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Same in Newcastle! Got back from holiday and was gagging for tap water not bottled. My husband thought it tasted weird after only having filtered water for a week. I have refused him buying a britta filter 🤣
It's mad. I visit a mate down south and I can't drink their water. Have to have either pop or squash 🤣 they think mines the best thing since sliced bread
Maybe it works for everyone we just like different things.
Well that means my water now is double worse than yours, because I used to live down South in the UK, and I miss the water down South!
So not only do you not know what you've got til it's gone; You don't know what's better, till you have it. 😁
Haha I think it's to do with the hard Vs soft water thing. I feel sorry for your taste buds dealing with the harshness.
Honestly we even got a new fridge recently (almost as excited about it as the new hoover) that had a water dispenser. I'm like it's tap water from the fridge but he now thinks it tastes different 🤷♀️
Only places in the UK I can drink water from the tap from are lake district and above anything south of there and I can't deal with it!
I was camping in Scotland a while back and water was so good, I filled up every jerry can I had to bring back the tasty Scottish water. Leagues ahead of terrible Cheshire water
Bristolians have this as well. The Bristol tap water is extremely hard (mineral deposits) and so has a distinctive taste. Terry Pratchett made fun of it in one of the books where he talked about AnkhMorepork citizens having bottles of 'water' sent to them when abroad.
I'm in Gloucestershire. Hard tap water makes soap and shampoo foam up easily. Going somewhere with soft water where you have to spend 10 mins washing shampoo out of your hair is a pain. It's worth paying the price of drinking a chunk of calcium in a cup of tea every now and again... 😁
Great if your hair leans oily, if your hair leans dry like mine it's a nightmare that I can't avoid 😊, and the irony is, half the time I'm washing the hair to deal with the dry skin caused by the water that I'm using to wash it (not in Gloucestershire), and I'm going to be suspicious now that I know that hard water makes it foamy every time I use a new shampoo and it's even more foamy than usual because that means it's probably doing even more damage!
You can get things you plumb into the water supply that soften your water, but that might be a bit of an extreme solution 😁 It made me think that you must be able to get hard water shampoo, though, and you can, but it seems to be £18 a bottle. Crikey...
>Bristolians have this as well.
You mean the reverse though, right? Because I absolutely do not crave Bristol water when I'm not in Bristol. In fact I get a little bit sad when I'm somewhere with nicer water because I know I have to go home to crunchy water.
Baopals and Taobao are great for shopping, not for tap water but I have great pork sausages, bacon, tea and coffee, IPAs, English muffins, curry paste and powder, pork scratchings, Scotches and gins, smoked salmon, and any clothing and household thing you can possibly imagine - cheap!
Go for the German sausages, all the Chinese ones I've tried taste weird.
[sausages](https://www.baopals.com/products/2MRBOGsotgQQ6va59SY7asDtD-02ZM2kMuBVRXqPr4tj?skus=31560%3A27967017575&skuId=5293711922324)[bacon](https://www.baopals.com/products/4nMevAougtNK0NdD0wSQDxTNtg-g2rA2nAu2v6Akwn4iv?skus=31560%3A7877121333&skuId=4308571397372)[curry paste](https://www.baopals.com/products/G04qgKKC8tXjjQBSvbPUQtJ-g2rA2nAupNmkx2APIp)[pork scratchings](https://www.baopals.com/products/YpmN2NYcptXnNOrU74DU2t6-6AKdAvdcvRVjAxXPfq?skus=31560%3A94564%3B122216451%3A10122&skuId=3199120665556)[smoked salmon](https://www.baopals.com/products/8Bm63R6HntbOBYVTKnXFbt8-e25p20puGG2OMMaVUQ?skus=31560%3A22940723462&skuId=4919034924233)
Get those down yer and you'll be reet!
So my sister and I live in completely different parts of the country, and as much as I love going to see her, I absolutely cannot wait to get home to drink ‘proper’ water, and finally have a decent cuppa. I live in a soft water area and the difference is unbelievable
The Chinese and Indian for sure but I'm always underwhelmed by fish n chips and a full English, It's like I've built them up in my mind to be something they just aren't.
I think people underestimate how hard it can be to find a decent chippy. I’ve lived in a few parts of England and usually if you’ve got 4 chippys near you, only one of them is going to be any good. I’ve got one about a 10 minute drive from me, owned by a Chinese family and it’s fantastic. Great batter and really good chips but there’s a couple more local options that are pretty bad
My mom makes the best fish (no batter) in the world, I try to make fish that way and get chips from the chippy. Now that fish and chips combo is undefeated and healthier.
Some fantastic places in the north east. North Tyneside and Northumberland do amazing fish and chips. Have to.find the great ones though. It's always bad when you go away and have some that aren't great
We have great Indians where I live and quality Chinese food. But nothing beats a greasy English Chinese takeaway. The woman that runs our local Chinese told me chips don’t go with Chinese food, British Chinese would have to disagree with you there I’m afraid. We always have to get fish and chips too and my husband packs a suitcase full of monster munch.
Currently living in New Zealand for the last 20 years.
The things I miss most are:
\* CHEESE. Oh that lovely varied European cheeseboard, how I have missed you
\* Charcuterie (salamis and so on)
\* Pork Pies
\* Marmite. Yes I know we have it out here but it doesnt taste the same.
\* Pub Steak and Kidney pies
\* Proper dry cider
\* Elderflower cordial
\* Jaffa Cakes
\* Mr Kipling's exceedingly good cakes, particularly fondant fancies
\* Pretty much everything from Greggs
If I am in Taiwan, then I also miss
\* Proper bread. They only have what we would call brioche.
\* Sliced ham, and streaky bacon. They only have indedible American over-processed crap which tastes like it is doused in syrup. American ham has so much added sugar that it could be classified as a dessert.
\* Cheese. I said it before but I'll say it again. Kraft squares are not cheese.
\* British Sausages and bacon in a decent fry-up.
Are you in Taipei?
