Latest news with #cream
BBC News
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
M&S strawberries and cream sandwich: Japanese fruit sando hits high streets
Strawberries and cream – an iconic British combo since the 1800s. But do they belong together in a sandwich?M&S has rolled out a limited-edition strawberries and cream sandwich, made with strawberries, whipped cream cheese and sweetened bread, which it says is inspired by the "viral Japanese fruit sando". The supermarket chain says it was its top-selling sandwich the two days after its sandwiches are available at some Japanese bakeries in the UK, but M&S's offering appears to be the first time they have been widely available on supermarket idea of serving fruit in a sandwich might sound unusual but it's nothing new in Japan. Known as "furutsu sando", they became popular after Japanese fruit shops opened parlours selling desserts for customers to sample their recently became sought-after around the world after going viral on social media, with Western tourists on TikTok scrambling to get their hands on the version sold in Japanese convenience store chain 7-Eleven. Fruit sandwiches are typically made of sweetened, soft, spongy white bread filled with whipped cream and fruit, typically strawberries or clementine, says Shuko Oda, chef at Koya restaurant in London. They're usually cut into triangles so that the fruit is on display."It looks quite pretty," Shuko says, adding that the sandwiches are a "fun play on texture".Some people in Japan make them at home, but they're more commonly bought from convenience stores, food halls or dedicated fruit sando stores, she says. People often enjoy them as a snack with tea or coffee or served on a plate alongside savoury sandwiches. In the UK, it's not as uncommon as you might think to pair fruit with slices of bread for a sandwich. Think of banana sandwiches, served with the fruit sliced or mashed, or the nostalgia of childhood jam sandwiches. Coronation chicken sandwiches are made with dried apricots or sultanas, is a sandwich, at its core? Does it have to be savoury? And does it have to even be made with typical wheat bread - take the jibarito, for example, which is made with fried plantain instead. What about Scandinavian open sandwiches? And if they count as sandwiches, then what about French toast topped with fruit and sauce? The Oxford English Dictionary says sandwiches are made of two thin slices of bread, usually buttered, "with a savoury… or other filling". Though humans have been making bread for thousands of years, the sandwich as we know it today is said to owe its popularity to John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. The story goes that he asked his staff to bring him meat between two slices of bread so he could continue playing cards without stopping to of the sandwiches we eat in the UK would raise eyebrows around the world. Take crisp sarnies, coronation chicken sandwiches, or the humble chip butty. But if you're feeling inspired by Japan's strawberry sandos and want to up your sandwich game, here are some more sandwiches from around the world. Bánh mì Bánh mì is a Vietnamese sandwich served in a baguette, typically filled with meat, pate, pickles and spicy sauces. It's usually eaten for breakfast. BBC Food has a recipe made with sweet and spicy pork belly and chilli sauce. Croque monsieur Croque monsieur is a French sandwich served hot with gooey, melted cheese. It's made with white sauce, cheese, ham and mustard, cooked under the grill. To mix it up, served with a fried egg on top and - voila - you have a croque madame. Po' boy A po' boy, which comes from "poor boy", is a New Orleans street food sandwich that celebrates Louisiana's seafood. A huge variety of fillings are available, but the most popular include fried shrimp, crab or lobster nestled among lettuce, remoulade and pickles. BBC Food has a simplified version you can make at home more easily using frozen scampi. Arepa Rather than using bread made from typical wheat flour, arepas are made using corn flour. They're also popular in Colombia, but it's Venezuela where they're most often made into sandwiches. One popular filling is Reina Pepiada, which combines chicken, avocado and coriander. Spaghetti or noodle sandwiches We're no strangers to doubling up on carbs in the UK - and the Australian spaghetti jaffle draws on the same principle. It is made by serving leftover spaghetti in tomato sauce inside a toastie. At convenience stores across Japan, you can also pick up a yakisoba pan - noodles served in a hot dog bun. Francesinha Francesinha, a Portuguese sandwich originating in Porto, is a cheese and meat lover's heaven. The impressive structure is made by filling a lightly toasted bread with a steak, sausage, cheese and ham. More cheese is then placed on top, and the whole sandwich is typically baked in the oven until the cheese melts and then served with an egg on top. A spicy sauce made with Port, beer and tomato is then poured over the whole thing. If that wasn't filling enough already, it's usually served with chips on the side. Additional reporting by Polly Weeks, BBC Food
