US foods not available in the UK

Please don't send any Hershey's over, with all the wonderful chocolate we have in the UK, the only possible use I can see for that stuff, is making candles!

ok Hooameye. but what CAN i send that would be appreicated since you don't need any candles...

Like Hooameye, my British friends universally loathe American chocolate bars. It is too dark, too waxy, and not sweet enough. They must expire when they get near 72%-80% continental chocolate bars!

Digestive biscuits are close-ish in flavor to graham crackers, but the meal is much more coarsely milled than graham flour so the texture is more crumbly.

My daughter can keep track of this, but I think their Mars bar is the same as our Snickers and on and on. In Scotland, they Mars bars battered and deep fried in the fat where they fry the chips, but then again they also like deep fried frozen pizzas. You might get them a range of Mars products so they can have a Mars comparison test the way people do with wine.

If they have been to the States, they may like maple syrup or blueberry syrup, and cranberry products are very popular with our visitors, though they can get the cranberries themselves at home. Milk chocolate coated cranberries go over very well.

Just because something isn't available in a country doesn't mean those people want it. The UK is a modern country, if there was a big clamor for graham flour, they would have it. Often thing don't exist in a country because the people living there don't use it or like it. I cannot recall the last time I myself ever bought or used graham flour (maybe 20 years ago, not sure), and I'm an American. I would think it totally bizarre if someone gave me some flour I didn't use or want for a gift. I think while you have good intentions, you shouldn't give anyone some odd food product unless they have specifically mentioned actually wanting it.

Hershey's is not superior chocolate, you must know that. It is cheap supermarket and drugstore products, and they have such things in Europe, Hershey's or otherwise. And I think you've been very misinformed about Hershey's brands not being available in Europe, they are quite common. I don't know what they told you about chocolate, maybe saying they thought there was a taste difference in the recipes used in Europe or US, who knows. Sometimes that is true and sometimes people think it is and it isn't. In any case, that wouldn't mean they would want the US version of some US brand.

If they have mentioned really wanting something they can't get there, then send it, otherwise, I think your attitude is elitist and assumes those poor Europeans don't have tghe superior brands of products and that you must send them something out of charity as if it were WWII or something.

As I said, I know you mean well, but don't automatically assume they want cheap US junk food or weird products like graham flour.

like Christina says, if there is something from the US that will sell, eg Maple Syrup, we already have it.

It's understandable to think that the things that you miss when you are away the locals would like too, but it ain't necessarily so.

Mars bars were invented in Britain, and are the same the world over, as are most Mars products, so don't send them!
I love Maple Syrup - but not every Brit likes it, and it is expensive to send, especially if your family don't like it.

If there are children in the family then send baseball/football t-shirts or hats for the kids.

I know you are well- intentioned but unless your UK family has made a request for something specific, I would not bother.

Someone mentioned maple syrup and Ocean Spray products, but both are readily available in the UK, not sure about fresh cranberries. I suspect you may not be able to ship fresh fruit to the UK although cranberries probably would stay fresh.

A UK friend used to request Reese's Pieces but these probably are now sold on the UK.

I really can't think of any US food product that would be highly valued by people in he UK. Maybe something like Maker's Mark bourbon, but it can't practically be shipped due to shipping costs and restrictions, duty, etc.

Bundles for Britain no longer needed.

Perhaps something local to your area rather than national brands. In my area, ollaieberries are really popular, but almost unheard of elsewhere - we do syrup, jam, and other stuff made with ollalies. That makes a fun gift.

Local booze always goes down well as long as it is not some peculiar wine made out of left footed scorpians

You've asked a "newbie" question about which many Fodor's posters long ago took an ideological position -- and by the way, British chocolate is awful.

I'm tempted to say: Just bring them some decent food! But instead I'm going to say: Why don't you communicate with them beforehand about an experiment in sharing traditional foods, and see what they might be curious about --- instead of asking Fodor's posters? Tell them you've heard Cadbury's is better than Hershey's, tell them you'd like to pack some Kisses and also maybe some M&Ms to go head-to-head with Smarties. (Personally, I think m&ms are much better than Smarties.) Ask if they would like to taste some S'mores so long as you are willing to eat suet pudding.

I think cornbread is fantastic, and even more fantastic with british butter. Why don't you slip a bottle of Maker's Mark into your check on and make bourbon ice cream with chopped pralines on top?

Anyway, if a British friend brought me Jaffa cakes, Fentiman's Ginger Beer, lemon curd and kippers, it wouldn't matter to me that I didn't like them as much as my own country's foods or that I could find them where I lived. To me, they'd be bringing more of themselves and their culture to share with me. I wouldn't feel put down.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EUY/is_11_6/ai_61029650/



http://jezebel.com/5784586/the-romance-of-the-cadbury-creme-egg

http://www.themarysue.com/destroying-cadbury-creme-eggs/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112977882070443&v=wall

I'm with Zeppole - I don't think a discussion like this hurts. No-one wants to arrive empty-handed and so much the better to bring something that is unique from your home environment. And I quite enjoy reading about what individual people think is suitable. While I don't think I'd want some flour as a present myself, or not without a recipe to guide me how to use it, I'd never be offended. It's not rude to want to share what you have at home with others!

And I'm not in the UK, but I think there are some interesting cake mixes that come out of the US that might make an intriguing present. When we lived in Germany (years ago now) brownies were unobtainable at that time and I even bought a brownie cake mix from the imported foods section in a department store in Frankfurt. OK, so brownies are not so special in England (and I think from recent visits, brownies are more available in Germany too), but there must be other similar products that would be a turn-on.

Lavandula

YIKES. little did i realize that my post would be interpreted as elitist, that is as far from my intentions as apparently a hershey bar is from a cadbury. personally, i am always open to new ideas and experiences, including foods and i figured my uk family would be too. so if you took offense, i apologize. but if anyone out there who could still maybe offer a suggestion in response to my post, i would really appreciate it, in a very sincere and non elitist way.

As a CDN living in the UK these are the things I miss and dont want to spend a fortune on:

- cinnamon gum (My Brit friends think this is disgusting)
- N. American peanut butter (again - not liked by my Brit friend as it is too sugary)
- Stash Licorice Spice Tea (not considered real tea by my Brit friends)

N. American chocolate is allowed to include WAY more wax than British and so the people that grew up here in the UK generally dont like the taste of it. To be honest, neither do I now that I have had European chocolate

I would bring/send something local to you or something you can use to cook them something different (they dont have pumpkin pie here so maybe something like canned pumpkin?)

I think your question was perfectly reasonable. There are definitely foods from the US that aren't widely available in the UK, just as there are UK foods not widely available here. Creme Fraiche isn't exactly like sour cream; the ubiquitous-in-UK Heinz Salad Cream doesn't quite match anything I can think of here; my amazement at the range of UK products with blackcurrant flavoring is matched by my British friends' amazement at the range of cinnamon-flavored products in the US. I also have vivid memories of the difficulty of trying to buy unsweetened baking chocolate and canned pumpkin in England in the eighties.

Many people do enjoy trying 'something different'. However, many of the examples I can think of are (like your graham flour example) ingredients used in cooking, rather than finished products. I don't think they'd make good gifts by themselves unless you know that the recipients are avid cooks -- in which case, they'd be *great* gifts. If you sent ingredients, I'd also send recipes, and make sure that you modify them using UK measurements for volume/weight and oven settings (conversation info widely available online)). I've repeatedly taken fixings for cornbread to the UK with me and prepared it there for friends, but I don't think I'd send cornbread mix unaccompanied by a cook!

I've thought of taking high-quality real maple syrup over, but it's awfully heavy, and would be costly to ship.

I have taken people boxes of herbal teas, focusing on flavors that are particularly 'American' (Bigelow's Apple Cider flavor, for instance, or some of the more unusual Celestial Seasonings blends). It's not that herbal teas as a group are unavailable in the UK, it's just that they'll be different. I always go to the grocery store over there and stock up on various Twinings herbal blends. By the way, 'tisane' is the more common name in the UK for what Americans call 'herbal tea.'

A trip down the seasonings aisle of your grocery store could be fun. I always enjoy trying out oddball seasoning items, and I can use them in my own style of cooking. I'd bet your UK family hasn't encountered Old Bay Seasoning before, for instance.

Where do you live? Is there a particular food that is made in your state that would be appreciated by your UK family? When we were last in Wales we took with us a box of goodies made only locally here in Colorado, including things like blue corn tortilla chips, several different salsas, jars of peach jam and applesauce that come from our fruit growers in the southern part of our state. It all traveled well and they really enjoyed it. Make it more of a treat to share something of your state, rather than assuming they would want crappy American chocolate.

When my MIL visits from London (kind of rare these days since she will no longer fly) she tries to bring a few things home from here in the States that she can't find there.

Over the years, some of her favorites have been Stove Top Stuffing(never quite understood that one), Bisquick, Jiffy corn muffin mix, Lipton or Knorrs Onion Soup mixes.

As others have said, don't send any chocolate. They're probably just being polite by saying ours (US )is "different" and already know they won't like it.

Here's a site that will give you an idea of the types of US products not easily found in the UK.

http://www.skyco.uk.com/

For me as a UK resident, a guest bearing any form of chile is very welcome - fresh, dried, powdered, tinned, ristras - but I used to live in the States, so this might not be universal.