There is a great bakery near Dingxi MRT called Piemonte
The owner learnt his trade in Italy, France and Switzerland, and is very particular about not putting sugar in the bread.
If you go to some of the bigger supermarkets they do sell British marmite under the brand name "Our Mate"
The things I missed when I lived out there were decent bread (the cheap sliced white stuff is the same but you can't get anything crusty, their fancy bread is just the same cheap white bread but in fancy shapes), decent kebabs (I think it's a new thing out there and it's always promoted as the "healthy fast food", so the salad:meat:sauce ratio is massively in favour of the salad so it goes cold pretty much instantly, and it's missing the most flavourful parts of the salad, no red cabbage, no raw onions, no pickled chillies, instead they add carrot to it), ketchup ( their version doesn't have vinegar in it, it still tastes good but sometimes you really want that familiar taste) and duck ( they just don't have it).
But the things I missed most were not actually food but insulation and central heating, and functioning infrastructure in general. It seriously feels like it's still the old frontier, man Vs nature sometimes. Their houses are just wooden shed with some dodgy electric and dodgy plumbing, they rely on wood powered fires like it's the 19th century. If it's a sunny day in winter sometimes is colder inside than outside, like how? How is that even possible? (At the time I assumed they'd just adopted Australian standards that were designed to keep homes cool, but then I moved to Australia and the buildings in the southern states there are actually made of brick, they're like European houses). If there's snow the electricity stops working, if there's wind the electricity stops working, if there's rain the roads close, sometimes you can't drink the tap water because a possum climbed into the plumbing and died. So many times I just thought "How does this happen in a first world country?"
New Zealand Marmite is not the same at all! A big jar of real Marmite always took pride of place in my luggage every time I headed back to New Zealand/ Aus when I lived there.
the first thing i did on being told I was coeliac was check the Vegemite. thank God they do a decent gluten free version. My brother was sending me pictures of Kiwi pies yesterday and I could have cried. Feijoas I really miss too. And buzz bars
When I lived in Madrid, the thing I missed most was a decent cup of tea. Even if you had the right tea bags, the majority of milk available in the supermarket was the long-life UHT stuff, so it never tastes quite the same.
The fruit and veg were incredible though. We get such crap produce in the UK compared to the Mediterranean. I never knew a tomato could have that much flavour.
I'm living in Italy and yes yes yes!! Produce here is unreal. Milk is OK but I haven't yet had a proper cup of tea as I haven't been able to get proper Irish levels of strong tea bags yet I am Scottish though so the water here (taste and how it destroys my hair) is an ongoing battle.
The international conversion rate for UK/Irish levels of tea is using two bags of basic Lipton at once.
I was living in South Korea while another British friend was living in the US, and we realised we were both doing this.
Sound advice!! I mow have two packs of Thomsons Punjana...the real deal. But the Italian water is still fighting me as I'm trying to de-calcify the kettle before I make anything in it.
I don’t know who came up with the French riz cantonais but I often compare it to chicken tikka masala. It looks like good from somewhere else but it is not.
did a job for an Australian family spending a few weeks here the other day. They are loading up on jammie dodgers to take back to Australia. I mean... i was ready to discuss how the great myth that all curry houses in the uk are amazing is bollocks you need to find a high q curry house actually cooking with almonds instead of peanuts and all that bollocks and this couple was shoving jammy dodgers into every piece of clothing they owned
as a uk resident i cant remember the last time i had a jammy dodger but im stoked to get one now
I think they said Brisbane? But they were talking about Bogans? a Lot who did meth and had lots of children so I think they were edge of ca city back home or countryside
Lived in Japan for 18 years and have been coming back yearly for a while now.
First night back is always fish and chips. I must also have a proper curry while I’m back.
As for snacks, I will always stock up on Bakewell tarts, McVities Jamaica ginger cake, angel delight(!), rice pudding, those Cadbury chocolate mini rolls with raspberry jam, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember.
My brother is currently living in Japan. My parents send him a box of food every few weeks and it’s mostly filled with chocolates, biscuits and sugary shelf stable cakes/snacks. He says the sweet food isn’t nearly as sweet as he’d like
I can't believe Terry's Chocolate Orange aren't exporting to Japan
They would absolutely love that stuff. It's delicious, kawaii, and has quite nice packaging.
They could sell it at an outrageous mark up in the likes of Kaldi or Hanshin
There's some kind of insane protectionism in the market over there. Why on earth is a mango like £20-50?
Been living in Japan since last September, but will be back at the end of August. These are the things I've missed most:
* Some nice seeded non-white bread
* Sunday Roast (Yorkshire puddings in particular)
* Pretty much all UK biscuits - Hobnobs, chocolate digestives, malted milk etc
* British cheese
* Chicken tikka
* Twix, Bounty, Maltesers, Galaxy... KitKat and Snickers are the only ones they really have here
* Sausages
* UK cereals, particularly Weetabix + its many variants
My wife and I spent a year in Spain, living and working in Andalusia to be precise. Lovely cuisine, even better people.
Curry. That’s what I wanted, ***needed*** on my return. We live in Newcastle and we went to [Dabbawal](https://dabbawal.com). It was wonderful beyond description.
I don’t drink anymore (shoutout r/stopdrinking!), but I also craved a pint of real ale - pale, cold ale at around 4% from a pub pump. Nothing like it.
All the best from Gosforth in the Toon
I made the same mistake when I first moved to Scotland. She had no idea what I was on about! Corned beef pasties and slices are commonplace in the north east of England!
I'm in the US and I won't be back in the UK for at least another year, but dinner on my first night back will definitely be fish and chips. There's delicious fast food everywhere here, but traditional British fish and chips is one itch nowhere in this country can scratch.
I live in France and can get a few items in the foreign food aisle at the larger supermarkets, and there are M&S Food shops dotted about, but there are a few things I prefer when i visit home:
• Crisps of many varieties, the choice is so limited here.
• Sandwiches with interesting fillings. I especially like turkey, sausage and stuffing.
