Are there any foods that you wish were more popular where you are?

[TeaInThree]

I wish that garlic flavoured snacks were more popular in the UK. Everything seems to be chilli flavoured. I used to be able to get lovely garlic and herb cashews and other nuts but they've stopped selling them. It's frustrating when you aren't a chilli fan.

I also wish that I could get more seafood flavoured snacks without going to specialist stores and as I'm not a fan of dark chocolate I'd love to have more flavoured options for milk, but it's usually nuts, caramel, orange or sea salt. The more interesting flavours e.g florals seem to be reserved for dark chocolate.

Also, we can now easily buy many American sweets. I'd like to see the same happen with Australian and NZ sweets. They have some really nice gums and chocolate bars. I don't want much I know.

Is there anything that you'd like to see more of in the UK or wherever you live?

BlackPrism really? Are you a young Leeds girl? I'm 45 and it was a thing when I was a kid/teen.
Its tinned tomatoes, half mashed with an oxo cube in, I know that much, maybe other stuff, then a slice of bread, filled with said deliciousness, and more bread with rest of toms in a tray.

Bloody lush.

Maybe it's no longer a thing?

Well I'm a 45 YO Leeds born and bred and I've never heard of the tomato dip.

Not sure I fancy it anyway. If I wanted a cheapish filling snack while in town, I'd get something like a fishcake, and by that I mean I proper Yorkshire slices of potato with fish in the middle battered fishcake, none of that mash potato and breadcrumb nonsense.

Huss. Seems it's a South East/London thing, can't get it in the Midlands 😪

You can get tomato dip on your bacon and egg butties in Sheffield. It's still a thing Bastard!

Hooray!! Thanks HairyHands

Healthy stuff on takeaways. Indian dishes with lots of veggies in. Scottish curries are very different to English curries. Tapas or meze.

What's the difference between Scottish and English curries?

"What's the difference between Scottish and English curries?"

I would like to know as well. I used to live near Bradford and used to eat "Indian" food every week (really it was Bangladeshi or Pakistani food). Are the menus significantly different?

Are the Indian restaurants and takeaways in Scotland run mostly by Indians? I had a sensational curry in Glasgow many years ago. It was so good I even remember where we ate.

Scottish currie restaurants are most;y Bangladeshi. Tapas, did you eat in Mother India by any chance?

I too am curious as to what tatty means about the difference between English and Scottish curry houses?

I live between Leeds and Bradford and we have loads of Asian restaurants here, and I understand that the people who run them are mostly of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, but I'm not sure that the people who've come to the UK to run restaurants tailor their offering differently to England and Scotland?

There does seem to be distinct different types of restaurants though, maybe that's what she means?

In our area I can think of basic 'worker cafe' type places, that offered more authentic food mainly to people of Asian heritage, some of them didn't even offer cutlery in the past, all food was eaten mopped up with bread.

There's also the 'chicken tikka masala' type place that serves the fairly standard selection of bhajis, rice, naan breads, and chicken, meat or vegetable korma, masala, vindaloo, pasanda, dopiaza combinations. These come at a variety of price points and niceness, but the menu seems fairly standard.

Then there's the 'regional' Indian ones that claim to offer Gujerati or Keralan food - I don't know how authentic these are.

And the new kid on the block that's become a lot more commonplace over the last few years are the street food places, that don't sell 'curry' as such, but feature things like masala dosa, pau bhaji or vada pavs, served almost in a tapas format. These I like best, I'm not at all bothered about the 'meat in sauce' format.

We used to live in Pudsey Barbara. Our favourite curry haunts were the Aagrah in Shipley and Akbars on Leeds Rd. This was before they expanded and became chains.

Deliveroo or dominos to my door.
It's awful being in the ass end of nowhere where you're hungover and hangry...all attempts at cooking are too much effort.

I've found the scots curries are quite different from English ones, main difference being umpteen types of pakora available, spicier I think too scots seem to like the heat (I like it but can't eat it so have to be careful). Wider variety of rice dishes/accompaniments too. Just what I've noticed.

Ditto Chinese, slightly different menus, hotter curries, sweet n sour sauce on the spicier side, it's sweeter in England.

As I say I've also lived outside uk, dim of me but I didn't remember from first time living elsewhere in Europe as I was very young, but next couple times I was an adult and surprised to discover that in Indian, Chinese etc restaurants the menus and even dishes I thought I knew tasted different. Less heat but more flavour and much garlic (yum) I got talking to one restaurateur once and he explained to me that of course to get & keep the business they adapt to the palate of the country they're operating in (he'd worked in uk and Germany).

It was also interesting to note the different cuisines available as a result of different countries histories (in particular which other countries they'd colonised or traded with) so in Germany lots of Turkish and polish restaurants (veggie schoarma yum yum, good borscht and dumplings) in Netherlands Indonesian and Japanese food, and of course in uk Indian, Chinese, and if you're lucky in some parts of uk Kenyan, Nigerian, Egyptian and Jamaican food.

Ridiculous that it was only as part of that conversation I "got" that this was of course why USA more Mexican, Portuguese, Caribbean, Italian, Russian and French (via Canada) food, they don't have the same connections to Indian & Chinese cuisines.

Even seemingly familiar places like McDonald's have minor variations across the countries they serve.

Even at a really local level - guaranteed way to start a bun fight on my local Facebook pages is post

"What's the best Chinese takeaway in town?"

Seriously before it's even reached 10 posts it gets VERY heated! Partly local loyalties to certain parts of town, then the accusations of "snobs" and "neds" start flying around! Ends up with mods deleting - every bloody weekend!

Scots curries: (where I am anyway) mostly meat in sauce, a few lentils, lots of deep fried sides.
English curries: (grew up in the south east) lots more veggie options / veggies in the meat dishes, different sides. I really miss a good aloo gobi / Bombay aloo. Also a lot more variation between different restaurants, so I’m guessing the owners came from different regions, versus much more homogeneous offerings where I am now. I can see that Edinburgh or Glasgow would probably be different though.

Beanaseireann Have you tried Aldi coconut Greek yoghurt? I think it's even nicer than Rachel's

ColdTattyWaitingForSummer the curries you describe are what we generally get in South Yorkshire.

Onion vinegar at the chippie.

I am an EastEnders living in N Oxfordshire. Staff in chippies here look at you as if you have two heads when you ask for onion vinegar.

A proper Greek Giros / Gyros , with the soft doughy pita, onions, Tzikki, proper tasty tomato, hot pepper, wrapped in wax paper, juice pouring out...

Try being coeliac, about 80% of interesting snacks are off limits.

Being able to reliably grab something to eat whilst out and about would be great, I'm not too fussed what!

Butter pies, the North West food of the gods.

Oh and Manchester curry mile salad naan with mangonchutney. Not had one in 20 plus years.

When I was at a university you could buy chips and cheese with gravy in naan bread which was about the nicest thing I've ever eaten after a night out

Poutine.

Yes to onion vinegar, one of the reasons I make my own pickled onions is so I can use the vinegar on chips.

Patties, scraps, scallops and chip spice are nonexistent in the chip shops in my area.

Also there's a real lack of nice places to eat that aren't gastro pubs or chains. We have a decent Thai place but not even a good Italian of Greek restaurant.