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Original poster

If you've moved abroad, what do you miss?

76 replies

istoodonlegoagain · 20/12/2023 16:16

I'm currently on holiday in Southern Europe and I cannot find decent crisps 😭 I love meaty style ones, so roast chicken, beef and bacon etc. It all seems to be lightly salted or cheese at the most. I also seem to have misplaced my bag of earl grey tea bags that I brought with me, can't find them either. It made me think about people who move abroad and won't necessarily have access to things they're used to.
Disclaimer: Obviously there are much bigger things going on around the world, and I feel very grateful to be on holiday.

OP posts:
greenacrylicpaint · 24/12/2023 13:45

christmas at home - as the expectation is to travel 'home' to be with extended family.

RafaFan · 28/12/2023 20:01

British sense of humour.

Noseybookworm · 28/12/2023 20:20

When we've visited my brother in law in Florida, he always asks us to bring penguin biscuits, hula hoops and PG Tips 🤣

OffsideRule · 28/12/2023 20:22

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale Hardly surprising that they went under with the prices they charged.
I'm from Cologne originally and I popped in once to get my Scottish DH some treats. I walked out again empty handed.

meganorks · 28/12/2023 20:28

Lived in Australia for a while and we really missed sausages and bacon. Sausages are generally beef in Oz and they are just a bit weird to be honest. And they didn't have proper bacon either. We did find an English butcher who had some but it was quite a jaunt and really expensive. My DH is forever haunted by the morning he was hungover so we decided to get a maccys breakfast, only for him to realise the 'sausage and egg mcmuffin' was actually just a beefburger 😂

Cabella · 28/12/2023 20:38

@NovemberAutumn

Re; potato cakes, you can buy them in the bread aisles in Tesco & Sainsburys, Tesco sell the Sheldon ones, they are usually near the fruit teacakes and waffles.

Newchapterbeckons · 28/12/2023 20:41

I lived overseas for a decade. I missed Heinz tomato soup, proper chips soaked in salt and vinegar. A full roast on a winters day and the HUGE and unbelievable spectrum of choice in U.K. supermarkets. All perfectly laid out in lines and such order and beauty!

So used to tiny supermarkets with zero choice. A British supermarket is a day out in itself!!

I missed the constant changes in weather, wildlife and the seasons. The British birds, hedgehogs, foxes and deer.
National trust days out. Cosy fires and steamed windows. Kindly folk that will help anyone. Queues and order, common fairness and decency. Snow days. Christmas and the sheer beauty of a summers day in June.

Melassa · 28/12/2023 20:56

I’m in southern Europe and I’ve been abroad for ages so don’t really miss anything much nowadays. Except Marmite. I have to trawl a load of Chinese supermarkets or specialist grocery stores to find it and it now costs me almost €10 a jar! Before Brexit it just wasn’t that pricey.

I also miss the root veg, swede, parsnip, the different types of beets and “proper” potatoes.

I also sometimes miss Cheddar, the local cheeses aren’t quite so melty and with a strong flavour, which i prefer for some dishes. I end up buying it from British week at Lidl, which is not great quality but hey ho.

Indian pickles, PG tips tea, that dodgy Nestle sterilised cream from the 70s etc. can all be found in the local Chinese supermarkets, so in that front we want for nothing.

crisps etc I prefer the local ones now, with a glass of wine, as is the norm here. In fact, I don’t think I could eat them without wine now!

Yes to less of a snacking culture and the food generally is better quality here and more seasonal, and there is less processed crap, which I really do not miss. I placed an order with the British corner shop for a gift for a friend and was shocked at how processed and low quality many of the products on offer were. Except for some of the zM&S biscuits. Although the crumpets were disappointing and tasted plasticky, but then maybe they were like that before and now my palate’s changed I don’t like them anymore? I think when you get out of the habit of eating something it never quite tastes as nice as you remembered it.

LaDamaDeElche · 28/12/2023 21:00

The British Christmas period, supermarkets, tv, pubs, London parks. I’m in Spain, so the bits of food I miss you can get if you go to the shops in the British areas.

paddlinglikecrazy · 28/12/2023 22:05

Lizzieregina · 20/12/2023 19:03

I definitely prefer tea and biscuit offerings over there. I can get all of that stuff here but it’s really expensive.

As a child, my favorite treat was a steak and kidney pudding with mushy peas, chips and gravy from the local Chinese chippy. I’d love to have one again, and I might think it’s awful! But one of these days I’ll get back to the UK and see if I can find it. Maybe it’s not even a thing any more, but was popular in the 70s.

It’s definitely still a thing ! Pudding chips & mushy peas was my favourite growing up in Manchester. I live down south now & can’t get it, but every time I’m back North I head to the chippy 😊

Lizzieregina · 28/12/2023 22:07

@paddlinglikecrazy i grew up in Manchester too!

Original poster
istoodonlegoagain · 28/12/2023 22:16

Got back home last night, out shopping today, ate three bags of Frazzles, I'm absolutely dying for my roast dinner tomorrow 🤤

OP posts:
Strokethefurrywall · 28/12/2023 22:19

I moved abroad 16 years ago. I miss BOGOF deals, meal deals, M&S food.

