Wednesday 9 May 2007

Delicious UK Groceries

One of the first times my mother came to visit us for an extended period of time was just after Sebastian was born. She stayed with us for 6 weeks. And we all lived to tell the tale!

Her husband, Jack, joined us about 4 weeks in and my mother had given him a list of "essentials" that she was missing from home. When Jack arrived she lovingly unpacked a box of Lipton Tea Bags. My mother had brought TEA to England. I stared at her incredulously. I reminded her of the Boston Tea party. I reminded her that England was known the world over for its tea. She then realised what a daft thing she had done.

A previous post told you about those things in the USA I yearn for when I am here. Having lived in the UK for 12 years now, there are a number of things that I would miss if I were to ever move away. Not sure I would yearn for them the same way I miss Reese's Peanut Butter Cups but these are the things we might have to ship over for Marc if we were ever relocate to the good ole US of A.

  • Crumpets
  • Lime Pickle
  • Hob Knobs
  • McVities Digestives
  • Brown Sauce
  • Horlick's (malted milk mix)
  • Scones
  • Crispy Duck
  • Yorkshire Pudding
  • Toad in the Hole
  • Lamb (lots of it)

I've just realised that the bottom 3 I can make these myself even if I lived in the USA. So I guess the British aren't really renowned for their grocery offerings....or at least I haven't found any I can't live without (OK, I think I might miss the crispy duck - that can't be shipped)!

4 comments:

Brooke said...

Please explain what some of these items are. I am intrigued by some of the names but have no clue what they are.

JMarie said...

I agree. An explanation would be good because I'm sure the items are good, but they sound awful...hob knob (some piece of household hardware?), crumpet (related to the trumpet?), Yorkshire pudding (anything like the terrier?), not to mention the toad thing.

Also, I have a "nothing cute" eating policy, which includes viel, lamb, rabbit, etc. Just say no to cute.

Janell said...

I like toad in the hole, too. Are your lime pickles pickled limes? Or are they pickled cucumbers treated with lime? I have several jars of the latter in my basement.
Can you get vegemite where you are? I've always wanted to try that.
JC

LaDawn said...

You can look most of these up on wikipedia. There's on link on my blog.

Hob Knobs and Digestives are cookies.

The rest are there!