There must be some type of artisanal candy near you like maple sugar or cactus candy, anything but choocolate. We have fabulous chocolate here, even in my tiny Lincolnshire village.

I'm an American who has been living in London for nearly 4 years. I've got a long list of items that either don't exist over here or are available at extortionate prices (http://www.partridges.co.uk). Whole Foods offers a decent selection of spices, etc., but not always the most convenient place to get to from my flat. Don't jump down my throat for some of the processed foods, trust me I'm normally quite a foodie so forgive me for my ranch dressing sins.

Without further ado, items not easily found in the UK:
Pam cooking spray
Crystal lite or any other type of low calorie drink mix
Microwave popcorn (the one kind at Waitrose isn't very good)
Molasses
Crescent rolls (Thanksgiving!)
Turkey sausage
Turkey bacon
Crackers (Triscuits, Wheat Thins)
Buttermilk
Good salsa
Chipotle powder
Low fat ranch dressing (ducks)
Good maple syrup
Certain cuts of steak (flank steak, skirt steak)
Good tortilla chips (Doritos are used recklessly in this country)
Non-alcoholic apple cider
Canned pumpkin
North American peanut butter
West coast wines

I think the biggest adjustment for an American is the lack of variety (for better and for worse) in stores. At the big suburban grocery stores near my parents house, and actually, at the sh*t Gristedes near my old flat in NYC there was simply more varieties and flavours of everything.

london yank - i just can't let you get away with this one:

Certain cuts of steak (flank steak, skirt steak)>>

any decent butcher will have both. skirt is actually the right cut for cornish pasties so it's ubiquitous here, but also "up country" too. ditto flank. and you should have little problem finding buttermilk, maple syrup [not sure what you mean by good, it certainly costs enough] molasses [it's called treacle and is next to the golden syrup] and non-alcoholic apple cider - isn't that just apple juice?

turkey sausage and turkey bacon, if you must, look for Bernard Matthews.

and as for lack of variety, one thing that shocked me in the states was the overwhelming number of varieties of one thing for example, 12 different sorts of cola. to me that smacks of consumerism gone mad.

Annhig says:
"one thing that shocked me in the states was the overwhelming number of varieties of one thing for example, 12 different sorts of cola. to me that smacks of consumerism gone mad"

Comment from Welsh friend on her first visit to an American grocery store: "You've got a whole aisle of water!"

I get a decent microwave popcorn at Lidl, good maple syrup almost anywhere, and make my own buttermilk for cooking. Agreed, Dorito tortilla chips are terrible - I find the cheapest supermarket own brands the least objectionable, or make my own with fresh corn tortillas from Mexgrocer online.

But aisle for aisle, UK supermarket shopping is preferable to US - you can actually buy real food not processed junk.

annhig,

Don't you ever go shopping when you are in Italy? There are at least 12 different brands of coffee here as well as 12 different brands of orange juice. Many stores don't have the room to stock the several dozen different brands of spaghetti -- and I mean brands, not types -- and likewise the many different brands of rice, polenta, grissini, etc., marketed in just northern Italy alone. At the bigger supermarket where I sometimes shop, there are surely two dozen brands of yoghurt -- and most Italians don't each much yoghurt. Admittedly, it is hard to hold up the Italians as models of sanity when ti comes to consumerism, but this notion that Americans are somehow unusual is under-observant. In fact, I seem to recall whilst living in London encountering 20 different brands of the exact same black tea and at least 12 different brands of orange marmelade.

As for all this business that Americans put "wax" in their chocolate and Brits don't -- the truth is that mass market junk chocolate the world over is filled with junk. Cadbury's is just as loaded up with emulsifiers and preservatives as Hershey's and Nestle's and Kinder and Reidel and on and on. If you want good chocolate you need to pay for it. I see much more high-end quality chocolate wherever I go in the US than I do when I go to the UK. And none of it holds a candle to the best of Belgian, Italian, French or Swiss chocolates.


sailingsailing

You have no need to apologize for anything. You gave several Fodor's posters the chance to ride one of there favorite snooty hobbyhorses. If anything, apologizes should be flowing the other way.

Personally, I would prefer a gift of Graham crackers to Graham flour because then I could make a graham cracker crust or just eat the crackers.

Many, many American foods are not in the UK -- or the best examples of the taste are not there. Things like great bbq sauce, southwestern peppers, Old Bay -- anything distinctly regional and old fashioned would be one way to go, but the other way to go is to take what you'd most like to share -- including Graham crackers and your favorite American chocolates. Personally, I'd be thrilled by a gift of Sno-caps.

Bisquick, yes! Greenhouse reminds me that I've lugged boxes of that over so I could make US-style thick pancakes. However, that's definitely in the 'ingredient' camp, and more something I would take than send over in a box.

Following up on LondonYank's ranch dressing comment, though -- a selection of different interesting salad dressings might work. The UK supermarkets I've shopped in over the last couple years stocked a pretty narrow range. Maybe one of the UK residents here could comment on the types that are easiest to get there, & you could look for items outside that range. Items with a sharp vinegary 'tang' are popular in the UK -- they had salt-and-vinegar potato chips long before we did -- and so unusual vinegar-based dressings might be enjoyed.

tarquin,

I've lived in England and it is only recently that food there has become even edible. It really isn't that long ago when hideous tinned beans, white breads, sugary everything and fatty everything were the standard fare, with scarcely a real piece of fruit in sight.

I don't know where you go in America, but the mega-markets from coast to coast are filled with an extraordinary range of fresh food and whole foods, and processed foods have become much more keen on selling to a health-conscious group.

One sees a parallel movement in Britain -- but Jaimie Oliver spoke up for a reason, and he's a recent phenomenon with a lot of work ahead of him.

So what is Graham flour and why would I really love to have a gift of this?
One thing that has been a welcome present for my Dad had been Maple Butter when we have visited Canada but it is not easy to find.
As for the Welsh friend being surprised at the bottled water range- that is because we have great water in Wales and don't need to buy bottled. Its so good in fact that it supplies England!

Frances,

You might be interested in this:

http://gourmeted.com/2010/06/28/lemon-curd-tart-with-no-bake-graham-cracker-crust/

(I meant to add that the above recipe using a graham cracker crust was based on one in Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbook.)

I like "snooty hobbyhorses," but I don't think I am the only one guilty of that!

UK food has been better than edible for quite some time, perhaps 12-15 years ago the tide turned, and I am speaking of a rural area which has not experienced the benefits of immigrant cooking until recently. Admittedly my knowledge of US supermarkets is not extensive, but the whiff of corn derivatives seemed ubiquitous when I was there.

I genuinely appreicate the helpful suggestions from those of you who made them. thank you, i will keep them in mind as i plan what to do.

I have had a number of foreign exchange students and the ones from Europe said that maple syrup is very expensive there. As for chocolate I feel theirs is much better and the exchange students also felt that way, except for Reeces Peanut Butter Cups.

One item they all liked was a BLT, but they said they did not know where to get American style bacon back home. A number of them froze four or five pounds to take home with them to make them for their family.

Tarquin,

I agree with you, I lived in the UK from 1991-1996 and the selection and quality at my local Sainsbury's and Tesco was outstanding. Large, staffed cheese and cold meat counters, great butcher dept., produce from the UK, Channel Islands and much further afield, etc.

Then there are Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, with fresh ready-made meals and more up-market choices. Since 1996, I think Tesco has slipped in quality but overall I still can't think of anything much I would ship from the US to UK friends.

Yes, there were things that I I missed and still do, particularly good quality microwave popcorn and arm and hammer toothpaste (France) but why would the things I missed appeal to Brits? I am just hard pressed to think of much that I could suggest singing send to her UK family, particularly considering the shipping costs.

I think zeppole lived in an alternate universe.

I live near a Trader Joe's. Just last month I sent a friend who lives in a Trader-Joe's-less part of the US several of their 'spice grinders.' My favorite is the Lemon Pepper, but there's also a nice smoky seasoning, and one with sugar/chocolate/coffee beans in it for grinding on top of coffee and desserts (out of stock at my local TJ's, so I haven't tried it yet).

At this time of the year, TJ's (and some other places) also have pumpkin flavored coffees. Neither flavored coffees nor pumpkin are my 'thing,' so it wouldn't appeal to me, but your (and their) mileage may vary. I wouldn't send whole-bean coffee to a UK family unless I knew for sure they had a grinder, btw -- they're less common in home kitchens there than here.

The wikipedia article "Mars Bar" is fascinating. As in so many things, Gilbert and Sullivan called it when they wrote "And I am right and you are right . . . ."

Thank you Zeppole but having read the recipe it seemed that Graham crackers were being used in circumstances where I'd use digestive biscuits.
I take it that Graham flout is used to make Graham crackers but does it have another use - one that would mean you would bring it as a gift? I'm intrigued.

I can think of a few things that we miss, but I'm not sure my UK friends would necessarily covet them. As mentioned above, decent chips and salsa, microwave popcorn and US peanut butter are on the list. We've found many of those at Costco though!

Canned tomatoes taste different here (sweet tom juice) but you probably don't want to give them that (and they probably like what they are used to anyway).

Good thought though.

