British food is somewhat easy to come by living in the 'burbs - at least in the larger supermarkets or more higher price specialised stores. Passing through Royal Oak at the weekend we took for having a wander inside Holiday Market - a higher end supermarket which has an average sized British section (right next to some interesting looking German imports if I do say so).
Standing infront of all the British food goodies makes me feel like a kid in a sweets store, and being a little over priced, I tend to only buy one thing at a time depending on my cravings. It amuses as well as intrigues me as to just what food you'll find upon those British shelves - what do American store owners think is typically enough British to be there and therefore what are people (expats or otherwise) buying.
Regardless of the store there's some regular products - your Birds custard, mushy peas (was very tempted), HP sauces (more likely to be the normal over fruity version), PG Tips (Tetley you can find in the normal tea aisle) and some form of digestive or hobnob, maybe some Ribenna. As for chocolate bars - well for $1.70 (plus tax) you might want to purchase yourself a single Aero bar, Yorkie Bars, Double Decker, Curly Wurly, Bounty or Lion bar. You'll always find some version of marmalade, vinegar, Marmite and gravy granules, I even saw Penguin bars this time, but sadly no Irn Bru.
I did see Pickled Walnuts - I've never even heard of pickled walnuts. I know there's this image that us Brits like anything that's pickled, but walnuts, really?!
So what did I buy?
Salad Cream.
Yes the Yorkshire lass who has been away from the home turf for over two years brought one bottle of salad cream over everything else. Why?! Because there's nothing like it in the US. There might be endless - and I really mean huge salad dressing shelves in supermarkets here but there is nothing like salad cream and not being a huge fan of mayo, nothing comes close.
How much for said salad cream - $5.29 - worth every last cent.
What food(s) would you miss if you left your home country?
PS. Thanks for all the lovely comments on yesterdays whiskey post - it went down a lot better then I had expected. Liquor posts may have to become another feature across the year.
What food(s) would you miss if you left your home country?
PS. Thanks for all the lovely comments on yesterdays whiskey post - it went down a lot better then I had expected. Liquor posts may have to become another feature across the year.
When I lived in Australia I missed British crisps, and real fish and chips. My brother and his wife moved to New York last year and when they were back for Christmas all they wanted was a good bacon sarnie with hp sauce. I got him to bring me some exotic American m&ms, he brought pretzel ones, and a strange sweet and savoury mix bag, which had m&ms, little cookies, pretzels and nuts.
ReplyDeleteAnna x
Ah don't start me on about Fish and Chips - how I miss those, although there are a couple of fish n chip shops that claim to be influenced by the British version that we've yet to try! HP sauce is easy to find here luckily enough - bacon and baked beans wouldn't taste the same without the HP and luckily I just buy that as and when I run out!
DeleteWhen I lived in Japan I really missed real cheese since the Japanese grocery stores only had processed stuff. I missed fresh produce too, since in California we really grow everything at all seasons.
ReplyDeleteIf you live near a World Market, they have an extensive British section (not that I snarf on McVitties or anything)
We have a lot of local somewhat independent stores that have a good selection of British food between them. As for cheese, a lot of it is processed, but again at the independent stores you can find some really nice slices. I'd love to visit Japan for the food there though!
DeleteGreat post! I am going on a year abroad to Germany when I am uni and apparently they don't have cheddar cheese there so I think I will deffo miss that! :)
ReplyDeletetheemeralddove21.blogspot.co.uk
O I like a good bit of cheese - never heard that though, although i'm sure they'll make up for it if German fairs are anything to go by!
DeleteRight after I asked you about salad cream on Twitter, I saw it in the store. How funny! Whenever the Aero bars are on sale for 99 cents, I always get one. The mint is great. I believe my local store also sells everything you mentioned, plus Irn Bru, but it sure is expensive. They even stock the occasional pack of Wine Gums which are rather hard by the time they arrive at the store. Oh I also noticed a can of Heinz chocolate pudding and was intrigued enough to get it. Turns out it was a chocolate cake. Never had cake from a can before. ; )
ReplyDeleteI actually heard after we talked about it that salad cream is having a big increase in the NE through to the number of British expats and is nearly a regularly stocked item. They use to sell irn bru in the shop we visited for the salad cream but looks like they stopped. I love those Heinz chocolate puddings, especially with loads of custard - so good!