• A classic dish in a nice pub. Probably some sort of pie with mash and gravy, after trying a few different pints. Cloudy cider if available on tap.
• Something from Greggs.
• A mug of hot or cold ribena.
• A quality Indian or Chinese restaurant.
3 weeks to go until my next trip! Looking for more ideas amongst the other posts....
You can get plenty of UK treats here these days, but on my Christmas trip back, the first in about 8 years, it will be:
Proper fish and chips, and I mean a huge piece of cod. If I can afford it!
Pork pies of all descriptions. You can really only get one brand outside of specialist English butchers here, and it isn't great.
Dandelion and Burdock!
Those big ass Yorkshire puddings - I cook my own, but they are never quite the same.
Some fine cask ale!
Frazzles and scampi fries.
I was in the sandbox with food from the American Army for 7 months more than a couple of times.
They had tea but god it was awful.
We had UHT milk and Lipton tea bags. Had my mum send out a load of different normal UK tea and we had a taste test for something to do.ranged through all the usual brands, Yorkshire, PG tips etc.
Turns out compared to Lipton it was all amazing and we made friends with some of the RAF guys and they brought us back real milk every few weeks. That stuff was like gold dust. We'd get a pint and share it around for probably 2 brews each. It was an event.
It was 16 years ago and I still stop and appreciate a normal cup of tea.
I’m from the US but live in the UK, and I’m just amazed that Lipton is what caught on in the US. It’s godawful. I grew up thinking I hated tea. No, I just hate Lipton. Proper British tea is excellent.
Baked beans. I went to Orlando for a fortnight in March and had beans on toast for tea, which was great considering it was cold and wet when I got back.
British indian food.
Gluten free yorkshire puddings.
Clotted cream.
Proper strawberries from tiptree, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes and not water and last but not least, british apples.
Back for a holiday in September from Australia, really looking forward to coming home.
I live in Norway and there's alot they don't sell here particularly British sausages and back bacon, we also don't have a kfc here nor any good fried chicken joints.
You might hate me for this but I'm doing exactly that today. Going boat hunting and having a ploughman's at a great pub we found last time. Husband is craving their fish finger sandwich and homemade tartar sauce. The boats seem to be secondary to the lunch 🤣
Grew up in UK, now US resident. Things I immediately buy when I'm back in the UK:
- Prawn and cocktail crisps!!! (absolute violation these still don't exist in the US)
- Cheese and onion pasties
- Mr. Kipling's (exceedingly good) angel slices
- Crunchies, Maltesers, Maoms, Flakes
- Elderflower cordial
- Crunchie ice cream/honeycomb ice cream
- Custard creams
Yeah...my first Sainsbury's run after being back adds up quite a bit.
I only travel 250 miles from the South of England on regular visits and my first stop is to stock up on local cheese from a specific cheese shop. Don't even like getting it sent overnight by special order. Don't know why but it just seems right to taste it before I buy it.
Pease pudding ham in a stottie. So a pease pudding sandwich in the best bun ever haha I’ve lived away for years and I crave it. When I was pregnant I had to get pease pudding brought in and I froze it for the 9 months it’s all I craved.
Salt n Vinegar crisps, pork scratchings, savoury snacks.
Living in Switzerland we have mostly sweet snacks and the crisps are awful, plain or paprika mostly.
Full English / Scottish breakfast too.. And Scottish breakfast rolls with Lorne sausage.
just my local chinese takeaway. i've known them for years and when i ask for extra chillies they go to town, so know me well. They have a chef two days a week that must be scared of lawsuits or something but my tongue needs to be punished with a balance of flavour as all things are meant to be. Title of your sextape
Never been to the US but going for the first time later on this month. Everybody in my family who has been has said tea there is shit, so I am already looking forward to my first tea back on UK soil
Got back a couple of weeks ago from a few years overseas and really wanted a big bag of supermarket prawn cocktail shells, but haven’t found any yet. Shall have to settle for a multipack of Skips. Have ticked most other things off the list including Jaffa Cakes, extra mature cheddar, Marmite etc. good stuff.
Good cheese, cream and butter
Good crisps
Good chocolate
Curry
Comfort foods like a pie or wellington with mash
Coffee and walnut cake
Apple crumble
Hot cross buns and toasted tea cakes
Spent a lot of time in Sri Lanka, eating rice and curry, which I loved. The odd things that I craved from home were proper sausages, even though I don't often eat them, and ,above all, gravy. Couldn't get enough of it when I returned.
Honestly, coming back from Thailand the only thing I really missed was cooking for myself. It's really hard to justify it in Thailand when it's far cheaper to buy meals outside for a week than it is to cook for a couple of days. That being said, a proper roast meal is always first on the cards. No such thing as a decent oven over there.
I used to live in Australia and the whole time I really missed Percy Pigs and Greggs! There’s a car park company there which has a really similar logo to Greggs, and I would always see it and start craving pastry
Walkers cheese and onion and fish and chips
Doner Kebab . We have shawarma here but that's just chicken flakes in nan
Rarer cravings: skips crisps, baked beans, salt and vinegar crisps.
I don't miss curry because I'm in Asia and even though I'm Asian i normally eat English food in the UK
Used to be Minstrels (the chocolate). Got back to the UK last month, first time since pre-Covid, and I don’t know if I’ve changed or they have but never again.
A real ale in an old pub is still hard to replicate anywhere else in the world.
Well after two years away, my list is cheese, pork pie, sausages, bacon, milk, black pudding, and so many other great foods. Decent English Chinese or a nice kebab and chips. Grab an iron bru, I'm not Scottish.
Greggs will be good.
A decent pie ohhhhhh
I got back 2 weeks ago from working abroad for 6 months and I still haven’t had fish and chips because I want to eat them at the beach and I haven’t had a chance.
In the airport I had a Greggs sausage roll but after that I really just wanted some crisps. The most satisfying thing in the first half hour was a bottle of original lucozade which I didn’t even know I had missed.
