UK Food that Foreigners and Expats ask for.
Discussion
It's an Expat/Immigrant thing to crave foodstuffs from where we grew up I think - during the 17 years I lived in the UK I would buy imported South African groceries at least once a month; Crosse & Blackwell Mayo, Steers Peri-Peri and other sauces like Nandos, biltong, droewors (naturally) and Simba chips (crisps) which to me are far, far better than anything in the UK. I get Game meats too, like Springbok, Kudu etc .
Now I live in Portugal, I still buy the SA stuff from the UK importers and a truly fantastic International foods importer based in Lisbon but get my UK goodies fix from the local British Supermarket and local markets that have a great international selection, which is common here. That said, I don't buy much in the way of UK groceries though, don't miss an awful lot as I prefer local and international. Bacon? Danish is fine and have always bought that even in the UK. Chocolate? I do like Cadbury's but my family much prefer Belgian chocolate so we have that.
A lot of 'British' is actually not anymore anyway - HP sauce is a staple in my cupboard, from Sweden. The rest of the Heinz products all come from Spain. In fact, just looked and the only British made items I have is Colman's mint sauce and Branston pickle! Beers are all Belgian or local. Cheese international.
The closest I have to a British butcher is Irish, great for sausages but that's all. Steak, lamb and pork I get locally that is comparable - especially from the better butchers where the steaks are all from Argentina, Japan and the USA, lamb New Zealand etc. Local pork is Black Pork (porco preto) which is excellent.
Yeah, it does seem more a nostalgic and what we are used to thing to me, hence my craving for SA products to this day but I really struggle to think of much I miss about UK food products not now owned and manufactured elsewhere too making it easily available - oh, fudge is nice there. When I visited the UK for a weekend last year, the only thing I wanted was South African - a visit to Nando's!
Now I live in Portugal, I still buy the SA stuff from the UK importers and a truly fantastic International foods importer based in Lisbon but get my UK goodies fix from the local British Supermarket and local markets that have a great international selection, which is common here. That said, I don't buy much in the way of UK groceries though, don't miss an awful lot as I prefer local and international. Bacon? Danish is fine and have always bought that even in the UK. Chocolate? I do like Cadbury's but my family much prefer Belgian chocolate so we have that.
A lot of 'British' is actually not anymore anyway - HP sauce is a staple in my cupboard, from Sweden. The rest of the Heinz products all come from Spain. In fact, just looked and the only British made items I have is Colman's mint sauce and Branston pickle! Beers are all Belgian or local. Cheese international.
The closest I have to a British butcher is Irish, great for sausages but that's all. Steak, lamb and pork I get locally that is comparable - especially from the better butchers where the steaks are all from Argentina, Japan and the USA, lamb New Zealand etc. Local pork is Black Pork (porco preto) which is excellent.
Yeah, it does seem more a nostalgic and what we are used to thing to me, hence my craving for SA products to this day but I really struggle to think of much I miss about UK food products not now owned and manufactured elsewhere too making it easily available - oh, fudge is nice there. When I visited the UK for a weekend last year, the only thing I wanted was South African - a visit to Nando's!
RizzoTheRat said:
Same Bacon issue here in the Netherlands. Went to Copenhagen a while back and was looking forward to some nice Danish bacon before I discovered they also do thin streaky stuff and appear to ship all the good stuff to the UK.
On the other hand when I move back to the UK I'll need to find an expat shop somewhere to get my fix of Karvan Cévitam, which is the best squash I've ever had. Quite a few shops in the UK sell Stroopwafels now which is good.
I agree with this one, loved that stuff when I worked in Netherlands for a few months, will have to get more next time on my way through. Lidl recently did a strawberry one here which was pretty similar, even the can/bottle looked the same, but it was only about for a week or so.On the other hand when I move back to the UK I'll need to find an expat shop somewhere to get my fix of Karvan Cévitam, which is the best squash I've ever had. Quite a few shops in the UK sell Stroopwafels now which is good.
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