What?!? Only recently? Have no idea how you lived till now without them - best seasonal treat ever. And it's not exactly gingerbread, close but not the same. I think I'm going to have one or two now.

Almost every christmas sweet here is almond based. Marzipan as well.

The typical shortbreads here actually have one of the words for fat in their name, so they are particulary soft and crumbly, they usually have quite a lot of almond as well.

And then there's the turrón.

Yeah, they only started selling them here in the last couple of years (that I've noticed anyway). And stroopwaffles... they're delicious too.

Yeah, they're not like gingerbread like a gingerbread man, they're softer. And they're covered in icing :)

Seems like lots of people bake cookies.

Do those cookies share a common element? Or is variety the only spice they have in common?

No common element except that they fall under the category of christmas cookies. Eleven different cookies this year and we are already planning to make an additional one next year :D

Gingerbread is completely unknowin here. When given to people, most think of it as some kind of compact and strange looking sponge cake, which they don't even want to taste because it looks "weird". I've even heard it being described as a "some sort of weird marzipan"

Add to that, that the only gingerbread readily available is mass produced supermarket ones (lidl mostly) and that's not exactly fine gingerbread.

I do like it, but I tire of it very quickly.

I can agree to that. What is really delicious is the original Nürnberger Lebkuchen!

That's ironic, as the lebkuchen gingerbread's from Lidl are amongst the best here... (but they're one of the few places that sell them at all, so that may not be saying much)

I can't imagine not having gingerbread, it's delicious. Do you get Jamaican Gingercake? It's like a really sticky ginger cake. Absolutely delicious.

That is probably really because you have few places that sell them. In my opinion they range on the lower side of the delicious scala :D

No, nothing with ginger. It's a practically an unknown spice. Outside of of fancy cuisine, nobody even uses it.

But then again, a christmas without almond based confections is something I can't even conceive.

Soft turrón is particulary tasty.
I had no idea lidl had spread to the UK as well. Are they putting Sainsburys out of business?

That's odd. Ginger and cinnamon are particularly common in Christmas dishes here (sweet ones anyway), it's supposed to be because they were expensive in the past so to be able to afford it meant you were well to do.

But fresh ginger is also delicious in savoury cuisine. Stir fries and curries are delicious with fresh ginger.

On principle, I do not think anything sold at lidl can be considered delicious, average is what best describes their products.

But they're the only place I can buy brezel bread.

Oh yeah, Aldi and Lidl have been here for about 10 years. Not doing much harm to Sainsburies (do you get them in Spain?) as far as I know. Sainsburies does really great stuff, the only place locally I can get a lot of stuff (like blood orange juice, I love blood orange juice, or Calvados, I love that too)

I can agree with you on that ;-) I have always avoided them whenever possible.

Yeah, me too. There's a whole push going on here at the moment to try and say that they're food is as good quality as anyone elses... which if you've ever tried their stuff you would know is rubbish. We only really go in for the odd stuff that you don't get in the regular supermarkets (they sell a decent selection of European foods, like the lebkuchen)