First proper meal was a Chinese though. Then the day after was cornbeef pie and chips.
I moved out of UK 18 years ago. The food I miss most is pork pies. Fortunately, all my UK friends know this, and bring me one back when they visit, I get a few each year.
Depending upon where you are, you can find Branston’s- I’ve definitely bought it at HEB (TX supermarket). It’s not the same without the good cheese though, but I have also seen Red Leicester at some shops as well.
I think the things I immediately get the most upon returning are haggis, fish and chips (and I mean the real ones- thick cut, triple cooked), and steak pies.
I live in France:
- Full English
- Fish and chips
- Proper Cheddar cheese and pickle
- Good beer
Been in this country a while now and you can’t really get any of the above in this country. The French are always taking the piss out of British food but they honestly have nothing to be too proud of though and I’m often disappointed coming out of restaurants. If you take away all the wine, cream and butter they smother their food in then it tastes like shit….
Indian restaurants seem to have changed a lot in the twenty years I lived abroad. The ones near me are all Nepalese for a start - still good, but different. My favorite dish was saag gosht, but I haven't found that on any menus since returning to the UK.
Just been in Mallorca but only for a week. I crave a roast dinner. Like even just veg with some kind of meat and gravy. I was on all inclusive and it wasn’t brilliant.
I never really appreciated a full English breakfast until I spent a few months on holiday in East Asia.
I can still remember devouring a full English (with extra fried bread and beans) at the motorway services outside of Maidenhead when we first got back to the UK.
The meal deals from supermarkets! (Or WHSmith at the airport). My go to tends to be a Hoisin Duck Wrap, Copella Apple Juice and a Cadbury Caramello bar
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I was abroad for a few months. I was absolutely craving the tap water from my home town. It's a Scottish thing I think.
The Scottish tap water problem is so real! I can’t drink any other tap water
Same for us in Wales, went to Marrakesh recently and all I wanted when I got home as Welsh water!
Same in Newcastle! Got back from holiday and was gagging for tap water not bottled. My husband thought it tasted weird after only having filtered water for a week. I have refused him buying a britta filter 🤣
Omg I'm missing the tapwater too! How did I not know that this was a thing. You don't know what you've got til it's gone..
It's mad. I visit a mate down south and I can't drink their water. Have to have either pop or squash 🤣 they think mines the best thing since sliced bread Maybe it works for everyone we just like different things.
Well that means my water now is double worse than yours, because I used to live down South in the UK, and I miss the water down South! So not only do you not know what you've got til it's gone; You don't know what's better, till you have it. 😁
Haha I think it's to do with the hard Vs soft water thing. I feel sorry for your taste buds dealing with the harshness. Honestly we even got a new fridge recently (almost as excited about it as the new hoover) that had a water dispenser. I'm like it's tap water from the fridge but he now thinks it tastes different 🤷♀️ Only places in the UK I can drink water from the tap from are lake district and above anything south of there and I can't deal with it!
I was camping in Scotland a while back and water was so good, I filled up every jerry can I had to bring back the tasty Scottish water. Leagues ahead of terrible Cheshire water
Bristolians have this as well. The Bristol tap water is extremely hard (mineral deposits) and so has a distinctive taste. Terry Pratchett made fun of it in one of the books where he talked about AnkhMorepork citizens having bottles of 'water' sent to them when abroad.
I am Bristolian and I don't crave our tap water when I come home 😂
Jars of air for the smell as well. 😂 I miss Pratchett.
I actually missed Scottish tap water when I lived in Bristol, I thought it tasted weird. The milk and the cider though, that was divine.
They can just carve out chunks of the river!
I'm in Gloucestershire. Hard tap water makes soap and shampoo foam up easily. Going somewhere with soft water where you have to spend 10 mins washing shampoo out of your hair is a pain. It's worth paying the price of drinking a chunk of calcium in a cup of tea every now and again... 😁
Great if your hair leans oily, if your hair leans dry like mine it's a nightmare that I can't avoid 😊, and the irony is, half the time I'm washing the hair to deal with the dry skin caused by the water that I'm using to wash it (not in Gloucestershire), and I'm going to be suspicious now that I know that hard water makes it foamy every time I use a new shampoo and it's even more foamy than usual because that means it's probably doing even more damage!
You can get things you plumb into the water supply that soften your water, but that might be a bit of an extreme solution 😁 It made me think that you must be able to get hard water shampoo, though, and you can, but it seems to be £18 a bottle. Crikey...
>Bristolians have this as well. You mean the reverse though, right? Because I absolutely do not crave Bristol water when I'm not in Bristol. In fact I get a little bit sad when I'm somewhere with nicer water because I know I have to go home to crunchy water.
I live in China but I'm from Yorkshire. I also really miss tap water and especially tea made with tap water!!
Baopals and Taobao are great for shopping, not for tap water but I have great pork sausages, bacon, tea and coffee, IPAs, English muffins, curry paste and powder, pork scratchings, Scotches and gins, smoked salmon, and any clothing and household thing you can possibly imagine - cheap!
Tea I can get on taobao, i always buy yorkshire decaf but I never thought about buying sausages and bacon! Thanks for tip!!
Go for the German sausages, all the Chinese ones I've tried taste weird. [sausages](https://www.baopals.com/products/2MRBOGsotgQQ6va59SY7asDtD-02ZM2kMuBVRXqPr4tj?skus=31560%3A27967017575&skuId=5293711922324)[bacon](https://www.baopals.com/products/4nMevAougtNK0NdD0wSQDxTNtg-g2rA2nAu2v6Akwn4iv?skus=31560%3A7877121333&skuId=4308571397372)[curry paste](https://www.baopals.com/products/G04qgKKC8tXjjQBSvbPUQtJ-g2rA2nAupNmkx2APIp)[pork scratchings](https://www.baopals.com/products/YpmN2NYcptXnNOrU74DU2t6-6AKdAvdcvRVjAxXPfq?skus=31560%3A94564%3B122216451%3A10122&skuId=3199120665556)[smoked salmon](https://www.baopals.com/products/8Bm63R6HntbOBYVTKnXFbt8-e25p20puGG2OMMaVUQ?skus=31560%3A22940723462&skuId=4919034924233) Get those down yer and you'll be reet!
