Truffle cheese to buy and try from Lidl in London, Lidl Europe and the USA, and Marks & Spencer

 

Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

 I had this truffle cheese to finish a gourmet weekend pre-Christmas dinner in London. The host asked us to bring a wine costing twenty pounds and give five pounds towards the food. We were six, the two hosts, and two other couples, us, me and my husband, and another couple who we already knew.

For me one of the highlights of the meal, and the big surprise, was the cheese. Normally I don't care for cheese as dessert. But I love truffles. 

The Lidl cheese with truffles had real truffle flavour. You could see the black line of the truffle.

The cheese was served with large slices of dark (home made?) bread, savoury digestive biscuits, and crackers.

If you can find truffle cheese in a local Lidl or elsewhere, it would be good to provide as the host. Or to take as a guest.

Spain

The label says that it is Spanish. When I go there on holiday, I shall look out for it in supermarkets in Spain. 

UK and Worldwide

Also in cheese shops in London. For example, La Fromagerie, the cheese shop off Marylebone High Street, a short walk from Baker Street underground train station. If they don't already stock it, if enough people ask for it, the buyer will look for it. Another speciality cheese shop is near Oxford Circus, and another near Borough Market.

But I doubt whether the fancy cheese shops will beat or even compete on price with budget-friendly Lidl.

When I did a search on the internet, truffle cheese popped up from numerous well-known suppliers. Alphabetically, I made a mental note, Amazon, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose. 

Single & Multiple Packs

Sometimes it appeared as an individual pack, around five or six pounds for a triangular chunk, . But more often a circle, like camembert.  

Some suppliers sold it as part as a set of three different party cheeses. If you are catering for a Christmas party for a family, club or business, for a party, or a gift to employees or customers, you might be interested in a multiple, minimum purchase of ten or twenty or more - which in the old days we would know as wholesale.

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I suspect it is a Christmas season speciality and will be less widely obtainable and more expensive later. So enjoy try it, enjoy it, or stock up now. 

Lidl and Aldi tend to change their stocks regularly so there is always something new and interesting and you have to grab it when you see it.

Europe and the USA

Aldi shops are all over Europe and in America. Their website says so.

My website search turned up a macaroni cheese with truffles in Virginia, USA.

I also found a writer who had compared the cheap supermarket truffle cheese with a speciality shop truffle cheese. The flavour was equally adequate in both. The two cheeses with different styles, one harder, the other softer. The writer said neither was better than the other. They were just different and you might prefer one to the other. 

On going to live in another country, with unfamiliar brands (such as milk in Singapore) we usually buy one of each to find out whether we are satisfied with the cheaper brand or want to pay more for the alternative.

However, for a one off purchase, I think you would be quite happy with the cheapest brand of truffle cheese, which is an entertaining novelty even for those who are not keen on truffles, such as my husband. For those who love truffles, me, what a delight! Delightful taste, and attractive price.

Useful Websites

USA macaroni cheese

https://www.lidl.com/products/1139174

How To Run A Rotating Dinner Party In a Bubble of Six People (with or without babies)

This is how we ran a rotating dinner party for a bubble of three couples who met at an ante-natal class run by the council for home births when I was pregnant.  (Running a party, all at home later in this post.) 

A dinner party, I hear a voice enthuse. "Yes, I'd like to attend - so long as I don't have to cook!" 

Another voice protests, "That's not fair." 

A third voice placates them: "We can sort this out."

Tell the reluctant cook: 'Take a grapefruit for each couple. Cut a grapefruit in half at the hostess' s house with her knives? How difficult is that?"

The hostess can cut the grapefuit horizontally with a zig zag. Add half a glace cherry (from a bottle) in the middle. Serve in fine china. With a grapefruit spoon.

Grapefruit spoon with serrated tip. Photo from Wikipedia.

You could cook grapefruit and serve it with maple syrup and cinnamon. (Keep one back for those who prefer plain food or have allergies.)

How complicated should the menu be? We had a mix of people. One couple wanted to get out of the house but not have a lot of complicated dishes to prepare nor anything difficult to transport. Another couple, freed from morning sickness, but still unable to go out to restaurants often because of babysitting problems, wanted some decent food. The third couple weren't sure of their success at complicated dishes, but were willing to try. 

A compromise was reached. The reluctant cooks were given simple to prepare dishes. The others could do what they liked to add interest to the menu, with recipes, sauces or garnishes.

