No Manwich, grits or cornbread???

 Went full on grocery shopping with DF the other night (Saturday-won't do that again) down to the local Tesco's. Aside from the fact that people were walking directly at me with no intentions of moving out of the way, ramming their cart into ours at mach 10 and simply rude in every way...it wasn't a very good experience.

I wanted to pick up a few lunch things for myself, and some things so that I can have dinner ready when he gets in from work, and I couldn't find ANYTHING familiar!  Oh wait, I take that back... I found pringles    I couldn't find tomato juice and had to get some kind of a puree in a paper package. DF had no idea what grits or cornbread were... I had to decide between regular or streaky bacon?!? I didn't expect to find Manwich, or even Miracle whip brands...but I did assume that I'd find the same or similar products in different brands. I went to the frozen meal section, and no roast turkey with potatoes and cherry cobbler or any meal that was like ours aside from lasagna...and he thought I was nuts when I asked for a chicken pot pie. Again, I didn't expect to find the everything that I'm used to, but some of the basics would have been nice. How on earth do you learn to shop and cook all over again?

We have a house, all of the paperwork should be final within the week, and then they will be going in to gut and redo the whole thing. We'll hopefully have it done by the end of April, which is when the girls and I will make the journey across the pond for good (Pending Visa approval of course). Grocery shopping, shopping for house goods and such will be my responsibility, and although it will hopefully be loads of fun...it's a bit scary too.

Are there any stores here that carry American items? Today is pancake day (and they are nothing like ours I now know), but we do love our American pancakes. Anyone ever found a Jiffy or Bisquick type mix?

oh dear!  i very clearly remember my first UK food shopping experience.  mild panic attack over what washing powder to buy.  (where's the tide?)

chicken pot pie- is just chicken pie.  you'll find it either in butchers, or frozen, or in the refridge section.  very often it's chicken and ham pie, or chicken and vegatable pie (there are other pies like steak & guinness, steak & kidney)

i say go with danish bacon- nothing like US bacon but at least there's no fat to go all rubbery and mushy and non-crispy.

as for jiffy & bisquick.  you should be able to find bisquick in tescos/sainsbury/etc.  i bring my lowfat bisquick & jiffy back over.

but in the meantime- you can make US pancakes using the good old joy of cooking recipie.

I had the same experience the other way around - I almost broke down crying in Kroger's when I couldn't find Sultanas to make a christmas cake: it was just the last straw!  I'd been in the US six months and was very, very homesick!

After that things got better - I realised that I was in a foreign country just like going on holiday to France or Italy and I needed to adapt my expectations - that made things easier.  I learnt to use the new stuff and find things that were similar and realise that somethings were never going to appear (ie curry sauce mixes).  Atlthough things had started to change by the time we left and those curry sauces had begun to appear on the shelves.

Other people here will be able to tell you where you can find things - but hang on in there - it gets easier!!!  Have fun!

PS - Tomato juice will be in with the large cartons of fruit juices in the drinks aisle.

If you're lucky, you can find Oscar Mayer American bacon in...I think it's Tesco's. We buy it and freeze it when we find it. (Getting DF to love American bacon was REAL easy).

Cornbread is better from scratch anyhow, and no problem finding corn meal. Ditto biscuits.

And grits. Jesus. Not having to eat grits any more was the best part of moving out of Tennessee 

Marmaladejar is right. It's not going to be the same, but you'll get used to it and, in time, will find foods you love here!

You can make your own cornbread using polenta. Also, there are lovely fresh turkeys and chickens which are easy to roast - and will taste much better than ready meals.

Have fun!  

(x-posted with Stoatula)

I know you aren't in London, but there are some equivalents. Grits = polenta and you can find it and cornmeal in ethnic food stores. They are not quite the same (neither is the flour or butter here) but they will pass. You can also kiss Cool Whip good-bye...and Jello isn't the same either. I can never get it to actually set over here...even when I follow the instructions carefully. If you have a local butcher they may be able to cut you American style bacon. You will also find that the UK eats much more lamb. I had only made lamb a couple of times before moving but now make it several times a month.

