chocolate and sugared violet encrusted case, and strongly scented violet and lemon cream filling is delicate in flavouring, just enough not to make you feel you're at a perfume counter. Last to try was the very cinnamony and dark, spicy chocolate truffle, think hot cross buns. Perfect for Easter!

• chocolate flakes melted easily in hot milk
• with spring brings the hope of summer
• white chocolate and citrus - a perfect marriage
• so pretty and so well scented and flavoured
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The lockdown and subsequent closure of restaurants has proved a big problem for suppliers to the industry. Creedy Carver duck is just one that has found itself with a surplus stock and limited outlets. It's a superb free range product that generally only the Chefs get their hands on. I got mine from Field and Flower and ate duck breast with my spiced plum sauce made with plums from the freezer.

Pizza's come highly recommended from Lucy's Restaurant in Fornham All Saints. This neighbourhood restaurant has adapted so well to the lockdowns and continues to offer an excellent takeaway and delivery service. Check their website for the menu as pizza's change regularly. Don't forget to order yourself a pud too. 5 mini cannoli for £5.99.

What's that I hear you say? The Amelie Flam-kuche flatpack is a new on-line, delicious, UK delivery ready meal, from father and son team Regis and Alex Crepy at Amelie Restaurant in Cambridge. Flammekeuche is a traditional Alsace dish, so think France meets Germany. It could be described as a skinny pizza, but it's rather more like an unleavened pastry or flatbread. Thin with crispy edges as it comes out of the oven and the perfect snack at any time of the day. You can choose the toppings when ordering your flatpack (which contains 4 bases and will keep for up to 4 days in the fridge) then it's a quick assembly job; which is also fun and easy for children to do, cook for six minutes in a very hot oven. Et Voila!

• sour cream is traditionally used on a flammekueche base, here with Amelie signature creme fraiche
• Toppings are freshly prepared. Piquant, sliced onions, mushrooms and mozzarella with the pesto adding colour and punch
• Preheat the oven to 230 C and it takes just six minutes to cook
• Voila! We chose the mushroom and mozzarella flatpack
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So the celebrities on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here aren't enjoying their food rations? Blimey, they've been sent squirrel, quail and hare all supplied by The Wild Meat Company in Suffolk. That's my idea of a perfect supper. Here's the wild venison from my last online order. Get your Christmas order in now!

Just sorting through my photos and saw the Brays pork pie that we'd ordered during lockdown. It immediately made me fancy one, so I've ordered my Grandson one for his first birthday party next week. Ssshh, don't tell him!

Three delicious ewe's milk cheeses arrived in the post last week, sent to me by Slate Cheese and Provisions. I've been asked to choose my favourite of the three and it's been a hard task. What I received was the April Cheese Club selection, celebrating the arrival of spring and containing the season's most special sheep cheeses, along with a box of Millers's Harvest artisan crackers. First up was Norfolk White Lady, a full fat Brie style cheese made by Jane Murray at Willow Farm Dairy in Deopham, Norfolk, and one of our own very good East Anglian cheeses. It is a soft, mould ripened cheese, with a delicate flavour. I left the cheese at room temperature for 6 hrs to allow it to ooze a little, which it did, although it was not as soft as I would have liked. It was very good with the yeasty three seed crackers and a little chestnut honey that I had in my cupboard at home. Next to try was the Pecorini Sardo, it was a treat to see this Sardinian cheese and although the tasting notes suggested it as a perfect cooking cheese in place of Parmesan, no way was I going to cook with it, but instead shaved it over a rocket and toasted hazelnut salad, where its almost sweet yet salty and piquant flavours really packed a punch. Finally the Cheese of the month for April, a Pave Cobble, made in Somerset by White Lake Cheese at Bagborough Farm, Somerset. A pyramid shaped cheese with a silky, sweet and creamy paste that has a salty citrus tang. The ash coating creating a wrinkled rind. I left this one in my cool pantry for 24 hrs until it started to ooze perfectly under the skin and it was just divine, definitely my Supreme Champion. Who says the French have the best cheeses?  If you fancy joining the Cheese Club, you might like to know that boxes are delivered on the first Thursday of the month, either monthly or a bi-monthly delivery. Join in April 2019 and you will automatically get sent your first box free.

• beautiful packed and branded cheese parcel arrives
• tasting notes are included
• Pecorino Sardo Maturo shaved into a rocket and toasted hazelnut salad
• Norfolk White Lady
• Pave Cobble
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There's something about the low sun and the cooler days that tempts me to get out the last of my 2017 green tomato chutney to dollop on a generous portion of game pate and crisp, warm buttered toast. I tried Wild and Game Grouse Brandy and Herb Pate and also their very nice Pheasant, Pistachio and Port Pate. A rather lovely late lunch. Pheasant season starts soon. Whoop!

This week we've been sampling game sausages, sausage rolls and pies sent to us from new food producer Wild and Game. They are a new not-for profit food business aiming to turn us into a nation of game eaters. I'm not sure if there's much converting to do here in East Anglia, where we eat a lot of wild meat, but the game goodies will be available online to pubs, restaurants, small shops and the general public, so great for those that find it hard to visit a decent butcher. "We're keen to make game more prominent in the UK diet", says Steven Frampton, who runs the business with Michael Cannon. Products are supplied frozen and available all year round. Our box arrived on the hottest day of the year, tightly packed in ice, still frozen solid after an overnight delivery. Best of the products we tasted were the sausages, including the pheasant and pear, pheasant and venison and pheasant and white wine. All were a big hit with Mr SuffolkFoodie and notably very good eaten cold the next day. Keep an eye out for their new products. Pheasant Lasagne anyone?

• beautifully packed in ice, arriving frozen
• enormous pasties
• pheasant meat sausage rolls
• 70% meat content sausages
• pheasant and venison sausages
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