British treats

My neighbors are going to England for the weekend (The Cotswolds) and I need suggestions for what kind of yummy treats I should have them bring back as a souvenir.

Baa?

Thanks.

lol - this I like!! But souvenir?? Yes, some lovely things in that beautiful part of England but by yummy treats, do you mean things to eat!! I have a million suggestions and brought back most of them on my trip back home this year.. :-)

Louisa, I do mean something to eat, but preferably not of a meat nature. Can't ask for a part of London Bridge as we already have that here (not right here, but in the states) and I don't think they'd be allowed to bring back a cute, cuddly lamb. I LOVE food!!!

Well Zeb surely you don't think I was talking about anything else but choc, cakes, biscuits, sweets and TWIGLETS!! Meat!!! I don't think so..lolol!! But I also brought back soap and tea!! Some of my favs are:- Frys Chocolate Cream (a choc bar), Bournville dark choc, Cadburys Milk Tray (box of chocs - I can actually buy Cadburys Choc bars here) and hundreds of other things. But for me, it's Twiglets all the way, every day!! Heck, I can taste them now!! They are like a pretzel, but not!! Taste of marmite, or beef extract I think!! I better go - I'm feeling weak - twiglet withdrawal symptoms!!

Ahh British food the most maligned cuisine in the world.

Louisa has some great suggestions there (with the exception of Twiglets). First off Zeb get them to check what they can bring back and the amount, a big tip here is that they keep all receipts and packaging. Customs are more likely to let you through with proof of purchase. No meat products are allowed as a rule anyway. Not sure that a lamb can be counted as a meat product ;)

One of Britains most under rated foods is cheese, we produce over 400 types of native cheeses and I believe thats more than any other EU country. British cheese is fantastic stuff.

Jams, chutneys, pickles and curds are superb too (and make great gifts) we preserve anything in jars. It may look a bit peculiar at first but you can't go wrong with a lemon or lime curd for sweetness or a jar of picalilli if you like spicy. Anything of that nature is very good indeed!

Biscuits are sublime as are various cakes, GB chefs are renown for great puddings and desserts. The Cotswolds will be full of places to by special little jars and packets, its also one of the richest and most beautiful parts of the country in a country full of beautiful places. A weekend will be far to short :)

Twiglets are horrible by the way, I think Louisa is getting homesick if she's thinking about Twiglets (hehehehehe) you either love 'em or hate 'em.

We still have The London Bridge by the way ;) I hope they really enjoy themselves and bring you back something really tasty.

One of my favorites from England is the REAL marmalade, nice and bitter like it should be. :) Another is creamed honey - lovely, and perfect for toast.
I think I need to call my aunt and have her send some things home with grandparents.....lol

Our daughter brought back lemon curd (yummy), just not enough, and sugar crystals to go in tea (makes a pretty dish on the tea table) and also talked about digestives, but didn't bring any back. Does anybody have a recipe for these (or is it worth it?)

Catlover

Heres a link to a great recipe site with Digestive biscuits ont here :)
http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk/cookbook/cookbook.htm

Jams, biscuits, cakes, marmalade, teas, lemon curd... Everything so far, but not Twiglets! I can imagine Lousia has nostalgia for them though. Chocolates, various sweets. There's also clotted cream - I don't know if you get that in the States? Great with scones...

Clotted cream is Devonshire cream in the states I think

Leave my Twiglets alone you guys!! You have to have a connoiseur's palate to appreciate these wonderful treats. So what would you know!!!! Huh!! Don't know if I spelt that right, never used the word before...lolol!! The connoissseerrrr thingy I mean, not the TWIGLETS!!! Twiglets in the morning, Twiglets in the evening, Twiglets at supper time!! BTW guess what!! Up till now there has been nothing on the market here to compare with our crisps but last week a new product was introduced in our local store and they are wonderful. You would think I had been handed a pot of gold..hee-hee!!

Ahh crisps my downfall, I reckon every man has his price and mine is rather low LOL. Nothing quite like a bag of Walkers crisps.

Louisa I would have said Twiglets were an aquired taste rather than for a connoisseur's (had to look it up LOL) palate.

You look at it your way Baa, I will look at it mine..lol!!

Walker's, yes!!! Louisa, what did you find in your store that could compare? And I am all for the marmalade, we just don't have the same thing even if the label says it is. Some of the best desserts I ever ate were in London at Inn on the Park, and I would have loved to roam around the countryside sampling regional specialties. Having a friend bring back those treats is wonderful. Color me greeneyed.

Oh, my, I'm really drooling. I want it all, except Twiglets (sorry Louisa). Baa scared me away from those.
Thanks for the input.

The neighbors leave tomorrow night. The father of a friend of theirs runs a B&B and it's closed for the week or the month so the daughter invited all of her friends for the weekend. It must be nice to be able to afford to just pick up and go like that. Married, two incomes, no children. I vaguely remember those times.

oh please oh please do not import the dreaded marmite.....just looking at that sticky goo makes me queeeezy! lol!!!! go for a lovely marmalade and some good chocolate....!!!

Baa--Thanks for the info. I got the link and put it on my favorites. The A to Z index was temporarily unavailable, but I'll try later. It looked really interesting. Thanks again.