Don't you ever go shopping when you are in Italy? There are at least 12 different brands of coffee here as well as 12 different brands of orange juice. Many stores don't have the room to stock the several dozen different brands of spaghetti -- and I mean brands, not types -- and likewise the many different brands of rice, polenta, grissini, etc., marketed in just northern Italy alone. At the bigger supermarket where I sometimes shop, there are surely two dozen brands of yoghurt -- and most Italians don't each much yoghurt. Admittedly, it is hard to hold up the Italians as models of sanity when ti comes to consumerism, but this notion that Americans are somehow unusual is under-observant. In fact, I seem to recall whilst living in London encountering 20 different brands of the exact same black tea and at least 12 different brands of orange marmalade. >>

If you read what i posted zeppole, you will see that i specifically referred to 12 sorts of cola, [of which one would hardly want one sort] not coffee, orange juice, pasta, rice etc.

and you clearly are not familiar with Waitrose, which has been stocking a wonderful selection of all the sorts of foods, fresh and otherwise, you mention for as many years as I can remember.

Yes, there were things that I I missed and still do, particularly good quality microwave popcorn and arm and hammer toothpaste (France) but why would the things I missed appeal to Brits? I am just hard pressed to think of much that I could suggest singing send to her UK family, particularly considering the shipping costs.

I think zeppole lived in an alternate universe.>>

cathinjo - exactly.

and that is not to say that I do not think that fresh fruit and veg in ITALY are superior to those generally found in the UK. but that is not the question raised by the OP, which was what foods s/he might send to the UK.

i've read the wiki guide to mars bars and me whole world is reeling. It seems that snickers are mar bars, there is no reference to the terrible, futile, struggles we had in the Uk to keep snickers's old name which was marathon. Marketing gone mad

About ten years ago, I bought some antique linens at one of the bridge shops in Bath. The woman in the shop said I had to only launder them in 'pure soap' not detergents. For years, at least 10, I had UK friends bring Persil every time they came over. Finally got over it and switched to Ivory Snow. Note to Frances: we make graham cracker pie crusts in this country for certain pies - chocolate, lemon meringue, key lime. I personally would buy such a crust in the freezer at the grocery and not spend time mashing up crumbs.

>>It really isn't that long ago when hideous tinned beans, white breads, sugary everything and fatty everything were the standard fare, with scarcely a real piece of fruit in sight.<<

Twaddle. On stilts. And rollerskates. In a tutu.

Hi ss,

>...foods that we have here in the US that may not be available in the UK.<

Vienna (pronounced Vie enna) sausages
Grits
Rotel tomatoes

O. K. I get it. I just looked up Graham Crackers on Wikipedia.
Note to sailingsailing-don't give these to anyone as a gift if they can access Wikipedia!

When we lived in the UK, the NA foods we longed for and that weren't available included GOOD bagels (yes, I know that there are a few places in the UK to get good bagels, but that's not the same as having a decent bagel selection in the neighbourhood), potato bread, a better selection of barbecue sauce, and certain types of produce like spaghettie squash (I would have killed for spaghetti squash), acorn squash, NJ sweet corn and beefsteak tomatoes with paper-thin skins, Vermont (not Canadian) maple syrup, Boars Head brand bacon and, well just about Boars Head anything, soft shell crab, Dungeness crab (also would have killed for that), Moravian cake, PA Dutch dried beef, bhicken breasts on the bone, and a few things that we were better off NOT having access to: Twizzlers, Cheez-Its, Girl Scout cookies. Most of my list can't be shipped anywway and I doubt Brits would have any interest in, for example, Pennsylvania Dutch specialties.
FWIW, we learned loved things from the UK that we couldn't get in the U.S. -- Tilda's organic pesto sauce, certain cheeses, mmmm...We shopped mostly at Waitrose. We thought many of the selections at Sainsbury's didn't live up to the hype. Just our opinion. (And even Waitrose doesn't come close to Wegman's)

Most of the time, we tried to enjoy what the local cuisine had to offer and gorged ourselves on NA favourites when I'm back in the U.S.

The only food items I would bring back to the UK from the U.S. as gifts (rather than for our own consumption) would be high quality wines from small producers in CA and Oregon.

Oh I sooo miss spaghetti squash!!!!! Mmmmmm

Or how about something like a nice local liquor? In BC they make Ice Wine so I have brought that back for friends as a gift...something they dont get here?

I DO miss acorn squash, split and roasted with a little maple syrup (US or Canadian). We may try to grow some next year.

"I think zeppole lived in an alternate universe."

And still does.

I think Tahl has a great idea - I'd cruise the aisles of my
nearest TJ's and choose a fun selection of uniquely N.A.
foods and condiments to amuse and confound any Brit.

As a Canuck, I make a run for the border every few months to
visit my nearest US TJ's and I always come home with fun
things uniquely Yankee but eminently edible.

I had to chuckle about missing spaghetti squash.
We grew it one year and it was the most rampant plant I have ever met. It grew and fruited like a mad thing.
Neighbours were given several and we ate several of the beasts, but you can soon get sick of it.
One thing that kept me slim in the US was that I hated the chocolate and the biscuits (cookies). I also couldn't find ground almonds and had to use a coffee grinder. An American friend of mine loves suet puddings and laments the fact that she can't get suet in packets as you can in the UK

Certain cuts of steak (flank steak, skirt steak)>>

That's nice, Annhig, that you have a decent butcher near you that stocks these cuts of beef. I'm in zone 2 and I don't.

<<'you should have little problem finding buttermilk'>> I do have a big problem but lucky enough I'm an internet savant and I just add some lemon juice to whole milk. Again zone 2.

<< maple syrup [not sure what you mean by good, it certainly costs enough]>> obviously a great metric for good maple syrup

<<molasses [it's called treacle and is next to the golden syrup]>> no it's not, darling

<<and non-alcoholic apple cider - isn't that just apple juice?>> again, no it's not, darling

<<turkey sausage and turkey bacon, if you must, look for Bernard Matthews.>> Brilliant suggestion! WTF is a Bernard Matthews and where do I find one?

In six trips to Ireland and Northern Ireland I have found exactly one Dr. Pepper. If I ever go there to live I am going to have to find someone willing to keep me supplied. Not going to be easy; guess I'd best stay in Texas.

MissPrism: "Neighbours were given several and we ate several of the beasts, but you can soon get sick of it."

YOU might, we didn't.

And to annhig, apple cider is not merely apple juice.

"That's nice, Annhig, that you have a decent butcher near you that stocks these cuts of beef. I'm in zone 2 and I don't."

I've never encountered a proper (= selling meat from carcases, as opposed to bought-in cuts, as most supermarkets do) butcher that didn't sell skirt or flank. Or a branch of Waitrose (apart from their motorway franchises) that didn't sell buttermilk. Decent Sainsbury's (like Chapel Market) do too, though a lot of microbranches don't (all this crap about US stores' ranges conveniently forget that real estate is worthless in the US, so supermarkets, even in New York, are far bigger than in Britain)

There are dozens of proper butchers, a score of Waitroses and about a dozen buttermilk-selling Sainsbury's, in Zone 2.

Can't even begin to understand the point of non-alcoholic cider, though. My limited experience in North America is that it's no more than apple juice with gratuitously added sugar (or more likely: pointless and lethal added corn syrup).

But then pointlessly added corn syrup is what distinguishes all American food. Even those tasteless slabs of dead cow you all idolise are pumped up on maize.

Apple cider is made from the whole apple, skins, stems and all, and doesn't have additional sweetener. It has a depth of flavor that apple juice lacks. Usually we buy a couple of gallons of it, freshly made, in the fall; we freeze one for later use.

Lee Ann

Christ on a cracker, Flanneur. Given your extensive knowledge of my local Waitrose, I suggest you avail yourself of their extensive menstrual cramp relief section. Hint: it is better than Sainsburys.

Lee Ann, apple cider freezes successfully?! I never knew that; thanks for the tip! I adore apple cider -- Flanner, you can find out the facts about it on wikipedia -- and look forward every year to making mulled cider on cold autumn evenings.

sailingsailing

try this website - free shipping within the UK for orders over 50gbp

http://www.americansweets.co.uk/usa-groceriessoda-1-c.asp

This might be a cheaper option for you - I expect the price per item will be higher than you'd pay in the US but shipping costs to the UK are horrendous.

Happy shopping

LondonYank - Bernard Matthews is a brand and available in most supermarkets.
http://www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com/default.htm.

sailingsailing, if you are still there, today's BBC offered up the perfect solution!

Dunkin' Donuts.

Apparently people in the UK eat tons of Krispy Kreme donuts, but there is not a single Dunkin' Donut to be found. I don't know about you, but I fink Krispy Kreme donuts not only greasy, but tooth-achingly too sweet. Dunkin' Donuts aren't as good as graham crackers, but it is a fair bet they'd be eager for more donuts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15309466


Annhig,

I can also buy at the local Italian supermarket -- should I ever want to -- all 3 types of Coca-Cola, all the various Pepsis, the Fantas, the Italian colas, the Turkish colas, and then we could go on the colorless types of sodas -- Sprite, Canada Dry, etc. -- and then another half dozen odd sodas (chinotto, violet, etc). I don't blame you for preferring to spend your time in Italy looking at art at the Museo Doria Pamphilj instead of soda at the DiperDi, but I assure you that there are whole rooms full of nothing but soda in supermarkets in Italy -- most of which happened to be owned by French corporations. It's not a purely American thing. In fact, Schweppes is more popular in Italy than it is in America.

Tarquin, Cathiejoe, janisj

Not an alternate universe. I lived in London before the "tide turned" and food there became edible. (Minimally.) That said, Giordano Bruno was absolutely correct, and believe me, it is much better where I am.

