English cuisine week in Lidl shops in Poland

I remember good deeds, gdj67!

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No problem, it's nice to be niice ;)

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Merged: British week in Lidl

Next week there will a British week in Lidl. Besides Cheddar there will be cheese from Valley Spire - Stilton and Wensleydale. Are they to be recommended? There will be also be a rather extensive selection of British beers.

Thanks for the heads up. They have, in fact, had Valley Spire cheddar in my Lidl for the last few weeks (12PLN/400g.) Pretty good, too. If they have good Stilton at a reasonable price, I'll be a very happy herbert. My local Kaufland have a good one but it's 74PLN/kg.


Stilton is the king of cheeses, and Roquefort is his sublime French mistress. Wensleydale is Wallace and Gromit's favourite but not mine.

Any idea which beers?

Wit which kind of cheese can you compare Wensleydale?
As for beers...let's see... Old Speckled Hen, Hen's Tooth, Abbot Ale, Bellhaven Twisted Thistle IPA, Bishops Finger, Spitfire Kentish Ale, St. Edmund's Golden Beer, Belhaven Black Scottish Stout.

As for Cheddar, it seems Valley Spire is still offered:
lidl.pl/cps/rde/SID-80571FEF-3254E100/www_lidl_pl/hs.xsl/oferta.htm?id=323
Is it much different from the Hatherwood one?

No Polish cheese. It's crumbly and a bit tart. I'll certainly be buying some as I'm a complete cheese monster, but not as much as the cheddar and Stilton.


For my money Hatherwood is better because I prefer mature cheddar.


Oh, yes. A great East Anglian beer, although I can't remember drinking bottle or tinned Abbot. My brother used to serve a great pint of Abbot in his pub near Wisbech, Cambs. I remember him running up and down to the cellar during thunderstorms to put wet cloths on the barrels to prevent the beer going off. As for the others it seems we are going to have an embarassment of riches. Old Speckled hen, Bishop's finger...Lidl deserves much praise for this.

Thanks from me, too.

The Valley Spire is a bit bland, as Jon indeed said a while back. Mine wasn't back then, but seems to be now. I shall be hoping for Hatherwoods (Adams Foods) which is A1.

Unfortunately, the decent fish (cod or haddock) that was sold last time is not included this time. The fish & chips product is not recommended, in fact I'd say it's a load of pollocks. Mine was actually bitter -- perhaps I was just unlucky but there you go. I'd not buy it again. The cheese is yet to show up, officially tomorrow. The shortcake biscuits are too sweet, the marmalade is OK but not sure I haven't had better here in Poland from a local supplier. The tea I didn't buy as it's expensive. All in all, nothing to get excited about this time. Sadly.

Is shortcake the same as shortbread ( slightly salty - sweet biscuits ) ? If so how to they compare to Walkers from Alma and the ones they have in Marks and Spencer? It'd be good to know, cause the ones in Alma taste really good.. they cost 25 zlotys per small packet though

Nie! Sorry, I meant shortbread. lol

I'll try Alma's but if you know Sainsbury's in the UK, their Basics shortbread is quite good, or it was last time I was there. Problem is these biscuits are very fattening, more than average.



Not these: Sainsburys shortcake

So much easier and better to make than buy! Cheaper too.

I bought Hatherwood cheddar already yesterday.

Some branches have it on the shelf on the Sunday, others the next day. I reckon my one put them out in the afternoon or evening yesterday but officially they said "tomorrow". So, when I visit later, there'll be little left.

I've just de-cheesed my local Lidl. Hatherwoods @ 9PLN/400gr. Can't say fairer than that. Plus a pricier mature cheddar @8PLN/250gr. Oh, and the beer: Hen's tooth, Abbot, Bishop's Finger. It's all good at Lidl today.

Shopping trip for today...

4 x cheese
2 x bags of crisps
2 x baked beans (usually I get the ones from Tesco)
2 x marmalade
1 x pack of mini Triffles

Not too bad at all. And next week is American week :P

Unfortunately, animal rennet in that one. No thanks.


The baked beans have modified starch. Nothing special, therefore.

P*** poor selection this time. Let's hope they bring back the chip shop haddock or cod next time.

Fairly poor show for British week from Lidl although the cheddar was good (made by Adams Foods).

It's American Week now, or probably that should be American Day because much of it sold out around here within a few hours. I shall shortly visit a Lidl here to see if the peanut butter is sans palm oil but I should think it's sold out already. Last time, I saw at one chap with 20 or more (it was probably more) peanut butter jars at the checkout. I dare say others do the same and Lidl just can't provide that much stock to allow some customers to walk away with large quantities. Lidl should make it 3 per customer per trip through the checkout to try to make it fairer for the rest of us.

