THANKS YOU GOOD HEARTED PEOPLE!

IT IS GOOD TO SHARE HAPPY THOUGHTS INSTEAD OF DEPRESING FACTS AND FIGURES.

ESPECIALLY WHEN IT INVOLVES ENGLISH CHOCOLATE!

I ACTUALLY HAD AN ENGLISH CREAM TEA THIS WEEKEND.
I HAD TO EDUCATE A WAITER IN A TEA ROOM BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. VERY YUMMIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

KEEP UP WITH THE GOOD STORIES!

I happened upon this website by pure accident. Well actually I happened upon it because I had just finished a conversation with my British colleagues about the differences between American (as opposed to Canadian) and British chocolate and was searching the web to try and find out just what that difference is (still haven't figured it out)!

Needless to say we all agreed it's simply a matter of taste. I'm Canadian but have lived in the UK now for 6 years. Of course I miss Canadian food but I'm not so obstinate as to consider it better -- it's simply different!! I miss Coffee Crisps, Oh Henry's, Mr Big's, Caramels, Ruffles, etc. not to mention a good 'ole fashion hockey game, but hey! I'm here now and embracing someone else's culture -- after all isn't that 'half the pint' (he he)?

If I spent my time scrounging around trying to find Canadian goodies here I'd be missing out on all the wonderful new flavours I could be tasting instead (who could have thought I'd lived without curry for so long)! So why not spend less time worrying about what you're missing from back home and spend more time endulging in new and exciting tastes instead!

Good luck to you all and I hope you're enjoying your adopted homes!

PS - I'd never even heard of things such as "gravy granules" until coming to the UK - despite being kings and queens of preserved foods, gravy is one thing most Canadians make from scratch. And as for fish and chips... for heaven's sake, you're trying to find good seafood in the middle of a very large country! Anyone who's ever lived on either of Canada's three coasts will tell you that eating seafood in Ontario is asking for it (and I'm an Ontarian)! Unfortunately seafood is best eaten fresh... head to the Atlantic provinces or BC!

*wanders now exactly what constitutes real 'Canadian' food*

Being "Brittish Canadian", I grew up even in Canada on Mom's shephard pies, cornish pasties, sausage and mash, toad in the hole and still pass those meals on down to my kids. Treacle toffee is one of the kids favourites of mine. We still have lamb and pork Sunday dinners with yorkshire pudding and yes, I use Bisto or whatever to enchance the gravy though that is also made just as well when mixing the meat juices with water and flour and margerine. Remember my first lasanga (spelling issues here--will apologize now for it and forever after hope am forgiven) and pizza but figure those are more 'Italian" dishes. Love the teryaki chicken and beans and pork with corn bread but think those are more southern recipes. Love the jambalaya (spelling again ) recipe I got from Louisianna and the chillie recipe but not sure where thats from. Remember going to a friends house down the street from me and having first try of her fathers red wine served in a bowl and cabbage rolls--Portuguese cooking I assumed since they were from Portugal. Love the souvlaki I served at the Greek restuarant I worked at for a year. Also loved the curries and chinese food I served when working at a Chinese restuarant for a year.

Still not sure what is true Canadian food. Never tasted moose before. Wander if that is it.
Can't say I miss the mushy peas at all. Sorry Scotland but mushy peas just got left beside the plate though I did and do eat the steak & kidney pie. I remember the puddings my mom used to serve us in England that were heated in a can--really liked that stuff. We still eat drop scones and potatoe scones though--Mom gave me her recipe for those and I know the kids get teased once in a while when they bring them in for lunch but, hey, the food disappears and usually they want me to make more next time to share with their friends.

I guess, Canada, as being also a big 'melting pot' has so much 'other' cultures in it its kind of cool eating out or visiting because there is so much diversity. Still have to admit, I like my evenings at Paddy o Flaherties though where I can have a nice glass of cider, a really good lamb stew and oh, for the treacle pudding. And I do miss the rhubarbs and custards and the dolly mixtures and the lemon sherbits. Chocolate, have been Canadianized I guess and even though it -is- different than that sold in Britain or even the States, still it doesn't seem to last long.

