TheTokenBrit

I have found plenty of British sections in my local grocery stores here in Austin, Fiesta has a great selection sometimes too but they were cleared out when we went at Christmas! All the other expats had gotten there before us. The best was walking into World Market and hearing an American guy say "It wouldn't be Christmas without Cadbury Fingers!" I had to agree, because I scoffed a whole box on Christmas day!

petitefrancaise

I think you have completely missed the point.
Why would we pay through the nose for US "gourmet" cheese when we can buy UK/French cheeses just about everywhere for little more than we would pay in those countries?
In Austin - Trader Joes x3 stores, HEB Central market x2 stores, Wholefoods ( on every flipping street corner it seems) + Aldi + Costco all have really good selections of UK/French/Spanish cheeses. Central market often even has unpasteurised milk cheeses! Yummy. I bought one from TJ's last week - St Illtyd from Abergavenny ( v close to my home village) which was delicious heaven. TJ's also has a sheeps milk french cheese from the Pyrenees (petit Basque) that I couldn't even buy outside of our area in France.
"Gourmet" US cheese? marketing BS.

zzrmark

Where is your sense of adventure? Have you not heard the phrase 'When in Rome...'?

If I'm going to shell out a small fortune for a small block of goodness I'd rather be supporting a small stateside company than pay someone to ship a $3/kg cheese from France.

petitefrancaise

I'd happily buy a nice piece of US cheese if it wasn't overpriced "gourmet" BS and I could just toddle along to the grocery store to buy it. Why are you so gullible? If the stores can get in foreign cheese so flipping easily, why not good US cheese at decent prices?
Wholefoods used to have a policy of sourcing locally made products, Amazon put a stop to it and locals went out of business. There's this whole "aura" of having to track down good products in the USA, like it's some kind of quest you go on so that you can brag about it at your next fancy dinner party that is anathema to me. In France, you'd be bragging about finding the 5 euro bottle of good wine you'd come across because you actually knew something about wine; or you'd be explaining the provenance of the cheeses for the cheese course, probably made by your neighbour and given as a gift .

zzrmark

I'm not quite sure I understand you, but when I lived and worked in France nobody bragged about the cheese and wine, we knew we were eating good food and were there for the company - which wasn't ever at a 'dinner party'. Sounds like something you come across in Paris or by living in expat communes, you can keep it!!

I don't hunt for the most expensive label on the shelf or spend my days looking for new stuff but do appreciate both national and international finds, finding an old favourite is always nice but just to exclude items because of a poor grasp of how market economies work is sad.

NYer

I didn't completely miss the point. I said you can buy good imported cheeses in the United States as well as very good American cheese - such as Prairie Breeze from the midwest or NY cheese. It is not some marketing ploy. It is the truth but you are too interested in complaining than exploring. I've seen this kind of cliche here for years.

petitefrancaise

The title of the thread is "UK Foods in the US Share your finds!"
Maybe you should start another thread - " How to find decent food in the US"? Then you can go on ad nauseum about that quirky little cheese farm that is in the middle of the mountains where the cows are hand massaged every day, fed organic grass and sung to sleep at night?
In the meantime, I'm about to eat my cheese toastie made with yummy ENGLISH cheddar cheese from Costco.

NYer

I found Prairie Breeze at my local market. And no need to totally blow a gasket, lol. I wonder just how good English cheddar cheese from Costco really is...

Mclearg

Hi All, I've been told that Irn Bru (Iron Brew) is available in Fiesta (Texas) but when i was there in December they didn't have any.

Was this normal? or are there usually stocks to be had.

Many Thanks

petitefrancaise

some of my local HEBs have it in stock fairly regularly, which always surprises me!

TheTokenBrit

For $3.50 a 500ml bottle though! It's hard when you know you can probably get two 2 litre bottles for a quid in Poundland back home!

mrken30

And there are better US drinks I could but for $3.50

MsElui

i bought some apple and raisin slices in the dollar stores that bear a passing resemblance to Garibaldi biscuits (which i love). They are not a perfect match but im pretty pleased with the find - especially as they are only a buck. The bonus is they come in individually wrapped packets so theoretically i could just eat one packet of two biscuits and leave the rest, Or i can eat the whole damn packet in one sitting as is the legal requirement to do so in the UK :P

Skream

Found Pataks curry sauces in Wholefoods.. now I can make a decent curry every now and again.

TheTokenBrit

I have been using Pataks since I got here. It's been a godsend! Curry was relatively new to my wife's family when I came along.