Aimee I found English Lemon Curd today and Lime Curd which I haven't tasted yet. The 'crisps' are called "Wise" - crispy and golden chips!! But they really are crisps..lol!!
zeb - don't listen to Baa - I mean, we are all different aren't we!! One man's meat.....the other man's poison!!! Our store here is called Giant!! They stock International Foods and we have two others that are totally International!! Whoo-hoo!!

Catlover

Its a great site with many regional dishes and good standard British fare. Even has preserve recipes on it!

Louisa

Yeah don't listen to that Baa person, trying to save the American tastebuds from the Twiglet Zone ;) LOL

You're right though different strokes for different folks and all that.

ha-ha!!

TWIGLETS !!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

no way

McVities Digestives area must
McVities Homewheats
Fish n Chips in paper
anything made by Cadbury
ready made Bird's custard


I must stop now or I'll ahve to go raid the cookie jar.

Mark

Marmite is the best thing that ever happened to cheese and brown bread. I go through a jar of marmite a year. Love it , but absolutely hate 'veggimite' absolutely disgusting but the Australians love it, wierd!! Here is a wonderful English cooking site http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk

http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk

Appears the hypolink does not work put in http: then //www.
then put in hwatson.force9.co.uk and see if it works.




This message was edited Wednesday, Jan 30th 10:52 PM

This message was edited Wednesday, Jan 30th 10:54 PM

Mark

I love Birds custard!

Gardendragon

The site you sent is the one I posted to catlover above. Great site isn't it!

Louisa,

You found Lime Curd at Giant? Ours has lemon, but I've not seen lime. And Gardendragon, why does it take you an entire year to get through a jar of marmite? How big is that thing? I envision something about the size of an oil drum.

Marmite is so strong - you only need a little of it and yes we have the lime and lemon curd!!

Right, let's see if this works. Spiffing English tea site - same site, from my Favourites -
http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk/Magazine/2000/07-2000/creamtea.htm

Agree with Mark's choices. And NO Twiglets, hee hee!

Those recipes of Helens are wonderful. Of course you have to modify them to get the suet,cream and butter out of there but the fundamental flavors are just delectable...specially the meat pies.

MODIFY? My poor British heart is horrified. Take out the butter, cream and suet, bang goes all the taste!!! You just have to eat less of the meal if you want to retain the true flavour and save on calorie intake or take a good long walk after! How on earth do you make decent tasting pastry without shortening or butter?

Thats almost as bad as serving dinner party guests Twiglets and those little cheese football things ;) LOL

Baa - stoppit now!! Leave my Twiglets alone I tell you!! I could eat them by the lb!! As for pastry without fat - no way - can't be done - impossible!! Whoever heard of such a thing!! Kikisdad - wish you could taste my pastry - melt in your mouth to die for!! You could always eat Quaker Oats for breakfast you know and lower the cholesterol after the explosion!! :-)

You need the leavening for the pastry but you don't need the top crust which cuts down on the ole fat. I use potatoes or a crusted carrot topping sometimes cornmeal bread instead of pastry shells.In the portion sizes that I like to consume one would need to run a marathon after eating pastry made with suet or lard which,of course, tastes best.I already eat oatmeal for breakfast...now I wonder if it would make a good topping for a porkpie??

LOL Louisa

Kikisdad,

Pork pie can have a lattice crust and top with apricots, cranberries or any fruit which goes with pork. I love a little bit of pork pie but I can't eat a lot and it has to be with Branstons pickle!

Oh please!!!! Baa why did you have to go and mention pork pie!! Now I want it so badly I'm having withdrawal symptoms!! The Branston I can get!!

I didn't it was Kikisdad! (now I sound like my brothers)

lolol!!!! Sorry Baa!! Kikisdad my last post was for you then!!! :-)

Porkpie,beef pie,Shepherds pie etc. GOOD stuff. So hearty and down to earth. Now if we could just get the nice folks in the Motherland to drink coffee instead of that thin watery TEA!!LOL

AAAAAARGH! Coffee? No way! Tea drinker here!!!!!!!! How can you possibly have a cream tea with coffee?

Coffee is for after dinner only.

Interesting thing I saw on a documentry not too long back. The industrial revolution changed a lot of things and one was the creation of slum properties and living in cramped conditions in little rooms with lots of other people. The British managed to do this with success although of course disease was a problem. Other parts of the world tried to copy this style of living for their railroad workers etc and weren't as successful as the British, Indians, Chinese and Japanese at beating death and disease.

While early death was and is always present especially in this kind of situation some countries found disease a huge problem and had many, many more deaths in ratio. Research was done in recent years and the most likely explaination of our abilities to remain relatively disease free is given over to the fact that tea was becoming a popular and cheap drink at the time for us and of course had been for the tea producing countries for centuries. Tea is well known to have antiseptic properties.

The British cuppa saved the lives of many, we should honor it at every oppourtunity and of course, we do LOL

This message was edited Saturday, Feb 2nd 10:15 AM

You all are just hilarious! Thanks for the lighthearted humor! Now I know why England is called Jolly Old England.

Now then we can't have anyone bemoaning our national beverage can we!! I am not complaining about the coffee over here, am I?...lol!! Thanks Baa - that was a wonderful epistle and made good reading this morning!!

Granny Lois

I think thats a term you will find other nations using LOL. Jolly is used in place of at least two words I can think of here, one of them unpleasent ;)

Louisa

Thanks.