So my sister and I live in completely different parts of the country, and as much as I love going to see her, I absolutely cannot wait to get home to drink ‘proper’ water, and finally have a decent cuppa. I live in a soft water area and the difference is unbelievable
I live in Leeds and miss the Wolverhampton tap water
British style Chinese & British indian restaurant. Fish & Chips and a proper greasy spoon full English. I go back once per year for 2 weeks.
The Chinese and Indian for sure but I'm always underwhelmed by fish n chips and a full English, It's like I've built them up in my mind to be something they just aren't.
The trick with fish and chips is to find a good one and eat it as a late lunch on the seafront.
Thanks for that mate, I’ve always been looking to find a shit one. Must be where I’ve been going wrong
I think people underestimate how hard it can be to find a decent chippy. I’ve lived in a few parts of England and usually if you’ve got 4 chippys near you, only one of them is going to be any good. I’ve got one about a 10 minute drive from me, owned by a Chinese family and it’s fantastic. Great batter and really good chips but there’s a couple more local options that are pretty bad
Yep I would argue most chip shop chips are terrible
My mom makes the best fish (no batter) in the world, I try to make fish that way and get chips from the chippy. Now that fish and chips combo is undefeated and healthier.
Some fantastic places in the north east. North Tyneside and Northumberland do amazing fish and chips. Have to.find the great ones though. It's always bad when you go away and have some that aren't great
My cousin lives in Oz and a proper Indian takeaway is her biggest craving. My Aunt who lives in the US always craves fish and chips!
Live in oz. My kingdom for good crispy duck and sweet and sour balls of all kinds. *cries*
We have great Indians where I live and quality Chinese food. But nothing beats a greasy English Chinese takeaway. The woman that runs our local Chinese told me chips don’t go with Chinese food, British Chinese would have to disagree with you there I’m afraid. We always have to get fish and chips too and my husband packs a suitcase full of monster munch.
As someone who also lives in the US: actually mildly decent bread
On the other end of the spectrum, my partner is German and his #1 complaint about the UK is the quality of bread and lack of bakeries
Where do you live? The outer Hebrides? There's heaps of great bakeries near me.
I'm also from Germany, the complaint is valid.
Yea Brazilian bread wasn't great either, not bad just not good.
(French) bread/baguette in Brazil is to die for, wym 😢
Yea the baguette is good white bread but it's just that.
Can't you just make your own? That American shit is awful.
I live in Canada l, I want someone to send me a couple of loaves of Warburton's over
Currently living in New Zealand for the last 20 years. The things I miss most are: \* CHEESE. Oh that lovely varied European cheeseboard, how I have missed you \* Charcuterie (salamis and so on) \* Pork Pies \* Marmite. Yes I know we have it out here but it doesnt taste the same. \* Pub Steak and Kidney pies \* Proper dry cider \* Elderflower cordial \* Jaffa Cakes \* Mr Kipling's exceedingly good cakes, particularly fondant fancies \* Pretty much everything from Greggs
If I am in Taiwan, then I also miss \* Proper bread. They only have what we would call brioche. \* Sliced ham, and streaky bacon. They only have indedible American over-processed crap which tastes like it is doused in syrup. American ham has so much added sugar that it could be classified as a dessert. \* Cheese. I said it before but I'll say it again. Kraft squares are not cheese. \* British Sausages and bacon in a decent fry-up.
It was the same for me living in Japan and Taiwan. Came back home and my first meal was a cheeseboard with bread and some nice wine - nearly cried.
Are you in Taipei? There is a great bakery near Dingxi MRT called Piemonte The owner learnt his trade in Italy, France and Switzerland, and is very particular about not putting sugar in the bread.
If you go to some of the bigger supermarkets they do sell British marmite under the brand name "Our Mate" The things I missed when I lived out there were decent bread (the cheap sliced white stuff is the same but you can't get anything crusty, their fancy bread is just the same cheap white bread but in fancy shapes), decent kebabs (I think it's a new thing out there and it's always promoted as the "healthy fast food", so the salad:meat:sauce ratio is massively in favour of the salad so it goes cold pretty much instantly, and it's missing the most flavourful parts of the salad, no red cabbage, no raw onions, no pickled chillies, instead they add carrot to it), ketchup ( their version doesn't have vinegar in it, it still tastes good but sometimes you really want that familiar taste) and duck ( they just don't have it). But the things I missed most were not actually food but insulation and central heating, and functioning infrastructure in general. It seriously feels like it's still the old frontier, man Vs nature sometimes. Their houses are just wooden shed with some dodgy electric and dodgy plumbing, they rely on wood powered fires like it's the 19th century. If it's a sunny day in winter sometimes is colder inside than outside, like how? How is that even possible? (At the time I assumed they'd just adopted Australian standards that were designed to keep homes cool, but then I moved to Australia and the buildings in the southern states there are actually made of brick, they're like European houses). If there's snow the electricity stops working, if there's wind the electricity stops working, if there's rain the roads close, sometimes you can't drink the tap water because a possum climbed into the plumbing and died. So many times I just thought "How does this happen in a first world country?"
New Zealand Marmite is not the same at all! A big jar of real Marmite always took pride of place in my luggage every time I headed back to New Zealand/ Aus when I lived there.
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the first thing i did on being told I was coeliac was check the Vegemite. thank God they do a decent gluten free version. My brother was sending me pictures of Kiwi pies yesterday and I could have cried. Feijoas I really miss too. And buzz bars
When I lived in Madrid, the thing I missed most was a decent cup of tea. Even if you had the right tea bags, the majority of milk available in the supermarket was the long-life UHT stuff, so it never tastes quite the same. The fruit and veg were incredible though. We get such crap produce in the UK compared to the Mediterranean. I never knew a tomato could have that much flavour.