So, still wandering, what in all this mess, IS true Canadian food?

Did anyone mention the Real Canadian Superstores?
Here in Winnipeg we have several choices Cabury's Bars YES from Bournville UK not Ontario, Curly Wurly's and a Chocco shop on Croydon that sells loads Walnut whips, Fuse bars, Topic's drum stick sherbert dips chews and loads of others

curly wurly's????? if i had drooling icon i would put it on now. god how i miss them!!!

TRY THE WEBSITE
www.abitofhome.ca

they deliver to your door.

also
www.expatcorner.ca

there are a few good website now dealing in delivery of british goods.

worth a try. even for the curly wurly

Just want to report that I was in a place called St. Jacob's this weekend which is well worth a visit. It is outside of Guelph/Cambridge, Ontario in Mennonite country. It has a terrific flea market and the fruit and vegetables at this time of year were stunning. However, by the flea market (within 5 min walking distance) are factory outlet stores and there is a Cadbury's factory store in there. Most chocolate is Canadian made but they also have UK imports such as Fruit'n'Nut, flakes and Double Deckers (the latter $1.49).

St. Jacobs begins where the north end of Waterloo stops - so it's almost part of Waterloo. I grew up only about 2-3 miles south of there. Both my parents grew up within 15 miles of the place. My mother was raised Mennonite.

Here's St. Jacobs' website:
http://www.stjacobs.com/html/shoppin...rsmarkets.html

Wow, that's really wonderful to have roots like that......I'm from the same area - spent most of my growing up years in Kitchener/Waterloo. We love St. Jacobs, Elmira, Conestoga and all the surrounding areas. The best German/Mennonite food in the world. Although, we were a little disappointed to find some of the pubs (like the Blue Moon) closed now, and others changed......it's still a great area - when I first told friends out here in BC that we would eat pig's tails, sauerkraut(?), etc and beer - they thought it was disgusting (well, each to their own) I guess.

If you get a chance go to the maple syrup festival - the best maple syrup in the world believe.

Good to hear that the factory outlet is still there.....but are you talking about the one right in St. Jacobs.....or the one beside the huge farmer's market on the highway as you are going towards St. Jacob's? We are planning to go back at xmas to see family/friends....and hope to hit that area again. It's now a tradition to go to the farmer's market and buy bread, sausages, and other really fresh produce there just before xmas. The best sausages in the world.

Yes, the cold meats are the best in North America for sure. My uncle used to own a saugage and cold meat plant that supplied Zehr's. My mom used to make pig tails for us years ago - but they are hard to get now according to her. She was great at making all that German stuff. When I as a kid my grandmother used to tell me how they would make blood sausage on the farm - including what they would do to the pig to get its blood. Now that was disgusting, and I never ate any of that stuff. My father liked to have pickled pig feet in the fidge - and it helped me stay slim by suppressing my appetite.

The factory outlet (see the links on the website) is beside the farmers' market. I'm not aware of any factory outlets in the centre of town. Of course there are lots of small craft shops in town.

[QUOTE=Grenhouille]I happened upon this website by pure accident. Well actually I happened upon it because I had just finished a conversation with my British colleagues about the differences between American (as opposed to Canadian) and British chocolate and was searching the web to try and find out just what that difference is (still haven't figured it out)!

I'm a bit late chiming in, but the difference between many nations' chocolate and British chocolate is the cocoa butter vs. vegetable fats ratio. British chocolate has so much less cocoa butter in it that the EU once tried to ban the UK from calling their product 'chocolate' and force it to refer to the fat content as 'chocolate substitute'. North Americans seems to prefer European chocolate with more cocoa solids, and more of that bitter bite it gives. I don't know if it's just because British chocolate lacks bitterness, but it strikes me as excessively sweet (and waxy, and bland... but them's fightin' words, so I'll stop here!)

