Ode to Marks & Spencer

With our arrival into County Clare in the south of Ireland yesterday and a very drizzly, gray day today, "the damp" has put a spell on all of us which has resulted in quite a lot of lying around, snacking, and watching movies.  So I thought I'd take advantage of this laziness to do a special blog post, extolling the virtues of one of my favorite shopping experiences in the UK and Ireland:  Marks & Spencer.

I can think of no equivalent to M&S in the US.  Clothing, household, groceries and cafe, all under one roof.  I can only explain it like this:  take the styling and clothing of an average department store--say, Kohl's--and pair it with a combination of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, but put all the food under the same branding and make the packaging really snazzy and uber-tempting and classy.  And then add in a mod little cafe which serves lunch and tea--toasties and free-range egg salad sandwiches and scones, oh my.  That doesn't even really translate, but it's the best I can do.  Let me say this:  it's the most fun Lesli Douglass can possibly have while grocery-shopping.  I loved it when we lived here, but now that we've been away and my passion for food has caught on like cherries flambé, it is even more mesmerizing to me.  I can't help myself.

 The Marks & Spencer's Food Hall in Dublin--first M&S stop of the trip.  Love affair officially aflame.

 Have you had a profiterole?  Think small little ball-version of an eclair:  choux pastry, stuffed with cold custard cream, topped with a chocolate blanket.  There's a reason they come in a stack--can't eat just one.

 I like trifles, and especially on this side of the pond, but the packaging made me put it in my basket.

 Sweets aren't your thing?  Hello, savory TV tray of cuteness.

 Food hall :: two of the loveliest words in the English language.

 Imagine being able to walk in a store on any given day and just purchase crustless egg salad sandwiches.  Imagine!!

 Quick, help me think of a way to transport chilled items back in my suitcase.

 I'm torturing myself.

 8 more little designs for children, just as cute as this.

 Folding picnic mat covered in Union Jacks?  I'll take two.

 Cookie tins.  LOVE.  This one was filled with little chocolate chip cookies.  Dear US cookie tin manufacturers, we can do better than cheesy sleigh-riding Christmas scenes.

 I didn't even know I was hungry for pizza untill I saw this.

 Okay, they have healthy food, too--and just as snazzy.

 At home, I would turn up my nose at a pre-packaged cake.  Scalloped packaging with cute cursive font on it?  Okay.

 Feeling snacky.

 Please take in the fonts, the descriptive tempters, and the thought of having your mouth come alive in a way you never knew possible.  Bought this first bag, consumed, back for 4 more bags.

 I know someone who wishes this had actually gone into the basket.

 Hm.  Pink and powder blue and gold Queen's Diamond Jubilee cookie tin?  No idea what's in it, but I'm buying it for the tin.  That makes two tins in my basket.

 I mean!!!

 My mouth just made a purring sound.  Can you imagine this paired with the cheeses?  I feel faint with euphoria.

 How I've started the majority of my mornings here:  vanilla yogurt with vanilla bean flecks throughout, topped with fresh berries.  I'm already sad because I can't think of one vanilla yogurt I've ever seen back home with FLECKS in it.  Our time is short, Madagascan vanilla heaven--let's make the most of it [dramatic flourish of old-timey romance movie music].

 Unless you were foggy before, cheese is one of my main love languages.  Please take note of the labeling, fonts, and descriptors.  The words "savoury tang" on a food label??  They're selling and I'm buying.

 You received your lesson on wheaten bread in yesterday's blog.  This is purely for reinforcement.

 The new-ish Marks & Spencer at the Abbeycentre in Belfast, which is near where we stayed and used to live.  I could've just checked in and spent the night.

 The M&S cafe.  I wish there was ANYWHERE in Knoxville, Tennessee that I could go at any given moment to have an egg salad sandwich, scone and jam, fruit cup (in an elegant little footed cup, btw) and hot tea w/"teapot for one" with a little bikkie on the saucer for lunch.  ANYWHERE.

 For $5, Mamie gets a kids meal with crustless sandwich, carrots and cucumbers, a tangerine, little Percy Pig graham cracker biscuits and a juice box.  Frances the badger would be right at home.

 Mamie's newest stuffed friend, Hedgehunk.  She wants to call her a chipmunk, but then remembers she is a hedgehog.  Given during a visit to our sweet former neighbors, Jim and Jean Simms.

 Finishing up our M&S lunch and getting ready to depart Belfast!  It was a bittersweet experience, especially for Hedgehunk.

 These two!!  Luke and Walker, two peas in a pod, makes that clamp on my heart tighten up just looking at this!!

 Was there ever a more appropriate sentiment??

 After trying to communicate proper camera frame placement to my husband, he decided to channel his inner comedian with this shot.  Don't quit your day job, honey.

  The farewell shot of the Bennetts and Douglasses--waaaaaa!!  And at Marks & Spencer, no less!!  Notice Mamie's strategic positioning on Luke's lap.;-/  We will miss you all like crazy--already do!!!