Same Menu For Each Young Couple, Changed Locations

Our first dinner party was with a set menu decided by the hostess. She sent the menu to the other two couples. Each couple cooked an entire meal for two, two starters, two main courses, and two desserts. The hostess provided the venue, the table, the cloth, table mats, napkins, crockery, cutlery, water glasses. For example, starter of:

Starters: Grapefruit: avocado pear, ham and melon. 

Main course: chicken and roast potatoes, beef casserole with rice, spaghetti bolognese. 

Dessert: apple crumble, chocolate pot, fruit salad.

We did not bother with drinking glasses because we were not drinking. The women had been pregnant or were breastfeeding or dieting to lose weight after pregnancy, and tired from sleepless nights. The men were driving. Check if any hosts or guests are vegetarian, have allergies, or religious or health requirements.o

The big surprise was that although we all had the same menu, the results from each couple were entirely different. Firstly, they had different serving bowls if they brought the cold starters or hot main courses or cold desserts ready made in a bowl, or serving bowl.

Secondly, they had used slightly different ingredients. Different flours, different sugars, different quality or size of fruits and vegetables. 

Different cooking times. Long, slow cook, griller, cooked in a fan oven.

 Different preparation, stirred or whisked. Folded with a fork or mixed in a blender. Meat cubed, cut into thin slices, or bashed with a meat tendriser, finely ground. 

Sugar, white or brown or powedered.  Nuts such as almonds, whole on top, chopped or ground.  

Different amounts of preparation time. Prepared on the day, or two days in advance which meant the food dried out and developed stronger flavour. Desserts decorated with sprigs of mint, silver balls, sprinkled with multi-coloured sugar 'hundreds and thousands', or paper parasols. 

We usually gave two different version of the same dish to each couple. Not the one they had made, because they had usually already tasted because they had done a rehearsal of that earlier in the week, but one each person of the two other versions of the dish, so that the could share and try both other versions. 

Our venues were in different areas of north west London, all within the hospital catchment area.

Estate Party Within Walking Distance

I told my next door neighbour about my antenatal dinner parties. She revealed that she still went to a rotating dinner party from a nearby estate where she had previously lived. This group was confined to people who lived within walking distance of each other, mostly in the same street, in the housing estate. It had started with two friends in the same street, spread to their friends, and grown to about eight couples, one of whom, my neighbours, then moved to a parallel street nearby. 

If you are able to travel to make a group of six, at each event the host couple provided the main course. One of the other couples brought the starter. Another couple brought the dessert.

The host family provided water or other drinks on arrival. They also provided coffee or tea after the meal. 

Move on to main course.

Own Food and Cutlery Variation

You can run another variation of this dinner by each bringing your own food and crockery and cutlery in a picnic box. You go to the toilet beofre leaving home. You limit drink at the destination. You stay no longer than two hours so you don't need the toilet.

Alternatively, the host divides the toilets, if they have a bathroom and separate toilet, or a bathroom with two sinks for hand washing. One is for visitors, the other for the host family. 

One family I know moved house for a husband in a wheelchair to have a downstairs bedroom in a converted garage. A small downstairs room was converted into two tiny toilet and wash basin facilities. 

This could be done under the stairs in the UK or Europe or the USA. 

Garden Locations

In London, England, in October 2020, we just went into lockdown with you only allowed to meet in outdoor places. You can hold a garden party with a long table for six.

Invest in a gazebo and use the roof, but not the walls, so you are protected from the rain, but have freely moving air to protect against the spread of coronavirus. This might cost five hundred pounds. But if your family holiday travel is cancelled, you might instead invest your savings in this. 

Sukkah Structure

One Jewish family I know had an awning used to help provide the structure for a sukkah for the autumn harvest celebration of sukkot which involved eating outdoors, in either a garden, or a balcony with a view of the sky overhead (until the temporary structure is built. 

Angela in sukkah for sukkot.

Use outdoor heaters, or wear ski clothes to keep warm.

In Asia, such as Singapore, flats and condos often have a separate scullery for washing dishes, and maid's toilet, plus the main family bathroom and kitchen)

Babysitting Options

The host family had no need of a babysitter. The other couples had to find a granny or neighbour, bring their baby with them and keep it within sight, sleeping in a stroller. 

Troubleshooting

1 Provide a map of your location, the address, email, and phone number of the hosts and other guests.

2 Check the time needed for any journey, the weather forecast, the latest on traffic. 

3 Make sure all cars are full of petrol (Americans say gas) so nobody runs out of petrol on the way there or the way home.

