What’s the one food you wish for but can’t get in your area (but really want)?

[TheExecutionOfAllThings]

Inspired slightly by the saveloy thread and those no longer able to attain one.

I went to Key West 6 years ago and I’m still dreaming about the fish tacos. I’ve tried making myself and I can’t get it right. Not a single place in my Midlands city sells fish tacos. I so want them to become popular - can you Deliveroo them in London?

Also Vietnamese. Went to a fab restaurant in China Town and again have had various attempts but not been very successful.

What are you craving that’s hard to get hold of?

A bottle of Blood Orange Cointreau. I can't buy it anywhere except I see it's for sale on Amazon for £29, double the price. It's a rip off but I'm sooooooo tempted.

I remember having some really good mushy pea fritters by the sea many years ago! Can't remember where though.

@BlueBirdGreenFence

Soda bread. And wheaten bread. Miss both desperately.

Tesco sell fresh wheaten bread in the bakery section. It’s not the same, but the best I’ve found here.

When I lived in Cambridge I used to get baguettes from Pickwick's Sandwich bar and their three cheese and bacon filling was the best sandwich I've ever had in my life. It sounds so ridiculous as I'm such a foody but my god the times I've thought of this!!

Kunafeh... can only get decent ones in Saudi .. mainly a place called baladi.

Khachapuri, delicious salty, cheesy pastry from Georgia.
Scottish plain bread (thick sliced Mother's Pride preferably)

Fish scallop from my childhood. Two slices of potato with a piece of white fish between it, battered and deep fried. I occasionally find them in chip shops but they are often poorly cooked.

I see you, PP who misses an Anglo-Chinese Chippy. I became obsessed with Indo-Chinese food (cooked by Chinese Indians, not Vietnamese) when I was briefly working in India. I haven’t had any for twenty years and then a friend said they had loads of Indo Chinese dishes at a restaurant literally down the street from my office.

That was the week before lockdown. Now the restaurant has closed.

New York pizza. Pizza is just so much better in NY

Burrata - I happily ate a whole cheese to myself in Italy but can't find it anywhere near me. A friend's mum has an Italian restaurant in Liverpool that sells them and she has promised to set some aside for me to take home when I next visit but God knows when that will be now.

A fresh cream pikelet from New World supermarket in New Zealand. I think about them often 🤤

There used to be a chinese restaurant in northampton called Imperial which did an amazing pork and green bean thing I've never seen replicated anywhere near as brilliantly. Great szechuan fish stew too.

I lived overseas in my "youth" and I still miss so many things from then!

People warm you about culture shock when you leave "home" they fail to tell you that you experience it in reverse when you've lived overseas for a while and come back! It wasn't just food in my case it was things like coins and notes had changed and I wasn't able to quickly pay in the supermarket etc

Really weird!

This is gonna be a long list!

And yes before anyone says a lot of these things are IN THEORY available in the Uk but where that's the case the quality isn't the same

Sauerkraut
German potato salad
Garlic mayo
German and Polish ketchup - it's spiced/flavoured differently
Any number of regional cheeses
lebkuchen
Stroopwaffles
Dark chocolate hot chocolate
Mushroom sauce
Dutch pastries
Pickled garlic
Pierogi
Borscht
Super strong and rich coffee

Where I live at the moment is arse end of nowhere! Can't get decent takeaway for love or money it's always a disappointment

I also miss various regional items from having them as an army brat but listing them all would be potentially very outing! Though it does make me laugh when on regional food threads there's always some smart arse says there isn't regional food in the Uk

@MrsMoastyToasty
I have told before that when we were living outside Scotland on visits "home" mum would bring a spare suitcase for carting back loads of Scottish only food and drink. I didn't really understand it at the time though I liked the food I get it now

YES to tutti Frutti ice cream!

@MoltenLasagne You can buy Burrata on Ocado. You’re supposed to bring it back to room temperature first to release the flavour.

I love this thread. I want some of that Georgian bread badly now.

Sardine picante from waitrose, no longer live near one...

M&S used to do a broccoli tomato cheese side dish that was lovely, could have eaten it on its own.

Morning rolls.

Also. Live in arse end of nowhere...good sushi, Vietnamese, Japanese, Turkish, Georgian, Indian....all in v short supply.

Fox's Coffee biscuits Cafe Noir. Lush !

Ghanaian and Nigerian food. We used to live near a big Ghanaian restaurant and a Nigerian takeaway. Oh. My. Days. The food was amazing. I do try and cook it myself (shout out to @TeamGhanaJollof for the jollof recipe and lots of help ) but I’ve not quite perfected it yet.

I really don’t get why African food isn’t as popular as Chinese and Indian food. It’s lush.

I had rhubarbs crumble flavour ice cream in Planeg Hollywood in 2000 and it was amazing. Never seen it since.

Similarly I had fig and almond ice cream in Lisbon in 2014 and it was to die for. Even better than the Planet Hollywood ice cream. Nothing has compared since.

I wish I could just go into a cake shop and buy a big slab of Bread Pudding, when I lived in London every bakery/cake shop sold it. Up here (North Wales), they don't.

If I mention it people think I mean bread and butter pudding, when I explain they've never heard of it.

Oh remembered another one. The little pasties they sell everywhere in Malta - but specifically from a little cafe called Crystal Palace just outside the walls of the old city of Medina. Washed down with a sugary coffee served in a glass mug.

A block of cheddar cheese.

Scot living in England here and echo what others have said re square sausage, tattie scones and a "proper chippy".
Also adding pakora and a Gregg's macaroni pie!

Thai basil

And massive sandwiches from Hungry Jacks in Northallerton 20 years ago. With coleslaw. They were fab

@BlueBirdGreenFence

Soda bread. And wheaten bread. Miss both desperately.

Ahh I've always been able to find these in local supermarkets, although I haven't looked probably since last Xmas.

Back in the 80s my grandparents used to come over to visit and every time brought a whole suitcase full of Northern Irish bread

Coconut chikki. Gorgeous Goan sweet snack and probably the main thing I miss about India!