Eggfree Cake Box opens in Purley

My first cake from Cake Box was in East Croydon and since then I have been hooked.

They now have a branch in Purley which is bigger and more spacious conveniently located at the bus stop.

At the recent opening, they had free mugs and paper crowns so I got myself a mug as well as purchasing my favourite cake.

I got the coconut slice which is like a soft and fluffy Victoria cake sprinkled with coconut and decorated with Bounty.

Overall, Cake Box does not disappoint!

Would love to see them do Tray Bakes.

Yoplait frubes, petit filous and Yop

Yoplait has been around since I don't know when but the look and packaging has obviously changed.

You can now get frubes, YOP drinks etc.

Nutri beauty collagen drink

 A collagen shot drink that was fizzy and tart.

The East India Tea house breakfast tea

I don't often see many cafes serving this brand.

It's wasn't that memorable but it wasn't bad.

The Collective gourmet morello cherry

The morello cherry is new for Valentines day so I had to try it as a cherry lover.

It wasn't bad but the cherries tasted a bit artificial.

M&S collection mortadella with pistachio

I love Mortadella so was glad to see M&S have it.
As expected, the taste was just as good as the deli.

Aldi The Fishmonger Marinated Gravadlax Salmon 120g

I was craving for salmon so got the Aldi The Fishmonger Marinated Gravadlax Salmon which actually looked nice on the shelves with the bright coral colour glow and even colours.

Price at £3.35, it was reasonable and it visually reminded me of the gravadlax at IKEA.

To my surprise, the taste and quality was just like the ones at the IKEA restaurant so I was pleased that I got it.

The sweet mustard and dill dressing was not needed and nor did I like it because it was sweet.

Overall, would definitely buy this again.

@aldiuk

#ssgaldi

Aldi in store bakery reviewed

I didn't realize that Aldi in store bakery was only available at some store until recently.
You can check on the aldi website for your nearest which will have a bread loaf logo if there is one.
The range is the usual classics like Danishes etc and they even have vegan sausage rolls and Portuguese tarts.
Visually they don't look bad and remind me the ones at Sainsburys especially the maple plait.

Since, I was fortunate enough to shop at one of these locations, I got the new apple & cinnamon Danish, apple custard lattice and Raspberry & mascarpone crest. which were 65p each.

To be honest, they were not bad so if you like Sainsbury's in store products, you will like these.

I felt that they were slightly different in the sense the pastry was still a bit dense but the filling delivered even though they look on the thin side because the filling is deeply squashed in the dense pastry.

The Raspberry & mascarpone crest was seriously good as the raspberry curd was smooth and seedless.

@aldiuk

#ssgaldi

The Collective gourmet Strawberry matcha yoghurt

Every now and then, The Collective will come out with some enticing yoghurts.
This time it was Strawberry Matcha yoghurt where you have swirls of matcha and swirls of strawberry so to stir or not to stir.

As a foodie, I tried each of the elements on their own which will intuitively tell you if you would want to mix it or not.

The matcha flavour was delicate and nice while the strawberry seriously packed a punch so I did not mix it all up as the strawberry is going to be prominent.

I felt that more matcha would have been nice in ratio to the strawberry and overall if you mix it, the yoghurt is quite tart overall.

Matcha and yoghurt alone would have been nice.

Tempo Cezerye bar (hazelnut, carrot and coconut)

Tempo Cezerye bar (hazelnut, carrot and coconut)

Spotted this WEIRD bar at my local which I had to try because from the pictures, the pairing of hazelnut, carrot and coconut is just strange for confectionery and it seemed nothing like an English carrot cake.

To my surprise, it was really nice compared to the other snacks I tried in the Tempo range which are terrible.

Cezerye is a traditional Turkish snack made of caramelized carrots with nuts and coated in coconut.

The taste of this was nothing like carrot but sweet, chewy and nutty with delicate coconut and hazelnut pieces.

It was so nice that I will probably buy it again and it tastes exactly like this chewy coconut peanut candy in Asia but much nicer as it contains hazelnuts.

#ssgturkish

#ssgsnacks

Lidl Vitasia Japanese week review

It's Japanese week at lidl and I didn't expect to buy anything because I'm not a fan of Japanese stuff especially matcha.
Ended up getting the matcha rice drink because it was a rice drink, the matcha dessert because it was yoghurt and the ponzu yuzu a sauce that I like.
The drink was too sweet and the matcha was artificial perfume like and not the grassy type.
The yuzu sauce had artificial sweeteners on the aftertaste.
The matcha yoghurt was the only nice item but on the sweet side.

My second haul was the matcha flavour chicken breast slices, wasabi cheese and soft cheese spread with wasabi.

To be honest, they were all disappointing and why did they even bother if you cannot taste the slight bit of matcha or wasabi.

I mean, the gimmick fusion got the attention but it did not deliver.

The chicken slices were basically the usual chicken slices with the edges dusted in matcha which you are not going to taste.

The soft cheese and spread and cheese were just green in colour, other than that you could not taste the faintest bit of wasabi.

Although, wasabi cheese divides people, I could see it working because some cheese dishes actually have mustard in it so that it is not so heavy.

Other finds: matcha chicken slices, wasabi cheese, wasabi cream cheese, sauce selection etc.