DeleteSalad cream is da bomb! Pickled walnuts? Never seen them for sale, or eaten them, over here! What's the best American grub you can get that we don't get in the UK?
ReplyDeleteSeriously since I've had that bottle my sandwiches have been a tonne better. That's a really good question and to be honest there's not that much difference especially with how easy it is to get American foods in the UK these days. Gotta love Root Beer, proper mac n cheese, some of the candy bars and pretzels. But I do prefer US baked beans that's for sure,
DeleteWe have so many american shops popping up over here now! Mostly sweets and stuff though. There are so many things I would love from America (daiya (vegan) cheese please) but I'm not sure there is much I would miss from over here.
ReplyDeletechloe
www.bythelock.com
It's actually surprising what you do come to miss in general, like missing Angels Delight and stuff. Can't say i've noticed the vegan cheese.
DeleteI had to google to see how much $5.29 was in our money!! Wow it's over £3 but if you enjoy something then why not pay extra for it. It's funny that we get excited for American things in our stores like you do with British products. I've just discovered Reece's miniature cups!! They are yum :)
ReplyDelete$5 well spent I will admit. Reece's are so good, snickers do a lot more varieties over in the US I've noticed.
DeletePickled walnuts, that's so random. When I was living in the UK I really missed the abundance of cheap Mexican food ingredients that are so common in America.. you can definitely find them in specialty shops and whatnot if you look hard enough, but it is SO EXPENSIVE compared to here. I remember going into some shop that had La Preferida canned refried beans (which cost maybe $1 here) and they were selling the same size for £4 - yikes. Also, I did manage to find fresh tortillas and tortilla chips, but never really *good* ones if that make sense. It's funny that you prefer the American baked beans, because I feel the opposite - they just seem so sweet to me, even though I grew up with them. My mom would make me eat them and I'd swallow them whole like little tablets because I hated how they tasted so much, haha.
ReplyDeleteI imagine at first I would be mad for all the exciting new foods to try and only after a while start to crave our British treats x
ReplyDeleteLife without salad cream!? Man you must really love Joe! ;P
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of pickled walnuts either, how bizarre. I think I'd miss Dairy Milk the most haha :)
Jess xo
I've been thinking about writing a post like this for a while, so I'm happy to be reading yours!
ReplyDeleteWe have a small section of an aisle here (Belgium) and it sells some random things: Flakes, Jamie Oliver's pasta sauce and I think Ribena last time I checked. No salad cream or vinegar. Since being here we have been on the hunt for vinegar, fresh milk (only the UHT variety here), real British sausages and bacon...
Apparently there is a British store here which we mistakenly thought it was an hour away on the bus - it's only 20 minutes... That was us made - we've got sausages, bacon, salad cream, HOT CHOCOLATE! and a selection of other British goodness.
Knowing that we can buy British goods now, we have to remember that we shouldn't by it just because it is familiar (even though there is a Belgium equivalent) and only buy what we can't get in normal Belgium supermarkets - after all everything is 3x the price.
~K
I'd massively buy salad cream too! My friend lives in Vancouver now and she gets me to send her twix and drifters over, and impulse body spray. Random, but thats what she wants!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny but even just moving from Scotland to England there are lots of foods I miss. The main one - macaroni pies! So strange sounding but so delicious!
ReplyDeletethis is so funny because when I head back to America I stock up on Ranch dressing! As in put as many bottles my weight limit will allow into my suitcase. It's funny the things we miss.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny what we miss. I'm going to throw spanner in the works and say I miss the foods from overseas travels more than I do the foods from home. After long periods of time away from home I do start to crave Robinsons Peach Squash lol
ReplyDeleteAhh flakes are one of my FAVOURITE chocolate bars!! SO good! :) I also used to have digestive biscuits when I was younger - original ones though - and they were good too!
ReplyDeleteYou get way more British stuff than I do! No fair!
ReplyDeleteAlso I had to try to explain Salad Cream to my American family just the other day. It's funny that you posted about it.