Was in Coop SihlCity this evening and noticed they had a whole rack of various new foods from the UK that they've added to their assortment. I don't know any of these products but thought maybe there's something there one of you UK expats might have been looking for (see attached picture). The picture isn't very good, I quickly took it with my iPhone and also missed the bottom shelf which contained some canned product called Mushy Peas (forget the brand name).

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p, p, p, p, p, p, PICKLED ONIONS !!!!!!!!!

This was covered in a few threads already, it may be worth mergin it with this one and changing the title to something more general http://www.englishforum.ch/food-drin...asel-coop.html

I need to have words with COOP... Mrs Balls Chutney is as English as Nelson Mandela!!! Mrs Balls Chutney is to South Africans what vegemite is to the Aussies... a national institution, definitely not English!

But it's good to have it on the shelves in Switzerland

Quite an impoverished representation of contemporary British food IMHO.

And the wafers on the top shelf are Australian if I'm not mistaken.

Is that really Branston on the bottom shelf??????

Don't worry Grumpy,
They do look like Arnotts buscuits, but they are owned by Campbells soups which is American.

So an American owned Australian product badged as English in Switzerland..... Hmmm

Mushy Peas - Happy Days.

PS - for all you English food lovers, a very similar assortment can be found in Coop on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. Includes:

- pickled onions (get in!)
- paxo stuffing (superb!)
- Colemans mint sauce (now you're talking!)

And so on and so forth. Seems to be mostly focussed on condiments and cooking ingredients.

Items with a very long shelf life.

Has anyone who likes Paxo ever made their own stuffing?

Recipe reccommendation please?

I'm afraid I'm not jumping for joy.

I can't recall buying any of those things in the U.K.

But, judging by some of the reactions here, they've done their market research pretty well (I can't see brown sugar though).

I would have liked to see things like Malden sea-salt from Essex and perhaps currants which I haven't seen here.

well, it is a start... who knows, if we massively write to Coop, they may enhance the selection.
How about starting a voting post with a wish-list of items from all over the world? we could have a set of categories (cereals, candy, cookies, condiments...). Then we could print it and propose it to Coop? it will not work, but may give them ideas...

Something like boil up 4 onions then whizz them up in a foor processor with breadcrumbs, sage, salt and egg IIRC. Must be on t'interweb somewhere. But he's right - infinitely superior to paxo.

This is the stuffing I created when I had no other option.

Finely chop a couple of onions, gently saute in a good amount of butter until softened but not browned. Remove from heat and mix in breadcrumbs (I used Migros) season with salt and pepper and finely rubbed sage leaves. Add a beaten egg and mix. Finished. You can stuff poultry or role balls or put in a dish to bake.

For stuffing a Turkey I used the same basic recipe but added "kalbsbrät" a kind of very smooth sausage meat and extra fresh chopped herbs.

You can mess around with the basic recipe by adding different herbs eg. for Italian stuffed tomatoes I omitted the onion but added fresh garlic, basil and Parmesan cheese.

P.S I haven't met a Brit who preferred Paxo to my own stuffing....unless they were just creeping, when they said it.

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Even if the Coop supplied the various items, expats would be fainting in the aisle left right and center after looking at the prices.

Do you mean fresh or ...?

Also, do you mean red or black? Black currants are casis which I've seen used plenty here (I don't like them so mostly note to avoid rather than remember) and red currants are known here as johannisbeeren.

I picked up some Johannisbeeren jelly at Coop where it is in with the other jams and jellies. Tastes nice melted and used as syrup on pancakes. Also though, I've seen them fresh in season and my m-i-l grows a few bushes of them in her garden.

Currants in UK parlance are dried . . . like sultanas and raisins.

That's pretty much the tried and true recipe I've used for <mumble mumble> years. The only difference is that, instead of breadcrumbs, I rip up slices of day-old bread. You get a better texture. I've used dried mixed herbs instead of sage - also good.