expats, what food do you miss?

[spitfire]

anybody miss certain foods from home that you can't get where you live?
I live in the u.s.a. and r.e.a.l.l.y. miss "black pudding" and "irish bacon" when i want a good fry-up.

[suziq]

i lived abroad for a year

for me it was bovril, i used to have it on toast, anyone who came to visit brought it for me!

[Mrs Moustoir]

Marmite. Widely available now but hideously expensive.

Also - silly things like toasted teacakes, crumpets and British sausages.

[george]

For me it would also be British sausages. No one else makes them quite the same. I do think it is a pretty sad thing to miss though! Also Findus crispy pancakes!

I also like to have things like toasted teacakes and crumpets whenever I visit the UK but it is really only sausages and crispy pancakes that I think about eating here.

[pumpy]

When i was on my travels, i could never find runner beans....... are these a peculiarly British vegetable?

[Bonniegirl]

I don't think it is that I miss foods from the Uk so much as adjusting to new tastes and flavours. It took a while for that to happen when we arrived in NZ. Used to it now, certainly had trouble finding decent sausages, still can't, but we grow our own meat and the sausages our homekill butcher makes are great.
It took 3 years for us to find a decent place to get a curry, we now have a fave place.
Individial items, well I thought I missed Walkers cheese and onion crisps, the first thing I had when we went back to the UL last year was a packet and I was so disappointed with them. Hula hoops I love, we can get them here though, just have to go to the right place.
After a while you just forget what it is your think you miss and just get on with it.

[Millymollymandy]

After a while you just forget what it is your think you miss and just get on with it.

I bloody don't! But I bet you can get most of the things that we can't e.g.

stewing steak which isn't tough after cooking it forever, ditto steak as well, basically the only beef we buy is mince!
peperoni (though tbh I have trouble finding that in English supermarkets - was never a problem in London)
sausages that don't taste of garlic and have bits of gristle and bone in
Tea bags
double or whipping cream
sour cream
cheese - cheddar, wensleydale, cheshire, lancashire etc
white wine vinegar
malt vinegar
mint sauce
jalapeno peppers
golden syrup
mincemeat
Xmas pudding
crackers
Xmas cards
digestive biscuits
ginger nuts (for cheesecake)
Heinz beans
kalamata olives
salad cream
branston pickle
barbecue sauce
any kind of relish for barbecues
suet
tinned red salmon (only recently has pink become widely available!)

....... there are gazillions of things that I actually NEED for my everyday cooking that is not available in France except a few of them in certain supermarkets on the foreign food shelves at ridiculous prices, the occasional Lidl promo, or in the British food shops - luckily we have one opened up not too far away where we can buy and even order things from!

I have whipping cream and cranberry sauce on order with them.

[Mrs Moustoir]

When i was on my travels, i could never find runner beans....... are these a peculiarly British vegetable?

I think they are. They do grow them in France and they're called Haricot d'Espagne- but usually grown as a decorative plant. When we first moved here, I saw them growing on a roundabout as the centre piece of a floral bedding display. I had to go round the roundabout a few times to confirm this!!

We always grow runners from saved or seed bought in the UK although Lidl did sell haricot d'espagne seed this year.

MMM - thats a hellava list. I'm here nodding though!

Takeaway curry. Where's the "drool" smiley?

[contadino]

I don't think it is that I miss foods from the Uk so much as adjusting to new tastes and flavours. It took a while for that to happen when we arrived in NZ. Used to it now, certainly had trouble finding decent sausages, still can't, but we grow our own meat and the sausages our homekill butcher makes are great.
It took 3 years for us to find a decent place to get a curry, we now have a fave place.
Individial items, well I thought I missed Walkers cheese and onion crisps, the first thing I had when we went back to the UL last year was a packet and I was so disappointed with them. Hula hoops I love, we can get them here though, just have to go to the right place.
After a while you just forget what it is your think you miss and just get on with it.

Spot on, IMO.

I'd had a real hankering for fish & chips, and gorged myself on it when I went back to the UK last year. With the exception of an outstanding chippy in Stoke (where the owner originated from my home town in Italy ), they were all grim.

Most other things you either adapt to, or find ways of making yourself. Baked beans, for example, are much better home-made. The same goes for Xmas pud, tomato ketchup, mincemeat, curries, etc..

Teabags, I'd agree with.

Most things on my shopping list were there for cost reasons. A packet of iduprofen costs €7/pack here - I got a load in the UK for something like 14p/pack. Suntan lotion was the same.

However, I have to observe that if it wasn't for fish & chips, I'd have returned from the UK to Italy very hungry. English food is dire and I certainly don't miss it.

[Mrs Moustoir]

I hope this doesn't turn into one of those "When in Rome..." threads so beloved of expats.

Nobody is knocking the cuisine of their adopted country - we're just discussing what we miss.

[Bonniegirl]

Oh dear! I don't think anybodies knocking anything! We were asked a question and gave our answer!

[contadina]

we're just discussing what we miss.

...but it's always worth reminding people there are either alternatives (provolone for cheddar, for example) or things can be re-created at home. If it's bangers you want, buy some pork and make your own adding rusk or breadcrumbs to make them more like English sausages.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh dear! I don't think anybodies knocking anything! We were asked a question and gave our answer!

lol Bonnie I don't imagine the expats in NZ forums are quite the same as the French ones - you dare to mention cheddar and baked beans and you are vilified by the 'why don't you **** off back to England then?' brigade.

Anyway talking of cheddar I've just nabbed me 6 more packs of it left over from the Lidl promo a couple of weeks ago (at less than half the price that the supermarket is charging (for pre- frozen cheddar )), and a huge tub of Greek yoghurt, something else I forgot to put on my I miss it list!

One happy bunny here.

P.S. Contadina, every country probably has its own cheddar substitute. I've never heard of provolone and it's Cantal Entre Deux for us. However that is more at Lidl than the cheddar at the moment!

[Mrs Moustoir]

Exactly MMM!

When I worked in the UK, my boss was French and every lunchtime she moaned about British bread. If I'd suggested she go out, buy flour and make her own, I'd have got a four letter response.

I've made my own baked beans in the past but the consumer panel (my kids) still prefer Heinz and I prefer the convenience. I also craved crisps but I think they've reduced the salt and fat in them so much now - they are not the same. Wotsits are not even cheesy anymore.

[Cloud]

You don't have to be an ex-pat to miss things. Now I'm back in Blighty and I miss things I can't get here.

I miss an early morning Italian coffee, drunk at the counter, from any one of hundreds of bars passed on the way to work.

I miss the drinking jerez in the early hours of the morning from open roofed bars at the local fiestas in south of Spain, while watching the impromptu flamencos and dancing, and joining in when the alcohol kick in a little.

I even miss the Lomo de Porc drenched in cheap olive oil I could buy for 100 pesetas or so, wine included.

I expect if I went back now it just would not be the same.