We get some Iceland, Sainsburys and waitrose products here but nothing about them I'm bothered by ($14 for a pack of waitrose essentials bacon!) but just being able to go and get decent ready to cook meals is what I miss and appreciate whenever I'm back in Uk!

When I first moved here we had very little in way of British products - I remember having to suffer through Lipton tea and my mum would send me PG tips.

Now the only thing I bring back with me are decaf Yorkshire tea bags!

WhoStoleYourHighHorse · 28/12/2023 22:21

I live in France. Marmite, Cheddar cheese and tea. Think that's it for food shopping. Fish and chips.

doggiedoodah · 28/12/2023 22:29

When I lived in Australia I never did find proper mayonnaise. It was always really sweet and yucky. This was many moons ago !

Flatandhappy · 29/12/2023 04:59

@doggiedoodah Hellmans mayo is now available in both major supermarkets. When we arrived in 2007 you couldn’t get it, then it was only available at my local IGA where the manager was Scottish, then just the English aisle in Coles, now with the rest of the mayo in Coles and Woolies. Only took 15 years or so 😂 In the meantime I made my own after throwing out most other supermarket brands after one spoon.

HilaryThorpe · 29/12/2023 05:28

WhoStoleYourHighHorse · 28/12/2023 22:21

I live in France. Marmite, Cheddar cheese and tea. Think that's it for food shopping. Fish and chips.

We live in France too. I bought Marmite from Amazon recently, as it has mostly disappeared since Brexit. One of our local supermarkets has excellent Dorset cheddar so have been buying that up. We drink leaf tea, which we get at our local tea and coffee shop. (Assam and Grand Yunnan).
What I do miss is the range of shops to get things like pomegranite molasses and oyster sauce. My DD brought coriander and lime poppadoms on her last visit. Just impossible here.
For the poster who couldn't get parsnips etc, we are in Normandy, so root vegetables are easy.

HerRoyalNotness · 29/12/2023 05:34

Passion fruit (well I can get them sometimes for US$6 each!) feijoas, meat pies and all the snacks I like. Miss my family and culture most of all and gutted my kids are missing out on my homeland

and proper sausages!

non sweet bread!

FiveShelties · 29/12/2023 05:34

I miss M&S and Tesco, meal deals and generally really inexpensive food
Also the ease of traveling to Europe with cheap flights.😁
The sheer choice of things available.

My husband misses Muller Twin Pots and Bird's eye potato waffles.

I do not miss the Lancashire weather.

AtLastShrugs · 29/12/2023 06:01

Lemsip, Terry's Chocolate Oranges, queuing, thongs (all pants here seem to be briefs or granny style and I have just accepted the VPL life).

Caspianberg · 29/12/2023 06:50

Takeaways - a nice Indian takeaway occasionally would be nice

Pubs Roast dinner on Sundays

We get around by just making those meals at home occasionally, but the convenience of takes isn’t there.
Also food items like crumpets or mince pies we have now learnt homemade recipes for

I get Marmite imported either via British supermarket annual delivery, or via friends bringing over (or us) back from uk.

Urgenthelplease · 29/12/2023 07:38

I'm in Aus and honestly don't miss much. I found it so weird when my ex kept harping on about stuff from Sainsbury's you can't get here and people always ask what they can bring over but there's honestly nothing I miss that much. Stuff I like when I do come back:

  • M&S beef and onion crisps (I don't think they do them anymore)
  • Franco manca sourdough pizza (used to love homeslice but it's not the same anymore)
  • Wagamamas kare lomen (had it at the airport and it was terrible)
  • Decent country pubs (the hotels here are shite)
  • Northern hemisphere Christmas especially the build up
  • Tubes that come every 2 mins
  • London is rooftop bars
  • London parks in summer

Things I don't miss

  • men catcalling you everywhere you go
  • feeling unsafe getting home at night on public transport
  • aggressive homeless people demanding money or accusing you of looking at them
  • waiting for a bus in the dark and cold that invariably goes past full
  • shit chainshop coffee that's invariably burnt
  • litter everywhere
Deathraystare · 29/12/2023 07:55

You can get the craving when you go on a week's holiday as the OP says.

I went to Egypt where the only bread seemed to be pitta. Not normally a problem for me (though I rarely eat bread at home). All I was craving was Naan bread! Which is weird as I rarely have it at home!!!

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 29/12/2023 08:11

OffsideRule · 28/12/2023 20:22

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale Hardly surprising that they went under with the prices they charged.
I'm from Cologne originally and I popped in once to get my Scottish DH some treats. I walked out again empty handed.

Their crisps were cheaper than Abigail's in Copenhagen! And the website was easier to navigate.

adriftabroad · 29/12/2023 08:22

SPAIN:

Proper Chinese & Curry & Fish and Chips
Marmite
Crumpets/Muffins

I can get everthing else if I search/pay over the odds for it but have mainly adapted now. I find the choice in the UK now unbelievable, the amount of ready meals and UPFs and out of season stuff.