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How strawberries and cream were a rare and exciting treat for Victorians – and then became a Wimbledon icon
Wimbledon is all about strawberries and cream (and of course tennis). The club itself describes strawberries and cream as 'a true icon of The Championships'. While a meal at one of the club's restaurants can set you back £130 or more, a bowl of the iconic dish is a modest £2.70 (up from £2.50 in 2024 – the first price rise in 15 years). In 2024 visitors munched their way through nearly 2 million berries. Strawberries and cream has a long association with Wimbledon. Even before lawn tennis was added to its activities, the All England Croquet Club (now the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club) was serving strawberries and cream to visitors. They would have expected no less. Across Victorian Britain, strawberries and cream was a staple of garden parties of all sorts. Private affairs, political fundraisers and county cricket matches all typically served the dish. Alongside string bands and games of lawn tennis, strawberries and cream were among the pleasures that Victorians expected to encounter at a fête or garden party. As a result, one statistician wrote in the Dundee Evening Telegraph in 1889, Londoners alone consumed 12 million berries a day over the summer. At that rate, he explained, if strawberries were available year-round, Britons would spend 24 times more on strawberries than on missionary work, and twice as much as on education. Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here. But of course strawberries and cream were not available year-round. They were a delightful treat of the summer and the delicate berries did not last. Victorian newspapers, such as the Illustrated London News, complained that even the fruits on sale in London were a sad, squashed travesty of those eaten in the countryside, to say nothing of London's cream, which might have been watered down. Wimbledon's lawn tennis championships were held in late June or early July – in the midst, in other words, of strawberry season. Eating strawberries and cream had long been a distinctly seasonal pleasure. Seventeenth-century menu plans for elegant banquets offered strawberries, either with cream or steeped (rather deliciously, and I recommend you try this) in rose water, white wine, and sugar – as a suitable dish for the month of June. They were, in the view of the 17th-century gardener John Parkinson, 'a cooling and pleasant dish in the hot summer season'. They were, in short, a summer food. That was still the case in the 1870s, when the Wimbledon tennis championship was established. This changed dramatically with the invention of mechanical refrigeration. From the late 19th century, new technologies enabled the global movement of chilled and frozen foods across vast oceans and spaces. Domestic ice-boxes and refrigerators followed. These modern devices were hailed as freeing us from the tyranny of seasons. As the Ladies Home Journal magazine proclaimed triumphantly in 1929: 'Refrigeration wipes out seasons and distances … We grow perishable products in the regions best suited to them instead of being forced to stick close to the large markets.' Eating seasonally, or locally, was a tiresome constraint and it was liberating to be able to enjoy foods at whatever time of year we desired. As a result, points out historian Susan Friedberg, our concept of 'freshness' was transformed. Consumers 'stopped expecting fresh food to be just-picked or just-caught or just-killed. Instead, they expected to find and keep it in the refrigerator.' Today, when we can buy strawberries year round, we have largely lost the excitement that used to accompany advent of the strawberry season. Colour supplements and supermarket magazines do their best to drum up some enthusiasm for British strawberries, but we are far from the days when poets could rhapsodise about dairy maids 'dreaming of their strawberries and cream' in the month of May. Strawberries and cream, once a 'rare service' enjoyed in the short months from late April to early July, are now a season-less staple, available virtually year round from the global networks of commercial growers who supply Britain's food. The special buzz about Wimbledon's iconic dish of strawberries and cream is a glimpse into an earlier time, and reminds us that it was not always so. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Rebecca Earle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Is Marks & Spencer's Wimbledon-inspired strawberry and cream sarnie a Grand Slam... or a total flop? We try the sandwich everyone is talking about to find out
