While I’m on the subject of food, I saw that Aldi is currently advertising a stand mixer somewhat similar to KitchenAid and somewhat cheaper too. This is all in connection with the Great British Bake-Off on TV (which is preceded by ads for Lyle’s golden syrup and Dr. Oetker – when I was studying in Berlin from 1967-68 I found Dr. Oetker so irritating – I couldn’t understand how baking powder could be branded – and did not anticipate Dr. Oetker being on TV in the UK fifty years later – I spent less time thinking about Axel Springer).

Apparently Lidl has something similar.

Aldi Ambiano Premium. This model has what are described as attachments for mincing, sausage making, pasta making and cookie making. From what I read it sounds like these elements are devilishly complex to put together. I am struck by the ‘cookie attachment’:

It looks rather repulsive here. It is a typical German thing, surely? Ihat is, all German meat mincers come with a device for extruding a particular kind of biscuit dough, but can non-Germans use such a thing? – I’ve just been reminded by SistaRay on Twitter that it’s called Spritzgebäck. There are quite a few English-language recipes online. I think they may be sold here as Viennese biscuits. Certainly worth trying.

I must say I probably no longer need a mixer. I did buy a Bosch one, which was a Which? best buy, but it turned out to have exactly the problems the Aldi mincer attachment is said to have: you virtually had to be a qualified engineer to work out how to operate it. Maybe OK if you used it every day.

Another thing that strikes me in the Aldi brochure is the wooden toy kitchen.

This fabulous Wooden Premium Kitchen is ideal for your little one to explore and engage with imaginative role play. Your child could be an extravagant chef in the kitchen making the most amazing meals on the hob, in the oven or using the microwave. Afterwards they can wash up the dishes in the Belfast sink, put ingredients away in the fridge and prepare an ice cold drink using the drink and ice dispenser.

This shocked me, because I gradually realized that this kitchen doesn’t do anything. It’s all ‘imaginative role play’. But I actually had a toy stove as a child, and I could really cook things on it – I can still picture the little slices of carrot I boiled (had not yet read Elizabeth David). This Japanese toy kitchen must be similar to it. I can’t remember candles or what fuel source it had, but it was one of my favourite toys. Nowadays, it wouldn’t be allowed.

• Oven – with opening & shutting door, shelf inside, and clicking dials

• Washing machine – with opening & shutting door and clicking dials

Clicking dials! That’s all it does.

I have already in this blog mourned the loss of Mr. Potato Head to be used with real raw potatoes. Just as well I am older now.

Poundland’s Toblerone rip-off seems to have been a peak too far. from The Guardian:

Poundland reaches deal with Toblerone makers over copycat bar

There is hope, however:

Poundland said that 500,000 of the bars, which are currently in production, would go on sale in December in “distinctive packaging” different from the light-gold wrapper it originally planned. …

 

Poundland said it would relaunch Twin Peaks in the new year “with a modified shape that still offers customers 180g of British-made chocolate inspired by the Wrekin and Ercall hills in Shropshire”.

It appears that Toblerone preferred making this settlement to risking a full court dispute.

This was quite an eye-opener for me. Whenever I listened to the Vaughan Williams setting of On Wenlock Edge, I stupidly assumed the Wrekin was a river, but that wouldn’t explain ‘his forest fleece’: