What British food do you miss?

[nailonthehead]

I'm looking for a gift for friends who now live in Southern France.We are driving down to stay near them in August this year and staying overnight 1/2 way so can't really take fresh food.

I was going to put a hamper together of say tea,M & S biscuits,chocolate and umm I'm not sure what really.

Looking for some inspiration of what is difficult to get abroad and you might miss.

Any ideas would be great.

Bucharest - do they deliver anywhere?!

oh we use that company
they are great

ds calls it a magic box .....

just looked they do worlwide

and have a long list of countries

my friend who lives in the usa likes to recieve

crisps, any types
crackers and biscuits ( Penguins clubs and such aswell)
malt vinegar
mr kipling cakes!
marmalade
chocolate
english mustard

In order of importance :

Prawn Cocktail/Worcestershire Sauce flavoured crisps
Sausages
Stilton
Mint imperials
Chutneys incl. "unusual" Indian spicy ones like aubergine
Custard Powder
Mature cheddar
Chocolate hobnobs
Marmite

I can get the last three items but only at extortionate prices.

You sound like a lovely friend.

Oh, and cocoa powder.

crap mags- Heat, Now, Closer etc. Can get them overseas but they're usually about £4 each and I'm not paying that just to find out if Gav and Charl or Kerry and Mark are still split up (will happily pay 99p though)

Yorkshire Tea bags

Thick cut marmalade

oh I have yorkshire gold teabags

seems a very strange combo.....

Ooh yes, I was only thinking about food but I'm sure magazines and newspapers would go down well too. They make up about half of the weight of my luggage when I'm coming back from trips to the UK.

I'm very impressed with the suggestions.

When I posted I wasn't sure if I'd get any replies.

Just done a big list for Waitrose and M & S.

Thankyou everyone.All your contributions have been noted down on my list.

Suddenly feel a hunger pang for some mature cheddar and pickle with carrs water biscuits ,salt and vinegar crisps and some cadbuys chocolate while I read my Sunday Times!

i live overseas and am always craving beef and tomato pot noodles (the noodles here are rubbish) and french fancies - although maybe they have those in France

oh french fancies ....

Oatcakes.

magazines/sunday newspaper supplements - i went back to the Uk for 2 days last year with only hand luggage but also a plastic bag full of magazines/newspapers! kept it all till i got home so that i could really enjoy reading!

crisps (that are not paprika)
teabags
cheese
curry sauces
gravu granules

and i could kill at the moment for robinsons squash! and this thread is making my craving worse! think i need to take the car to the UK soon!

Mustard powder, been able to find paste, never the powder
books
galaxy or cadburys hot chocolate
Thai curry paste
if you have a cool box - a ham - impossible to find....
Lots of people mention teabags but what about lemonandginger or echinacea and raspberry, or chamomile honey and vanilla.
Any english cheese
Finally on my fantasy food list........hola hoops!

M and S deliver crackers.

Not sure about the french fancies but some different crisps will be in there including some hula hoops.

you will need a truck soon if we keep on suggesting things ...

my last thing veg suet..

Yorkshire tea, Curly Wurlys, anything from Thorntons, Angel Delight, Tescos Finest Chocolate Mousse and luxury yoghurts, regional cheeses, matzo crackers

I personally would say any pork product and cider but I have been living in a muslim country.

lived abroad for 3 years after uni. things i craved but couldn't get (excluding fresh stuff):-

marmite
knorr soups
campbells soup
cornish wafers
wotsits
fizzy fish from M&S
cider
proper tea bags
double deckers
jaffa cakes
tabasco sauce
worcester sauce

My Mum and Dad recently brought me over some marmite, custard creams, Jacobs club orange biscuits and dh some choice grain crackers! I always make sure I eat pork pies and proper fish and chips while I'm home. I quite happily spend $7 on a bottle of Robinsons lemon barley water!

When i lived in france i really missed strong cheddar. Also
baked beans
walkers crisps
decent tea bags
cheap crappy sliced bread

I live in the south of France (near Toulouse) and I think everything I miss has been mentioned before!

Our big supermarket now has a british section, so we can get almost everything we want now, but it is expensive to get it from there.

Cheddar is quite widely available eg in Super U, Auchan, Carrefour etc, but Cheshire is unknown, and I pine as there isn't an equivalent.

Just to add to the list

cheshire cheese
ginger nuts
black cardomems - for some reason unobtainable
good strong chilli powder
cadbury's choc - mars quite widely available
arrowroot
boots teething gel - good for mouth ulcers
anything in the non-pps type stuff like aqueous cream is extremely expensive or unknown ie ?5 for liquid paraffin
digestives both choc and plain
trashy novels although there are quite a few secondhand brit book stalls here and there
different sorts of sugar soft brown, muscovado
according to some posters on www.totalfrance.com heinz baked beans

Have a look on sites like total france - people often talk about what they miss