One major British institution has paid homage to another, as Marks & Spencer has released a strawberry and cream sandwich just in time for Wimbledon - but is it a Grand Slam or a total flop? Celebrating the traditional summer treat, the UK supermarket has unveiled a limited edition sweet snack, inspired by Japanese 'sweet sandos'. Retailing for £2.90 at the High Street Kensington branch, the shop opted for brioche-style sweet bread, filled with soft cheese and crème freche that housed full, decadent slices of its curated Red Diamond strawberries. And sampling the fruity snack, FEMAIL awarded it a full three points. With a sandwich where ingredients are minimal, quality is key - and M&S more than delivers on that front. On first bite, I was wowed by how fresh and richly sweet the berries were, cutting through the creamy barrier with a fragrant tang. The specially grown variety, provided by 'trusted M&S Select Farms' are 'left to ripen for longer to ensure they're deliciously sweet and juicy', proving their prowess in not just their huge size but juicy crimson red hue. The supermarket isn't stingy either, offering a solid spread of three big strawberry halves. Elsewhere the cream mixture - thickened by the addition of cheese - added an icing-like feel to the sandwich whereas as the sweet bread resembled a cakey sponge. The offering felt more like a dessert than a sarnie - and was presented more like one - so expect to fill up on the sugary flavours. While the sweet treat is certainly filling, I did notice that it sat heavy in my stomach for the rest of the day, and I wasn't able to finish it all. Strawberries and cream are a quintessentially refreshing two-ingredient snack; so adding another carb element to it certainly made the meal feel more staunch. The only thing I felt it was lacking was a third addition - perhaps a new texture like a runny jam or a crunchy smattering of sprinkles. It's also not one you can nibble on throughout the day. Within a few hours, the remnants of my sandwich started sagging and falling apart. And M&S isn't the only brand to offer a Wimbledon-themed treat; American restaurant Subway is offering free strawberry and cream sandwiches for one day only. Selected locations will give away subs to fans on Monday 30th June 2025. Lighter and less sweet than the cakey M&S sandwich, strawberry slices, clotted creme and a fruity puree are laid out on savoury Italian white bread. While the ingredients don't feel as flavourful as the UK supermarket's, Subway offers a more delicate treat that doesn't settle as intensely. The creme mixture is less decadent, but allows for a more relaxed and moreish snack. Each participating Subway restaurant will have 100 6-inch Strawberries & Cream Subs to give away on its single day debut; in the below locations: Wimbledon (6/6A Hartfield Road), Birmingham (80 Smallbrook, Queensway), Liverpool (Central Shopping Centre), Derby (Pride Park) and Bristol (Galleries Food Court). Marks & Spencer announced the release of their product - inspired by Japanese fruit sandwiches which originated as fruit shops opened near major train stations and business districts in the early 1900s - earlier this week. As these businesses grew, many began to open cafes to allow the public to access luxury fruits at a reasonable by incorporating them into dishes such as parfaits, shortcakes and sandwiches. M&S said that while its latest creation may be mistaken for a dessert, shoppers will find it in the regular savoury sandwich section. It added the sandwiches were available to purchase in stores now, with some customers claiming to have already tried it. Lighter and less sweet than the cakey M&S sandwich, strawberry slices, clotted creme and a fruity puree are laid out on savoury Italian white bread One person rated it a '100000/10' and said it was the 'best sandwich ever' while commenting on M&S' Instagram account. Another said: ''I have tried this already and it is berry berry good.' A third penned: 'Where are my car keys!!!! I need to get this NOW.' A fourth commented: 'I might have to treat myself to one on the way to work tomorrow,' while another compared it to 'cake on the go'. M&S said: 'Inspired by the Japanese sweet sandos, recently spotted popping up in London 's trendiest Japanese patisseries, our product developers have long dreamed of creating a dessert sandwich. 'With our exclusive Red Diamond Strawberries at their juiciest best, the time has finally come to create the ultimate strawberries and creme experience.' M&S is saying its strawberries and cream sandwich is ideal for 'alfresco lunches, afternoon tea at home, summer picnics, courtside snack breaks or a sweet afternoon pick me up'. M&S Food first sold freshly made sandwiches in the 1920s, and expanded sales with pre-packed sandwiches in the 1980s. The retailer's food halls have sold four billion sandwiches to date. One person rated it a '100000/10' and said it was the 'best sandwich ever' while commenting on M&S' Instagram account Strawberries and cream are a popular British dessert often enjoyed in the summer months when the fruit is in season in the UK. The combination is thought to date back to the Tudor era, where dishes of strawberries and cream would be served at Henry VIII's royal banquets. It has also been made popular after being served at Wimbledon every year and is a popular snack with spectators. Wimbledon announced are raising the price of their world famous strawberries and cream for the first time in 15 years. The All England Club have taken great pride in freezing the price of strawberries at £2.50 per portion since 2010, but Mail Sport can reveal that will increase by 20p for 2025. A spokesperson for the All England Club commented, 'We have taken the decision to slightly increase the price of strawberries this year from £2.50 to £2.70. 