# US dopers - what food do us UK people have that you don't? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 29, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208 "2003-06-29T19:56:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![i\_like\_bacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@i\_like\_bacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/i_like_bacon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/81 "2003-07-01T02:37:47Z")
i think the pork pie looks really good, might give it a try. one thing not mentioned, maybe because its welsh, is stargazey pie. sorry but that looks incredibly nasty to me. i can’t eat food if its looking at me. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/82 "2003-07-01T03:33:46Z")
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and most of the commercial products mentioned in this discussion are easily available here. This is probably also true of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. What astounds me is that there are places in the U.S. where the supermarkets don’t carry lamb. All grocery stores in the Bay Area carry lamb - it is not considered exotic. I wish I could still find English worcerstershire sauce. The stuff we get in the U.S. is inferior. The Lea & Perrins sold in England has a different formula than the stuff sold here (the English sauce has no corn syrup or hydrolized soy or corn protein). I once got a bottle of the English sauce, and it was much better than the American sauce. Unfortunately, the store where I bought it (Corti Brothers in Sacramento) no longer carries it. ---
**Author:** ![wooba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@wooba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wooba)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/83 "2003-07-01T03:54:36Z")
Keithnmick: I often get Vimto at an Arabic supermarket not too far from me… I’ve had the concentrate from Jordan and the UK (with Arabic labels) and most recently, cans of it made in the USA! Illinois I believe… If you live anywhere near Canada, some of the items you listed are available here such as Mint Sauce, Weetabix, HP and Sausage Rolls. Our beer selection is also much better, so you can probably find something more to your liking here. What we miss most is Instant Gravy. Yes, you cannot get instant gravy in Canada. I’m also a milky bar/white crunch freak… I bring tons of that back everytime I visit my sister. ---
**Author:** ![Quantum\_Butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e79b87/32.png) [@Quantum\_Butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quantum_Butterfly)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/84 "2003-07-01T05:09:11Z")
For those looking for a wide selection of cheeses, try Whole Foods. I love to go there and just stare at the cheese case for a while. 🙂 Cheese from America (of course), Britain, Italy, Canada, Ireland, Australia… and some of it in big wheels! I love lamb, and we can usually find a nice leg o’ lamb at (of all places) Costco. Bit pricey, but oh so good roasted up with plenty of garlic and fresh rosemary. Horseradish sauce: My dad likes his pungent enough to clean out your sinuses with one whiff. So yes, you can get strong horseradish in suburban USA. I’ve even seen whole horseradish root at the local grocery, but never bought one. A root the size of the ones they were selling would make an absolutely ridiculous amount of prepared horseradish! Other stuff: For any expatriate Brits in the LA / Ventura area, there’s a little shop in downtown Ventura that specializes in importing British foods that are otherwise hard to find or completely unobtainable in the States. Stuff like Vegemite and Liquorice Allsorts. Can’t remember the name of the shop offhand, but if anyone’s interested I can look it up. ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/85 "2003-07-01T07:32:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fruitbat \* > \*\*I think that blood products and organ meats are the principal missing ingredients. I would guess that the only organ meat the vast majority of Americans have ever tried is liver. Blood as an ingredient is absolutely unheard of in the US. \*\* Ive been reading the ‘Rough Guide to New York’ and boudin noir AKA blood sausage AKA black pudding seems to be a fashionable ingredient in the restraunts over there, its is mentioned that it is served at a few restraunts and is also the signature dish of Brasserie Les Halles made famous in the amazing book ‘Kitchen Confidential’. I imagine it is a speciality dish though. I wonder why some enterprising business man doesn’t start selling marmite to british expats by post there is probably money to be