HelenTD

Have you been to India, rural areas as well as cities, and tried the food there?

Kim67

Now I do have the answer to the chocolate taste difference. I was at the Cadbury factory in Tasmania a couple of weeks ago and asked why British and Australian Cadbury taste different (I'm love the Australian one because I'm an Aussie) and apparently it's because in Australia they use Sugar Cane and Britain uses Sugar Beet in their recipe.

saveme

You misunderstand my point. I've had memorable meals all over the world and I enjoyed my food when I lived in the UK BUT can no longer remember what things tasted like there compared to here.

When I first came back to Sydney in December 2008, I went to Woolies in Revesby a couple of times, and thought, 'this is not much cop compared to ASDA in Totton (Hants.) Now when I go into Woolies or Coles, they are just another supermarket, the same the world over and I can't remember what it was I liked about ASDA & Waitrose.

Some people are different but I still can't understand they can retain this memory of what made Tesco so good, decades after they leave the UK!

Mind you, I only go to shops of any kind when I need something, and whilst I enjoy window shopping as much as anyone, a supermarket is the last place I'd go to do it, let alone go with a list of prices at Tesco & Asda, downloaded from the internet, converted to $AUD, and then compared in minute detail to Coles & Woolies.

saveme

I'm grateful for your insight. I understand now, that when someone goes back to the UK and says something like 'Thank God, I can get a decent curry now,' all they are doing is remembering the English version which they prefer?

In fact, there must be many Aussies living in the UK, who come back here and say much the same thing, 'Thank God, I can get a decent curry again, I'm sick of that Pommie rubbish.'

saveme

That's interesting, thanks. I've never been to a chocolate factory before though I remember one that used to exist in the back streets of Redfern, between Pitt & George Sts. It had a very distinctive aroma wafting about the streets too.

I've never been to Tassie either which is pretty shameful considering how long I've been here. Does it look much like the rest of Australia or is there more of an 'English' ambience?

saveme

No, I've never been anywhere on the Sub-continent, apart from refuelling stops back in the days when the planes made two stops between UK & OZ.

Kim67

Tasmania is lovely. It's natural terrain is a lot like the the south Coast of Western Australia when it was untouched, but the buildings are a mix of old English and Colonial Australia. Lots of nice local food products to try. Because it's so small you can hire a car and see a lot of the state in a very short time. Tasmanians a very friendly and it's like going back in time to how Australia used to be thirty years ago. If it wasn't for the kids schooling we'd probably move to Launceston for a couple of years.

AlliF

I'm sure there are, and that is their right. Doesn't make anybody right or wrong, It is called personal preference...

AlliF

Precisely. There was another thread on the same thing recently but it was chinese food being compared.

Hubs has actually considered asking his sister to stop enroute to the airport when we go back to the UK and greet him at the gate with a chipper supper!

Turban Explorer

I've had a decent curry here at Spicy Bites in Cairns (Indian - Thai is usually better for some reason). Certainly agree curry is delicious at even the cheapest joints in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. I think the difference in London was the number of ruby houses - they have to make a bit more effort to attract customers and retain them. I've had a few comedy curries in Oz which have been so disappointing we fell about laughing. There's no region of India to which they were authentic. I think restaurants will serve what they can get away with and still make money. There is a positive side however as I've come on leaps and bounds with my own Indian cooking.

Amazulu

ASDA ready meals are the best

mmmm, mmmm, mmmm

spartacus

I had a fantastic curry up in Caloundra a couple of weeks back at the 'Indiyum' restaurant. Crap name but great food. They have a Facebook page . . . http://www.facebook.com/pages/Indiyu...7083373?v=info

HelenTD

The south coast of WA is still untouched, only has a few colonial buildings in comparison with Tasmania. Lots of great local produce, too.

Burbage

Spicy Bites is great. There's a van vendor called Flavours of India roaming around up north that does a mean curry too. They'll be at the Tablelands Folk Festival this weekend.

It may actually be better not to call the Indian food in British Indian restaurants Indian food at all, if that makes any sense. I've eaten food all over India and it is all completely different to British Indian food. The chickens are a lot skinnier to start with, and the meat tends to be goat rather than lamb, and the sauces tend to be more yogurt and less cream and in India the basic restaurants use a lot of dried spices rather than fresh or pastes.

I've also encountered the situation where one of the chefs in a big hotel in Bangalore was actually brought in from Britain to cook Indian food the way the British like it.

And even weirder, the best british food I've ever had was in the Fairlawn Hotel in Calcutta, where they've been cooking the same traditional "straight out of Mrs Beeton" british food since 1870.

renth

Sound like BS to me. I heard the Aussie Cadbury has ingredients to prevent it melting at the higher temperatures it will be exposed to in Aus.