BS: Food items one just can't get hold of

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: kendall
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 08:18 PM

We used to "Butterfly" them. They are bony as hell but taste good.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 08:06 PM

Smoked alewives? Hell, I catch alewives by the netful in the summer to use for Spanish mackerel bait. I've never tried smokin' 'em. Do you use a bong or twist 'em up into aledoobies?

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 07:29 PM

I quit smoking...............Kendall is afraid to say what he wants and threw that up (maybe literally) as a type of red herring, so to speak............LOL..(good one Spaw).........


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: gnomad
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 07:24 PM

Ovaltine is one of those things with very particular local associations:

To the average Brit it is a last-thing-at-night warm milky concoction with sends-you-to-sleep connotations.

In most of Europe it is sold as a gives-you-ENERGY-and-gets-you-going type of product, sold in ski-cafes and the like as an early to mid-morning pick-me-up.

Given our poor reputation as bedroom gymnasts, the British predilection for it as a bedtime drink is said to have wrinkled a few brows among hotel staff.

Lots of kippers available where I live, though the health 'n' safety killjoys don't approve of traditional production methods. The (intrinsically disinfectant) tar which builds up on the walls of the smoke-houses is deemed to be 'dirt' and therefore a health hazard, so sales are permitted only from the place of production, where a buyer can be duly horrified by the production conditions. I'll grant you it is fire hazard, as will anyone who has seen a kipper house burn, but that danger doesn't stay with the product. As a big concession it is permissible for the makers to sell by post, but local lore has it that the buyer must buy and address the mailer themselves, with the smoker just dropping the kippers into the package, and the package into the mail. Making a virtue out of necessity, the smokers dutifully sell everything retail, and rub their hands with glee looking at their daily queues. I don't blame them in the least.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 07:18 PM

Smoked Alewives.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 06:06 PM

Wanted- Winesap apples.
Have all the trees been replaced?

Pork pies in every supermarket (and farmer's market, etc.) in Calgary. A variety, different recipes.

Wasn't aware that Ovaltine was still being made. I haven't had any since childhood.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 05:30 PM

Heck, I can get most of that stuff here in the Wilds of the West. Kippers of several sorts, some of the apples are grown locally and available in the Farmers Market during the late Summer/Fall, and there are two local REAL butcher shops and a fishmonger.

I haven't looked for marmite or vegemite -- they sound too much like cordite or dynamite. Nutella is easily available, however.

And, of course, there's always Salt Lake City and Provo -- and if you think that the Mormons don't know good non-USA food, think again!

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 04:05 PM

I use a lot of the things mentioned which are all available locally nowadays.

And I personally prefer Vegemite to Marmite but I always have both in the house.

AND BERT......Try a "Melrose" apple if you can.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Bert
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 02:01 PM

Thanks for the links maeve, I've bookmarked them. There are four or five orchards within fifty miles. I'll be down there come apple picking time.

mmm1a, we buy wasabi powder at our local Asian Market and occasionally they have live winkles there.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: maeve
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 01:36 PM

I understand about shrimp/prawns, Bert. I forgot the terms have a different meaning other places.

Here's one orchard somewhat near you then, and they say they specialize in heirloom varieties. I hope you find some of your desired apples!
http://www.yayafarmandorchard.com/   You can search for other orchards here: http://www.orangepippin.com/orchards/united-states/colorado

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: mmm1a
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 01:36 PM

there's a store in Cincinati, Ohio called Jungle Jims international foods. We were just there a week ago. They have Durian there plus just about every thing else. I picked up some wild baby octapus salad to try. and it was very good and the look on my 18 yearold daughters face PRICELESS :). They have a wasabi paste in a tube that my husband uses in his cooking that we can not find any where else.It's about 3-4 hours south of us but well worth the trip ever few months.         
          mmm1a

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Bert
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 01:20 PM

They were taken over by Kraft a couple of years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 01:13 PM

Has Cadbury's been taken over or something?

They were sold to Kraft a few years ago weren't they?

Their chocolate was never of high quality but that's another story.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:58 PM

No pork pies over there?? How dreadful, I just adore pork pies! Has anyone else noticed that Cadbury's Creme Eggs taste horrible now? A bitter, dry cocoa taste and not chocolatey at all. Has Cadbury's been taken over or something? I greedily bought a nice box of twelve, and gave them away to our neighbours' children.
Of course a large pork chop has a kidney attached, it adds a delicious flavour. I'm sorry, Penny, I've never heard of Cafe Choc bickies.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Penny S.
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:37 PM

Actually, there were a load of links in Google recommending a mix of normal chocolatey Ovaltine and coffee - which I don't fancy. I have tried their malt only version, but that didn't work. Anyway, it's not proper as it doesn't have egg in it.

