wintkat

will be in Rome soon and wondering if there are any shops which specialize in Australian products.

thanks
wintkat

Zerlina

I doubt that there's a shop that specializes in Australian products, but Castroni at Via Flaminia has many foreign products.
http://www.castroni.com/

Would you settle for another brand? Castroni offers Bird's Custard Powder on line...

toni

Just a question ... why on earth do you want custard powder? If you are coming from Australia can you bring it with you? When I lived in Ireland years ago, my family used to post over things like vegemite and Iced Vo Vo biscuits. I am fascinated.

charnees

And why do you want to eat Australian custard when you are in Rome? There's an ancient saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Unless you have a young child who would be hard-pressed to eat something different.

Dukey

Is there another name for this thing you are talking about? I mean, what exactly IS it, anyway?

stfc

Fine diners will know custard as 'creme anglais'. Basically a thickened egg and milk-based sauce lightly flavoured with vanilla. It is commercially available either as a pre-prepared sauce or in powder form for easy making up. Delicious, and one of the foundations of the Empire as an augmentation to a stodgy dessert. Not really part of Italian cuisine though.

hetismij

Commercial custard powder bears no resemblance to real custard. It is made primarily from cornflour I believe.

Not that I object to a great dollop of Bird's (with skin)on my apple crumble mind

wintkat

Thanks to all for your replies.

I'm from the USA and always love to shop in grocery stores while on vacation and buy some products to cook up when I return home

This product is used in a dessert recipe I'm anxious to make. The dessert is called <b>Vanilla Slice,</b> a google image search will show how yummy it looks. And I've even found a blog completely devoted to it.
http://vanillaslice.wordpress.com/

I have heard about Bird's but apparently Foster's gives a tastier result.

I know I can order via Amazon if I don't find on my trip.

thanks again
wintkat

Clifton

Vanilla Slice is very good. Kind of like napoleons, but not really.. You see it in most every little pastery shop in Australia. Well, in Victoria at least

If you don't find your shop in Rome, there are Australian ships in the US. Not sure about your area, but there's one in Little Rock, for instance. Otherwise, you might try SimplyOz.com (their storefront's in WA state) which is a small company that imports goods for sale in the US. That was you can spend your Rome vacation looking for *Italian* goods.

Clifton

http://simplyoz.com/products/aussie_...custard_powder

flanneruk

When Italians make trifle (and before the ill-informed cavil, let them go to page 914 of the Italian edition of Il Cucchiaio d'Argento), instead of opening a packet of Bird's like everyone else, they use crema pasticciera.

These days you can buy ready made crema pasticciera, in litre packs, in any decent Italian supermarket.

AmanteDelLimoncello

You could try ahome made custard for Vanilla Slice- just use more egg yolks to make it thicker.
Beechworth Bakery(as shown in the Vanilla Slice blog) in Victoria, Australia is a pastry and cake lovers heaven. Good Meat pies too.