4 Carry jump leads in case you are called to rescue a guest or need a link to get them to start your car.

5 Make sure all your family phones are charged. Carry with you the connectors to charge your phone in the car from the cigarette lighter. Note that in some countries it is now illegal to handle your phone or look at it when driving. The passenger can be in charge of the phones and directions. Instruct the passenger in advance on how to use the phone, answer a call, log in to or set the satnav.

6 Set up your second phone to watch your sleeping baby.

7 If you are in lockdown, you could do this with your rescue bubble, or your carers.

If you cannot travel at all, run an at home dinner party. You all make the same food and drink the same drink.

You form a Zoom group for a party. You can dress up in your party clothes, or dress down. Toast each other and wish each other good health, or say prayers, at the start of the meal. Go around the table with stories of good news or good memories. Serve the first course in each home. Discuss the recipes and cooking and drinks. Who eats healthy, has allergies. Best memories of family meals. 

Have a break. Can't talk? Play soothing music. Allow each person to introduce one song, play a musical instrument, lead a sing-song, introduce a composer. Read a short story, or tell a joke. If you are in different countries, describe the food or customs of your country. All in the same place, describe where you used to live. 

If food and drink are not the main attraction of the evening, you might like to appoint an entertainment host.

Finish with thanks to the hosts and guests, clearing the table, planning the dates of the next event, ensuring that travellers have a means of transport. Check that everybody reaches home safely.

On reaching home send thanks to the organizer or host.

If too late, send thanks and photos next morning.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grapefruit-Melon-Spoons/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit

https://wikirecipes.net/

https://www.notenoughcinnamon.com/maple-syrup-cinnamon-baked-grapefruit/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

See next post on eating outdoors.

Delicious After Dinner Dessert Chocolates From Ireland, Sold in London

No time to make creme caramel for dessert, and no time to try key lime pie? If you are passing a Morrisons supermarket in London, look for the O'Brien chocolates. They have classic desserts encased in chocolate, and make a great gift for your host or hostess, if you are invited to a dinner at somebody's home or a restaurant.

I sampled them at a dinner club dinner in somebody's home.

Translation

Torte - French for tart

Posset  - an English word for something like a syllabub. 

"A posset was a British hot drink of milk curdled with wine or ale, often spiced, which was popular from medieval times to the 19th century. The word is mainly used nowadays for a related dessert similar to syllabub. Wikipedia

Syllabub is an English sweet dish described by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a drink or dish made of milk or cream, curdled by the admixture of wine, cider, or other acid, and often sweetened and flavoured."Wikipedia "

Banoffee - a combination of banana and toffee

Crème Brulée - French for burned cream. The down accent on the first e means you pronounce it as crem to rhyme with hem or them. The up accent on the first e in the second word means you pronounce it as ay to rhyme with say or pay or day. The word burned is because in some recipes you use an electric flame to burn and turn the sugar scattered on top into a rock hard lid. But in these chocolates as in many modern versions it is served just as a very rich custard cream.

Key Lime

An Indian friend asked what was key limey. 

 'Key limey pie', which I read as Key Lime Pie, is a variation on the American favourite, Key Lime Pie, served in many restaurants and fast food outlets as a dessert or tea time snack, in Florida's Florida Keys area and the South of North America. 

The pie is a strongly flavoured lime pie, like lemon curd but made with lime, usually open top so you see a yellowy green. Heavenly. Limey was a word for British sailors who took limes on ships to prevent scurvy, caused by lack of (fruit containing) vitamin C.

Aperitifs and Mystery Wines
We started with olives, cashew nuts, smoked salmon canapés and salamis, standing chatting in the back living room.  One of the group of visiting diners, a single widower, was celebrating a birthday and had brought along a half bottle of Sauternes to share as an extra unexpected dessert wine.

Dividing Wines
Each bottle of wine was divided amongst about twelve of us, just a small sample of each wine, less for the drivers. I am not keen on either red or dry wines, so I had just a small sip of most, using a spoon to not contaminate the glass. Then I passed my share on to somebody else. Later I tipped unwanted wine into the overflow beaker. We kept our wine glasses throughout the evening and meal from aperitifs until dessert wines and had to empty our glasses after each wine for the next wine.

We sampled two mystery whites to start and a guessing game to see which country and grape had been selected. Having chosen a chatting companion, we moved into the dining room, no set places.

Main Courses
The giant casseroles of meats were brought in and had a choice of venison stew (similar to beef stew) or pork, or both, with roast potatoes and green beans. The root vegetables of parsnip and carrots were placed on a side table. I was wedged in and had a full plate by the time I saw the extra vegetables and decided to finish my food before opting for yet more.  Red wines go with meat.