I'm sorry you can't get kippers, Bert. 100 cases, my goodness! I can get decent ones whenever I feel the need. What I haven't see for years in that line is Fynnan Haddie.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Bert
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:23 PM

I mean real shrimp. The little brown ones. Not prawns, which are what is sold here as shrimp.

...a real butcher or proper fish store... they are pretty rare here too.
I did order some lambs hearts from a local butcher once, but they went out of business.

We do have a so called British store here in Colorado Springs, but they have a very limited selection, are very expensive and their kippers are the little fillet ones with no flavour. They sell things like Bird's Custard and Bisto Gravy which I never use as I always make my own custard and gravy.

We can buy Marmite here in several stores and we have an Indian grocery that sells some British stuff.

I used to be able to get real kippers at a Jewish Deli in Dallas. When I moved out of Dallas I called the supplier in Halifax Nova Scotia but they would only sell them in lots of 100 cases.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: theleveller
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:19 PM

It's going to be a bad year for rhubarb here in the Yorkshire "rhubarb triangle" this year due to bad weather conditions. I did see some for sale in the local greengrocers - but at a price!

"I don't know where I'd find Marmite."

I'm addicted to Marmite crisps...mmmmmmmmm. £1.32 for 6 bags in Morrisons.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: maeve
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:13 PM

Most of the apples are available regionally, Bert. We have both drag-netted and live-trapped shrimp here in Maine, Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Scarlet Runner beans are at various farm stands and farmer's markets.

For the rest, I wonder if this link would be of any use?http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=673543

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: saulgoldie
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:10 PM

I don't know where I'd find Marmite. OTOH, I don't care that I don't know. I mean, whatthefuck would I do with the stuff, anyway? For one thing, I sure wouldn't eat it!

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: gnu
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:07 PM

Kippers, Shrimp, Whelks, Winkles, Russet apples, Pork Pies? Here in NB, CAN we get em.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Maryrrf
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:06 PM

Oh gross why would anyone want to get pork chops with kidney attached ? Yuck!

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 12:02 PM

A lot of the stuff on Bert's list is available by special order if you go to a real butcher or proper fish store. You have to work at it, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 11:54 AM

Evidently you ae correct, Bert- most of those items I have never seen. But shrimp?

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Bert
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 11:41 AM

Here in the States there are dozens of things you can't buy that are common in England.

SEAFOOD
Buckling
Kippers
Bloaters
Shrimp
Whelks
Winkles

APPLES
Bramleys
Beauty of Bath
Cox's Orange Pippins
Blenheim Orange
Charles Ross
Russets

OTHER FOODS
Pork Pies
Saveloys
Pork chops with kidney attached
Lambs hearts
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Scarlet Runners (although you can buy the seeds)
Gammon Bacon

And more that I can't think of at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 11:15 AM

I haven't seen a fresh durian in the UK for about 20 years. Anywhere in London, Glasgow or Edinburgh ever sell it?

One thing I have never seen in the UK but don't miss one little bit: tamarillo (like a gritty tomato flavoured with battery acid). People in New Zealand grew it, for reasons I could never fathom. And chokos, the most flavourless vegetable in the known universe.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 10:01 AM

As Ovaltine is supposed to help you get a good night's rest, and coffee is supposed to help you stay awake. Then that sounds like one confused drink to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 09:59 AM

I used to be able to get muktuk in the stores but I haven't seen it in years. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: melodeonboy
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 08:42 AM

At least, she will be if she drinks that!

Subject: RE: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 08:31 AM

Obviously a thread for those of you in the "Old World" but I gotta' tell ya'................the idea of Ovaltine which I love in coffee which I also love makes me gag!!!

You're very sick Penny.............


Spaw

Subject: BS: Food items one just can't get hold of
From: Penny S.
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 08:25 AM

No, not live eels.

Some time ago there was a deli in the unfashionable end of Dulwich which stocked a French, or possibly Belgian biscuit, called Café Choc. It was like a delicious combination of Café Noir and Choco Leibniz, with coffee icing one side, and dark chocolate the other. That deli is now a Tesco, and I have not seen thse biscuits for years.

Anyone know an outlet for them? No sign on Google.

And another vanished shop had a version of Ovaltine with coffee instead of chocolate flavour.

Any ideas on that? Google hasn't.

Penny