Should you totally give up American foods?

Now wait a second right here.  People eat different vittles in different places in 'Merica? I know she's talking about makin that thar fancy Cool Whip out of the thick drinkin' milk or drinkin' fancy peppermint tea like they done do in those progressive enclaves, but this is too much.  I am aimin to eat some of that orgasmic fruit, British baklava and yoghurt (WILL MULLER'S CORNERS DO?), but now I am gonna have to try different American places food.

Mushin peanuts to make yer own peanut butter, fancy Cool Whip, and cheese other than spray, squeezy,  or Velveeta.  Oh, I forgot about those little slices wrapped up in plastic.  I always forget about them cos they are called "cheese food".  Keep thinkin' I need to feed them to the brick of Velveeta if I don't use it quick 'nough. Anyway, next ye all will tell me I can make a cake without Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines!

How long til I become one of them foodies?

EDIT: I almost fergot!  I went to Canadia once and ate some of that there Kraft Dinner, but it were just mac and cheese just my mommy used to make.  Cept they put ketchup on it. So yeah, I guess she is right.  Different vittles for different places.

You owe me a new screen.  Also, I just had some Dairy Lea cheese slices yesterday in a toastie.  But you know, it's British and all.

You say that we should eat locally, but then rattle off a few countries whose cuisine you enjoy, that’s a bit funny.  Also, I’ve lived in Germany, in Eastern German actually before it became more westernized so to say.  I was able to find three types of chips (crisps, whatever) paprika, salty and no salt.  However, if I went to the big supermarket in the middle of town I could often find tortilla chips in the American food section.  They were next to the marshmallows.  I just always found that to be really odd for some reason.  You can’t complain that people should make do with what they have then complain about the lack of chip choices in a country.  It’s like complaining about not eating noodles in Thailand and then complaining that the chocolate tastes funny. 

Now wait a second right here.  People eat different vittles in different places in 'Merica? I know she's talking about makin that thar fancy Cool Whip out of the thick drinkin' milk or drinkin' fancy peppermint tea like they done do in those progressive enclaves, but this is too much.  I am aimin to eat some of that orgasmic fruit, British baklava and yoghurt (WILL MULLER'S CORNERS DO?), but now I am gonna have to try different American places food.

Mushin peanuts to make yer own peanut butter, fancy Cool Whip, and cheese other than spray, squeezy,  or Velveeta.  Oh, I forgot about those little slices wrapped up in plastic.  I always forget about them cos they are called "cheese food".  Keep thinkin' I need to feed them to the brick of Velveeta if I don't use it quick 'nough. Anyway, next ye all will tell me I can make a cake without Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines!

How long til I become one of them foodies?

EDIT: I almost fergot!  I went to Canadia once and ate some of that there Kraft Dinner, but it were just mac and cheese just my mommy used to make.  Cept they put ketchup on it. So yeah, I guess she is right.  Different vittles for different places.

bwhahahahaha *love* this.

Now wait a second right here.  People eat different vittles in different places in 'Merica? I know she's talking about makin that thar fancy Cool Whip out of the thick drinkin' milk or drinkin' fancy peppermint tea like they done do in those progressive enclaves, but this is too much.  I am aimin to eat some of that orgasmic fruit, British baklava and yoghurt (WILL MULLER'S CORNERS DO?), but now I am gonna have to try different American places food.

Mushin peanuts to make yer own peanut butter, fancy Cool Whip, and cheese other than spray, squeezy,  or Velveeta.  Oh, I forgot about those little slices wrapped up in plastic.  I always forget about them cos they are called "cheese food".  Keep thinkin' I need to feed them to the brick of Velveeta if I don't use it quick 'nough. Anyway, next ye all will tell me I can make a cake without Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines!

How long til I become one of them foodies?

EDIT: I almost fergot!  I went to Canadia once and ate some of that there Kraft Dinner, but it were just mac and cheese just my mommy used to make.  Cept they put ketchup on it. So yeah, I guess she is right.  Different vittles for different places.

Thanks for that, best laugh I've had today. I'm gonna have to put it into Text Editor so that I can my have my own copy! Also, thanks to Karrit on the update about Tesco. They're putting a Tesco Extra in here in Crewe, hopefully they'll have an even wider selection of American junk food. Still haven't seen any Annie's mac-n-cheese, but, Batchelor's do alright for themselves in my book. Or pasta with that there cheese food on it, in a pinch. 

Ya'll are taking me way too seriously, and some way too funny ( nice accent thar!). I guess I grew up eating things like cool whip and velveeta cheese only to realize that there are ways to make sauces without a mix, and cooking mac and cheese w/o a box was easy and more delicious.  I guess I like Jamie Oliver. I love a good burger...but not one from McDonalds. I spent most of my life as an obese person, and having lost 110 pounds in the last 4 years has made me change the way I eat. So perhaps that is my prejudice. I like the word foodie because I just like good food...and am not an expert, so that is the best word I can find. Some people don't like it-- no biggie. I guess, if I am to make the choice to leave the place I was born because I want something different, I want to embrace all of it. If I lived in the Netherlands, I probably would never adjust to true Dutch fare, but they have enough variety of other ethnic foods that I could handle it. Sneeballen in Germany are nasty, but a lot of other things aren't. I guess I just feel more at home in some places in the UK and Europe than I do here. That has to do with the food, the people and the politics and the proximity to other cultures that make me think beyond my own human experience. After a youth spent killing myself with the foods mentioned earlier in this thread, I guess I am like an ex-smoker....they hate smoking more than those who never smoked. I don't expect anyone to agree with me here, but I also don't expect to be attacked for differing point of view.

Honestly, it wasn't your differing point of view. It was how you presented it.