". . . and believe me, it is much better where I am." As you insist on telling us over and over and over and over again. Trying to convince yourself??

FLUK: "Can't even begin to understand the point of non-alcoholic cider, though. My limited experience in North America is that it's no more than apple juice with gratuitously added sugar (or more likely: pointless and lethal added corn syrup)."

Well, that tells you all you need to know about FLUK's "experience" in the U.S.

I read all the insults to US foods and I was OK until someone said the apple cider is just juice with sweeteners added.

I will never share my fresh apple cider with you uninformed meanies. We wait for cider season, as it is a fresh product, wholly made from apples, and savor every drop during the short time it is available. It is utterly delicious and you can't have any. So there.

I think the confusion is that being a Brit I would call apple cider here in the US "squeezed apple". It's really just apples squeezed to remove the pulp, seeds and skin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_cider

And it is scrummy - No Ann! not Scrumpy

I seem to remember that the apple juice was sold in large jars in stalls at the side of the road. It was very good. A friend of ours tried to turn some into cider but it didn't work

...
YOU might, we didn't....

If I'd known you, you could have had a dozen or so.
I'm not joking. That plant was incredible and almost took over the whole garden. It kept putting out shoots, flowering and fruiting for ages.

DId I read that correctly? Someone says British food is barely tolerable, then in the next breath uses the availability of 57 variaties of cola as proof of American culinary sophistication.

This kind of comedy genius is what makes me love Fodors so much.

And I'm with Tarquin on the Liulimin post. Brilliantly irrelevant. For once, I hope the advertising doesn't get canned, sitting there entertainingly pointless in a sea of transatlantic mudslinging.

alya, tuscanlifedit,

I also think the "confusion" is about what constitutes processed food. To me, cellophane wrapped pasta, bottled juice with fructose, yoghurt with artificial fruit flavors, par-cooked rice with flavorings is processed food, not just cola or candy. Wrong as he is about cider, FlannerUK is right to observe that the sheer size of many supermarkets in America means more processed food is on display on longer shelves, and I'm wondering if we aren't just arguing apples and oranges here. The two countries supermarkets sound pretty similar, minus the local preferences in junk and comfort foods based on childhood memories.


More on the expansion of Krispy Kreme donuts into British supermarkets:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/04/krispy-kreme-doughnuts-britain


janisj,

Now who needs to live in an alternate universe? I wasn't talking about living in Italy. I was talking about my having a different perspective. Would you now like to switch sides and argue I'm not odd person out on Fodor's?

RM67,

You didn't read it correctly. Annhig -- a resident of the UK and frequent traveler to Italy -- wrote about her experience of seeing 12 different brands of soda in American supermarkets and concluding that America was uniquely mad in its consumerism. I pointed out to Annhig that in Italy, where I live, there are similarly multiple brands of processed foods -- including soda -- on supermarket shelves, so her conclusion that this was unique to America was wrong.

Independent of all that, I wrote that British food has been in the past inedible and only recently became minimally edible. I'm trying to think of where outside of Britain one can find restaurants serving British food, like one sees restaurants in capitals all over the world serving Italian food, or French food. What i do see is a lot of "pubs" all over the world. Somehow, for some reason, British food has never really caught on, despite the empire. Maybe the Olympics will change that. Or the UK will tinker with the basic Krispy Kreme formula and come up with something not only edible, but good for you. Jamie Oliver's food "ministry" may yet prevail.

PS: I also like liulimin's posts.

You'll be delighted to know it's also on the fireworks thread, then...

"Minimally edible?" I think you need to give UK food another try, zeppole.It has been good for a long time now, and it is maybe the most diverse anywhere. Unlike the French and the Italians, the British are open to new foods, the opposite of the campilismo found in the rest of Europe. I love Italian food but it is limited compared to what is available here.

Tarquin, totally agree. I have a second home in Italy and whilst I love the food and the freshness of ingredients, I really do get tired of 4 aisles of pasta, two aisles of risotto rice but i can't find a single packet of basmati or any spices that don't feature in Italian cuisine. The range of local foods is vast, but the reluctance to try anything new is really depressing. After a couple of weeks I find myself pining for the variety we get back in the UK (and the US). I find the food xenophobia found amongst french, Italians and Spanish really irritating.

There is a good reason why certain foods from the US are not available in the UK - people just don't want them - (except American ex pats), there is no demand.

We've all lived quite well in Europe without graham crackers and I wouldn't know what to do with them as a gift.

Bring a bottle of Bourbon.

Bring Knob Creek - they'll appreciate the name.

tarquin,

It has been awhile since I lived in the UK, but I go there just about every year. And when I am there, I eat Indian, Turkish and African foods and indeed the diviersity is terrific and delicious. If you are telling me that Britain now claims these cuisines as British, like Americans think burritos are American cuisine, ok, I agree. British food is tasty.

By the way, I better say LOUDLY for those who keep missing that I do not like American food either, and in many parts of America, it is not even minimally edible -- including much praised foods like barbecue. But if being open to new foods is a plus in this argument, certainly Americans are that. You can get them to eat anything. (And please note I am speaking as an American, and don't try to affect a fake Italian accent when I post.)

So, in sum, if you want to eat British cuisine, Cadbury's or (Krispy Kremes, or tikka or all of it once -- it's all yours! But I think it is beneath you to fault Italy for preserving and guarding their food culture when others lost the battle just because an argument on the internet has become silly.

Kate,

I've been in tourist quarters in Italy and Spain where curries, beers, teas and the Full English are on the menu and in the supermarket aisles. If you chose to buy in a part of Italy where people would rather eat a locally produced meal than eat imported foods, your "irritation" elicits scant sympathy. Don't you think Italians are just as entitled as Brits to turn up their nose at tastes that don't like -- please don't try to tell me now the British are "open" to eating American chocolate (unless its slathered all over a Krispy Kreme donut).

Lawchick,

I think you are right. The same goes the other way. American gin has a long way to go.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/this-is-not-just-british-food-mamps-hits-paris-2260069.html

A French friend of ours said that she missed the sandwiches and the white cotton knickers

You got me wrong, Zeppole, I don't fault Italians at all for campanilismo (got it right this time.) Their respect for tradition has keep their cuisine intact, slow food is the opposite of fusion food. I still cook polenta and rabbit stew as brought to the States by my great-grandmother.

I was talking about the quality and variety of food available in Britain, rather than traditional British dishes. And by the way, those Krispy Kremes may be popular in London but they haven't permeated the country. And I don't know anyone who eats Cadbury's chocolate, or they keep it quiet.

Fine, tarquin -- but let me raise a question about quality in British food --- but before I do, I do not want to be misunderstood as being here to defend Italy. My first post to annhig was just the opposite -- I was pointing out that Italian supermarkets have the same faults as other supermarkets throughout the world.

Regarding quality of British food, isn't it generally accepted that at various times in British history, native British cuisine suffered because the needs of the colonial empire was to sell find uses for tin and sugar? If you tell women that tinned foods are more modern, that soaking dried peas is old fashioned, that peeling potatoes is lower class, and you snatch up all the local produce before it is ripe, gas it, sugar it and shove it in a tin, you not only destroy the local food base, people forget how to cook! They'll lose "the knowledge." Even if they want to keep cooking, understanding food is replaced by "following a recipe."

This is a global problem to be sure, but it has seemed to me that one of the features of recent years is for people in BOTH Britain AND America to ask: "What happened to our food?" and "Why doesn't our food taste good?"

The answer isn't solely putting a chicken coop on your roof. It also means learning to cook. Understanding food. Understanding seasons.

I may sound like I live in an alternate universe to Americans who spend all their time on Fodor's defining England as sugary afternoon tea, but in the newspapers I read -- some of the British -- I read about many of today's British having an appetite for solving a problem with what they seem to regard as a whole lot of bad food in Britain. If you grow up with it -- like Americans grow up with bad food -- it doesn't taste bad to you. It tastes like love and fun because it was given to you with love and fun. But if you taste other cooking, the cooking of people who still know how to grow and cook food, the tastebuds starts to change.

I don't know where you live tarquin (and I'm not asking) but in everything I read about Krispy Kremes in the British press, I fear a outlet is opening near you, soon. Just warning you.

I forgot to add that British dairy products never suffered the fate of other British food products. British milk is unsurpassed (which may account for the preference for milk chocolate), British butters but above all, British cheese, have few equals in the world. Nowhere along they line were the put under the assault that many other uniquely British food products.

tarquin,

And for all that, I also forgot to address your point about "variety".

I dispute that variety and consumer choice is compensation for rendering food tasteless. "Choice" is valued -- even seen as as a necessity -- when flavor disappears. It's like having 333 choices of which TV channel to watch, when we already knew we couldn't stand to watch the original 3. It's all poison. Choice is what got sold to people in lieu of something substantive.

I also think it is a tourist myth (or second-home owner myth) that Italians don't have a lot of variety in what they eat. If you are only here for a limited time during your self-chosen favorite season to be abroad, you may not notice how quickly and often produce changes seasonally in Italy. The seasons for real foods are brief, and change in diet is constant.. One is thrilled to see the strawberries return, but isn't eager to have last longer. It is better to have the fresh peaches, the summer melons, etc. Sure for a few weeks you eat more berries than you will for then entire rest of the year. But you don't crave variety, or hold it up as some great thing. Of course it is nice to live in a land of rain and bounty rather than in stony soil with a hot sun where the yield is poor. But what a pity that the people who live in those bountiful green places settle for shopping in the supermarket and thrilling to the variety of imported goods.

