Wednesday, 07 January 2009

• Eating with the British

  Guest post submitted by wonderlanndd

  

  
  I've been here four months now, but it seems like years. Days pass slowly, but weeks fly by. The one thing that I've had trouble adjusting to (besides the mind-numbing cold) is eating here.

  Staple Foods in My Diet
  First, there is no kraft macaroni and cheese here, plain and simple. Well, there is a specialty shop that sells it at what ammounts to around $6-7 depending on the day. I can't afford that kind of extravagance. Applesauce is also proving very hard to find. I've even stooped to looking through babyfood, but to no luck yet. Has no one here really never thought of mashing up apples? Corn on the cob is extremely expensive, something like $2 for one ear. Italian dressing is only made by Newman's Own which also means that there may not be any for weeks and when there is, its a pretty penny.

  Staple Foods in the British Diet
  Sure, the British have fish and chips, and the Scottish have haggis, but besides that, there isn't too much to British cuisine, right? Well, you're leaving out all the pies made with extreme combinations of meat and vegetables. Shepard's pie, cottage pie, admiral's pie, pies D do not know the name of or what is in them of, but fill up the shelves in Gregg's. And then there is the sausage. Do we know what kind of sausage it is? Well, the one time I asked somebody, they told me, 'the normal kind.' The distinction between chicken, pork, beef, and God knows what else makes no difference. Just put a casing on it!, while you're at it lets put some pastry on it! And we'll call it toad in the hole, but sometimes we'll call it a sausage roll. But sometimes that'll also be something different. Who really cares?

  Drinks
  Let's start with soda. Coke is sweeter here, if you can believe it. But Pepsi isn't as sweet in comparison to the American version. Fanta comes in at least ten flavors, each fizzy and still (no bubbles). I don't know if there are this many flavors in the states yet, but it seems excessive. Orange tropical, as opposed to orange citrus, anyone? Fanta is also the color of Mountan Dew, where I always remember it as orange. It was orange in Africa, too. Mountain Dew doesn't exist in any form, particularly in Baja Blast, the only blue thing I will ever eat or drink. Gatorade is rare and only available in certain flavors. Powerade is much more common, but only in blue (who knows what flavor that is?) yellow, or red. red is also cherry as opposed to fruit punch and it tastes like children's Tylenol. One thing that cannot be forgotten, though is IRN BRU which is pronounced 'iron brew.' It is orange colored, but not orange flavored. It is apparently the drink of the gods. These gods don't have taste buds, probably because the drink burnt them off. Imagine the burn of rubbing alcohol with added carbonation. Apparently, Diet Irn Bru tastes much better, but I don't want that uncomfortable an experience again.

  Alcoholic drinks are another story altogether. First, remember that the drinking age here is 18, so almost everyone here comes to uni already drinking and with very specific preferences. Pretty much everything you can get in the states is here, as far as I have noticed. It is the mark of an old man to drink guinness. Younger guys drink Stella. Girls drink white or rose wine. and vodka. Lots of it. Straight from the bottle. Alcopops are like Smirnoff ice or Mike's Hard Lemonade. But here, there's a lot of different types. And you drink those when you're broke.

  Ethnic Food
  The British really like to revel in their colonial undertakings. Indian food, anyone? Now, where I live in the states, there are very few Indian people. Maybe one or two Indian restaraunts, and absolutely no Indian ingrediants in the supermarkets. Its the complete opposite here. I live in a town here with 3 streets. There are still 3 Indian restaraunts, an Indian takeaway, and a whole section in our supermarket with 6 aisles. Chinese food is also big here. Asian market? Why would you need one, with a chinese and japanese section in your Tesco?

  Mexican food, on the other hand, is hard to come by. Yes, there are those Old El Paso kits like in the states, but they taste even worse here. Want tortillas made of sugar, but probably not flour or corn? We've got them. Basically, my flatmate was amazed at the concept of a quesadilla, not to mention the amazement that I could actually make one.

  Candy
  There's no hersheys. None at all. This is extremely distressing. Want a Kiss? Sorry. How about some Reeses? Too bad.

  However, there are Mars candies. This includes Mars bars. These are kind of like american Milky Ways. But they aren't as nice and the chocolate makes me feel a bit sick. The milky ways here are like 3 Musketeers, except better. They have vanilla stuff in the middle. For chocolate fluff in the middle, there is Flite, or something like that. I can't read the script well, and they always get stuck in the machine in my building and make you lose your money.

  Kinder bars are good. They're german and have a smiling kid on them and a glass of milk. They're filled with white stuff which is apparently milk, But I have my doubts.

  Caburry's makes a million chocolate bars. Turkish Delight chocolate bar? No problem! Though I doubt anyone eats that kind. They don't sell the creme eggs year round but they have a candy bar version called twisted which staves off the cravings. Starburst is much better here. Well, the 'origional' kind isn't. In that, the red tastes like the american pink, there's no pink, but instead, purple, which is blackcurrant. Everything here is blackcurrant flavored. This tastes like 'blue raspberry' plus a ton of sugar. But anyways, the better Starbursts are called 'twisted'. These are 2 flavors in each candy, normal flavors, even.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~

  Basically, I like it here. The food takes getting used to. Italian food isn't so big here, but I think I can get used to eating chinese ready-meals instead. Have I mentioned cheesey chips? The gift from heaven. I just need to find some mexican. Think taco bell would open up a franchise here?

  I guess I should have pointed out that I live in an extremely small town. We have 3 streets. So, I don't have what bigger cities may. Even when I'm in Liverpool or Belfast, though, most of this is still true.

  
  What is your favorite ethnic food? And what ethnic food do you find interesting?
  

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