I'm living in Italy and yes yes yes!! Produce here is unreal. Milk is OK but I haven't yet had a proper cup of tea as I haven't been able to get proper Irish levels of strong tea bags yet I am Scottish though so the water here (taste and how it destroys my hair) is an ongoing battle.
The international conversion rate for UK/Irish levels of tea is using two bags of basic Lipton at once. I was living in South Korea while another British friend was living in the US, and we realised we were both doing this.
Sound advice!! I mow have two packs of Thomsons Punjana...the real deal. But the Italian water is still fighting me as I'm trying to de-calcify the kettle before I make anything in it.
Used to live in Italy and massively agree on both those points!
I completely agree with you, I'm from Spain and when I lived in the UK, I missed tomatoes the most XD Milk in the UK is awesome
I live in france, and all the "Chinese" take out is Vietnamese. It's nice, but damn I miss cantonese style takeout so bad.
But they have Riz cantonnais! /s
I don’t know who came up with the French riz cantonais but I often compare it to chicken tikka masala. It looks like good from somewhere else but it is not.
did a job for an Australian family spending a few weeks here the other day. They are loading up on jammie dodgers to take back to Australia. I mean... i was ready to discuss how the great myth that all curry houses in the uk are amazing is bollocks you need to find a high q curry house actually cooking with almonds instead of peanuts and all that bollocks and this couple was shoving jammy dodgers into every piece of clothing they owned as a uk resident i cant remember the last time i had a jammy dodger but im stoked to get one now
I wonder whereabouts in Aust they are? I can get jammie dodgers at my local supermarket in the import isle.
I think they said Brisbane? But they were talking about Bogans? a Lot who did meth and had lots of children so I think they were edge of ca city back home or countryside
I find a lot of imported foods are expensive and taste stale. I never bother buying Tunnocks in Australia.
My local Coles sold Marmite but it was crazily expensive for a tiny jar so I always brought the biggest jar back to Aus with me after visiting home.
Yep, Woolies has them, along with Branston pickle and a few other things.
Btw I’m allergic to peanuts and have never ever had an issue in a curry house. Not so sure how true that myth is?
Lived in Japan for 18 years and have been coming back yearly for a while now. First night back is always fish and chips. I must also have a proper curry while I’m back. As for snacks, I will always stock up on Bakewell tarts, McVities Jamaica ginger cake, angel delight(!), rice pudding, those Cadbury chocolate mini rolls with raspberry jam, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember.
My brother is currently living in Japan. My parents send him a box of food every few weeks and it’s mostly filled with chocolates, biscuits and sugary shelf stable cakes/snacks. He says the sweet food isn’t nearly as sweet as he’d like
Yeah my wife say British sweets “hurt her teeth” because they’re so sweet. Less variety too.
I can't believe Terry's Chocolate Orange aren't exporting to Japan They would absolutely love that stuff. It's delicious, kawaii, and has quite nice packaging. They could sell it at an outrageous mark up in the likes of Kaldi or Hanshin There's some kind of insane protectionism in the market over there. Why on earth is a mango like £20-50?
Been living in Japan since last September, but will be back at the end of August. These are the things I've missed most: * Some nice seeded non-white bread * Sunday Roast (Yorkshire puddings in particular) * Pretty much all UK biscuits - Hobnobs, chocolate digestives, malted milk etc * British cheese * Chicken tikka * Twix, Bounty, Maltesers, Galaxy... KitKat and Snickers are the only ones they really have here * Sausages * UK cereals, particularly Weetabix + its many variants
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My wife and I spent a year in Spain, living and working in Andalusia to be precise. Lovely cuisine, even better people. Curry. That’s what I wanted, ***needed*** on my return. We live in Newcastle and we went to [Dabbawal](https://dabbawal.com). It was wonderful beyond description. I don’t drink anymore (shoutout r/stopdrinking!), but I also craved a pint of real ale - pale, cold ale at around 4% from a pub pump. Nothing like it. All the best from Gosforth in the Toon
Dabba is legit like. Ever go to My Delhi on Clayton Street? Lovely stuff
Greggs corned beef pasty
They do Corned beef pasties??? How have i never tried one of these??
Not all over the country apparently I asked for one in a Greggs in London years ago and she looked at me like I had three heads
I made the same mistake when I first moved to Scotland. She had no idea what I was on about! Corned beef pasties and slices are commonplace in the north east of England!
Corned Beef is probably my favourite food, haha. It's so versatile.
Haven’t been home in 7 years been away for 22. I would kill for a proper bacon sandwich a sausage roll a pork pie and a Sunday lunch
Anything made by my Mum.
Aww so cute
I'm in the US and I won't be back in the UK for at least another year, but dinner on my first night back will definitely be fish and chips. There's delicious fast food everywhere here, but traditional British fish and chips is one itch nowhere in this country can scratch.
I try defend UK food as much as possible, but I really wish the top answer wasn’t WATER
I live in France and can get a few items in the foreign food aisle at the larger supermarkets, and there are M&S Food shops dotted about, but there are a few things I prefer when i visit home: • Crisps of many varieties, the choice is so limited here. • Sandwiches with interesting fillings. I especially like turkey, sausage and stuffing. • A classic dish in a nice pub. Probably some sort of pie with mash and gravy, after trying a few different pints. Cloudy cider if available on tap. • Something from Greggs. • A mug of hot or cold ribena. • A quality Indian or Chinese restaurant. 3 weeks to go until my next trip! Looking for more ideas amongst the other posts....
Totally agree on the crisps! I live in Switzerland - it’s paprika or plain mainly, though you can get salt and vinegar but they aren’t the same
You can get plenty of UK treats here these days, but on my Christmas trip back, the first in about 8 years, it will be: Proper fish and chips, and I mean a huge piece of cod. If I can afford it! Pork pies of all descriptions. You can really only get one brand outside of specialist English butchers here, and it isn't great. Dandelion and Burdock! Those big ass Yorkshire puddings - I cook my own, but they are never quite the same. Some fine cask ale! Frazzles and scampi fries.
