Travel Tips

This album is dedicated to all those oddities that I have come across while food shopping in Britain. The British have had a reputation for bad food, and while I cannot comment on the taste of the following, the sheer strangeness of some of the items I saw have earned them a place in this hall of fame.

"Cabbage, mandarin, apple, pineapple and peach in a rich mayonnaise dressing." Doesn't exactly whet my appetite. I mentioned this product to a British friend, who replied "You will note, of course, that we thought something so atrocious must have an American connection." Ha, ha. Actually, it was pretty funny :P

I suppose the American "creamed corn" would have a similar reaction over here. But I could just not comprehend the idea of creaming macaroni and then putting it in a tin. Wouldn't that be, say, "starch paste" or something?

I do miss creamed corn though, so who knows where that puts my own culinary standards!

I have yet to find ANY baked beans here that are not tinned in tomato sauce. And not real sauce - I should know, I'm Italian - but that semifake stuff that Chef Boyardee comes in. These cans caught my eye because of the chicken nuggets addition, and also because the Sesame Street rhyme started going through my head: "one of these things is not like the others..."

Correction - At the Canada Shop in London I found Maple Syrup baked beans, but haven't tried them yet...

"Sugar; Strawberries (10%); Wholegrains (2.5%): Oats, Barley, Buckwheat, Wheat, Rice, Rye; Thickener: Modified Maize Starch; Colour: Betanin, Apple juice concentrate; Flavourings, Acidity regulators: Citric Acid, Sodium citrate"

This translates to "we've put grain into this semiliquid mix, and let it sit there, and now they're all soggy and when you eat them it will feel like bugs or something. Enjoy!"

And this time it's not just me, I tested the concoction on a native who was equally grossed out.