Should you totally give up American foods?

Also, this thread made me start thinking about food and nostalgia and all that. Of course, we all are lucky in some ways that we can get even some of the foods we crave.

Our old next door neighbor in Somerset was the brother of Arthur C. Clarke who died a few years ago in Sri Lanka where he'd lived for a long time. His brother told us that the one thing he craved was proper British clotted cream - something almost impossible to have imported. Even the imported stuff I've had here in the US doesn't taste right!

I did this several times. Believe it or not, I used Nigella Lawson's recipe and it rocked my world. I highly recommend it.

DW has been thinking of trying that....I must get her to do it....she made soft pretzels for our superbowl party and they were excellent!

Aside from which, potatoes and tomatoes are American foods.  So I ashouldn't eat them in the UK?

 
What are we going to do at Christmas without a turkey?!

Coming here made food mean something very personal to me.  It was about heritage.  Back in the states I barely made any Puerto Rican food - preferring my favorites: Indian and Thai.  But being here has made me truly miss most of my ethnic food.  That's what I ended up figuring out how to recreate here.

Breaded steak, Plantains, stuffed potato balls, minced beef, yellow rice and corn, Puerto Rican roasted pork, etc...all things that I update others on when I try them.  And I've expanded - trying a homemade version of so many other things - thai green curry chicken, tom ka gai soup, jerk chicken, coleslaw and a host of other things.

Just last night I finally got my Puerto Rican spaghetti just like my mom makes it.  Huge win for me.  But I've realized I go out of my way to make regular things I would have never bothered to try to make in the states.  Cheesy Biscuits, Bagels, Mozzarepas.  All of these are available to you if you want them.

I find I don't miss the junk food type stuff - the candy bars here taste so delicious but I do miss specific things from specific places.  I've just heard they are opening a Krispy Kreme store in Leeds. I'm sooo going!

And - was it ChillyWilly? who was going to NJ soon? - Get yourself up to Rockland County NY and go to Rockland Bakery! You can pick Bagels as they come out of the oven! ooooh so gorgeous!

I grew up on my parents' (SoCal natives) stories of being desperate for Mexican food while in Boston for school in the 60's. (The options were....Taco Bell and...that's it.)

Gee, did we even have Taco Bell in the 60's?? I don't think I'd even heard of them until the 70's -- in California (?) Maybe I was just too ensconced in Boston baked beans to notice 

Gee, did we even have Taco Bell in the 60's?? I don't think I'd even heard of them until the 70's -- in California (?) Maybe I was just too ensconced in Boston baked beans to notice 

Hee. I don't think it was the real Taco Bell. Just some sort of Tex-Mex nightmare that my parents had to go to to get their fix. They were both poor-ish students at the time. (and my mom could NEVER get a handle on Boston baked beans, I have no idea what her hang up was, but I grew up convinced they were gross, until I, you know, tried some!) This also went along with the story about the car hood flying up in the middle of their first winter in Boston and other driving shenanigans!

DW has been thinking of trying that....I must get her to do it....she made soft pretzels for our superbowl party and they were excellent!

Can you please post (or re-post if already up) I miss my superpreztels.....

You know I hadn't eaten graham crackers for years & years when I still lived in the US, but after moving here - that was the top thing I wanted!  Takes me back to being five years old on a camping trip in the Colorado mountains with my family. (especially graham cracker 'sandwiches' spread with either frosting or nutella between two of the crackers, or S'Mores!)

Oh & I miss Triscuits (which I did eat in the US all along) something fierce, so I always bring those back if I can (along with graham crackers).  I brought Velveeta over a time or two, but my tastes have changed since living here & it just doesn't taste of anything (good) any longer compared to the cheeses I eat here.  But if someone has to have their Velveeta - why not?!

I used to bring back various hot sauces but most of those can be sourced here now, so I'm good for that!

I'm another whose hubby might divorce me if I stopped cooking Tex-Mex or the Cue!  He likes Tex-Mex so much (never having eaten it before he met me), if I haven't cooked it in a little while, that's the first thing he asks for!

Apart from that, I am pretty sure I must tick all those super-expat boxes (local food - check, recycling (composting even, heh? heh?) - check, international cuisine awareness - check, travel expanding my horizons - check, progressive - check, 5-a-day - check, clean underwear not soiled with food - check, hmmm - what else is there?!).  Do I get to do the Superior Dance now & who else wants to join in?

There's both healthy & unhealthy food available here - same as in the US.  Just look at all the takeaway places (I think takeaways often smell like sick, but it clearly floats a lot of people's boats or it wouldn't be so successful), fish-n-chips, and well chips with everything.  Or some areas of the UK (you know where you are!) where you can get fried everything - fried Mars Bars, battered & fried pizza, etc.  The chippy we went to a week ago had battered, fried sausages - is that a normal thing?  I wasn't aware of it but I probably hadn't been paying attention.

And local food?  Curry is the national dish!  Vindaloo, Vindaloo and we all like vindaloo!!!  

Battered sausages are pretty common in Glasgow. 

Battered sausages are pretty common in my area as well.   

Battered sausages are pretty common in Glasgow. 

DH will often get a battered sausage at the chip shop. I'll often have a bite and that's enough for me. They're nice, but i could never eat a whole one. I'm sure they're one of the things he'll crave now that we're in the US!

I think the whole moral of this is..to each his own...

I miss alot of things from the US. But once I taste them after being gone so long it doesn't taste the same as I remember...BUT..I still want to taste them...

I am going to buy a tortillas press to make my own corn tortillas just cause I can't find any...you guys in the UK are really lucky and have more access to things then I do here on the Isle of Man...
 

It's been a challenge but I have slowly over came them!

I think the whole moral of this is..to each his own...

I miss alot of things from the US. But once I taste them after being gone so long it doesn't taste the same as I remember...BUT..I still want to taste them...

I am going to buy a tortillas press to make my own corn tortillas just cause I can't find any...you guys in the UK are really lucky and have more access to things then I do here on the Isle of Man...
 

It's been a challenge but I have slowly over came them!

I have my own tortilla press, it's great! And you can make wholewheat tortillas with a little bit of olive oil to bind if you want to lower the calories

I think, like others have said, that it is about nostalgia more than other things.  There are days I crave things from the States (or even from my past like dishes my grandmother cooked).  A week ago I craved the ribbon candy she always had in a dish in her parlour.  Isn't smell the sense most connected with memory?  "Taste" is mostly derived from smell, so there you go.

When my husband was in the States he would buy and eat Hobnobs we could get from Wegmans.  He doesn't touch them here. I guess this is a bit like those pies mentioned upthread.  He wasn't eating Hobnobs, he was eating memories of home, sort of.

I remember when I lived in Europe the first time I craved Doritos.  I like them all right normally, but they are not my favourites.  This was before you could really get them everywhere.  I'd lie in bed at night thinking about them when I was drifting off to sleep.  I don't remember eating them first thing when I got home.  IIRC, when my mom asked me what I wanted, I had a hard time coming up with something.  Not that I didn't miss a lot of stuff, just that I knew at that point I could have most things whenever I wanted.

Personally, I miss Scandinavian food more than anything, and buy it whenever I find it on offer somewhere.  I drive my husband a bit nuts about it because we absolutely have to buy it (or stop in and investigate places where it might be).  I know I like the taste of it, but it brings back memories, and that might be the same thing for people buying Cool Whip and Velveeta.

He wasn't eating Hobnobs, he was eating memories of home, sort of.

I like this.