As a Canuck arriving in the UK eight years ago, I had the complete inverse reaction to British chocolate that many Brits are having to North American, so I guess it's very much a case of liking what you know or were raised on. (Familiarity really does foster a sense of comfort, too!)

hello, babyblue!
yes, i only arrived in ontario a few weeks ago and i have seen so-called fish n chip shops around here, too. i heard its the fish thats no good--well, not as good as in the uk at least (cod, that is). if you are ever in mississauga, there is a little store in a small mall just by winston churchill/brittania called "little bit of britain" or something like that! i hear they have english chocs sometimes. other than that, get yourself a cheap return ticket to england and buy some of those 1foot by 6inch sized bars cadburys do these days--that'll last a while! and yes, the choc in the usa is total crap too!!


[QUOTE=babyblue]Can anyone suggest any good stores to buy british goods?
especially chocolate?

I managed to find one stall in a flea market in Pickering. they just seem so expensive.

I am desperatly trying to work on my 13 year old son to convince him that the future is much brighter here!

there must be other parents that understand the value of a choccie bar!

Sorry, everyone!..... but Canadian chocolate is not the same at all.
I still love Canada!!!!!!!!

help mothers desperate plea?

many thanks
:scared:

I know the feeling about "blood sausage" - I could never get into it either - sort of like sardines.

Good pig tails are hard to find - last year we went to the pub in Conestoga and the pig tails were mostly fat - not very good.....not like the ones I remember in the good old days.

Pickled pig feet are really disgusting....but so are pickled eggs. When you use to go into the pubs in the area - there would be a jar full of time and you watch people actually eat them....disgusting.

You're right of course I was getting confused, because at the farmer's market upstairs there is some spcialiy shops as well. The shops in St. Jacobs are factory outlets, but great speciality shops.

Do your parents still drive horse and buggy. I love going to the area, you can still see the "tying bar" (I t hink that's wha t it's called) where they tie up the horses while they shop. Lots of them around the farmers' market during the xmas season.

It's great to see the KW area growing so much.....but you know when I was growing up (and it wsn't that long ago)....the area driving down Westmount Road towards Kitchener was all farm land. Now, really really developed with homes, businesses' etc. Even going out on Highland Road towards Petersburg alot of farms gone to development.

Lots of changes.....good things we still have our memories!!!!

[QUOTE=KimS] All I know (as I said before).....when I first tried a Cadbury Hazelnut chocolate in the UK - it was pure and absolute ecstasy compared to Canadian choco......the english chocolate had actual fresh hazelnuts and fresh chocolate.......my god it was the best!!!!!

No, the Mennonite connection was only on my mother's side of the family. Her father was a very "progressive" Mennonite. Even he didn't have a horse and buggy when I was a kid - he had a car that was painted black. My mother and all her siblings moved to the city as soon as they were adults. It wasn't until I was around 10 years old that I realized my mother had been raised as a Mennonite - this after years of telling her how weird I thought they were. When I finally asked her if she had been raised as a Mennonite, she admitted it and blushed. She shouldn't have been embarrassed, Mennonites are some of the best people - salt of the earth.

My father had more of an ethnic German heritage. He was raised on a farm not far from the covered bridge near West Montrose.

Yes, Waterloo is really changing. You're a scientist, so you may be interested in the Perimeter Institute:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/

Select "future facilities" to see the new building, then click on the pics to enlarge them. This will also give you a view through a webcam of the rec center (left) to silver lake (right), with UW in the background. By the way, Perimeter Institute will soon be the largest institute of theoretical physics in the world.

I used to play hockey as a kid on that site. Remember the old Waterloo Memorial Arena?

This is excellent for a "virtual tour" of Waterloo:
http://www.garywill.com/waterloo/tour.htm

http://www.garywill.com/waterloo/history.htm

http://www.garywill.com/waterloo/orientation.htm

Waterloo's tech companies:
http://www.garywill.com/digest/companies.htm

They call downtown Waterloo "uptown" Waterloo now. "Downtown" only refers to downtown Kitchener now. Did you know that UW is about to build a School of Pharmacy in downtown Kitchener?