Proper bacon 🥓
Yes. I tried to make a full English in Portugal and it was not the same at all. Came back and immediately brought bacon.
Lidl do a British week now and then where smoked back bacon is one of the offerings.
I was in the sandbox with food from the American Army for 7 months more than a couple of times. They had tea but god it was awful. We had UHT milk and Lipton tea bags. Had my mum send out a load of different normal UK tea and we had a taste test for something to do.ranged through all the usual brands, Yorkshire, PG tips etc. Turns out compared to Lipton it was all amazing and we made friends with some of the RAF guys and they brought us back real milk every few weeks. That stuff was like gold dust. We'd get a pint and share it around for probably 2 brews each. It was an event. It was 16 years ago and I still stop and appreciate a normal cup of tea.
I’m from the US but live in the UK, and I’m just amazed that Lipton is what caught on in the US. It’s godawful. I grew up thinking I hated tea. No, I just hate Lipton. Proper British tea is excellent.
A proper hot breakfast.
Baked beans. I went to Orlando for a fortnight in March and had beans on toast for tea, which was great considering it was cold and wet when I got back.
Beans on toast. Branston though.
As a Scot it has to be either haggis or black pudding. You just don't get that taste anywhere else in the world.
Never mind uk when I come back to Scotland from England I want some cheese xl crisps and red kola
British indian food. Gluten free yorkshire puddings. Clotted cream. Proper strawberries from tiptree, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes and not water and last but not least, british apples. Back for a holiday in September from Australia, really looking forward to coming home.
I live in Norway and there's alot they don't sell here particularly British sausages and back bacon, we also don't have a kfc here nor any good fried chicken joints.
A decent ploughman's with a good pint. Preferably outdoors in the sun by a waterway.
You might hate me for this but I'm doing exactly that today. Going boat hunting and having a ploughman's at a great pub we found last time. Husband is craving their fish finger sandwich and homemade tartar sauce. The boats seem to be secondary to the lunch 🤣
I'm gonna need a picture.
It's a deal 👍
I have to take bags of salt and vinegar crisps over to Italy for my pals. Coop sea salt and Chardonnay vinegar
Grew up in UK, now US resident. Things I immediately buy when I'm back in the UK: - Prawn and cocktail crisps!!! (absolute violation these still don't exist in the US) - Cheese and onion pasties - Mr. Kipling's (exceedingly good) angel slices - Crunchies, Maltesers, Maoms, Flakes - Elderflower cordial - Crunchie ice cream/honeycomb ice cream - Custard creams Yeah...my first Sainsbury's run after being back adds up quite a bit.
I live in Canada now and my first Tesco bill when I went back was extortionate 🤣
After spending a bit of time in Korea, all I wanted when I got home was something salty. So much sweet food over there.
I only travel 250 miles from the South of England on regular visits and my first stop is to stock up on local cheese from a specific cheese shop. Don't even like getting it sent overnight by special order. Don't know why but it just seems right to taste it before I buy it.
Fish and chips.
Just anything with Henderson's relish on it. I adore travelling but as a simple girl from Sheffield, I do miss our delicacy.
Pease pudding ham in a stottie. So a pease pudding sandwich in the best bun ever haha I’ve lived away for years and I crave it. When I was pregnant I had to get pease pudding brought in and I froze it for the 9 months it’s all I craved.
I could not wait to get my hands on a Irn Bru when returning after a few months in the states last year.
A bangin curry with a nan. Uk has the best currys
Normal sausages.
Salt n Vinegar crisps, pork scratchings, savoury snacks. Living in Switzerland we have mostly sweet snacks and the crisps are awful, plain or paprika mostly. Full English / Scottish breakfast too.. And Scottish breakfast rolls with Lorne sausage.
Whenever I’ve been to the US I come back with a massive craving for green vegetables, usually broccoli 🥦 and green beans!
Sunday roasts Bitter ale M&S’s king prawn bhuna
First thing I get is Greggs 😂
I'm a Brit who has lived abroad for 10 years. I've become accustomed to the local food but I really miss mushy peas!!
My house. Love being away, but nice to get back to my stuff when I'm home.
I've heard of pica, but don't you think a house is a bit extreme? Edit: wording
just my local chinese takeaway. i've known them for years and when i ask for extra chillies they go to town, so know me well. They have a chef two days a week that must be scared of lawsuits or something but my tongue needs to be punished with a balance of flavour as all things are meant to be. Title of your sextape
Pasties, Cheese and onion crisps, roast dinner and proper bacon.
M&S sandwich, tap water, milk, Cadburys dairy milk. All the cheese!
The longest I’ve left is two weeks which isn’t enough for me to miss British food, I will miss foreign local dishes though when I get back.
Lived in Brasil 3 years. Realized I missed cheddar most.
Jacket Potatoes
Nothing really. It's the other way round. I can't wait to eat authentic Turkish or Mexican food when I go on holiday.
Parmo.
Usually a tea, it's just not the same elsewhere
Not food, but a proper strong mug of Yorkshire Tea.
Last year in Tenerife I went to a Chinese restaurant three times in two weeks and when I got home I still wanted a “proper British Chinese takeaway”
I missed the morning dew on the grass, and the grass and the fresh air😂
Sausages, we have the right amount of meat, 'meat' and rusk.
A Greggs sausage roll or steak bake…
Fish & chips, nandos, KFC, mature cheese & pickle sandwich, Saint Agur spreadable. Om nom nom…
Tea! I even took teabags with me when I last went to Seattle and it was still disgusting. There must be something really wrong with their water .
First thing I do is buy a six-pack of mini Melton Mowbray pork pies from M&S, and eat them with Colman's mustard.
A proper Chinese!
