It’s for a whopping $200! The store is 80 miles away, though (the giver, a New Yawker, apparently didn’t realize that everything in Kansas isn’t just a tractor ride away from everything else) so I’ve got to spend the whole thing at one shot. The place apparently sells all kinds of canned foods, beverages, snacks, teas, mixes, etc. Part of their stock is online.
My shopping list so far consists of:
Marmite. How bad can it be?
A few bags of those oddly-flavored potato chips (prawn, beef and onion, catsup flavored, etc.) because they sounds as if they might actually be pretty tasty.
A couple cans of Heinz Spotted Dick, because they would provide my inner nine-year-old with an endless source of amusement.
Digestive biscuits, because people in books are always eating them (I envision them as sort of cookie-sized disks made of activated charcoal :-))
A can of mushy peas, because I’ve always been curious about what makes them different from, well, plain old mushed-up peas.
So… that probably accounts for $25. There’s $175 more to go – what else should I try? What other convenience foods are so tasty, so unusual, or so quintessentially English that I shouldn’t miss 'em?
Well, I don’t know about being quintessentially english, but how about trying some of the chocolate bars? I’ve had the Crunchie & liked it - and I’ve heard that the Cadbury bars are higher quality over there.
Hob Nobs! You have to get milk chocolate Hob Nobs! They’re these sweet oat cookies with chocolate on them.
Depending on whether the store carries it, Galaxy chocolate is pretty remarkable stuff.
Digestive biscuits are basically Graham crackers that are slightly less sweet than ours are in the US. They make them with dark and milk chocolate on them too.
Jaffa cakes are interesting… little sponge cakes filled up with some kind of orange jelly, and then covered in dark chocolate.
That’s about all I can recall really missing after my study abroad a few years back.
Despite my location, I’m English. My recommendations:
Tea, lots of.
And they have The Office comedy on DVD! A must-have, both series.
Hobnob biscuits (cookies) are amazingly tasty, especially the chocolate ones.
Frank Cooper’s Oxford marmalade is delicious on toast with melted butter. Best marmalade in the world.
Go on, risk trying Marmite (ignore the Vegemite there - that’s for Aussies). Spread it very thinly on hot buttered toast. Mmmm.
Agree about the chocolate. Go for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, and Cadbury’s Buttons are also lovely - great for kids. Flake is delicious, with a very unique texture. Fry’s Chocolate Cream is also great (bought one for my wife just yesterday) - quite unlike anything you’ll taste stateside.
HP brown sauce is fantastic with meats - like A1 but thicker and spicier.
The Sticky Toffee Pudding is divine, but if you insist on getting spotted dick, you must order custard to serve with it, too.
How do you feel about salt? I love salty food (see 2 below) but marmite is the most intensely salty thing I’ve ever tasted. Bleh. Othe other hand…try it. People either love it or hate it. If nothing else it works as a flavouring in other things…I made a very nice salad dressing with it.
These are pretty good. I like the prawn. And they have weirder ones…lamb flavoured anyone? I had some roast chicken crisps that were tasty. Go for the assortment.
You must see if they have faggot :D. And come back and tell Eve about it.
No, just regular cookies…but pretty good.
Not much.
What else? I think the chocolate idea is good. They have some very good chocolate brands (don’t let my SO hear you say anything about Hershey!). How about tea? I definatly recommend some good quality teas. Oh and beer! Would they have beer there? That could eat up a lot of $200 :D.
I’m not british (yet) but stay away from the marmite!! The crisps are oddly flavoured but overall yummy. I adore worchester sauce flavoured Wheat Crunchies myself.
Walker’s Highland Oatcakes are surprisingly good with canned tunafish, for a light snack.
Looking at the Sweets section, I see Bassett’s Allsorts; I was once horrifically sick on Allsorts after I ate an entire bag, and it’s put me off black licorice for life.
Fry’s Turkish Delight is another childhood favorite of mine; they’re so sweet I have to split eating one over several days or I feel my teeth will rot out.
I was not impressed by the Euro Cadburys I’ve had so far, except for the white chocolate & berries one. But English toffees are great. If you see black currant & licorice candies, by all means, get a packet of those.
Try the other condiments and sandwich spreads: picalilli, pickled tomato, cabbage-and-vinegar based sandwich spreads, gourmet mustards (I’ve tasted a green tea & mustard combination that was really good), etc.
Ditto for specialty jams and preserves – a few of which are spiked with booze, yum…
Okay, I’m not English but lived there for five years.
I don’t really agree with the Cadbury praise. I find it greasy melty chocolate with doesn’t seem to have a lot of cocoa content. They don’t make dark at all, tellingly, as they wouldn’t know how to. Sorry about the blaspheming here, but there it is.
Having said that, my experience of American chocolate proves that it might still be better than your standard choccie bars.
Americans whom I’ve brought HobNobs LOVED them, so that’s seconded. Ginger nuts are also nice.
Tea, lots thereof is seconded. The standard variety is what I would concentrate on as US herbals aren’t bad at all IMO whereas your standard tea most definetely is. Stay away from Bewley’s. Their tea is overpriced and unremarkable and their coffee is just plain evil (your shop sensibly doesn’t seem to stock it). I’d go for the Typhoo.
Mainly though, I would raid the entertainment section. I agree with Blackadder. They also have Father Ted which is actually Irish (kind of, it was an English production filmed mostly in England but the humour is very Irish) and hilarious. On constant repeat on Irish television.
The mystery section look tasty too. For that real old-fashioned British feel the Poirot series is very well done. Inspector Morse is still extremely popular and that’s good too but I would personally choose Cracker which is a gritty and realistic detective series which is extremely good though lacks that “olde worlde” feel completely and utterly. I think it actually got remade in the US, but the UK version with Robbie Coltrane is just superb stuff.
You are an evil person. I was not aware of this store before. Now I am. They have things I want. Now I will spend money.
Cadbury Bubbly bars are wonderful, btw. Do not buy the Nestle Aero, though, it’s second rate. And clotted cream is a wonderful desert topping—much better than whipped cream.
I love Brits! Every trip we make on West 70 has to include a stop there.
They won’t use up the $175 by a long shot, but the little tins of violet, rose and lavendar candies are good. And I rather liked Irn Bru - kind of a citrusy cream soda. Mr. Kat is addicted to Hob Nobs.
They also stock videos and DVDs of BBC series, books, clothing (my all-time favorite shirt is a rugby shirt with the St. Andrew cross on it that I got there), and other memorabelia. On preview, I see pookah has rec’d Father Ted, which I also heartily endorse. BBC America runs it on weekends and I love it!
I haven’t been to Brits since I discovered it, but an Irish import shop here has a candy bar similar to the old Choc-a-Lite, ‘whipped’ chocolate. Can’t remember the name of it to save my life.
Personally I think Coupling is one of the funniest shows ever made.
The episodes are pretty good but there is ususally on scene in each episode that just makes me just bust up laughing out loud.
Oh and I live alone and I’m really depressed and they can make me laugh, well, they must be pretty damn funny.
They also have Creature Comforts from the makers of Wallace and Grommit.
They do have a marmite cook book but I can’t find a cricket bat. I’ve wanted one of those since seeing Spinal Tap and now Shaun of the Dead has reawakened that desire.
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