English Foods

Oh, the delights of English foods, sweets, biscuits and beyond! I am very happy to be going back there next week to gorge myself silly on proper tea, scones with cream and strawberry jam.

I adore pub food like sheppard’s pie or bangers and mash, washed down with a good hard cider. While I don’t eat fish, I love chips with malt cider vinegar. And beans, yes, Heinz beans. They are obsessed with curry over there too. There are curry take-out everywhere, just like pizza here.

Although most people I know can’t stand it, Marmite is the only food that can make my mouth water, literally. Impossible to describe the taste of it, but it’s a black paste made of yeast that you spread on bread.

Another of my favorite things in the world is Heinz Tomato Soup, very different than Campbells. Why don’t they sell it here?

So many things there seem to taste of tart, sour, and overly sweet at the same time, like lemon curd, or lime marmalade. Lots of things are flavored with black currant there too; it’s very common, although you hardly ever see it here. There’s a drink syrup called Ribena, that you add to water—a million times better than soda.

And then there are the sweets. No matter what you are eating for dessert—cake, pie, pastries—it is called “pudding.” My favorite cookie is McVitie's Digestive Biscuits, kind of like a round graham cracker with milk chocolate on top. But the candies send me over the top, anything made by Cadbury, Allsorts, humbugs, seaside rock, Smarties and fruit gums.

When I was a child in the dark ages (aka pre-internet) you simply couldn’t get English food in the US. My granny or some kind aunt would send them to us. The mail often took six to eight weeks. Now you can buy most of these things at Cost Plus/World Market.