Ex-pats in Australia, what food do you miss?

[RivkaTheBrave]

DD is on a year placement in Melbourne and it's her 21st birthday at the end of the month.

I'm thinking of sending a nice British food pack but I'm not sure what traditional food if anything you can't buy there.

Can anyone help with any ideas? My first thought is HP sauce as she loves it but I bet you can buy that there. I do know import laws are very strict.

Thank you for any help.

You can buy HP sauce in Oz.
Infact you can buy most things from the UK.
You can send packaged food without too much drama.
Perhaps specific niche brands or even M and S food would be appreciated?

Thanks I did think I bet you can buy it all really. I got the idea as there's lots of chocolate there that you can't buy here.

Yes.
Chocolate would be a good shout. Although I haven't lived in the UK for ages, so not sure what you have that we don't. people say our Cadbury tastes different to yours, I can't tell the difference.
Hopefully someone with more choccie knowledge can help 🙂

Maybe Percy Pigs?

Australian chocolate is way better than the English stuff, lol.

She's there for 1 short year, is 21 and can buy sauce there. You're overthinking this, send her money rather than wasting the extortionate postage on HP sauce.

I sort of agree with this.
Send her some cash to go to a nice Melbourne restaurant with a friend .

When I lived there I missed British chocolate - Aussie stuff was nice but tasted different!

Agree with this. If she's only there for a year, send her money to help her experience local things, rather than uk products which she'll have plenty of when she gets home.

But if you do want to send food, I missed the choice of crisp flavours when I lived there. Walkers Prawn cocktail or Worcester sauce flavours. Depends if she likes that of course! And you might need to package them with bubble wrap. At least the weight would be so low the postage might be cheaper.

This is the uk section in Coles though HP sauce is not in the British section but is in the sauce aisle, it’s a mystery.

I second m&s there are no flapjacks in this country, it is a veritable flapjack desert.

I miss crisps, I have to make a special trip when I have a hankering for skips. Otherwise chicken or cheese and onion is as fancy as it gets (there are the ubiquitous spicy chips in the vape shops, but just not the same)

When my DH was living with me in London my MIL would send English products, made in England then exported, which she would buy to send to England. That is barking mad.

i think what you are doing sounds kind and caring and lovely

@@YouAndMeVsTheWorld
what do you mean 'chicken or cheese and onion' are as fancy as it gets? We've got lots of different flavoured crisps. Not prawn cocktail granted but lots of other flavours.

Please can people stop using the term ex-pats. These people are immigrants. It really annoys me that there's a different way of expressing migration if you're white.

Australian chocolate has a higher melting point than the UK (ie Cadbury) giving it a more 'waxy' taste compared to chocolate made in the UK.

I can get some chocolate made in Australia, and can find a few bits from the UK but its usually spoilt and white due to the storage, melt then ok then melt again...

Oh I live in Asia!

Crisps are always my go to, as well as Branston..

I remember when Coles stocked some UK Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate in large blocks in their UK section a few years ago I bought it by the truckload. Sadly that is no more. I do prefer UK chocolate - it’s softer and more meltable in your mouth.

I also had a craving for Walkers salt and vinegar and prawn cocktail crisps for a long time but I won’t buy it now as I cleaned up my diet, apart from chocolate!

Not the point of the thread, but I always assumed it was the direction of travel with the two words. So someone going from UK to Australia is ex-pat from UK and immigrant to Australia. An Australian going the other way would be ex-pat from Australia and immigrant to UK. Ex-pats also tend to be temporary moves.

I haven't lived in Australia for many years, but I missed crumpets and chocolate. Australian chocolate is sweeter and melts at a higher melt point. Although cadbury have added palm oil here since then, so it tastes like garbage now.

There’s nothing that we can’t get over here now really, they sell a selection of English things in the main supermarkets. I agree with the people above, send money! We all like money!

Thanks for all the help. I'll send a few Percy pigs and some money.

If anyone's got any tips on the best way to book flights for November that would be good too, her brother is very keen to go and see her (well, mainly Melbourne really but the fact she's there is a plus)

Expats are not there on a permanent basis, that’s the difference from immigrants.
Dh and I were expats for 13 years - we were never going to be immigrants.

I have been an ex-pat in 5 different countries over many years (inc the one I am in now) living temporary due to work, then when the contract ends and we dont want to extend, will either go to another country, or return home to the UK. That to me is an ex-pat as I dont intend to become a citizen of the countries we are working in, thats an immigrant to that particular country.

Flights as far as that goes, I always book direct with the airline, but if you dont feel confident doing so use Trailfinders or the like, not some shonky 3rd party online flight sellers.

Use Google flights or Skyscanner to give you an idea of costs/times etc, just put dates in where you want to fly from (but do play about with different airports, prices can vary) but then book direct. Middle Eastern airlines are my preferred choice, but your son may want to have a stop over somewhere i.e Singapore which can also be good.

Thanks very much, he's 18 so will book his own but it's his first long haul flight and solo flight so good that I can give him a steer.

We’ve done the trip back and forth with:
Qantas
Singapore
Etihad
Vietnam
Cathay
KLM
China Eastern
BA

Etihad and Cathay were our favourites but China Eastern and Vietnam were cheap and absolutely fine. The one down side with the Chinese ones is that the in flight entertainment is minimal and mostly in Chinese plus you can’t get into half the internet when you stop! Cathay is fine though and probably the best food of all of them.

Vietnam was very friendly. KLM was fine.

Sorry Cathay was better than fine - it was great!

No it’s not. Ex-pat is someone working or living abroad on a temporary basis.