Well, I guess my response would be that the reaction of many of you wasn't much of a good example. I didn't set out to make enemies, but to engage in discourse. A lost art, in my opinion. I got on this site to engage and perhaps build bridges to the UK, and it seems that a lot of people are discontented with their life in the UK than are happy w/it. Maybe I am perceiving things incorrectly, but I just want to understand what it takes to really become part of the UK culture.....and I don't want to make it a contrarian experience. The fun-making at my expense was taken in stride, but it seemed to me that intelligence and thoughtfulness of ideas were being passed over for more base realities. Being a progressive is bad, and wanting better nutrition was stupid, and liking gourmet food snobish. So I will eat my greens and cornbread and fried okra with ribs and be done with it.

Maybe you should re-read your original post. Laughing your ass off at people isn't a great way to engage those very same people in discourse. You yourself said you were judgmental. Not a great way to start a conversation.

I'm sure you're clever enough to realize that some of the responses were pointed for a reason. You don't like being told your choices are bad and stupid? Turnabout is fair play.

I am just laughing my ass off about this thread, because who would want most of the things you guys are asking for? I don't even want cool whip, skippy peanut butter or velveeta cheese and I live in the US. Try some great stilton cheese and some walkers shortbread and some organic fruit and lovely English bacon. I found so many good foods in London I can't even imagine why you want the overprocessed junk you all are asking for? Sorry to be judgmental, but man, I would give anything to have the kinds of food availale in the UK.

Well, I guess my response would be that the reaction of many of you wasn't much of a good example. I didn't set out to make enemies, but to engage in discourse. A lost art, in my opinion. I got on this site to engage and perhaps build bridges to the UK, and it seems that a lot of people are discontented with their life in the UK than are happy w/it. Maybe I am perceiving things incorrectly, but I just want to understand what it takes to really become part of the UK culture.....and I don't want to make it a contrarian experience. The fun-making at my expense was taken in stride, but it seemed to me that intelligence and thoughtfulness of ideas were being passed over for more base realities. Being a progressive is bad, and wanting better nutrition was stupid, and liking gourmet food snobish. So I will eat my greens and cornbread and fried okra with ribs and be done with it.

But this thread is for letting people know where they can buy American food items in the UK and for sharing various different food finds around the country. What does it matter if the food items people are trying to find are processed/junk food or not? If they're craving or missing those foods, that's their business.

When I lived in the US on a student visa, I craved UK Heinz Baked Beans and Cadbury's chocolate all the time, but that didn't mean that I didn't embrace the local cuisine (which was New Mexican) or that I didn't enjoy cooking with fresh produce... it was just that I missed/craved certain food items that I was used to seeing everywhere in the UK, but were not easy to find in the US.

If you want to discuss people's satisfaction with the UK as a country or learn more about UK culture, why not start a new thread about it instead (or see if there's another thread already open which is already discussing it)?

I think to debate, one has to know their audience, and the person they're debating with. You live in Seattle, Wa. We've all come to the UK from different parts of the States, and now live on an island that could fit inside Texas, more or less. I personally lived in San Diego,Ca and now live in a town called Crewe. Big change-and very eye opening, seriously. But, I'll get to my point. For me, the junk food isn't the objective. It's the.....freedom to know I can have "something" that I had in San Diego, without getting on a train for about half an hour to two hours just to have it. That's what the thread's about. Knowing where to get that extra "something" for yourself in your local supermarket or ethnic food shop. Just my 2cents.

Abby, your point is well taken. However, I would still assert the point that if I was in Portugal, I wouldn't be looking for A and W rootbeer because that is not something I would expect they have there. I would be in Portugal to experience Portugal, and that means it's own delicious foods and traditions. I think we have beaten this dead horse enough. I made my point, and you all made yourselves perfectly clear, so the rest is just excessive, and I am sure you would rather continue your conversations sans controversy.

[. I don't expect anyone to agree with me here, but I also don't expect to be attacked for differing point of view.
[/quote]

yet it was okay for you to do that??


im gonna end this one with a food for thought.......
down south where i was born and raised.......you know where we eat cornbread, greens, and fried okra along with biscuit/sausage gravy for breakfast.......we got an old saying 'IF YA AINT GOT NUTTIN NICE TO SAY THEN DONT SAY NUTTIN AT ALL'......i hope that point is taken

But you just contradicted yourself? I guess you get the grace but I don't.....

The difference is I am not here to experience a culture.  I am here to live my life. 

While on holiday for a short period of time I do try to avoid things that I would have at home.  But Coke is the number one selling drink in almost every country in the world.  Should I avoid it because it is made in the US?  What about Icy Lemon Fanta?  They don't sell that in the US, so is Icy Lemon Fanta ok? 

How about the fact that my A&W is actually imported from Singapore and not the US, is it ok to drink it?

Besides, if I were living in my University based town to live like a native I would be eating bachelor noodles (aka ramen), baked beans on toast, drinking a lot of Red Bull, getting really drunk and vomiting in the streets, getting really drunk and literally running riot through a park with a pig's head on a stick.

Drinking a root beer doesn't mean I am unhappy in the UK, it just means I want a root beer.  Also, my British husband likes it. 

But you just contradicted yourself? I guess you get the grace but I don't.....

trust me if i werent being nice i would be kicked off this forum.....the point here is-is that you came on blasting and making critical comments on how people eat etc.......but yet when it was given back to you then it didnt seem to be so appealing.....i think you should be very proud that you have changed your eating patterns and lifestyle........i think its great that you enjoy fully experiencing other cultures......but why not offer a more non-aggressive approach to stating your opinions.......but instead there is a continual need to make little stabs at people.....i do hope this thread turns around soon........and im gonna do my part to make it happen right now........so i ate at the handmade burger place the other night.......fantastic.......they offered so much variety......also had fish, chicken, etc.......has anyone else ate there?