I will take fresh high quality strawberries for a limited time every year versus what we usually get in the US - huge monsters that taste like cardboard - but are available year round.

"And by the way, those Krispy Kremes may be popular in London "

They're not.

If anyone wants to attack British popular food, Gregg's or Benji's are the London chains to single out (though I'm very partial to Gregg's hot corned beef pasties). If they want to attack British chain approaches to foreign food: Wagamama, Yo Sushi, and the appalling Carluccio's (proof that motorway service stations and pizza joints are the only version of Italian food that can be turned into chains) are all pale imitations of proper, owner-operated restaurants - though all have their place.

The single key skill of Krispy Kreme management is PR: the ability to convince journalists they're a serious player on the basis of virtually no sales. There are good arguments against even English food (the muck the minor provinces suck in isn't even worth discussing): Krispy Kreme is simply a red herring

"I will take fresh high quality strawberries for a limited time every year"

This is actually the key question. UK supermarkets have now got their UK suppliers to develop strawberry varieties that fruit in Britain up to early November - for the very good reason there's more money in six months' premium-priced UK strawberries than 12 months' dirt cheap berries from semi tropical climates (though the stores still sell the tasteless junk from Nov to May, and the damage to the English landscape the bloody polytunnels they use for summer crops is horrendous). But almost all that seasonal produce tastes different from how it was in my youth - the extreme example being Jersey Royal potatoes which are now close to tasteless

Apart from apples (where several decades' campaigning has begun to put onto chain shelves fruit that rivals what I get from my garden), almost all British seasonal produce has been ruined by the stores' determination (in which I must admit to having played a minor part) to extend seasons and reduce price points. That just isn't the case in the Italian or French markets (or even hypermarkets) we buy from on holidays.

Britain's restaurant culture is, generally, infinitely better than 20, never mind 40, years ago (and in small towns, now far livelier and less freezer-dependent than their dismal French non-equivalents). But, while it's great to find two colours of pesto in my microtown convenience store at 10 pm, the past 20 years' chain-driven destruction of greengrocers, fishmongers and butchers in most British shops means the quality of fruit & veg, meat and fish is now worse than it's been for a century.

Or at least the two-thirds of a century I've been consuming it.

You can send me some cinnamon red hots. That's about it.

<<turkey sausage and turkey bacon, if you must, look for Bernard Matthews.>> Brilliant suggestion! WTF is a Bernard Matthews and where do I find one?>>

I haven't trawled my way through the rest of this thread yet, but thanks for the laugh, London Yank! Bernard Matthews is/was a turkey farmer from Norfolk who got rich making sausages and such like from the turkeys he raised during the months between January and November. [no prizes for guessing who happened to the December ones] You'll find his products in the sorts of shops that don't stock proper meat like skirt and flank - you have been warned!

Turkey Twizzlers !!!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-342395/The-truth-Turkey-Twizzlers.html

It is not entirely clear how they came into existence, but food industry folklore has it that someone noticed that a machine punching out imitation drumsticks from sheets of reconstituted turkey meat left behind strips that curled up when heated. Hey presto, a 'delicacy' was born from what once might have been leftovers...

...It had no fewer than 40 ingredients, including just 34 per cent turkey, plus water, pork fat, rusk, wheat starch, three sweeteners, including the controversial additive aspartame, hardened or hydrogenated vegetable oil and colourings and flavourings.

At the risk of getting my head bitten clean off.....
LondonYank, didn't you recently tell someone to "pop a midol and grab a heating pad"? And now you suggest Flanneruk see the "extensive menstrual cramp relief section" of a store? I am not saying it's offensive,just kind of odd (assuming you are not a teenage boy).

.It had no fewer than 40 ingredients, including just 34 per cent turkey, plus water, pork fat, rusk, wheat starch, three sweeteners, including the controversial additive aspartame, hardened or hydrogenated vegetable oil and colourings and flavourings.>>

oh yes, yum yum. what they have done to the brain of our young I dread to think.

not to mention their taste buds.

Still, the muck I endured by way of school dinners didn't do ME any harm did it?

The UK is a modern country, if there was a big clamor for graham flour, they would have it.

BS.

But aisle for aisle, UK supermarket shopping is preferable to US - you can actually buy real food not processed junk.

More BS.

N. American chocolate is allowed to include WAY more wax than British and so the people that grew up here in the UK generally dont like the taste of it.

Please point to wax on the list of ingredients on a Hershey's bar.

slow food is the opposite of fusion food.

Not remotely close to true.

If you grow up with it -- like Americans grow up with bad food -- it doesn't taste bad to you.

I'm sorry that your mother was a bad cook. Mine was an excellent cook. And my father was a pretty good gardener. I grew up with excellent food, thank you very much. Most of that food far surpasses what I've encountered in Italy and France, much less the UK or the rest of Northern Europe.

it is not even minimally edible -- including much praised foods like barbecue.

Spoken like someone that doesn't actually enjoy food. Spoken like someone with an entirely unadventurous palate. Spoken like someone that doesn't think much about their food. Spoken like someone that doesn't consider food critically, or scientifically, or with any comparative context. One can wrap it up in some "European" sensibility, but these sort of statements suggest someone that doesn't actually think much about food.

Honestly, I know all manner of picky eaters. I generally let them be, as people should eat what they want. But to take a superior tone, thinking that your preference for a certain cuisine is a considered opinion, rather than a habit or ill-informed bias, is kind of pathetic.

Bring a bottle of Bourbon.

Now we get to the real suggestions! My recommendation would be a bottle of Pappy, but Pappy has become next to impossible to find. Maybe Michter's. If your British friends are at all adventurous, I'd consider bringing some rye. Again, Van Winkle and Michter's make a good rye. If you can find Tuthilltown, then that is always a good option, though the tiny bottles don't last long. Bulleit is a decent option too, if a bit less refined.

Grits

Another good choice. Anson Mills would be a good brand to seek out.

a better selection of barbecue sauce

Another good choice. I like to make my own, but you won't find the right ingredients in the UK anyway, so a good pre-made bottle should be a hit.

The Krispy Kreme near me north of Boston didn't stay in business very long - but not because of the donuts! It was their coffee that did them in. Plenty of people would stop at KK for doughnuts and then go to Dunkin' Donuts to get their coffee. And since coffee is more of a money-maker than donuts, you can see why KK couldn't compete with DD.

I grew up eating Krispy Kreme (and still lament that my favorite childhood variety, the cake doughnut with chocolate icing and chopped peanuts on top is no longer on the menu), so certainly I am biased, but I find that Dunks doesn't begin to compare. Of course, one should NEVER buy Krispy Kreme from a supermarket unless one is craving disappointment - the onees sold in stores pale in comparison to the ones in the doughnut shops.

But the biggest advantage KK has over DD can be summed up in three little words:

HOT DOUGHNUTS NOW!!!!

(For the uninitiated, when the Hot Doughnuts Now neon sign is lit, they are making their signature glazed doughnuts. They literally melt in your mouth!)

>>Lee Ann, apple cider freezes successfully?! I never knew that; thanks for the tip!<<

You're welcome, tahl! You'll need to leave some headspace in the jug, so pour a glass or two and recap before you put it in the freezer.

Lee Ann

I'm American. I come from two lines of small grocers and fruit and vegetable vendors. I also come from a long line of skilled and careful cooks. We ate very well, and still do.

I think there is much too much over generalization going on in this thread.

I forget to tell you why anyone would want graham flour. To have a constant supply of graham crackers, of course.

And why would you want graham crackers? S'mores? Key lime pie?

I hope that through all the bickering on this thread that sailingsailing sees this post which could actually be useful to him/her.

alya on Oct 23, 11 at 10:26pm
sailingsailing

try this website - free shipping within the UK for orders over 50gbp

http://www.americansweets.co.uk/usa-groceriessoda-1-c.asp

This might be a cheaper option for you - I expect the price per item will be higher than you'd pay in the US but shipping costs to the UK are horrendous.

I have today eaten my very first Hershey bar chocolate and Hersheys' kiss. A work colleague brought a couple of bags in to share round the office as a souvenir from a trip to Orlando. A few of us gathered round - this is a novelty for us, they are famous, and it's an office treat.

Popped them in our mouths. Universally all faces froze into 'being polite but this is disgusting'. I actually disappeared into the other room to spit the remains of the kiss out. Both taste like the really cheap stuff that pretends to be chocolate but isn't, that they make the extra cheap Easter eggs out of, but the Kiss tasted extra stale as well while the Hershey bar had very little flavour at all. Honestly, we all thought they were vile. The sort of product that over here is called 'chocolate flavour' rather than chocolate.

I'm sure they taste wonderful if you have grown up with them. Me? I love Cadbury's, although a lot of people look down their noses at that.

Chocolate really doesn't seem to 'travel' well.

Sorry so the point is I'd avoid buying these as gifts for Brits; they got a 100% thumbs down in our office.

Years ago my boss asked another co-worker who was going to the US to bring some back.

I tried the Kiss and the only way I can describe it? Is that is was the after taste of vomit.

I now live in the US and have avoided Herseys for the last 10 years. I've been to partys where they are served in a bowl as a snack. I see people popping them all evening. I shudder!

American chocolate companies have secretly taken cocoa butter out of the ingredients in some of the most famous chocolate candies.

