Best food from America?

[Rosalisa]

Hoping MN can help me out here. DP is coming to the UK next week and wants to bring me some things.

Which treats and savoury things have you enjoyed the most or can you get most things here now?

(Actually I can't, I'm in the Highlands. It's a tiny Tesco)

Grape jelly? Kraft Macaroni and Cheese?
My mind has gone blank 😶

Thanks in advance.

If you bring over Melatonin to a country where it's prescription only, do you have to declare it / get into trouble?

The only thing I buy on import is coconut pecan frosting. Everything can be bought in the U.K. often for less and with fewer preservatives I be honest. Never liked American chocolate. I did buy 2 years worth of melatonin tablets though as can't be bought in U.K.!

Can I also point out that nearly all of your lists can be bought at Asda! They even have marshmallow fluff in Lidl at the moment. Bought craisins yesterday and maple syrup!

Lucky you!

• Some of the wonderful and different cake mixes and frostings available - whole aisles of cake mixes (and I speak as someone who bakes all my own cakes usually!)

• Huge cheap tubs of earplugs (useful with a snoring husband!)

• Naproxen (Aleve) and Advil and all sorts of interesting stuff you find in the drugstores.

• Sees Candies - probably the only decent American chocolates

• Another vote for Graham's Crackers - for making Key Lime Pie, cheesecakes and coconut pie

• Waffle mix

• Anything unique or different from Sephora - endless fascinating stuff although if your DP is bringing it, you would probably need to be specific after perusing the website!

Brachs jellybeans

Hershey’s hugs

Butterfingers

Kotex ultrathin if he’s not squeamish

We always bring mug cake mixes, perfect for a quick pudding in various flavours and pop tarts. Plus painkillers and melatonin, works well for jet lag and we've never had any issues bringing it home. We don't stockpile or bring silly amounts back!.

Just to note that See's are very regional so he may not be able to find them. Where exactly is he?

Dark mars bars. They might even have almond mars bars too, actually.

Where in the US is he? Wegman's have some amazing rugelach (Jewish pastry) which it tasty.

Can I also point out that nearly all of your lists can be bought at Asda! They even have marshmallow fluff in Lidl at the moment. Bought craisins yesterday and maple syrup!

The OP is in rural Scotland, so not quite the same as any city, where almost all the above bar the prescription only melatonin/naproxen can be bought in regular supermarkets.

Maple Syrup is quite odd, can get both A and B grade nearly everywhere surely? It's not cheap, but it's not hugely cheaper in the US either, unless you're getting maple flavoured syrup...

Seasoned Salt is just "season all" or similar in the regular UK herb and spice section - although obviously specific brands might have different ratios of stuff so you could prefer others.

I don't bring back groceries but a suitcase full of stuff from CVS or Walgreens. Giant bottles of paracetamol, melatonin tablets, rinitadine that comes in 150mg, huge packs of hay fever tablets.

I am like a walking pharmacy, my family out there like me to take over coldsore cream of all things.

I was going to say 'nothing' until I saw someone posted Krackel. I love a box of those.

@HeartsTrumpDiamonds the
Hospital I work in. (East Midlands) bizarrely had the only Tim Horton's franchise in the country. It was got rid of as it wasn't encouraging healthy eating!

Twang beer salt

I'm just out of the shower and, tho not a foodstuff, I can't recommend their deodorant Crystal sticks too much. Hypoallergenic,fragrance and paraben free free and recommended by cancer treatment centres. and when they claim that a stick lasts a year - TRUE! CVS Pharmacies sell them - also the place where I bought the cheapest Marlboro in town
Funny old world,innit?

spice mixes - creole, Cajun, mesquite, southwest - yay!

Trader Joes birthday cake popcorn 🤤

Hostess cupcakes, pillsbury chocolate cookie dough (a major food group at uni!), lucky charms cereal (easy to find down south but probably not near you).

What's with the melatonin and advil? What do you all use these for?

Maple Syrup is quite odd, can get both A and B grade nearly everywhere surely? It's not cheap, but it's not hugely cheaper in the US either, unless you're getting maple flavoured syrup...

You can get the huge plastic jugs of maple syrup vs the tiny glass bottles that seem to be the only size available in the UK.

A proper bottle of Tabasco, not the eye-drops size you get here.
(Tabasco is not eye-drops, kids, OK?)

A good steak sauce. (US posters please recommend)

Pretzel Chips, big ones.

What's with the melatonin and advil? What do you all use these for?

Melatonin is a hormone, it's prescribed in the UK for insomnia (and jet lag), some people find it very useful, others not at all, lots of countries, including the US, let you buy it OTC. In the UK bnf.nice.org.uk/drug/melatonin.html

Advil, is just ibuprofen, and whilst you can buy it in massive tubs, I cannot imagine why anyone would buy it over buying it in the UK, if you really need the convenience of a giant tub and not buying more than 2 packs in the UK, you're almost certainly taking way too much. It's not even cheaper in the US.

Aleve (Naproxen) is less available in the UK OTC and is more expensive here, so if you know it's a good thing for you, you might want to buy a little extra, but we're not talking huge savings.

You can get the huge plastic jugs of maple syrup vs the tiny glass bottles that seem to be the only size available in the UK.

Costco do the larger jugs here, but that's hardly any easier for lots of people, but that's quite a maple syrup habit, or a very large fridge space you're investing in it!

Painkillers are sold in small blister packs because this has been proven to deter some suicide attempts.

Good luck with your bucket of acetaminophen (paracetomol) at customs.

A1 is the classic steak sauce.

Garrett's Chicago mix cheddar and caramel popcorn! It's amazing. Jolly ranchers and Annie's anything are also requested in this house