well its been a whole year now since I was last 'home' and aside from the obvious (family & friends) there is very little I actually miss about the UK EXCEPT when it comes to FOOD!

Bread : I would KILL for a loaf of Warburtons! ! Why does practically ALL bread here taste sweet???

Bacon : whats with the fatty, streaky bacon? Most of the bacon sold here would be sold as 'scrap ends' in the UK. Now don't get me wrong I like a bit of crispy rind BUT seems like here the whole thing is FAT

Tomatoes : why are they so tasteless here? They seem almost bland. Oh a decent pound of cherry toms ( with that almost 'nutty' flavour ) would go down a treat!

Cheese : I love a sweaty ripe stinky cheese - cant seem to find ANYTHING here that doesnt taste like that processed crap! Most of it tastes like that Kraft singles rubbish -- ugh! Anyone recommend a cheese worthy of the name? BTW i would think I had died and gone to heaven if I found some Stilton!

Strawberries : Again same as the tomatoes, huge but bland and tasteless

Sausages : How hard can it be to make a decent a sausage?? OH for a bit of cumberland! Yummy!!

Black pudding : where can I buy it here???

Lamb : Again maybe a WV thing but I cant find Lamb ANYWHERE!! I miss a roast with a leg of lamb and mint sauce. Oh and a stuffed, boned and rolled breast of lamb is SORELY missed

Paxo : who'd have thought that summat as simple as stuffing would be so missed!

Dumplings : I CRAVE stew and dumplings! Atora suet where are you???

Pork scratchings : Ok not strictly 'food' - BUT with all the nibbles they have here you'd have thought that pork scratchings wouldn't be that hard to find! This pork 'rind' stuff they sell is just awful!

I've never had trouble finding decent cheese here (based on experiences in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, North Carolina) - but then I've never tried looking for it in West Virginia.

you can get all the foods on your list...

try Fresh Market..its an upscale little grocery store and you can find lots of "international" foods, especially cheeses and they also do Irish sausages there..but if that fails there's always Goodwoods.com or other places that you can order from..you'll pay for it...but you can get it...

It's case of trial and error, try out a few different alternatives until you find the next best thing. However, I've yet to find black pudding, suet or pork scratchings!

I like the "Stove Top" range of stuffing mixes, my mum actually took some back to UK with her, after visiting recently, so must be OK! Bread and bacon are everyone's big complaint.

well - I'm jealous of all you guys as you can at least get some form of bacon. I live in Italy and as I've been told more than once ...... all the pigs here get turned into ham - parma ham - salami and the last bits as pork mincemeat. There is no bacon - apart from a few crappy cubes used to make pasta sauces, and I would almost kill for a bacon sandwich. I'd even take the American stringy fatty stuff as long as it could resemble a bacon sanwich on a Sunday morning.

and there's absolutely no cheddar either - Italian all the way except for a few pounds of Brie !

Grow some tomatoes - can probably do it without a greenhouse over there!

I had the best tomatoes I've ever tasted on my last trip to Ohio.

They were picked that morning though....and sold out of the back of a truck in the Wal.Mart car park....

Otherwise, salt is your friend.

All I miss is the muller light yogurts, or that's all I can think of right now..

I have been buying the best tomatoes at Wal-Mart! They are called Campari and are put out by Sunset in Ontario. The closest to an English tomato I have found yet and I have lived in the States for over 30 years.

I have found Irish cheddar cheese at Publix,do not know if you have them in West Virginia.

of course I can grow tomatoes here - even without a grrenhouse - and all three types as well - and they taste like tomatoes and not water filled things with red skins......
but you guys were talking about bacon and that's what I miss.

Sorry I cant agree with you there, I think it's horrid stuff

You can get suet in Woodstock.

Or kiss up to me lol, I have a bunch in my freezer I got from a nice fresh cow - and yes there is a (mildly disgusting) story there - but it's great suet.

Black pudding you can get in Barrington.

I was referring to the OP.

Thanks for the photo