I never realized how bad our chocolate was until I bought chocolate in the UK. Even their cheap choc. candy bars are far superior to US's.

I never realized how bad our chocolate was until I bought chocolate in the UK. Even their cheap choc. candy bars are far superior to US's.>>

please don't tell travelgourmet what ever you do.

i confess a liking for dairy milk too - and Kit Kats. [notice the plural there?]

of course swiss chocolate is "superior" - i just don't like it so much for every day. [ok, 2-3 times a week]. but if we're talking chocolate truffles or similar, then the better chocolate is definitely preferable.

please don't tell travelgourmet what ever you do.

I actually quite like British chocolate. Well, I like it as much as I like chocolate - not really into sweets.

I just object to people posting wildly inaccurate information. It is fine to prefer, for example, a Cadbury's Dairy Milk to a Hershey's Milk Chocolate, but this talk of secretly removing cocoa butter or what is a legal amount of wax is unhelpful. I think there is a lot of misinformation about food and much of it comes from well-meaning people that repeat stupid things they heard without actually thinking. Then some other well-meaning person repeats it and, next thing you know, that misinformation becomes conventional "wisdom".

FWIW, these are the ingredients in a Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar (per Peapod):

Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Milk, Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Lactose, Milk Fat, Soy Lecithin, PGPR [Emulsifier], Vanillin [Artificial Flavor]).

And for a Cadbury's Dairy Milk bar (per Tesco):

Milk, Sugar Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifiers (E442, E476), Flavourings.

Note the presence of Cocoa Butter in Hershey's. And, FYI, PGPR = E476. And Soy Lecithin is an emulsifier. The real difference between the two pretty much comes down to the fact that Hershey's pumps up the sugar content, not some imagined difference in over-processing or the presence of wax or whatever conspiracy theory someone imagined from something they read on the internet.

Seafood cocktail sauce. The version we got in Boston -dark red with horseradish, rather than the UK version - aka Marie Rose - mayo +ketchup.

Just can't seem to find it here in the UK

Make your own, crellston. It really is just catsup plus horseradish sauce, mixed to your hotness level. You can add wasabi powder or paste, and lemon juice for extra piquancy.

>>> Seafood cocktail sauce. The version we got in Boston -dark red with horseradish, rather than the UK version - aka Marie Rose - mayo +ketchup.
Just can't seem to find it here in the UK <<<

You probably won't find it in the UK, I'd never heard of a dark red seafood sauce until last year in the US.


>>> I never realized how bad our chocolate was until I bought chocolate in the UK. Even their cheap choc. candy bars are far superior to US's. <<<

Yes, as a total chocoholic that's one of the first thing's I noticed when I visited the US as a teenager. Your cheap chocolate bars taste like what we call cooking chocolate in the UK, they taste waxy compared to Cadbury's etc which is much more creamy. Also, not to be confused by what they label as Cadbury's in the US, which is just made by Hershey's.


>>> Like Hooameye, my British friends universally loathe American chocolate bars. It is too dark, too waxy, and not sweet enough. They must expire when they get near 72%-80% continental chocolate bars! >>>

Noooooooooooo we love dark chocolate too, in fact any chocolate, just not Hershey's wax bars. ;-P


>>> of course swiss chocolate is "superior" - i just don't like it so much for every day. [ok, 2-3 times a week]. but if we're talking chocolate truffles or similar, then the better chocolate is definitely preferable. <<<

annhig - Me too!! The fancy stuff is no good for a chocolate binge.

Many thanks tarquin.iwill try that

Agree with Nona - Hershey's chocolate tastes horrible to the average British palate. I remember one of my early trips to California, stopping at a gas station and feeling a bit peckish I bought my first ever Hershey bar out of curiousity. Not a pleasant experience to those raised on the delights of dairy milk or galaxy bars in the UK.

a pretty reasonable commercial style "marie rose" sauce can be made with mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, lemon juice and and tabasco sauce to taste. for a less sweet sauce use tomato puree rather than ketchup.

that will produce a classic [in the UK] pink prawn cocktail sauce.

NEVER had one that tasted as if it had been anywhere near the horseradish, but in any event, that wouldn't make it dark red would it? where does it get the dark red colouring from?

NEVER had one that tasted as if it had been anywhere near the horseradish, but in any event, that wouldn't make it dark red would it? where does it get the dark red colouring from?

The red color is from the ketchup. American cocktail sauce typically does not have mayo, so it retains the color of ketchup.

Cadbury's etc which is much more creamy.

This is likely down to using vegetable fat, instead of milk fats. Without knowing the specific vegetable fat they use, I would wager that they use one with a low melt point, which will lead to that melt in your mouth feel.

After the many references to US products, other than Maple Syrup (of which the best is Canadian) I am still looking for one that I would feed to my Springer Spaniel.

Many areas are now adopting a "slow food" approach it is pretty dated now but was hugely on show this weekend in Piemonte. We had the best Italian food we have ever tasted at both "Eatly" in Turin which is pretty incredible and the truffle festival in Alba.

Anyone passing Turin should try to get to "Eatly" which is aiming to open in New York shortly. It is hard to describe and pin down but it is basically a huge food hall with themed areas such as seafood which offer both grocery purchases and eating areas. Best Pizza I have ever tasted.

http://www.eataly.it/index.php

If you want true slow food in Britain you need venture to points well north of Watford.

Anyone passing Turin should try to get to "Eatly" which is aiming to open in New York shortly.

It is already open. Has been for over a year now.

I don't want to suggest that much of the complaining about American food seems to come from Brits with precious little exposure to the reality of American food culture, but...

How has it been transposed to NY? has it worked?

Haven't been to the city for 6 years, we loved Dean and DeLuca then.

"reality of American food culture" comes in the shape of a clown with big feet.

Come on TG give me 5 culinary reasons to make the trip back over the Atlantic.

How has it been transposed to NY? has it worked?

Reviews have been very positive.

Come on TG give me 5 culinary reasons to make the trip back over the Atlantic.

5 Restaurants

Momofuku Ko
French Laundry
Black's BBQ
City Grocery
Restaurant August

5 Foods/Ingredients

Maine Lobster
Anson Mills Grits
Dry-Aged Prime Porterhouse
Benton's Country Ham
Humboldt Fog

5 Wineries

Williams Selyem
Lange
ROAR
James Cole
Penner-Ash

5 Whiskeys

Tuthilltown Hudson Baby Bourbon
Pappy Van Winkle 23-year
Rittenhouse Rye (bond)
Black Maple Hill
Jefferson's

5 Burgers

Green Street Grille - Cambridge
Peter Luger's - Brooklyn
Apple Pan - LA
Spotted Pig - NYC
In 'n Out (yeah, I'm a fan) - CA/AZ/UT/NV

Getting back to the original question -- and hopefully I'll be able to answer this in ONE post, rather than the string of four or five posts needed by some of our more pontificating posters -- my suggestions are solely based on what my UK friends INSIST I bring with me every time I come back to visit them if I want to get another invite (and, yes, an American chocolate is included). Keeping in mind, these are solely items my friends miss from the States:

See's Candies, preferably milk chocolate and must include bordeaux

Maple syrup & bisquick

White Tortilla chips and salsa

Betty Crocker Cake Mixes & Frosting (for those who already were previously given measuring instruments -- cups, spoons, and pans) British baking uses a different measuring system (by the weight vs. 1/2 cup; tbsn, etc)so in order to use American mixes, you need American measuring instruments. Being able to translate Gas Mark 4 into US 350 degrees is these days an easy find using google.

How could I forget See's Candies!! Dark with nuts, a 2-lb box please. After that, I feel sick.

My parents used to bring me fresh green corn tamales, they are almost worth a trip to New Mexico.

"I tried the Kiss and the only way I can describe it? Is that is was the after taste of vomit."

There's a reason for this. From Harold McGee, "On Food and Cooking" (2004 ed., p. 703):

And in the United States, large manufacturers have long encouraged their milk fat to undergo some breakdown by fat-digesting enzymes. This breakdown develops a slight note of rancidity, whose cheesy, animal overtones blend well in their own way with chocolate flavor and make a positive contribution to the complexity of flavor.

I guess "positive" is a matter of opinion.

>>> I don't want to suggest that much of the complaining about American food seems to come from Brits with precious little exposure to the reality of American food culture, but... <<<

What a huge generalisation! I think you'll find a lot of this thread is a result of some Americans banging on about how oh-so-terrible the food is here and how everything in the US is sooooo much better. I've been to the US many many times, especially the West Coast, and had some very nice food but I've also had some awful food as well, including much hyped items. And I'm sorry but In 'n Out is very over-rated. The burger was nothing special and the fries were really weird - what do they do to them???

Surfergirl - Americans might miss See's, but I wouldn't recommended them to most Brits, we were sent some from an American client and they tasted like Hershey's to me. The only chocs we brought home which were comparable to our regular stuff was Ghirardelli from San Francisco.

Ooops, forgot to add that if I was bringing gifts from the US back home I would bring booze, something locally made preferably. Booze is always appreciated in the UK.

What a huge generalisation!

It isn't a generalization, just an observation. I never said all those complaining had no exposure, just that much of the complaining comes from those with limited exposure.

I think you'll find a lot of this thread is a result of some Americans banging on about how oh-so-terrible the food is here and how everything in the US is sooooo much better.

