Changes at the Grocery Stores

I've found that grocery shopping has become a new challenge, not entirely unlike when you first move to England and everything is new.   This is an especially interesting time of the year with all of the holiday food stuff.

For instance, when did they start selling Hershey Kisses unwrapped ?  (presumably for when you use them in baking...)  I always liked those cookies with the Kiss on the top and can't remember the last time I had one.  I'm now thinking I need to get that recipe off of somebody, so that I have an excuse to go out and buy the unwrapped Kisses.

I was also impressed with the Oreo Cookie sugar cones; I'm sure I'd have remembered those...

And, my local Dominick's has a walk in, refridgerated room in the liquor department for all of the chilled beer and wine.  It even has automatic doors!!!!!!  Maybe this existed pre-1996, just not at my local store at the time.  But it's a first for me.

Sometimes I feel like the resident alien, instead of my DH.

The last time we were back, I was amazed at the number of English products available at my mom's local supermarket.  I had never noticed Green & Black chocolate, Marmite, or Lyle's Golden Syrup in North Carolina!   

You can get Marmite there?  I've not seen it around here...

Last time I was in the US, I was shocked to see they had Branston pickle. 

You should be able to get things like Branston Pickle, Marmite, Ribena at any international grocery store or foodie emporium.  Indian food stores are pretty good to for British things.

If you do a little digging, you'll find most areas in the US have a store that carries a small amount of British goods (or more, if you're lucky).  Try digging around local import shops.  I find better luck in smaller, family-owned stores.  Look for a shop that carries anything that could even be remotely considered British by Americans (Belleek china, for example).

If you don't have any luck, try thetudorhouse.com . Anyone who lives in Santa Monica or has visited can attest to their fabulous selection.  Plus, they ship!

Last time I was home and in a grocery store I felt like a total alien....so many new products, so much choice it was to be honest a little overwhelming. Adjusting to here it was a matter of scaling down- but back home there's just so much, so many things and gadgets and doodahs.

Actually, I think the stores have carried a lot of these things for quite a while - you just never noticed them when you lived in the US before because they weren't part of your diet then.

Yeah, I agree with Peedal. A lot of those things were there. But, I do agree that everytime I go back, the new varieties of things, all the new products, are overwhelming!

I agree that you don't notice certain products because they're not in your diet.  This is particularly true since now I'm a mom and shop for lots of kiddie stuff, and I never noticed some of the more obscure British products.   I'll have to make a point of looking for Branston Pickle for DH...

I've always loved baking, though.  I'm sure those unwrapped Kisses are something new in the last eight years.  And I probably missed them on trips home because they seem to be available only at the holidays.

I couldn't help myself at the store yesterday and bought a package of them; the recipe for those cookies is right on the package.

Ironically, I spoke to my cousin who said she's bringing cookies, the Kiss ones, over to my house on Friday.  So of course I told her my little story about how excited I was finding unwrapped ones. etc, etc.  I asked her when they started to do that and  she didn't know you could buy them that way!

We had a chuckle out of it and I felt a little less out of place.   

Actually, I think the stores have carried a lot of these things for quite a while - you just never noticed them when you lived in the US before because they weren't part of your diet then.

Yeah, that was my point.  No telling how many times I walked past Lyle's in NC.  And to think I treated like it was from outer space the first time DH tried to put in on my pancakes!   

I found a candy bar that was made of Hershey kisses. There were about 6 of them all stuck together in a line and had a cookie bottom or something like that.  I got these things at a deli in town that had a few American items. I got  a few of them for 30p each because they were about to pass the expiry date.