made there…😃 ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/86 "2003-07-01T07:42:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrainGlutton \* > > There is, of course, no such thing as a haggis, right? You Brits just made that up to freak out the tourists and make yourselves look macho enough to eat anything, didn’t you? \*\* I assure you that haggis does exist an is also extremley delicious, I have to admit that I wasn’t to keen on the idea but after tasting it am absolutley addicted…it has a fairly pedestrian flavour, no more offensive than say salami or chorizo although still a totally different flavour and probably has more identifiable meat than a MacDonalds burger does! I find that food with a ‘weird’ origin usually tatstes fine its more the idea of it that freaks peole out, precisley the reason I wont eat spray cheese in a can.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/87 "2003-07-01T07:58:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rabid\_Squirrel \* > \*\*Umm… those are Cornish Pasties. They’re a handful of mince and mixed veges wrapped up in a shortcrust pastry. Kind of the same idea as like a pie. \*\* An interesting historical note; cornish pasties are made from a circle of pastry folded over a collection of meat and vegetables (with lots of white pepper), then the edge is sealed by rolling it over before baking. They were the traditional lunch for the tin miners in Cornwall. The thick rolled crust would be used as a handle(it was discarded after the rest was eaten) so that the miners could eat their food with dirty hands. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/88 "2003-07-01T09:23:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rabid\_Squirrel \* > \*\*Umm… those are Cornish Pasties. They’re a handful of mince and mixed veges wrapped up in a shortcrust pastry. Kind of the same idea as like a pie. \*\* An interesting historical note; cornish pasties are made from a circle of pastry folded over a collection of meat and vegetables (with lots of white pepper), then the edge is sealed by rolling it over before baking. They were the traditional lunch for the tin miners in Cornwall. The thick rolled crust would be used as a handle(it was discarded after the rest was eaten) so that the miners could eat their food with dirty hands. ---
**Author:** ![Planet\_of\_the\_Shapes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Planet\_of\_the\_Shapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Planet_of_the_Shapes)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/89 "2003-07-01T10:27:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by T. Slothrop \* > \*\*You Brits eat _pasties_, don’t you ? In the US, strippers use them to cover their nipples.😃 \*\* I’ve got this image of a stripper covering her breasts with two large cornish pasties. What sort of strip clubs do you go to \*\*T. Slothrop \*\*?? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/90 "2003-07-01T10:33:04Z")
Pasties and pasties are pronounced differently (I think); The nipple cover things are pronounced P/ay/sties. (ay as in hay). The pie things are pronounces P/a/sties (a as in cat). ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/91 "2003-07-01T11:39:56Z")
Tate and Lyle’s Golden Syrup is not available in the USA. **fierra** told me this, and I was shocked. Shocked, I tell you. I’d imagined that corn syrup was an analogue of golden syrup, as had she. She told me that this was not the case. Corn syrup does not have the same unctuous flavour as golden syrup, and is a sorely disappointing substitute to any daughter of the Old Empire raised on golden syrup. We had a “what’s treacle?” thread on the UnaBoard a couple of weeks ago, which is where all this came up. ---
**Author:** ![Moeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@Moeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moeman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/92 "2003-07-01T12:58:04Z")
I miss the good things like: Curry Catsup Menstrils Cadbury Roses Coke Lite (no it is not diet coke) Variety of different potato chips Curried foods (food of the gods) Beer and Ale (they all are horrible here) Crackers, really good plain unsalted crackers ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/93 "2003-07-01T13:00:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrainGlutton \* > **everton:** I clicked on your link to the pork pie recipe. My word! The picture of the completed pie looks **exactly** like the pie that was served to Saturninus and Tamora in the last scene of the Anthony Hopkins screen adaptation of _Titus Andronicus!_ Sheer coincidence, right? Right? I’ve never (knowingly) had psychopath’s son pie, but they do say human tastes like pork, so who knows? 