I think you haven't read this thread, but please, where are the Americans banging on about how bad the food in the UK is? Unless you are talking about zeppole, but zeppole ain't a fan of American food either.

And I'm sorry but In 'n Out is very over-rated. The burger was nothing special and the fries were really weird - what do they do to them???

In 'n Out fries suck, though asking for them well done helps a little. But I was talking about burgers. And one should bear in mind that their burgers aren't the best burgers in the world, but that they are a great exemplar of the fast food burger and they deserve credit for that. Personally, I'm partial to the 2x4, animal style.

>>> I think you haven't read this thread, but please, where are the Americans banging on about how bad the food in the UK is? Unless you are talking about zeppole, but zeppole ain't a fan of American food either. >>>

Yes, I have read this whole thread. I was talking about the Fodors Europe forum in general, wasn't referring to you personally.

Yeah, see, I've heard that, that In 'n Out were so much better than McDonalds etc but was really under-whelmed.

zeppole

>>> I've been in tourist quarters in Italy and Spain where curries, beers, teas and the Full English are on the menu and in the supermarket aisles. <<<

I think you’ll find that’s mostly because certain parts of Spain especially are dominated by British holiday-makers and lots of ex-pats and not because the Spanish want an English breakfast.

>>> Apparently people in the UK eat tons of Krispy Kreme donuts, but there is not a single Dunkin' Donut to be found. <<<

There used to be Dunkin’ Donuts shops in the UK 10-20 years ago. I assume they all closed because they weren’t very popular. Krispy Kreme obviously noticed a gap in the market at the right time but it’s not like they are on every street corner, just mainly in London rail stations and small Tesco stores (usually bought by office workers in boxes of 12 for meetings).

>>> I've lived in England and it is only recently that food there has become even edible. It really isn't that long ago when hideous tinned beans, white breads, sugary everything and fatty everything were the standard fare, with scarcely a real piece of fruit in sight. <<<

What??? Are you really serious? Are you talking about 1946 or something? Certainly even in the 70’s/80’s when I was a kid there was tonnes of fresh fruit and veg available.

amazing - I missed the dunkin donuts, and was blissfully unaware of Krispy Kreme too!

the nearest one seems to be in Bristol - http://www.krispykreme.co.uk/store-locator/

a round trip of about 340 miles.

Don't think I'll bother.

Krispy Kreme are all over London. I once dropped into one to buy a doughnut as a snack. The assistant looked at me disdainfully and said "Just the one?".

Krispy Kreme are all over London.>>

sounds messy.

Wow – looks like there are 45 Krispy Kreme locations of various types (including Hotlight Stores, where they make the doughnuts – HOT DOUGHNUTS NOW!), plus lots of Tescos that sell the doughnuts as well.

My stomach will probably regret it (I can't eat doughnuts like I used to), but I'll HAVE to visit a KK while I am in the UK next month to try one (or more) of the "not-available-in-the-USA" varieties like Jaffa Cake or Chocolate Dreamcake or Millionaires' Shortbread or Lemon Meringue Pie (topped with actual toasted meringue - why don't they sell these in the US??).

Actually, it looks like of the 16 varieties on the website (including 2 seasonal Halloween varieties), only 8 are sold in the US. http://www.krispykreme.co.uk/doughnuts/doughnuts-new/?id=7&doughnut=classic

By the way, thanks to KK I now know that vanilla bean (US) = vanilla pod (UK).

@ beeberry -- on See's Candies, not necessarily true -- at least not with my friends -- I wasn't referring to Americans now living in London, but rather my English friends who visited the West Coast -- they're the ones who find See's Candies "lovely", as they put it.

But I agree, most people -- when it comes to chocolate (or popcorn for that matter) find what they grew up with is where their personal taste lies. I was never fond of Cadbury chocolate anymore than I was fond of Ghiraddeli chocolate. Having said that, the Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit bars I would kill for. Fortunately, they are available in a number of British shops in Santa Monica, like my other English treat, the Garibaldi biscuits.

The English almost uniformly HATE root beer, simply because they haven't grown up with it. And I was not too pleased when I first moved to England to find that popcorn had sugar rather than salt on it.

Surfergirl - we moved to the US when my DS was 12, he took to root beer like a duck to water.

Everyone else in our family thinks it tastes like Germoline - Our British friends here will know what I mean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germolene

Sugar on popcorn? I prefer caramel.

>>Everyone else in our family thinks it tastes like Germoline<<

Your family eats haemorrhoid cream?

>>Everyone else in our family thinks it tastes like Germoline<<

Your family eats haemorrhoid cream?>>

Germoline is simply an antiseptic cream [though still a bit yucky to eat, I would think].

Preparation H is for the "farmer Giles".

Hershey's didn't take the cocoa butter out of all their products, but did switch to vegetable oil in quite a number of them in 2008. However, the original Kisses and Hershey Bars still have the cocoa butter.

I like better chocolates, sure. But don't mind Cadbury and when someone occasionally thinks I need an Americana fix, the Hershey's Kisses they send. It's just two different things to me. One is much more chocolate, chocolate (and that's the Hershey's). I've had Mexican chocolate that's not dissimilar and well, after all, chocolate IS Mexican. I'm sure there's plenty there though that is like European chocolate just as there are US manufacturers. And the European (and Australian) gravitates towards lots of dairy, lots of sugar and not a lot of actual chocolate (which is dry and bitter...). And what they make is smooth and nice. And different.

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We were just in California recently and I had to try In n Out after hearing so much. They were ok, I thought. But just ok. Agree the fries were pretty awful. All in all, I'd pick Steak n Shake first for burgers or fries. Or Backyard Burger even.

--------------

Wonders how long Krispy Kreme UK can keep pretending to make all those doughnuts no one buys before they can't pay the rent anymore. Apparently they're pretending sales are up 12.6% this year. (not sure why though personally.. I can not stand Krispy Kremes)

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Remembers a couple of British themed full service restaurants in Memphis. Pretty much roast beef, prime rib, potatoes and yorkshire puddings...

>>Remembers a couple of British themed full service restaurants in Memphis. Pretty much roast beef, prime rib, potatoes and yorkshire puddings...<<

Ah, but did they come with motherly ladies who made you eat up all your greens ("or NO pudding!") and keep your elbows off the table?

Did they also say, "Those who eat most pudding, get most meat"?

I only saw the menu at one place, but at the one I did go to,if I recall it was pretty much just an acne'd kid who just said "y'all" a lot. I'm trying to think if they said anything about puddings (It wasn't to ask how you could have some if you don't eat yer meat). All I do remember is at the time is that I had no idea "pudding" for dessert wasn't a custard. Lack of research on my part. I didn't order it. And that anything green, but not round, didn't seem to factor highly into the standard. I asked for a salad instead of peas. Nice roast though.

Actually IN London, I had nice curry, reasonable stir fry and a truly awful hamburger.

In regards to Travelgourmet's statement:

I just object to people posting wildly inaccurate information. It is fine to prefer, for example, a Cadbury's Dairy Milk to a Hershey's Milk Chocolate, but this talk of secretly removing cocoa butter or what is a legal amount of wax is unhelpful. I think there is a lot of misinformation about food and much of it comes from well-meaning people that repeat stupid things they heard without actually thinking. Then some other well-meaning person repeats it and, next thing you know, that misinformation becomes conventional "wisdom".

I read the info. on replacing cocoa butter in chocolate in the paper, however, here is the story as told on the Today Show.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26788143/ns/today-food/t/chocoholics-sour-new-hersheys-formula/

annhig on Oct 29, 11 at 8:00am
>>Everyone else in our family thinks it tastes like Germoline<<

Your family eats haemorrhoid cream?>>

Germoline is simply an antiseptic cream [though still a bit yucky to eat, I would think].

Patrick_L - we never used it on haemorrhoids (never even had one) but my Mum would use it as her 'to go to' cream for any infection and as kids we always ended with it in our mouths.

Root beer/germolene

I guess I'm a little confused on Britsh food. I understand that the thread's original point was NA foods not available in UK, but has devolved into a "British Food is Good and has been for many years" vs. "it's crap" debate. My experience is limited in the UK, so I googled info on British food. Found an interesting website: http://pocketcultures.com/topicsoftheworld/2009/04/27/britains-10-favourite-foods/

Funny thing is, at a minimum, 6 of the top 10 are not British. You can buy it or eat it in the UK, but it's not British - specifically the Curry dishes and that ubiquitous UK delight - spaghetti BOLOGNESE!

Are we talking about that kind of Britsh food, not traditional british foods like spotted dick?

Well, not all of us Yanks detest all British foods. From my time living in England I really miss both pork pies and Scotch Eggs. I know many Brits deplore those as crap foods, but I like them, and they are not available here in my part of the States.

There is one bakery in Sidney, B.C., that does pork pies, and I stop by every time I pass through on my way to Victoria. A kind friend who lives in Sidney will also pick up some for me when he takes the ferry over to Anacortes, but other than that I find myself jonesing for those unhealthy snacks.

Well, not all of us Yanks detest all British foods. From my time living in England I really miss both pork pies and Scotch Eggs. I know many Brits deplore those as crap foods, but I like them, and they are not available here in my part of the States.>>

a good pork pie or scotch egg can be a delight, a bad one, not! [like most things, really].

it is funny how we have adopted the dreaded "chicken tikka marsala" as our national dish, but perhaps it's fitting as it's been invented to suit UK tastes; ditto the ubiquitous spag bol which doesn't exist in Italy either.

