Local NYC Supermarket's UK/EU Offerings

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

Steamed Puddings

Can be done easily and faster in a pressure cooker. Indeed around Christmas (a big pudding season across the UK and around some of the Commonwealth), many a housewife or household that prides themselves on their "Christmas pud" find the PC is just the thing as opposed to being over a hot stove a good part of the day.

Most every pressure cooker I've owned comes with recipes for puddings such as rice.

 
Minnesota has a popular grocery chain called Cub Foods, and their newer stores generally have an International Aisle with foods from all over the world. I shop at one in Mankato, MN, occasionally, that features most of the products shown in Launderess's photos.

I like HP Sauce on eggs, bacon sandwiches, and hash browns, so usually keep a bottle in the pantry. HP is a little like A1 Sauce, but less sweet with a more pronounced vinegar bite. Enjoyed orange barley water for awhile, but don't buy it anymore.

I like Heinz beans in the occasional trad English breakfast. They are less sweet than our pork 'n' beans (VanDeCamp's is the ubiquitous brand in the upper midwest).

As for the packets of seasoning for Shepherd's Pie, etc., they're probably no better or worse than our packets for meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, beef stew, and the like. McCormick, French's, and Durkee's are popular brands in this area of the country. I prefer to use my own seasonings to keep a handle on sodium.

Purchased a famous Brit brand of orange marmalade and it was considerably more bitter/less sweet than most US brands. Their ketchup contains less sugar, as well (at least the brand I tried).
 
'Bubble and Squeak', etc.

'Bubble and Squeak' aka 'fried leftovers' is perhaps one of the U.K.s (mainly England's) most revolting offerings. It is something which I have never eaten, and I feel ashamed on behalf of my countrymen that you were ever exposed to it!! Perhaps SOME 'traditional' foods should be allowed to be quietly forgotten. ;-)

All best

Dave T

P.S. Should any of you in your wanderings through the 'International' aisles see a can of "Grant's" Haggis, GRAB IT, it's wonderful stuff. Don't do yourself a huge plateful (it's very 'rich') just scoop a bit out of the can and heat in a pan, eat with mash or on toast. Haggis gets a very bad press abroad. I have no idea why.
 
Little wonder the joke goes:

In heaven, the English are the diplomats, the French are the cooks, and the Germans are the engineers.

In hell, the Germans are the diplomats, the French are the engineers, and the English are the cooks.

I'm English by heritage but if it weren't for fish & chips and Mcdonalds I'd probably starve there.
 
No, we are not starving over here

Actually, if it is done well, suet sponge pudding can be quite nice although it is something, like the Scots say, "sticks to your ribs". Of course in former years when adults and children were getting lots of exercise this was not a problem and as Laundress says, it is a cheap and filling desert. And of course savoury suet puddings have a very long history, going back to the middle ages. The pudding would traditionally be boiled in a stout linen cloth which accounts for the round shape although nowadays it would be boiled in a bowl. Suet crust pastry, done properly, is very light and crisp.

It may sound very unpalatable but suet is not nearly as bad as it sounds, it white and quite hard so it is normally grated for use and that how its normally bought these days.

I founds Laundress description of a "Full Monty" English breakfast interesting because I found it weird going to the US and having pancakes with syrup placed on the same plate AT THE SAME TIME with eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns. Kippers where eaten at breakfast, I remember my father doing so, and of course in a "Downton Abbey" setting kedgeree could also be served at breakfast - that's a lightly curried dish comprising primarily for rice, hard boiled eggs and flaked (cooked) fish - personally I could see it for brunch but not breakfast.

Again, if its done properly, Bubble and Squeak is quite palatable too, although maybe not for breakfast. As has been noted its a means of using vegetable left overs (in some places its a big tradition on boxing day) - mostly potatoes and cabbage. But it needs to be cooked quickly (fried) over a high heat and eaten immediately to be at its best. The Irish dish "Culcannon" is not a million miles away from it although in Bubble the potatoes would, ideally, not be mashed

Funny enough, I don't believe pressure cooking ever caught on here as much as in North America and indeed continental Europe. Naturally pressure cookers are on sale here and used to be a very popular wedding present but I cannot say I have ever known anyone use them on a regular basis.

