Chatterbox

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

half way through, Sakkers. Back in a mo.

[Renee Profile]

I was quite shocked when I saw what was happening in the take-away business. Let's hope that there is some serious clamping down after this publicity.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Oh dear, the way my sausage burst this morning, it looks as if it's been disembowelled!

Harking back to my previous post regarding sausages, this time it's Tesco's Finest Cumberland, 97% pork. Very nice.

[Renee Profile]

Oh YUK!!!

I mentioned Tesco's Finest last week I think and they are really good. I'm glad that you enjoyed them.

[Alexandria Profile]

Renée,

Yes, it is quite an amazingly exceptional Spa, Hotel & Restaurant with lovely seaviews.

Sorry to hear, Collin is not a romanticist !


Sakkarin,

We have never seen anything like the video that you posted here in Spain ..

Surely, illegal in Spain as well as Italy !

Has the British Government ordered these " trailor park " type establishments to be closed down ? Are they legal in The U.K. ?

Do these establishments pay off The Municipal Food Inspectors ?

We do not have a large "take out" population, as we have bars on every corner as well as restaurants within 50 - 100 metres on almost every Street, so we can take out if we wish to, from our local bars where we know the staff and in most cases the owners as well .. We are very supportive of our local businesses and products here.
Restaurants of any type & bars of any type must be fully licensed and they are inspected here regularly and in Italy.

Best wishes and hope you are feeling better ..

[Joanbunting Profile]

No deivered takeaways in France either. The nearest we get are van selling pizzas, paella, rotisserie chicken and sometimes Vietnamese food which go round the markets and sometimes visit individual villages on set days of the week.

They are inspected very regularly, quite often unannounced. Of course we also have the bouchers/traiteurs which are usually great if you don't feel like cooking or going out

That sausage looks revolting Sakkers. M says he really misses a good Cumberland sausage so he makes do with andouilete instead. Not very sucessful in toad in the hole though!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

We have never seen anything like the video that you posted here in Spain ..

Surely, illegal in Spain as well as Italy !

Has the British Government ordered these " trailor park " type establishments to be closed down ? Are they legal in The U.K. ?

Do these establishments pay off The Municipal Food Inspectors ?

We do not have a large "take out" population, as we have bars on every corner as well as restaurants within 50 - 100 metres on almost every Street, so we can take out if we wish to, from our local bars where we know the staff and in most cases the owners as well .. We are very supportive of our local businesses and products here.
Restaurants of any type & bars of any type must be fully licensed and they are inspected here regularly and in Italy.

Of course such kitchens are not legal in the UK, and it’s unlikely the are paying off Environmental Health ( the local government department that inspects them); as this is a local service of course some towns are better than others.


There are two reasons cooking takeaways in a dirty trailer would not be legal in the UK, and they are the same as in any other developed country

1. You need planning / zoning permission to set up a commercial kitchen, which won’t be given for unsuitable buildings

2. You need to be checked over by the Environmental Health inspectors, who can close a kitchen. In the UK inspected premises can post their hygiene rating in the window - the “scores on the doors”. My neighbour (who serves eat in and takeaway) proudly displays a maximum 5.

How so many places can escape the regulations I don’t know, but I suspect that if the kitchen is in a building or temporary structure is not registered for planning and local taxes it doesn’t get on to the list for hygiene inspections, and I don’t suppose they have enough people to go and look for them if the public don’t report them.

I had noticed that takeaway shops no longer bother with expensive High Street shopfronts; as everything is delivered and there’s no passing trade there’s no point
Interestingly next door have started employing their own drivers again instead of relying on deliveroo

[Alexandria Profile]

Sue,

Thank you for all the feedback ..

Have a nice afternoon.

[Alexandria Profile]

Joan,

Some suburban & rural office complexes in other regions of Spain have set days where food trucks sell a variety of simple lunches, sándwiches, rice dishes and foreign starters and meals.

These trucks must be registered by the proper Government Official Ministeries, pay their taxes, declare income, and they are inspected for hygiene and checked on a regular basis (not told when) or they shall have their trucks impounded by the Police and the owners of these vehicles shall be imprisoned and / or stiffly fined ..

But it is not very common at all in Urban Cities as I have never seen any. I believe they are not allowed in the city of Barcelona or Madrid ..

I shall check .. but to my knowledge, we have never seen one.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Mobile food service exists here - as you say trucks, and is (in theory at least ) very regulated

The trucks go to markets, to music festivals, to agricultural shows and similar events. Some are very good, many are adequate, some I’d avoid. The best are often following the idea of doing just one thing well - so an Indonesian family for example will run a truck serving 3 or 4 Indonesian dishes, a cheap way of trying the cuisine (no air fare!) or a team with access to good meat will do a few kinds of grilled sausages. Yum.

I’m not sure what the legal position would be for prosecuting the delivery firms - they really shouldn’t handle food from any supplier without a good current hygiene certificate.

[cherrytree Profile]

I’m sorry Sakksron but that wasn’t a proper Cumberland sausage
For one thing, a Cumberland sausage comes in a long piece. It certainly shouldn’t burst which is why we bake it on the oven. Proper traditional Cumberland sausage has European protection- why any other without the word traditional was allowed to still be called Cumberland is beyond me. I suppose when the catastrophe happens at the end of March it won’t matter anyway.
I buy either about 1 foot for us both from the magnificent Tony Harrison in Cockermouth, or a pack which has about 2kg curled up.
Sometimes a group of friends get together and have Cumberland sausage tasting evenings when we compare about 4 different butchers’ recipes. Delicious if I make alight if I’ve brought back some Cantal from Lozere.

[Sakkarin Profile]

[cherrytree Profile]

Sorry. Aligot.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Tebay services used to do an individual coil of Cumberland sausage topped with a ball of stuffing. Yum.

[Alexandria Profile]

Sue,

Now, thinking about food trucks or lorries, the only time we have ever seen them (stationary) is at our uncountable Saint Celebration Holiday Street Fairs held in a wide variety of Spanish cities and towns.

However, they rent the space from the City Hall (Ayuntamiento), and the vehicle must be stationary. So, they must show identification for the vehicle, a seal of approval of hygiene, their driver´s licence, their national identity card or legal residence card, and they must show the products and have the bill of sales from the supplier and their sales receipts.

It is pretty strict here about these type of things.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

What a horrid and depressing documentary.
I've only every seen a resto here forceably closed down, due to staff not having work permits/ using illegal immigrants.
But it opened up again after the suspension, and introduction of new workers.

I do have a cumberland sausage meal if we go to the Lake District.
It seems right to do so.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Yes Member 461, the saint’s festivals are very similar to the sort of events at which the trucks and trailers appear here, they are static when working but of course move from one festival to the next. The regulations are much the same here

There are sometimes street food festivals or markets - just the trucks and stalls, but those are usually very well run and properly licenced

[dennispc Profile]

Nice baking Sakkarin.

Agree about supermarket bread. Over the past year we've bought more such bread than usual - can't believe how bad some of it has been, and I'm not thinking about places such as Asda or Tesco but Waitrose and M&S.

As for food inspectors, numbers have been cut so much it's not possible for them to do a complete job of their area.

[Uschi Profile]

We've had a surprise over here. Aldi and many other supermarkets now "bake" (i.e. finish off something half-baked) breads and breadrolls. Amongst them some amazingly good wholemeals.
I am partial to the sunflower/pumpkin-seed bread.

[Renee Profile]

Yes, we have the part-baked breads and bread rolls over here, Uschi. They come in very handy at times.