Conversely, archetypal english dishes like spotted dick are rarely to be seen, inside or outside family homes, partly, I suspect due to the name, and partly due to the amount of time that it takes to cook.

IMHO we have become very lazy about food and if we can't do it in 30 mins, we aren't interested. the only exception to that is the sunday roast, which continues to be cooked up and down the country in many households.

I happened to spot a new line from Montezuma today (new to me, anyway): chocolate bars somehow incorporating puddings, among them, Eton Mess, apple crumble and............... spotted dick.

I was tempted, but not at £3.95 a bar.

LondonYank - I have a friend in the UK who has requested PAM cooking spray: "My friends really like it, so bring as much as you can."

"Funny thing is, at a minimum, 6 of the top 10 are not British"

So?

Tomatoes aren't native to Italy, potatoes aren't native to Ireland, coffee's not native to North America and I've never seen a tea bush producing leaves you can brew a cuppa out of in Britain.

Mid-20th century Britain simply had no culinary heritage to draw on (all that stuff about the Roast Beef of Old England describes what rural toffs ate. Most Britons had moved into cities by about the 1870s, since British agriculture couldn't compete with cheaper food imported from the New World. The new city dwellers just fried or boiled whatever was handiest or bought it from a hot food seller).

Once WW2 ended, and we'd gone back to eating Oz/NZ lamb, North American wheat, Danish pork and bacon and South African fruit, it made at least as much sense to import our recipes from a few hundred miles away as our food from the other side of the world.

I haven't had access to PAM cooking spray in some time, but can't recall now if it differs significantly from your generic spray vegetable (or canola, olive, etc) oil. I have to imagine they have spray oils to coat pans in the UK, don't they? There are quite a lot of different brands of that sort of thing here in Oz.

I should have specified it is Butter Flavor PAM.

Occurs to me that my comment about Dr. Pepper in Ireland was not appropriate for the "UK" part of the title....but I didn't find them in Northern Ireland either. And now that I'm diabetic I won't be finding them in my fridge in Texas. Sigh.

Ah, ok on the PAM. We do have one butter flavoured spray here (and it's good for baking), but not sure about in the UK.

>>I have to imagine they have spray oils to coat pans in the UK, don't they?<<

Conceivably (someone, somewhere, will have just about anything for sale in the UK), but I've never noticed anything like that in the supermarket. What's wrong with just pouring out a teaspoonful from an ordinary bottle? Why bother with the added cost (however marginal) of a spray gizmo (plus whatever additives are necessary to prevent clogging) for such a trivial "saving" in labour?

PS. There are probably still people in the UK that use what's left on the wrapping paper for butter/margarine to grease their pans.

Hi Patrick. They just spray a fine mist and end up using a lot less oil. And less oil on the food as a result, in my experience. I like them. They have store brand versions here in Australia as well of different types of oil.

I tend to use the spray more for things like coating a baking pan or baking sheets lightly, or maybe a grill. Not so much for frying pans. I still have my bottle of olive oil or a pat of butter around for that.

I suspect some people in the U.K. still fry in lard, or maybe dripping from the Sunday joint. This is why a full English breakfast is also known as a "heart attack on a plate", and why most British people rarely eat them, except when staying in hotels.

You can get that spray stuff in UK supermarkets. I Think it's called FryLite or something similar.
To return to the OP. If your friends say, "Oh I really loved blueberry flavoured peanut butter or whatever when I visited the US", then bring it. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

One should be careful with PAM. The emulsifiers in it (Soy Lecithin, I believe) can accumulate in the pan over time, resulting in a somewhat gummy texture that no longer resists sticking as well as smooth steel, much less a non-stick surface.

Personally, I just use oil/butter and wipe it into the cold pan with a paper towel if I'm trying to minimize the oil used.

Quite. That was my worry, travelgourmet.

I suspect dripping from a Sunday joint is a real rarity nowadays.

Was thinking about that and what I used it on this week. And it was in some cake pans - with circles of baking paper at the bottom; sprayed on foil wrapped over a broiler pan to keep satay sticks from sticking; a cookie/baking sheet with baked chips and that was with a foil lining too.

But I have used it on the pan itself and I have went after them with Barkeepers Friend later - probably as a result. I'll have to watch that.

I've never used it with roasts and things though. I perch a roast up on celery stalks or big chunks of onions anyway. A little oil pour and wipe at the bottom for the potatoes, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts.

-------

Interesting conversation/devolution on what is British (or American?) cuisine - or any multi-cultural state with not a lot of exported food history. Not sure I'd equate ingredients and recipes as having the same meaning. When I go for kebabs here, I'm I now going out for German food?

On the other hand, and when time allows, we find it interesting to see how cuisines get re-interpreted and evolve for local tastes and wants. Chinese in one place might included a satay sauce option for your stir fry, as it does here Melbourne (as well as on your Pizza or kebab, dishes where sweet chili is equally at home). In another, Chinese buffet style is ubiquitous. "Crab Rangoon" is a must on any Chinese menu worth it's MSG back where I come from.

But, in the end, we're still going out for Chinese. So... hmmm...

But I have used it on the pan itself and I have went after them with Barkeepers Friend later - probably as a result. I'll have to watch that.

Barkeeper's Friend is the best stuff ever. The problem with PAM is much less an issue with stainless steel, as long as you really go after any stuck on residue. Using it in a nonstick pan is more problematic, since aggressive cleaning threatens the nonstick surface.

Not sure I'd equate ingredients and recipes as having the same meaning.

Oh, I don't know. The globalization of ingredients has surely had a huge impact on even the most hidebound cuisines. And the introduction of those ingredients, de facto, changes the recipes.

And the introduction of those ingredients, de facto, changes the recipes.

That's true. I'm just not sure if when that happens it's the same thing as when dishes are easily identified globally as part of that nation's cultural identity. ie - you say curry and I will still think India. Not Britain. You say kebabs, I'll still think, well the middle east, even if Australia has tons of kebab joints and has added its own spin. I still wouldn't consider these "British cuisine" and "Australian cuisine." I'd consider them Indian or maybe Turkish cuisine, made and adapted in any number of other countries. Part of the ever changing food scene in those countries, sure - and that's really what matters anyway. What you'll be able to eat when you get there.

Which is why I'd rather live in a multi-cultural environment than one with the centuries old ways and dishes... even if I love those ways and styles. Don't mind a visit, but I'd slowly go mad if I had to live permanently in a small Italian village if all they had were even the best of ingredients and the best of bistros serving even the very best of regional Italian foods. I've come to *need* variety. Some places just have a food history that's unique, even though they've absorbed ideas and ingredients, has evolved enough to become unique and therefor its own cuisine. Italian easily fits the bill there - what with pasta and tomato and, and, and... An Italian pasta dish is not lo main. But some places work better as cultural hubs for the world, but don't exactly have their own complete "cuisine identity." I don't know that Britain has really made something of what it knows of it's contributing dishes so as to set them thoroughly apart from their origins. Curry is still curry and it's still Indian. Maybe someday it will be something entirely different and evolved and more universally than in the unique offerings of a top restaurant here or there. In the meantime, diverse but "of the world" isn't such a bad thing.

------

Maybe the OP should take Barkeepers Friend. It's one of only a couple of things I've ever written home to have someone send in care packages. Works like abrasive powder cleansers without abrasives. I don't have non-stick pans so it works great for me. And I've been able to scrub the worst looking glass and painted surfaces with stuff burnt and caked on to clean without a scratch.

PS. There are probably still people in the UK that use what's left on the wrapping paper for butter/margarine to grease their pans.>>

funny you should mention that, Patrick - i save all my butter wrappers for greasing cake and pastry tins.

and i am one of those people who pours the fat off the residue in the bottom of the roasting pan, not just to reduce the fat content of the resultant gravy [made with the giblets of the bird, if available - see another current thread[] but also uses the same fat [or rather last week's!] to roast the potatoes.

I would entirely concur that if you ate like that every day it probably wouldn't do you any good. But once a week in an otherwise healthy diet?

and BTW, you can get Barkeeper's Friend in the UK - try Lakeland.

Is Barkeeper's Friend the same idea as Bon Ami (Hasn't Scratched Yet)?

Can't help the OP but for those who say British Chocolate is awful, I would suggest you try Green & Black. It is IMHO superb, I grew up on Cadbury's but this is now my favourite.

Don't know if this is of any help to the people on this thread from the US & Canada who can't find Canola Oil (you've probably worked this out),in the UK & Ireland it is called Rapeseed Oil.

Is Barkeeper's Friend the same idea as Bon Ami (Hasn't Scratched Yet)?

The primary difference between them is that Bon Ami sucks, while Barkeeper's Friend is awesome. Seriously. Bon Ami may not scratch, but it doesn't clean nearly as well.

I agree with that. Same game plan, different results. Barkeeper's Friend and a wet sponge completely cleaned up a white stovetop in a rental house that had stuff spilled around the gas burners, roasted on and added to for apparently years. Done in about 15 minutes. It had been dark brown to blackened and nothing here worked unless it would have taken off the paint as well.

I've also used it on glass electric cooktops and to take ink off of laminate counters. Bon Ami just didn't come close.

I shall purchase some on my next shopping trip....tomorrow to be exact. Assume I can find it at HEB or WalMart?

It seems to me any place that sells Comet or Ajax would probably have it in the same section.