If you live abroad, which foods from the UK do you miss?

[BikeRunSki]

My sister and her family live in France and I am planing on sending them a "British" christmas food hamper (shoe box probably!).

On the list so far:

Cadbury's chocolate
Walker's crisps
Crumpets
Bread sauce mix

What else? - I wasn't planning anything fancy, just ordinary food that is difficult to get abroad.

[Sagelynodding]

Yes, if it is for Christmas, crackers (as in the ones you pull, not the ones you put cheese on) are very hard to come by over here :(

PMd you Fudge my new favourite MNer :)

[mrsnec]

Just remembered a couple more things. Proper chip shop vinegar, as cheap and nasty as poss! Also, I like hot choc in winter but low cal version. We can only get Options by the jar for about 6?! A handful of individual sachets of all other flavours would go down well here! Another advocate for the British corner shop here. DPILS use it just to buy tea! And some of our clients club together and do a bi-monthly order! It makes sense if you're buying in bulk.

[earlyriser]

Someone mentioned the other day that tesco now deliver abroad eg, south africa and australia iirc (free delivery over £50). No idea if this is only for tesco direct, or if they will deliver non perishables too, but might be worth finding out.

[TheAccidentalExhibitionist]

If it's a Christmas hamper, definitely crackers, packs of christmas cards. Stuffing mix, Christmas puds and cake and mincemeat.
I'm in France and just bought some of those at an English market today, what a relief!

[LIZS]

Christmas Crackers

[BikeRunSki]

I love the ideas on this thread, thank you ex pat ladies! Will look at the Corner shop website, but if I do that,then I no longer have a great go-to present idea, because she'll know about it! Definitely silverskin onions!

[Rosa]

Bike do look at the British Corner shop - they do it all for you and delivery is not that expensive and they wrap everything really well....

[Rosa]

In my British Corner Shop Basket I have at the moment ...
Weetabix ( varied),
HEinz, Ketchup and HP sauce
Mnce Pies, Stuffing , Cake and pudding ( small)
Baking powder
REd piping icing
Various flaours of crisps
Heinz Baked beans
Christmas chocs
Galaxy present things
Tubes of malteesers and jelly tots
Various biscuits ( sweet and savoury)
silverskin onions
Branston and Bacon
Salad cream

I still have about 50% off the box to fill and have every intention of doing it. I do an order once a year twice if its Xmas abroad .....

[kensingtonkat]

Yorkshire Gold tea. When I was working in India I used to find even the most expensive Assam and Darjeeling undrinkable. Turns out they export the best tea leaves to the UK.

Jammie Dodgers, Jaffa Cakes and Mr Kipling pies.

English chocolate and chocolate biscuits.

English crisps - Hula Hoops, Skips, Monster Munch, Chipsticks.

Colman's Mustard.

[AFingerofFudge]

When I lived in France I travelled back to England for the day once (lived in northern France!) just to buy Christmas pudding, gravy, stuffing, and proper tea.
Nowadays I hanker after all the things I can't get here but could get in France (mostly thinking of cote d'or milk chocolate which I would kill for!)

[mrsnec]

This may sound a bit silly but do they have pets? E.g We have a cat who is very much loved but the Whiskas range is limited here so DM always shoves a couple of packs of Beef Temptations into our food parcels!

[BikeRunSki]

Sagely, I'll send you a food parcel too!

They live near Nice so ethnic foods are not a problem.

[solittletime]

Horseradish, but maybe you can get that in France.
Jaffa cakes

[mrsnec]

Yes to packet stuff. We cope with what we can get here but DPILs always get stuff sent over like Shreddies Daddies sauce and instant Birds Custard. I miss Spanish food more than English though (Can't find Saffron or Smoked Paprika here) and I miss some fruit and veg too. Parsnips, Rhubarb, Blackberries and Asparagus in particular.

[gregssausageroll]

Chocolate. Australian chocolate is grim.

[queenofthepirates]

Decent cheese but then I lived in Japan where it was hard to come by. France has its fair share of good fromage.
Anything by Mr Kipling

[SlightlySuperiorPeasant]

Oh, and spice mix packets for things like jerk chicken.

[SlightlySuperiorPeasant]

Jelly cubes
Coleman's mustard

[happymummy2010]

If you live in NZ, do you miss similar foods to those listed above ? My dad and family live there and I am looking for ideas as to what to include in their food parcel...

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

coleman's mustard
horseradish
piccalilly
HP

[BigBirdisSaved]

Thornton's viennese truffles!
Maltesers
Ribena
Skips and Monster munch
Branston

[Nicknamegrief]

Then paxo may go down well too as well as Bisto.

Worcester sauce.

You may need a bigger box :)

[Sagelynodding]

It's not you, dammit :)

[BikeRunSki]

Sagelynodding - judging by your wish list, i might be your sister.
My sister (whoever she may be) has lived in France for 18 years, and acknowleges that French food is indeed truly superior, but, in her words "the Brist are so much better at everyday rubbish".

She has tried making her ow bread sauce but is not much of a cook and prefers the packet mix. Probably because our mum is not much of a cook, so that's what we Chritmased on as children.

[racingheart]

When I lived in France I used to dream of proper teabags, marmite, decent wholemeal sliced bread for toasting, Dorset muesli.