Monday 16 January 2012

FOOD: The British Food Aisle

As good as living in America is, sometimes you get the total joy of finding the imported British food section in stores. Normally wherever you go they sell the same stock - including hobnobs, Yorkshire tea, Jaffa cakes, salad cream and mushy peas. But nothing finishes off your baked beans or bacon like HP and American custard is nothing compared to Birds. Sometimes you have to go back to your roots.

We stumbled across Irn Bru in the "posh" local food store for $1.99 a can, which is like £1.30, shockingly pricey when you compare the price marked upon the can itself for it's British RRP of 49p. But Irn Bru reminds me of childhood holidays in Scotland and buying it from my local fish n chip shop in Newcastle's Heaton area when I was a student. On the other hand the equivalent of 90p is always worth a Yorkie bar, especially when the relabelled information declares it has made in York upon it, that makes a Yorkshire girl happy.

If you moved countries what food would you crave and miss?

34 comments:

  1. Good for you- worth paying a small premium for a few home comforts xx

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    1. Too true, apart from wolfing down the Yorkie really fast!

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  2. If I moved to America I'd definitely miss british tea! And Cadbury's.
    Oooh, I'd just love to find new american treats though! One of my 2012 goals is to find an amercian penpal purely for this! Haha :) xx

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    1. Yeah luckily there's lots of English tea available even if it's just in a variety pack.

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  3. I cant imagine my life without easy access to a yorkie...or dairy milk...xxx

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    1. Yeah no dairy milk sadly but at least there's galaxy, just renamed as Dove, oddly.

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  4. Phew, lucky that Yorkshire tea is readily available, I wouldn't cope at all without that. How's the Heinz beans situation? Are spaghetti hoops a possibility? I wouldn't cope well without Cadbury's I don't think especially with Easter coming up (yeah, after Christmas is Easter! Yum!) I love Mini Eggs! xxx

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    1. You can get the Heinz baked beans but only the regular ones, non of the Weight watchers brand but we've been eating the "american" version of baked beans which are non Heinz, they come in various flavours with added bacon or brown sauce already premixed in. While they don't taste like Heinz, or at least the British version they don't taste offensive luckily.

      I haven't seen any mini eggs but I've already had some of the Cadburys creame eggs, although it did seem slightly smaller then the British version, or maybe they have decreased too?! Apart from that don't really see much Cadbury chocolate.

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    1. Ah true, have seen Lion bars though which are slightly similar.

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  6. I find American Chocolate weird...especially Hershey's. Give me Cadbury please!

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    1. Yeah it can be quite strong, however their Mistletoe Kisses are so so yummy!

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  7. How odd the things they do have over there and the things they dont :-)!

    I would miss................................ alot of things i cant decide!! :P

    P.s now following you hunni x

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  8. I would love to travel, but I am not sure what foods I would miss the most. I saw someone had posted about Hersheys being weird, but I would definitely miss Reese Cups, if they were not available.

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  9. haha, I just posted about how i want to go back to LONDON today. mmmm I love hobnobs and Yorkies! Although my favorite candy would have to be a starbar and smarties :)

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  10. I absolutely love this! Totally worth it.
    This is a stupid comparison, but living in Oxford can sometimes suck as I can't get foodstuffs I love from home, eg. Tayto crisps. They are so good. So good that I now am craving and I am going to buy some tomorrow.

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    1. I think a lot of the food stuff they claim as British is actually Irish, because there's lots of products i've never seen before! The names of things are currently escaping me! And saying that Irn Bru is so hard to find south of Newcastle in the UK it's amazing it's made its way to Detroit!

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  11. Irn Bru - all the way out there! That's one thing my son would really have to buy, no matter what price!
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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    1. Nothing really compares to Irn Bru at all!

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  12. My bf lived in Scotland for a year and became super addicted to iron bru, unfortunately it is pretty hard to find in Aus but maybe good for his health.

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    1. Yeah there is always that! Sadly moving to the USA got me addicted to Mountain Dew.

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  13. I live in Japan (and will be, like you, moving to America with my OH next year) and there is so much food I miss! Toffee crisps are the main one, also strong tea, good cheese, and roasting joints of meat. Luckily America has most of these things!

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    1. Well you say about cheese - cheese in America isn't all that good I will be honest. I'd say most of it was processed or out of a can. still hunting for decent cheese.

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  14. One thing that's not the same in America is cadburys.. It never tastes the same! always nice to find some home comforts! X

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  15. When I was a kid, I used to love Cadbury fruit and nut bars. I can still find it here in the States, but it's just not the same! The chocolate tastes very different, and there are hardly any fruits in it anymore :(

    ♥ laura
    the blog of worldly delights

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    1. I think I might have to hunt harder for the Cadbury!

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  16. Kinder Buenos and Kit-Kats! And I guess good old British fish and chips, and Robinsons Summer Fruits Squash, and omg I never knew that they don't have salad cream in America! Surely that's illegal?! Haha, I'll be in Los Angeles in 22 days. I can't wait! Bring on the Pop Tarts x

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    1. I think i've seen Robinson's squash in the British section!

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  17. Omg expensive IRN BRU! But worth it haha :) x

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  18. you should try indonesian food too! haha.
    try "tempe", it's delicious and full of protein :)

    lutfifadhilastale.blogspot.com

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  19. I'm a choccie kind of girl so I think I'd miss my cadbury's no doubt! or can you get Cadbury's in the US? My American relatives always seemed to want to stock up whenever they came over!

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  20. Ooops! just read the rest of the comments re: Cadburys! seems like you can't get it, you poor, poor thing!

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    1. Well some american people are saying they can get it, so i'm either not looking properly or they don't have it in the stores, which is probably why. I mean we can get the creame eggs so I can't see why we don't get the rest. I know we can't get the twisted [creame egg bars]. Saying that I was always a Galaxy girl in the UK anyway.

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