My top picks from the fresh meat section of the Marks & Spencer The Hague
In the Netherlands, only the Marks & Spencer store in The Hague has a large food hall. So when I went to The Hague to see the Chinese New Year celebrations, I also paid a visit to the Marks & Spencer store to see if they had any new food. I have tried so many items there already that I thought it would be nice to make lists of some of my favorites. Today's post will be about my top picks from the fresh meat section (as an extra, I will throw in some new discoveries).
Note: don't mind the expiration dates on some of the products too much, as several pictures are from a long time ago. It's not that they are selling products that are years past expiration date.
The British Oakham chicken (€7) looks very fresh in the bag and after roasting it, the meat is very tasty, juicy, and tender. I don't know if it is just because they wrote that they specially selected UK chicken farms they know and trust that I feel like the chicken has had relatively good treatment and that it is because of that, that it tasted better than the chicken I buy in a regular supermarket.
I often make chicken following my favorite roasted chicken recipe and have fries on the side. It saves me on washing pots and pans and everything is made in the oven, so I can just sit back and relax. I recently found these Simply M&S straight cut chips (€1.55) and they tasted really good with the chicken.
Since I last ate the BLT bagel at Bagels and Beans, I have been craving for more bagels. At the bakery part of the Marks and Spencer food hall, I found these bags of sesame seed bagels (€1.75). With these, I created a bagel, which is a combination of the Terriyaki-wasabi salmon and BLT bagel of the Bagels and Beans. Due to a lack of ingredients, the recipe is very simple, but still, very tasty!
- When they are about done, take out a frying pan and grill the smoked streaky bacon until the edges turn hard and brown. You can grill it longer, but I prefer it a bit softer in the middle.
- Mix wasabi and kewpie mayonaise and smear it generously on one half of the bagel and place the finished bacon strips on the other half. I normally can't take spicy food too well, but only with wasabi, I feel the spicier, the better.
- optional: add some lettuce under the bacon
Note: don't mind the expiration dates on some of the products too much, as several pictures are from a long time ago. It's not that they are selling products that are years past expiration date.
Simply M&S British Oakham chicken medium
It is a medium sized chicken of 1.5 kg (serves 3-4 people) and it is already washed and ready to cook. I find it strange that it says that you can just roast it in the bag, because I don't know how you are supposed to season or marinate it (after it is roasted?) and the plastic foil looks too much like what you wrap flowers with that I don't feel comfortable with placing it in the oven. Maybe this is exactly how my mom feels when I tell her that you can now bake muffins in silicone cups. To her, it feels very strange to put plastic in the oven too.The British Oakham chicken (€7) looks very fresh in the bag and after roasting it, the meat is very tasty, juicy, and tender. I don't know if it is just because they wrote that they specially selected UK chicken farms they know and trust that I feel like the chicken has had relatively good treatment and that it is because of that, that it tasted better than the chicken I buy in a regular supermarket.
I often make chicken following my favorite roasted chicken recipe and have fries on the side. It saves me on washing pots and pans and everything is made in the oven, so I can just sit back and relax. I recently found these Simply M&S straight cut chips (€1.55) and they tasted really good with the chicken.
Marks and Spencer British Aberdeen Angus Beef Casserole steak
The casserole steak is cut in large blocks and by searing all sides, it kept the meat juices inside. I think this is the one of the most affordable options to try out Angus beef in the Netherlands and it didn't disappoint. It had a really rich beef flavor and even though I don't really like eating large amounts of meat, I enjoyed it.Simply M&S British thick cut unsmoked back bacon
I once tried thickly cut bacon during breakfast on vacation in the UK and I was glad, I could find it in the Marks & Spencer stores in the Netherlands too. It is a bit on the expensive side, but it is nice when you want to have a lavish breakfast or brunch every now and then. It is nowhere close to the normal, thin bacon strips that I can buy in the supermarket. It is more like a thin and tender slice of pork, which is full of flavor, that you normally have during dinner.Simply M&S British smoked streaky bacon
Compared to the previous unsmoked back bacon, the smoked streaky bacon (€2.85) is thinner and it has more fat. With these, you can make very hard and crispy bacon strips suitable for sandwiches. It is already salted, so you don't need to add more salt.Since I last ate the BLT bagel at Bagels and Beans, I have been craving for more bagels. At the bakery part of the Marks and Spencer food hall, I found these bags of sesame seed bagels (€1.75). With these, I created a bagel, which is a combination of the Terriyaki-wasabi salmon and BLT bagel of the Bagels and Beans. Due to a lack of ingredients, the recipe is very simple, but still, very tasty!
Sesame seed bagels with crispy bacon and wasabi mayonnaise recipe
- Make the sesame bagels according to the instruction on the bag.- When they are about done, take out a frying pan and grill the smoked streaky bacon until the edges turn hard and brown. You can grill it longer, but I prefer it a bit softer in the middle.
- Mix wasabi and kewpie mayonaise and smear it generously on one half of the bagel and place the finished bacon strips on the other half. I normally can't take spicy food too well, but only with wasabi, I feel the spicier, the better.
- optional: add some lettuce under the bacon
