A poor person’s shop

Back in the day (twenty odd years ago) when R and I lived in Livingston, we would very occasionally go to Aldi.  It was crap – the sort of bargain basement shop that you wouldn’t touch unless you either had no money or everywhere else was closed.  Then J lived right next door to a big Lidl in Govan, and for many years it was moderately crap as well.

But gradually over the years we saw Lidl improve – even though Govan can hardly be a hotbed of people looking for exotic culinary treats.  As someone once observed when presented with the company motto “From good to great”, Lidl went “From shite to alright”.

Now in Cupar we are five minutes walk from Lidl and we shop there quite a lot.  I like it better than the alternatives (I have not forgiven Tesco for the New Zealand onions) and I would shop there all the time if they delivered.

Anyway, I fancied a Spaghetti Carbonara today and as we had some nice smoked bacon from the Blackfaced Meat Company and some decent parmesan cheese – I thought I would make one.  We didn’t have any spaghetti so J and I walked down to Lidl – ostensibly so that J could spend his coupons and get a free sweet bakery treat – but actually so he could try their “wine of the week”.  As we walked, I said “Well of course it should really be pecorino cheese and Guanciale, but they won’t have those in Lidl”.

Guess what?  It was Italian Week and look what they had.

Not only the cheese and the pig’s cheek but loads of other delicacies as well.  And it was all about quarter of the price of when I ordered it from a fancy online delicatessen.  Even the fact that they have a “wine of the week” tells you everything you need to know about them going up market.

And in the Middle of Lidl there were a whole load of power tools which look good and cheap.  When our car comes back from Hamburg (well R is in Hamburg, the car is only at the airport) we will need to go and get some.