The good thing for us is that we have all lost weight...I attribute it to the fact that the milk, meat and cheese are not treated with growth hormones or anti-biotics. They also taste much better; the way I remember from when I was a kid. But I am sure others will think I am crazy for that.

And grits. Jesus. Not having to eat grits any more was the best part of moving out of Tennessee 

haha!!

And as you have already discovered--avoid shopping during the day on Sat./Sun. where at all possible! We usually go late on a Friday night. The place is usually empty, and then we are all stocked up for the weekend.

I have never found Jiffy here. It's one of the things I bring back from the US (had some last night, with chilli). Besides that, Nestle choc. chips and Cheerios (there are a few varieties here, but not like the plain US ones) I have either forgotten about or found replacements for everything else I need. I still make a lot of US recipes, and it hasn't been a problem.

You get used to it all. And you find stuff that you didn't think Tesco had.

I would really, really recommend you go to Tesco on a weekday afternoon (not during the lunch rush, though) or evening, when it'll be pretty empty. Just stroll through every aisle and see what they have and what they don't. (And most things they don't have are available online or at specialty stores.)

Adam hates grocery shopping perhaps more than anything, but he understood I needed to get my bearings in Tesco. I did the wander, which took well over an hour, and now I can run in there and know what I want is going to be there.

You do make some adjustments to what you eat. And there are lots of cravings.

Luckily, though, the folks on here will help with finding stuff, too.

Make friends with the food talk section here, go through its archives. A lot of questions will be covered.

Streaky bacon is closer to American bacon. Every other bacon you see is more like ham or Canadian bacon. Look in the continental meats section and you may find Spanish bacon, which is the closet to American bacon you'll find here.

Sausages here are filled with a lot of bread and not as flavorful as you'd be used to. Lidl is good for European sausages which are a little more flavorful.

Pot Pies are in the freezer section, you should be able to find them easily enough.

Cornmeal you will find - if you find - in health food shops.

Pancakes you are better off buying the packaged ones and sticking them in the toaster than searching high and low for Bisquick. Or learning the recipe from scratch if you want to pan fry them. For syrup go to the ice cream section, and use the toppings there (make sure they aren't meant to harden!). You can occassionally find Maple flavored syrup, most often it will be strawberry and toffee. Maple syrup is very expensive here.

You can find an extensive choice of frozen roasts in Iceland although you should be able to find frozen/ready-made roasts in most grocery stores.

Manwich I am afraid you will have to do from scratch.

My first few trips to the market were hard as well.  I felt totally disoriented and lost as to what to get (and how much to get from the deli for example).  Things will settle for you, I am sure.  Just wait until you find things that you can't believe aren't sold in the US.

BTW, a week or so after I came here, I made the whole family here sloppy joes from scratch.  I thought they tasted a lot better than Manwich and weren't any more work than using the canned stuff.  Just a little suggestion.

To be honest, I bought half a dozen UK cookbooks, some UK measuring scales and just got stuck in! I threw away a heck of alot of ruined food but I eventually got there. I still cook some things from the states but I would say they are more a UK/US mix in the things I cook now. Though I tend more to the British side except for Christmas and BBQ's  I don't do Thanksgiving, I am lazy 

Yes, with time you will find substitutes and things you even prefer to what you had back in the US. But why on earth would you think there would be the exact same food here? It's a different country with a different food culture and history and preferences.

There are plenty of online sources for American food. Check out the Food section of this forum.

Can we not be judgemental in this thread? We've all been there in culture shock of some sort or another, let's give each other some slack. That's the whole thing about culture shock, you don't expect it!

Check out the Food section of this forum.

Just what i was going to say!
We talk about food on UKY an enormous amount of time... you will learn a lot if you read our food forum!
And you will probably never even THINK about Manwich again!