Marks and Spencer - New Food Hall Opening

Marks and Spencer 

Marks & Spencer is known for its high quality, exclusive and innovative food products, but I think the ‘Tastes of the British Isles’ range is really something special.

M&S scoured the British Isles to find good traditional recipes and then recreated them, so you can ‘taste’ your way around the British Isles enjoying the best of British.

Over the past week, I’ve tried a few of their products, so if you haven’t discovered Tastes of the British Isles yet, you can see what you’re missing out on!

Arbroath Lochmuir Hot Smoked Salmon Slices; I loved these, the salmon slices come in a pack of two and are seasoned with cracked black pepper, mustard and dill. Serve with a green salad for a light lunch or add new potatoes and fresh crusty bread for easy fuss-free summer eating at its best.

Pork and Egg Pie; nice and meaty, a good and what I’d call a proper pork pie.  As with all M&S food the egg is free-range.  Every slice apart from the very end slices had egg.

These pies are made by a Leicestershire company with 160 years’ experience.  The pastry was excellent too; yes I can honestly say this is by far the best pork pie I’ve ever eaten.

Elderflower and Cucumber Gin Fizz; this is so refreshing, just the thing for the lovely weather we’ve been having lately.  5.5%vol this ready-made cocktail made with white wine and elderflower extract, cucumber and gin.  Perfect summer drink that is a little too easy to drink!  You can really taste the cucumber; we loved it.

Hog Roast Sausage Rolls; made in Yorkshire with crisp all-butter puff pastry.  The sausage meat and pulled pork work well together. They had a nice flavour from the Bramley apple too.

Each sausage roll is topped with pork crackling and is ready to eat hot or cold, perfect for a picnic.

I heated 2 sausage rolls in the oven for me and Paul (the husband) to try and the crackling topping was nice and crispy - perfect.   When eaten straight from the pack without heating we found the crackling wasn’t at all crispy, still good to eat but thought they were far better served hot.

Cornish Cove and Bacon Posh Puppies; now I was pleasantly surprised as, to be honest, I didn’t fancy the sound of cheese inside a sausage and therefore wouldn’t be something I’d have chosen to buy.

But with that said, I’m so pleased to have tried them as they really are the best!  These Posh Puppies are meaty and nicely seasoned; a lovely smoky taste from the bacon and the Cornish Cove Cheddar was, well cheesy and very tasty.

Sweet Potato Wedges with Chipotle Chilli Mayonnaise; so easy to cook, just remove the wrapping, put the mayo to one side for serving.  Pop the wedges into a preheated oven and once cooked, serve.  Simply dip into the chipotle chilli mayonnaise - nice.

Old Fashioned Barbecue Sauce & Marinade; made from a classic English recipe with green peppers and a kick of British horseradish.  It can be used as a marinade for meat fish or poultry or you can use it as a sauce to top burgers.

Strawberries and Cream; you know how some strawberries can be tasteless?  Well, these Herefordshire strawberries were quite the opposite; packed full of flavour and every strawberry was a good size which is something you don’t always find in other stores.

Perfect served with M&S Extra Thick West Country Single Cream.

The 8,000 sq ft store will create 50 job opportunities for the local area and provide shoppers with more than 5,500 food and drink lines, including the Tastes of the British Isles range, along with a selection of flowers, cards and gift wrap.

Customers can also look forward to a new 50-seat Café and in-store Bakery, which will offer a range of speciality bread, pastries and cakes, freshly baked each day.

Disclaimer; I was provided with the products listed above in order to write this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.