Of the British or English food still remaining at a random Lidl here, unsurprisingly the fish and chips product and chunky chips are in abundance, as are the teas. There's also scampi and some of the yogurts remaining. The cheddar of course sold out on day 1 or day 2. The marmalade likewise.

There's plenty of McK peanut butter left - at least for tomorrow I'd say. But it has palm oil and sugar. A more healthy peanut butter is just peanut butter and maybe salt or with very little fat or sugar added.

EG
hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/meridian-natural-smooth-peanut-butter-60079212

Somehow I've omitted the fact that they are selling all these ales for peanuts... when I've noticed that indeed they are selling them during the British week it was already too late. They were twice cheaper than what would you need to normally pay in Tesco or Alma.. shame

I did buy some shortbread biscuits though..

Cracked open the more expensive West Country mature cheddar this evening. I bought just one pack because of the price, but I'm going back tomorrow to get whatever is left. It is excellent.

If you were in Wro you could forget that. Every branch I know of here sells the cheese out fast, and by that I mean day 1 or day 2. Ditto the marmalade. I had thought the reasonably priced cheese problem was over when Lidl did the VS range, but it seemed to get more and more bland (as Jon said, and I disagreed at the time, but it turned out the less good batches were yet to reach here, and now VS seems to have vanished totally).

Went to Lidl yesterday. All the British beer's gone. Not surprising, really, as they were practically giving it away. The Hatherwood's cheddar, too. There were a couple of pieces of the more exotic cheese left, which surprised me as I didn't expect the locals to go for it. I managed to grab the last four packs of the excellent Somerset mature, and the last bit of oak-smoked cheddar. It's a great sign that Polish shoppers have finally discovered the joys of English cheese.

Here in my Lidl that cheddar is now part of the regular supply. It replaced Valley Spire.

And can you say where that is approx.? Warsaw?

Yes, to be more precise: Warszawa-Bielany.
I was there this morning and lots of cheddar available..

Thanks.
Are there so many Brits in Warsaw that it's worth Lidl's while to carry British foods? I think I must move there if so, Wrocław is really hard to progress in and it's increasingly pointless struggling here. Can't even get any decent cheese here unless willing to pay double what it should be, yet earnings around these parts are low.

Every Pole I've given cheddar to has liked it. My missus eats more than I do, and that's saying something. I reckon Poles have discovered it for themselves. As far as I know I'm the only Brit in town, so someone else is buying it around here.

maybe it is people who have spent time in UK and realised how marvellous our cuisine is?

Undoubtedly. That and the fact that most Polish cheese is boring. Re: traditional British cuisine, I'll be in the UK next week for the first time in a few years, and the first thing I'm going to have is a curry.

The cheese producers don't agree, or they'd have set up a lower cost supply chain here to increase their profits. Instead, it's only available in low volume (and high refrig. haulage cost) dribs and drabs. Poles I gave some to went "ugh sour nie" unfortunately. I think Lidl tried to sell some here with their VS range which was sort of medium mature but became bland and seems they've now pulled it which must mean it didn't sell. I certainly stopped buying it too. It would be great to have Hatherwood (an AF brand especially for Lidl) or something like it on tap, but unfortunately the only option here usually is to pay quite a lot per kilo in one of the main supermarkets for Kerrygold or Cathedral City.


You can have one in Wrocław. They're quite good at the restaurant in a basement in the Rynek, can't remember its name but have been there.

I am a bit surprised by that one. One of our daughters came back from our local Lidl one hour ago, and reported stacks of Hatherwood cheddar - in the regular "everyday" shelf.

Also a pallet of peanut butter/cheese (whatever you call it - I cannot stand it) right before the check-out. Nobody seems to buy it. Price is back (for the cheese) to 10,99, still decent for 400 g I should say.

But lucky for me they also keep on selling Belgian cheese :)

Thanks Sobieski.

Yes the peanut butter was moving quite slowly this time when I was in Lidl and they had a similar pallet. But, I dare say it's sold out by now because some customers by 20 at a time. I'm not sure why, it's quite average, and not the healthiest variety.

Are you sure it's Hatherwoods (in a black wrapper) and not VS cheese at 10.99? VS was 11.99 then 10.99 and recently it's either sold out or no longer stocked.

Sure it was HW. Price was 10,99 PLN though.