Al
 
Re: Catsup internationally--Heinz has different flavor/texture profiles for each country in which they operate (US Heinz is noticeably different than Canadian Heinz). Of all places we met a guy at Pride in Toronto 2 years ago who worked for them...we met a couple from Akron, OH there who had a bit of a posse that they'd accumulated over the years, including this guy.
 
Haggis gets a very bad press abroad...

Dave-- Could that be because haggis is sheep innards cooked in its own stomach, LOL?

Al-- If pancakes (or waffles for that matter) are served with a full American breakfast (eggs, sausage/bacon, hash browns/fried potatoes, toast) they should be on a separate plate! Also: If pancakes are served, it's generally instead of, not in addition to, toast. But we are an indulgent people, so anything goes, I suppose.
 
Batchelor's Beans and Chef sauce are two Irish products.
They wouldn't really be on my hot list of Irish stuff any more than the British or Australian items on that shelf.

I don't think they'd be something I'd particularly miss either.

Just seems like a very strange selection of products.
 
Heinz Beans probably has the biggest market share here in Canada and I don't see them in the stores in Michigan. Bush's beans haven't been sold here all that long but they're making headway,, but cost quite a bit more. Same with Kraft Peanut Butter clearly outsells Skippy and Jif here but I've never seen it in the US either.
 
Kraft is selling peanut butter under the Planters label in the US. Good stuff.

Bush's beans are a local product -- at least the HQ is here in Knoxville while the cannery is in a nearby county. Maybe it's the way one's taste buds develop but when I tried the British made Heinz beans they seemed very bland in comparison to Bush's. Nothing wrong with them, but for the fancy price they charge for them over here I wasn't tempted to try them again. Maybe Canadian Heinz makes them differently.

Incidentally, I read that Heinz was closing their Canadian ketchup plant in Leamington, Ont. Hope they get to keep their unique formula wherever it comes from in the future.
 
British Favorites - Erm, Favourites....

There are some British foods I adore.

One is Branston pickle, which is not easy to find in the States, but which makes a wonderful sandwich with good Cheddar. British Cheddar is wonderful, of course, but you have to mortgage your house to afford it here, so Cabot's Sharp or Seriously Sharp it is. Cabot's Cheddar (made in Vermont and never dyed Dayglo orange with annatto) is to most American Cheddar what a Breitling watch is to a Timex. I would put it up against most any British Cheddar out there, and I have enjoyed a good many of them in my time.

I love Lucozade, which you might find here every sixth or seventh blue moon if you're in a large city with a shop catering to expats. And Ribena, which is so rare it makes Lucozade look plentiful. Ribena is made from blackcurrants, and luscious stuff it is. You dare not spill it - it could stain the hull of a battleship.

Heinz beans are terrific; this is one Yank who loves beans on toast, a favorite picked up from two expats I knew in Atlanta. They were from Plymouth. The British Heinz beans are hard to come by, which is weird, because they're made from beans imported to the U.K. from America, but there you are. American Heinz vegetarian beans are the closest Stateside equivalent I've found. I am a purist about beans on toast. The toast must be cold and buttered; the beans very hot. And no bloody cheese! Cheese with beans on toast is as bad as milk in first, though eating beans on toast at all puts you at an entirely different place on the social scale than that occupied by anyone concerned about who puts milk in first, of course.

Scottish rather than British, but delectable for all that, is Keiller's Dundee Marmalade. Oddly, you can get this in the U.S. without a prescription, a court order or an appeal to a British consulate.

If I'm drinking tea in the daytime, Typhoo makes a decent cuppa, for those who want builder's tea. I will admit I seldom do; as a Yank, I'm a morning and daytime coffee drinker. Typhoo is findable here. Not easily, but it's out there.

But at tea time? Twinings Earl Grey, and not the Twinings USA dreck in teabags *, either. British Twinings, and loose, please, so that I can put my Nutbrown strainer over my teacup when I pour.

* Oddly, it was an American writer, Louise Andrews Kent, whose '30s and '40s cookbooks were published under the nom de plume "Mrs. Appleyard," who pegged teabags best: "The mouse in the teacup," she wrote of the damned things. If I were a mouse, I should feel offended.
 
They say the Canadian Heinz ketchup is slightly different from the US version but I buy both, which ever's on sale depending what store I'm in at the time and I can't really tell any difference between them. The Canadian Heinz beans are rather bland compared to Bush's. It's one of the nice things about living here.. get to shop in both countries easily.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top