"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/ar...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?

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

BS.

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

More BS.

<i>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.</i>

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

<i>slow food is the opposite of fusion food.</i>

Not remotely close to true.

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

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.

<i>it is not even minimally edible -- including much praised foods like barbecue.</i>

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.

<i>Bring a bottle of Bourbon.</i>

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.

<i>Grits</i>

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

<i>a better selection of barbecue sauce</i>

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-...essoda-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.

<i>please don't tell travelgourmet what ever you do.</i>

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