After that along came the cheese (a runny, soft brie, a hard cheddar and a tasty blue stilton). The cheese was accompanied by two assortments of crackers and biscuits.

I was beginning to think I would get neither dessert nor chocolates, when along came the chocolates which were a combination of miniature desserts encased in chocolate.

Wine Tasting Clubs and Dinner party Clubs
I belong to two or three wine and dinner clubs, run as part of or offshoots from wine societies. They way the club works is, you rotate member's homes. The mailing list of participants, perhaps 10-80 people, is sent the venue and menu of the wines in the circulation list of a wine club, the food in the list of a food club.

To cut down on the time spent cooking, you can serve olives and cashew nuts or peanuts or crackers on arrival. Alternatively, serve smoked salmon with crackers, or bread cut into small pieces.

Dinner Party Clubs
The first dinner club I belonged to was started by some members of a National Childbirth Trust Group. They had become friends whilst attending ante-natal classes. Since they needed babysitters, it was convenient to have a dinner at home. (Some only attended the meal they served.) Or to have babysitters from the group. Or to attend cheaper dinners when they had the expense of a baby. Or to have dinners where other guests were interested in talking about babies. These clubs and dinners were sometimes teetotal, because of the mothers breastfeeding, or not drinking during the recent pregnancy, or to keep down the cost of the dinners as well as reducing the washing up.

Empty Nesters and Triple Venue Clubs
I've heard of other clubs for older empty nesters, couples with teenage children or no children who need babysitters. At least one of these clubs evened out the work and cost by having a dinner for three or four couples at each home. This is done for people who live on the same housing estate, a small village, or one street, or all within walking or ten minutes' driving time. You start at home one for a pre-dinner drink (juice for anybody driving) and nuts or canapés or tiny snacks and get to know you or catch up chats. You might arrive prompts at 6 pm for 6.15 start, 6.45 leave, and fitted minutes walking or driving to the next home. You might have the hosts leaving five minutes before the guests.

Then you drive to home two for the starter, which could be something easy and cold such as a slice of melon with decoration, half a grapefruit.  Perhaps serve with bread and butter or a glass or half glass of white wine and/or juice and/or water.

Home Three for Main Course
Home three has the major preparation of a meat or vegetarian (or both) main course, often white chicken or white fish, or a vegetable quiche, made without eggs for vegans. You could have wine provided by another couple, if they make up couple number five. Alternatively another couple, a fifth or sixth couple, could make a second main dish, brought in a pot or dish and heated up in the oven or microwave) or the vegetarian option.

Home Four provides dessert. To save time this can be a cold dessert. (Or one which you heat up in a microwave.) They might also provide coffee. And / or after dinner drinks and chocolates. If you have more couples or wish to spread the time load, effort and cost, you make the coffee providers the Fifth or last couple.

You can also have an arrangement  where the host of each section provides only the seating and a cleared or laid table and glasses. One or more of the guests brings the  contribution such as a box of chocolates, bottle of wine, bottle of juice, biscuits or bread, cold vegetables or salad.

Another variation has each couple given the entire menu. Each cook prepares food enough for two couples.  The food is brought to one host's house. To your amazement, although everybody has cooked from the exact same recipe, you get to taste either two half portions of each course, or a tiny mouthful of each. But the result is that you get six totally different versions. For example, apple pie, simple.  Either you don't bother giving out a recipe.

Or you give out a recipe - but still get six different results. Either one person could not get sultanas and used raisins. One person forgot the cloves or left them out because of not liking them. One person mis-read the recipe and made crumble topping.  One person cooks a pie shape and give you a clock face cut, almost an elongated triangle. Another does squares. Another makes an individual circular pie for each diner in disposable foil or even a china ramekin. The result is different flavours and presentations.

Self catering holiday dinner parties
This would also work on holiday as a dinner party idea in a house party in a villa, or a complex with several self-catering flats. You could plan it at one or more venues for a group dinner on the last night, or first night, or second night.

For the easy end to the dinner, cook miniatures or buy the Lily O'Brien chocolates. Note the use buy and temperature control requirements of chocolates when travelling.

Go to the website of the lilyobriens company and you can watch the video made by the founder of the company about how she was inspired to start her chocolate company when she was travelling. The company is based in Ireland and is named after the daughter, Lily. According to the website, you can order a box of mixed gift packs, and chocolate boxes with your family photo printed on the outside.

https://lilyobriens.co.uk/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author, speaker.