'We feel this modest increase still ensures that our world-famous strawberries are available at a very reasonable price.' With tournament running costs increasing every year, the price hike shows even Wimbledon is not immune to the cost of living crisis. The club sell around 140,000 punnets per year, meaning the new price will bring in an extra £28,000. At £2.70 the event's iconic snack is easily the best value food on site. Wimbledon is also one of the very few sporting events which allows fans to bring in their own food and drink - including alcohol - so visitors on a budget can always bring in their own strawberries. They would not be as fresh as those served up at Wimbledon, however, who only serve strawberries picked that morning and shipped in from the family-run Hugh Lowe Farm in Kent.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
M&S rolls out strawberries and cream sandwich
Marks and Spencer has released a strawberries and cream sandwich. The 'dessert sandwich' is made from sweetened bread, red diamond strawberries and whipped cream cheese. The retailer, which was recently hit by a cyber attack, said the product was inspired by Japanese 'sweet sandos'. The east Asian nation's fruit sandwiches originated in luxury fruit shops but are now widely sold across the country. 'Inspired by the Japanese sweet sandos, recently spotted popping up in London's trendiest Japanese patisseries, our product developers have long dreamed of creating a dessert sandwich,' a spokesman for M&S said. 'With our exclusive red diamond strawberries at their juiciest best, the time has finally come to create the ultimate strawberries and creme experience. 'From alfresco lunches, afternoon tea at home, summer picnics, court-side snack breaks or a sweet afternoon pick me up, the Red Diamond Strawberries & Creme Sandwich is your go-to summer indulgence, wherever, whenever.' The pairing of strawberries and cream with a form of baked bread will be familiar to many members of the public. Jam and cream are the usual accompaniment to scones, which are traditionally eaten as part of a cream tea. Historically, British sandwiches are made using savoury fillings, such as ham salad or egg and cress. The lunchtime treats were first invented by the 4th Earl of Sandwich in the 1760s, who wanted to eat beef while playing cards without dirtying his hands. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said last year that she did not believe that sandwiches were a 'real food'. Sir Keir Starmer later hit back by saying they were a ' lunchtime institution '. Jam or cream first? By combining fruit and cream in a sandwich, M&S will avoid the controversy over the order in which jam and cream should be placed on a halved scone. The Cornish method sees the jam spread before the cream, whereas in Devon the cream is spread first before dolloping on the jam. Last year, a YouGov survey found that the Cornish approach was more popular in Britain, with 62 per cent of Britons favouring it compared to 28 per cent who prefer the Devonian method. But the poll of more than 54,000 Britons found that younger people are less likely than older generations to put jam on their scones before the cream. M&S Food first sold freshly made sandwiches in the 1920s, and expanded sales with pre-packed sandwiches in the 1980s.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
M&S launches dessert sandwich filled with strawberries and cream
Marks & Spencer has launched a dessert sandwich filled with strawberries and cream. The 'game-changing' limited edition Red Diamond Strawberry & Creme Sandwich is filled with the fruit and light whipped cream cheese on fluffy sweetened bread, the retailer said. M&S said its latest creation was inspired by Japanese 'sweet sandos' or fruit sandwiches. M&S said: 'Inspired by the Japanese sweet sandos, recently spotted popping up in London's trendiest Japanese patisseries, our product developers have long dreamed of creating a dessert sandwich. 'With our exclusive Red Diamond Strawberries at their juiciest best, the time has finally come to create the ultimate strawberries and creme experience. 'From alfresco lunches, afternoon tea at home, summer picnics, courtside snack breaks or a sweet afternoon pick me up, the Red Diamond Strawberries & Creme Sandwich is your go-to summer indulgence, wherever, whenever. M&S Food first sold freshly made sandwiches in the 1920s, and expanded sales with pre-packed sandwiches in the 1980s. The retailer's food halls have sold four billion sandwiches to date. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
