bugman

I feel your frustration. I generally cook from scratch but of course rely on those 'primary' processed foods like cream, cheese, ham, bread, pickles, smoked fish ie the things that you cant really make yourself, well not easily anyway. thats where i feel the US falls down. theres a gazillion products but they are always similar and equally crap, think that horrid fatty bacon, (i dont mind fat but i buy bacon for protein not fat) the horrid sweet, chemically tasting hams, the dry bread, the gloopy yoghurt, the ultra pasteurised one dimensional flavoured cream. I was in the uk 2 weeks ago and drooling over deli counter, nice dry cured bacon, proper roast beef, pies, black puddings, pasties, cheeses that were actually different, cakes that actually taste of something not just sugar etc, etc.

anyway, you know how it is.

I was doing ok for a while but after my last trip to the Uk i feel that it really does have better foods, and im not sure its actually more expensive over there either, bread is certainly cheaper......

anyway i wont moan anymore, i'll make some flapjacks (thay are a firm favourite with the locals-its the secret syrup of course).

cathy22w

I'm going back to the Uk permanently at the end of the month, and really looking forward to be able to eat healthier much more cheaply. I cannot understand a country as huge and diverse as this charging so much for plain fruit and veg.

Forgot about Branston Pickle... adding that to my list of things to look forward to. A nice pint of Caffrey's, too. I also hate the Bud/Coors etc etc. Yeungling I can tolerate. Blue Moon is ok (prefer Hoegaarden).

But it's been fun, and a great experience here. It's not all about the crap food!!!

bugman

ive become a bit of a beer snob, my last trip to the uk reinforced that when just about any pub had a selection of really good real ales/guest ales. When i do want a beer here i buy uk imports or ive found sierra nevada 'ESB' rather good and boulder 'cold hop' to be very reasonable ales.

I simply will not drink bud etc, every calorie counts and i simply have to enjoy it.

Ive found the more ethnic groceries to be cheaper and great for veg. we have a huge one locally which has huge polish/indian/mexican sections, the range of veg is incredible, very fresh and very cheap. sometimes you can also find good alternatives to the USA product, eg good quality yogurt/bread of a more greek/middle eastern style.

Hiro11

Since you're also in Chicago, try anything from Two Brothers, Great Lakes, Three Floyds, Capital or Kalamazoo breweries. Goose Island is also good and easy as hell to find. Lots of good local breweries.

I'm American and I completely agree that supermarket bread, cheese and yogurt is inedible. The supermarket yogurt is about three parts sugar to one part yogurt. Foul. The trick is to buy the plain and mix in your own honey/jam/flax seed/walnuts/whatever. Stonyfield Farm plain is really good. Trader Joes has good Greek and European style plain yogurts. I don't really eat bread and my wife was a pastry chef for ten years who still likes to bake at home so I haven't really looked around for baked stuff. Local bakeries can be really good (there's a decent French bakery in my town). Panera makes some nice crusty loaves. The western end of Devon street is basically entirely Eastern European bakeries, all cheap and all good. The eastern part is basically Little India, so you can hit that and get a good curry after getting some good baked stuff. It's pretty easy to find good cheese, again Trader Joes or Treasure Island. Even my local Dominick's has a decent assortment (but you have to look for it). Try Cypress Grove "Humboldt Fog" blue goat cheese if you want to try a good American cheese. It's about $10 a pound...

Kaffy Mintcake

This American agrees with you 100%. Bud is TERRIBLE. I don't consider it fit for human consumption. We stick with imports or microbrews for the most part.

Cape Blue

Arrived 20 lbs overweight, edged up to 55 lbs, now down to 35 lbs overweight - yuk.

Poor portion control (large portions in restaurants and take out)

Health company conspiracy with food manufacturers (surely it must be!) - with HFCS, sugar or molasses forming a main ingredient in many food (even wholemeal bread?)

Worked too many hours (take away on way home). Bit of stress helps lay the fat down.

Less activity due to injury.

chartreuse

You've got to be careful even with plain. It's the only type of yoghurt I eat (with nothing added) and, while I've found proper plain yoghurt, I've also bought stuff that was labelled as plain yet contained so much sugar it made my teeth hurt. Revolting.

bugman

ive had the kalamazzoo and two brothers in the past, i remember them being good. goose island, i dont recommend that, somehow i find their beers very hangover inducing, or rather headache inducing, even just after a couple, as a simple, drinkable and inexpensive standby i like TJ's 'great scot' scottish import.

TJ's greet style, european style and their standard organic yogs are all good, as far as i now they are live and only the standard one has added pectin but still better than the more widespread brands, meijers own natural yogurt is excellent too, almost like set yogurt if you prefer that.

ive heard good reports about the mexican bakeries, ive not tried one yet.

Dan725

I've never had too much trouble with the supermarkets here, but it seems to come up a lot ??? Obviously some of the good ol' British staples cannot be found, but thats to be expected. I guess I'm just not much of a supermarket connoiseur...same with prices - never noticed it being particularly expense over what it is in the UK - but then again, my UK supermarket experience is very limited.

bugman

things will always be different in other countries but i find the US products to be worse than most, despite some expats complaining about stuff in new zealand (for eg), i actually found NZ to have much better basic stuff than the USA and a larger disparity whereas here there less disparity but more minor variance within a type of food, eg theres 30 brands of bacon but they are pretty much the same product and crap to boot, in the Uk you might get 20 bacon products but they vary from factory farmed water filled crap to dry cure organic heritage pig smoked streaky/eye/shoulder etc and all manner of inbetweens, NZ was pretty good on that count too.

im sure supermarkets in spain and france are equally amazing, bread, cheese and cured meats will be firtst rate. The good stuff is here but difficult and then considered 'artisan' when found. its those mainstream supermarkets catering for the majority that carry that low end product.