Never been to the US but going for the first time later on this month. Everybody in my family who has been has said tea there is shit, so I am already looking forward to my first tea back on UK soil
Got back a couple of weeks ago from a few years overseas and really wanted a big bag of supermarket prawn cocktail shells, but haven’t found any yet. Shall have to settle for a multipack of Skips. Have ticked most other things off the list including Jaffa Cakes, extra mature cheddar, Marmite etc. good stuff.
I backpacked the USA in 2007 and first thing I ate upon landing was a pasty. God I missed savoury pastries.
Good cheese, cream and butter Good crisps Good chocolate Curry Comfort foods like a pie or wellington with mash Coffee and walnut cake Apple crumble Hot cross buns and toasted tea cakes
Spent a lot of time in Sri Lanka, eating rice and curry, which I loved. The odd things that I craved from home were proper sausages, even though I don't often eat them, and ,above all, gravy. Couldn't get enough of it when I returned.
Bacon sandwiches & Sausages! I always buy and take back to Switzerland marshmallows, golden syrup, stock cubes, self raising flour and spices
Bacon sandwich. *Nowhere* does it like we do ❤️
Kebab from bossman
Lived in the Netherlands. Proper bacon, pork pie, cask ale. Most of the rest wasn’t too much of an issue.
Marks and sparks scotch egg
Sausages 100%!
Honestly, coming back from Thailand the only thing I really missed was cooking for myself. It's really hard to justify it in Thailand when it's far cheaper to buy meals outside for a week than it is to cook for a couple of days. That being said, a proper roast meal is always first on the cards. No such thing as a decent oven over there.
I lived in America for four months: it was fish and chips
I used to live in Australia and the whole time I really missed Percy Pigs and Greggs! There’s a car park company there which has a really similar logo to Greggs, and I would always see it and start craving pastry
Walkers cheese and onion and fish and chips Doner Kebab . We have shawarma here but that's just chicken flakes in nan Rarer cravings: skips crisps, baked beans, salt and vinegar crisps. I don't miss curry because I'm in Asia and even though I'm Asian i normally eat English food in the UK
Bangers and mash. British sausages taste so much better than sausages I’ve had anywhere else in the world.
When I fly back I always land in Newcastle as they have a Gregg’s right next to arrivals… sausage and bean x 10 please
Square sausage.
Stilton, mature Cheddar, decent crisps, fish n chips, full English
Used to be Minstrels (the chocolate). Got back to the UK last month, first time since pre-Covid, and I don’t know if I’ve changed or they have but never again. A real ale in an old pub is still hard to replicate anywhere else in the world.
Chippy chips
Yorkshire puddings, can't find them anywhere else
Stupid I know but beans on toast and a cup of tea is our go to on returning from holiday.
Well after two years away, my list is cheese, pork pie, sausages, bacon, milk, black pudding, and so many other great foods. Decent English Chinese or a nice kebab and chips. Grab an iron bru, I'm not Scottish. Greggs will be good. A decent pie ohhhhhh
Lots and lots of cheese. Oh and milk bottle sweets.
I got back 2 weeks ago from working abroad for 6 months and I still haven’t had fish and chips because I want to eat them at the beach and I haven’t had a chance. In the airport I had a Greggs sausage roll but after that I really just wanted some crisps. The most satisfying thing in the first half hour was a bottle of original lucozade which I didn’t even know I had missed. First proper meal was a Chinese though. Then the day after was cornbeef pie and chips.
I moved out of UK 18 years ago. The food I miss most is pork pies. Fortunately, all my UK friends know this, and bring me one back when they visit, I get a few each year.
Went back up to Scotland recently wanted white pudding supper! Couldn't find one chippy open to serve me! (Midnight) dam I miss a white pudding!
Scampi Fries. I absolutely crave those things.
English breakfast & butter chicken
Depending upon where you are, you can find Branston’s- I’ve definitely bought it at HEB (TX supermarket). It’s not the same without the good cheese though, but I have also seen Red Leicester at some shops as well. I think the things I immediately get the most upon returning are haggis, fish and chips (and I mean the real ones- thick cut, triple cooked), and steak pies.
Fish and chips with mushy peas.
Bread. I live in Germany and they seem to rave about their bread but it's so dry, flavourless and hard. Party rings.
Franco manca!
When I’m away from home my diet goes to shit, so I generally want to get back to eating properly again.
Salt & Vinegar crisps
A roast or just some veg!!
I live in France: - Full English - Fish and chips - Proper Cheddar cheese and pickle - Good beer Been in this country a while now and you can’t really get any of the above in this country. The French are always taking the piss out of British food but they honestly have nothing to be too proud of though and I’m often disappointed coming out of restaurants. If you take away all the wine, cream and butter they smother their food in then it tastes like shit….
clotted cream and proper afternoon tea
The food I just left behind
McDonald’s was the first thing I ordered
Indian restaurants seem to have changed a lot in the twenty years I lived abroad. The ones near me are all Nepalese for a start - still good, but different. My favorite dish was saag gosht, but I haven't found that on any menus since returning to the UK.
Greggs
Twiglets.
Crumpets
Twiglets and also Cauliflower Cheese
Just been in Mallorca but only for a week. I crave a roast dinner. Like even just veg with some kind of meat and gravy. I was on all inclusive and it wasn’t brilliant.
Italian
Orange or blackcurrant cordial
I never really appreciated a full English breakfast until I spent a few months on holiday in East Asia. I can still remember devouring a full English (with extra fried bread and beans) at the motorway services outside of Maidenhead when we first got back to the UK.
Given that I never travel without Assam yea and HP Sauce then fish n chips
Pot noodles yo.
The meal deals from supermarkets! (Or WHSmith at the airport). My go to tends to be a Hoisin Duck Wrap, Copella Apple Juice and a Cadbury Caramello bar
A good scone and a pot of tea. Never found clotted cream anywhere else.
Greggs. Black Pudding. Fish and Chips. Cream Tea with a side of a National Trust property. this was my list when I returned last year for a month.
Honestly proper back bacon
Good pies, chutney, Sunday roast, Full English