US readers may be interested to know that there are now branches of Whole Foods in London (and one in Glasgow!). Thus I have finally been able to buy Pace Sauce, and Mrs. Renfro’s Habanero Salsa. I can now make Mexican comfort food. But there other things I need. When the Ramones sang, “Sitting here in Queens, eating refried beans”, little did they know that they were not describing a cheap, working class meal, but exotic foreign food that UK residents pay a massive premium for. You can get refried beans in Tesco, but they are in the special foreign food section and they cost $2 per can. Ouch!
Still, at least I can buy them. Can I get decent tortilla chips? Of course not. I can get Doritos, and Dorito-like product, but nothing like the real thing. If it doesn’t come with extra salt, and in cheese & onion flavor, you don’t get to buy it here. I wonder if my favorite burrito restaurant will sell them in bulk?
But can you get RoTel there?
Not that I have seen.
Well, at least you have Pace. That should do for most Mexican, but I prefer myself not to make chili or bean stew without Ro-Tel. 🙂
As far as cheese, can you get Mexican type cheeses like queso?
Cheese, I’m afraid, does not travel well. But the local stuff is very good.
For some weird reason this post has got me out of bed and heading to the kitchen for a tablespoon of peanut butter.
Here in the frozen north, we have Lupe Pintos, source of proper plain tortilla chips. They do online ordering and will even deliver to Wales and Englandshire.
I’m pretty sure there will be somewhere in Bristol I can get tortilla chips. But not here in semi-rural Wiltshire.
Yes, but I still have those moments wandering around my supermarkets here:
1) Why can’t I get decent cheese without spending a fortune?
2) I just want a small tub of coleslaw? Is that too much to ask?
3) Why no fruit squashes? $8 for a bottle of Barley Water is a bit much
4) Pate? It’s not exotic
I’ll get excited when Waitrose opens a Seattle store…
1. I bought most of my cheese in Cowgirl Creamery. I miss Point Reyes Blue and Humboldt Fog.
2. Why? It’s not edible.
3. Drink fruit juice instead, it tastes better.
4. You got me there. The US is hopeless for pate.
1) I have no limit on my options to buy lovely cheese – I just can’t afford to 🙂
2) I like coleslaw, if I make it myself I end up with vast amounts of wastage, and I miss Waitrose’s premium extra-creamy
3) Too much sugar in fruit juices here… I like my fruit without corn 🙂 – or q.v. comment on cost
4) ’tis weird
Ah, corn syrup… 🙁
When I saw the headline of this post, I was afraid you’d be blogging about eating Moomins too…
It took us several years but we are quite thrilled to be spreading the heat in the UK. Glad you are getting to enjoy our Habanero.
Thanks for dropping by. When I lived in California we got through a lot of your salsa.
Whole Foods? Really?
Out here in the suburbs of Oregon, the place to go for obscure foreign foods (i.e., anything not from eastern Asia or Latin America) is at the other end of the scale: our local equivalent to Wal-Mart, which has expanded its ethnic-foods aisle over the last few years to the point where we can get even really exotic stuff like jelly babies or Marmite. (If the urge ever struck anyone in this household to get some Marmite, that is.)
Yes, but remember that Whole Foods are not stocking what they think of as exotic foreign food, they are stocking what they’d stock back home. It’s just my fellow Brits who think that refried beans are an expensive foreign delicacy.
No one should be required to eat Marmite (except Australians trying to wean themselves off the Black Death slowly).