Obtaining UK food when living abroad

LOL - this begs the question as to why anyone would be looking for UK food - known as it is for culinary highlights

OTOH, there are a couple of British shops here in the metro DC area - good to get tea, custard, pickle, and the like. Also, I've found that most of the Indian spice shops carry a bunch of British food, and our Wegman's grocery store has a good selection.

Ellice

Hey! I _just_ got back from a trip which included a stop at a British import shop. Now I have some Jaffa Cakes and plain chocolate Hob Nobs. All's right with the world again.

Karen E., who wishes that Lilt hadn't switched over to using Nutrasweet...

The reputation of UK food (and cooking) fell during and just after the war when "normal" foodstuffs were either unavailable or in very short supply. I still shudder when I remember childhood culinary delights such as meat loaf, Woolton pie, sweet potato pudding (NOT made with sweet potato but ordinary potato and honey) and that tinned fish "snoek" which even the cat wouldn't touch. But, looking on the bright side, a report a few years ago said that in 1946 the British population was, generally speaking, healthier than it had been for some time - lots of exercise, no excessive sugar, fat etc. And I do remember that lovely, thick orange juice in glass bottles.

I think the reputation has only recently started to recover. Though, personally, I never suffered when there, and quite like certain of the UK traditions (like chocolate penquin cookies).

But, after spending most of a summer during grad school times there, in the fall a friend was travelling to London in November. Said friend, rather a fine cook herself, was a bit older (an adult in her 30s at the time) and she and husband had some business/leisure trip they were doing. So, my then fiance - who had family in Richmond-upon-Thames, and I recommended as best we could. When she returned she spent days, weeks, months, moaning about the incredibly awful food they had encountered. Of course, this was in November - in '84 - with bad weather, and before the culinary scene started to improve. But, man, did she give me some stuff about the horrible food, etc. I do however, still have the tea cozy she brought me!

ellice

Bruce Fletcher ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

You would be surprised that this side of the Pond they believe they had food rationing during the war. I usually fall on the floor laughing at what was considered 'rationing' - big luxury.

I have recipes from my grandmother for eggless cakes, fatless cakes, cakes made from bread, you name it. I salute the cooks in my life at that time that I felt I was well fed.

I have always wondered if my superior health is due to a very good diet throughout my childhood. I loved that orange juice but the adults used to swipe some for the odd gin they managed to get lol

I read an article not long ago that scotched talk of bad English cooking. The cooking, even outside of London, is fabulous and I have noticed when over how great the selection of relatively rare ingredients is now.

Come to think of it, I have a wonderful recipe for Bread Pudding my aunt gave me. That recipe always gets raves. She cut it out of the Telegraph in about 1948 and it was headed "Now that we can have a little splurge again"...

ellice ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

At least the UK can never be blamed for the introduction of McDonalds

- that is a far worse thing and likely the cause of much obesity today.

LOL! I remember those - and dried egg?

But to be fair, Bruce, you should make it clear that these "delights" were only due to the wartime rationing. It`s amazing what our mothers could achieve with so little.

Pat

My mother and my aunt were in the RAF during WW2 and, at different times, both had cause to visit an American military base in East Anglia. Imagine their amazement when they entered the dining hall and found that eggs, bacon, pork, beef and many other "rationed" items were freely available on the daily menu.

I'm sure we had more in the U.S. than was ever available in Britain, but I do remember that sugar and meat, eggs, flour and things like that were rationed and in short supply. My father drove a truck that delivered fruits and vegetables during the war years and I know from him that most of the fresh fruit and veggies went to the Army base in Fort Monmouth, NJ and just a little was delivered to the local stores.

On my visit to London in 1977, I was one of the odd people who didn't think English cooking was horrid. Maybe that's because I like plain broiled meats with little, or no sauce or embellishment. However, the best restaurant I went to at that time was recommended to me by a friend of mine who lived in London and it was a place called the Gay Hussar and featured Yugoslavian cooking.

Lucille

The house next door to my grandmother was requisitioned and given to American military. My brother had it in mind that they were foreigners and for national duty we had to spy on them, cos one never knew ! They were huge houses with equally huge grounds and we would creep up unseen amongst the laurels etc. Imagine our surprise to see them dining on tomato soup, since we had never had it, we supposed it was blood.

They received their generous supplies locally and I remember my grandmothers dog returning home (silly thing) with a leg of lamb clenched in his jaws. He was a Staffordshire Bull. I guess lamb was not to their tastes but I can close my eyes to this day and see my grandmothers wrestling poor Sandy to the ground and forcing his jaws apart.

She soaked the meat in vinegar and water and after an hour declared it was good to eat and we all tucked in !

"Lucille" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

You can eat any cuisine you desire in London these days and really even in more outlying parts there are good international food type restaurants.

I am not known for favouring the British but I will defend their cooking these days.

No argument from me. I generally am not a fast food person, and hate in ways the McDonaldization of the world.

OTOH, when I was working in France, I did notice how the working women really missed some of the convenience we had at the time with the ability to get decent take-away or ready to heat foods - which they just didn't have. So, I could understand how fast food has taken hold. That being over 10 years ago, I can say that things in the groceries, and those availabilities have gotten more like here, or even the UK.

ellice

True - that some years back I remember our best meal being at a great Thai restaurant in Kensington. And a nice French, country place right off the Strand, near our hotel.

It certainly has improved. But, it takes a while for reputations to change and progress. At the least, here, we get a full dose of Gordon Ramsey!

ellice

We often remarked when shopping in Scarborough (Yorkshire) that some of the working mothers who were buying "convenience" foods would be better off buying a piece of meat and a few vegetables. Much cheaper and for not much more time in preparation & cooking, far more nutritious and tasty. And we were amazed to see "frozen cabbage" - are people incapable of buying a cabbage and cutting it up all by themselves? I must be getting old - Maureen often reprimands me for shouting at the wireless.

In Australia try

Sometimes that's true. And sometimes it's just a matter of honestly being busy, really busy, and tired enough to not want to "cook" . Not every night, but you know, if you work a 12 hour day, plus some travelling, and then have to start thinking about cooking - well, sometimes it's worth the price differential to buy something semi-prepared that you just have to through in the oven or a pan as opposed to starting with chopping, etc from scratch.

OTOH, I really don't ever use things like hamburger helper - yuck. But, I do know the feeling of just not wanting to cook because I'm really tired, and busy, and have more to do, so ...

ellice

I had a great fondness for pub meals

But why do we want to?

You are coming off sounding as if you are suggesting that we old people have all the time in the world. Back when my husband and I worked, had three kids, no bank machines (that meant one of us had to use our lunch hour to queue up and deposit our pay cheques along with ten million other people doing the same) get the groceries, someone had to clean the house, get the dishes done, all those things.

I still did not buy rubbish food. Bruce is spot on, it was easier by far to throw a stew in the oven and have the oven turn on about 11 a.m. while I was at work and come home to house smelling good and sit down calmly with the kids over dinner and discuss all our days. Oh and one of the kids had the chore of the day preparing the veggies, that did not do them any harm either instead of lolling in front of a television set !

It's a question of organisation and I believe young people today are NOT organised and wind up with less time, and less pleasure with their kids and big thing, all this junk food or prepared food, call it what you will, costs way more than homecooked.

It can be done, for I have done it myself.

Ah - well - it sort of demonstrates the changes in the English culinary scene - it's just getting beyond the stream of obscenity. The man can cook

- I'm pretty sure of that. And we did have the British version of a cooking competition show - kind of like Top Chef - it was pretty good.