😉 > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by i like bacon_ > one thing not mentioned, maybe because its welsh, is stargazey pie. sorry but that looks incredibly nasty to me. i can’t eat food if its looking at me.? Stargazy pie is Cornish rather than Welsh. If you click on the link I posted for saffron buns, there’s a recipe for stargazy pie there (that’s what I had in mind when I said “eye-opening”). There’s also a type of pasty (or “tiggy-oggy” in Cornish) that has savoury ingredients at one end and fruit at the other, so you can have main course and dessert in one. I don’t know how traditional it is. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/94 "2003-07-01T14:24:27Z")
**everton** , I always thought the Cornish name was “tiddy-oggy”, not “tiggy-oggy”? But then I’m just an emmet… ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/95 "2003-07-01T14:45:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shagnasty \* > \*\*…she is at the New York Fancy Food show marketing and buying cheese that the average afficiado has never even heard of. \*\* Red Leicester? Tilsit? Caerphilly? Bel Paese? Red Windsor? Stilton? Ementhal? Gruyere? Norweigan Jarlsburg? Lipta? Lancashire? White Stilton? Danish Brew? Double Goucester? Cheshire? Dorset Bluveny? Brie, Roquefort, Pol le Veq, Port Salut, Savoy Aire, Saint Paulin, Carrier de lest, Bres Bleu, Bruson? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/96 "2003-07-01T14:54:14Z")
That is quite a list of cheeses **BMalion** and they are mostly good ones, but it is still rather a _pedestrian_ selection - I’d expect to see most if not all of those available pre-packed in the chiller, plus at least as many different, rather obscure ones available cut to size on the deli counter, plus a selection of novelty items (white stilton with apricot, cheddar with mustard, five counties, garlic roule etc). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/97 "2003-07-01T14:57:23Z")
Ah, I get it now. The Cheese Shop. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/98 "2003-07-01T16:50:24Z")
A few years ago, _60 Minutes_ ran a piece on some people in Folkestone, Kent, who were protesting plans to open the Chunnel rail line and turn Kent into “the world’s biggest station.” There was a clip showing beach and boardwalk vendors – and one of them was selling **jellied eels!** Cold, in paper cups – a gelatinous mass eaten with a plastic spoon. Looks disgusting. Have any of you had jellied eels? Are they any good? Why do Brits cool off their toast before eating it? What exactly is vegemite (sp?), and is it eaten in Britain as well as Australia? Several posters have mentioned Weetabix – what is that, some kind of cracker? On the Brit TV show _Red Dwarf,_ Lister eats almost nothing but curry, which he prefers extra-tongue-burning hot. When he got into the “Better Than Life” VR game and went to a restaurant, he ordered caviar vindaloo. Lister, obviously, is his century’s version of a working-class Brit (or “filthy Northern animal,” as they are called, according to a CS thread I started about Lister’s dialect). Does curry have some kind of proletarian cache in Britain? In the U.S., it’s something we only eat occasionally, in Indian or Oriental restaurants. What exactly is spotted dick? And what’s a toad-in-the-hole? And what is a “potted meat”? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/99 "2003-07-01T16:53:20Z")
Devonshire Cream is by far the best food product to come out of the UK. Nothing else even comes close. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208/100 "2003-07-01T17:20:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrainGlutton \* > **Why do Brits cool off their toast before eating it?** So as not to be inconvenienced with the unpleasant sensation of warm toast. We like it fresh from the toaster, they don’t. > [@](#): > > **What exactly is vegemite (sp?), and is it eaten in Britain as well as Australia?** It is some kind of vegatable paste flavored with salt and battery acid. After living in Australia for 3 years my sister came back with an addiction to it that rivalled a heroin-junkie. > [@](#): > > **Several posters have mentioned Weetabix – what is that, some kind of cracker?** It’s a breakfast cereal. Imagine a Nabisco shredded wheat the size of a small ottoman. Only dryer. > [@](#): > > **What exactly is spotted dick?** See several posts above. > [@](#): > > \*\* And what is a “potted meat”? \*\* “potted meat” is cooked meat in a can. Think roast beef. So, Brits, how’d I do? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-dopers-what-food-do-us-uk-people-have-that-you-dont/185208.md?page=6)