Kraft – Its the Cheesiest! And other care package desirables
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I received a care package yesterday! My Mom sent 9 boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and 2 bags of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chips!! That’s right Ladies, semi-sweet morsels!! 
Care packages are just automatic ways to lift spirits and be reminded of favourite treats from home. Any of the yucky feelings left over from a rough day at work yesterday suddenly lifted. Note to self: bring small baggies of morsels to work every day.
It got me thinking – what things will I want in a care package from the UK when I’m back in America?
Here’s a quick list:
Cheese and onion pasties or veg pasties if from Thomas the Bakers (not suitable for overseas travel, sigh)
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
Lemsip – Flu strength
Yorkshire Tea
Any number of vegetable curries (also not a good shipping contestant)
Louie Theroux documentaries
Episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks with Simon Amstel
Umm, this one is embarrassing but… I really like all the reruns of Murder, She Wrote that you can get everyday if you have Sky. I don’t think you can still get that show in America anymore.
What would you put in your care packages Ladies?
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I have really grown to love FRAZZLES here….they are not quite the same as fritos but I do enjoy the bacon flavor of them! I turned my nose up at them for months until I tried them, and now I am hooked. Also I am enjoying the cadbury animal crackers with chocolate on the back of them….yum. I have to say one thing I will miss when we move back to the US would be the great (and cheap) selection of good cheese here vs. cheese in the US. And of course the fifty million varieties of cream here….also much cheaper and more abundant than US versions of heavy whipping cream.
I send Terry’s chocolate oranges and Maltesers to my friend in Ohio.
If you subscribe to Netflix which features instant viewing or Video On Demand, you could watch the ENTIRE Murder She Wrote Series whenever you feel the need. YAY American consumerism!
Squash!! There is no equivalent in America.
I don’t want to go back to Kool-Aid or Crystal Light. I swear, even now, I remember how dry and powdery Crystal Light made my mouth feel… But there’s always Tang!
I second the ‘cheese’ thought, Cassie! British cheese really takes the cake, and for the right price.
And how can we forget… TEA. In America they microwave water and leave a limp Lipton floating around in there. GROSS…
Tea, always tea. Ribena. Hobnobs. Digestives.
And in the other direction, Kraft Mac and Cheese. Steak (tricky one logistically). Minute Maid frozen lemonade.
Yes, going back to America to visit the family I always take my favourite Uk chocolate, MINGLES, and “Betty’s Tearoom Blend Tea”…well, my tea palette is so damn refined Twinings just doesn’t cut it there anymore. Yet my “refined “palette (you know I am joking, right?) still misses Kraft mac and cheese too. Who can beat that orange powdery stuff? On the fake cheese route I would be all for some velveeta too. Oh wait– but while we are going for some fake food how about some frozen Eggo waffles and Pilsbury cinnamon rolls. Or…how about …some Tostitos… You know, maybe my mom should send me the whole Wal-Mart food aisle…
Great lists ladies! In college, I used to get the whole grain version of Eggo waffles, spread on some raspberry jam and count it as health food!! Oh, that sounds so good now, actually.
I also would totally order Chipotle burritos with guacamole if they were shipable.
I used to get so sad that I couldn’t get a cinnamon roll here. I remember one day when I was just visiting Mr. Charismatic walked me to about 6 bakeries just to try to find a gooey cinnamon roll. No luck…
Oh, and I love hobnobs too Iota. In fact Fox’s makes a version of two hobnob like cookies with creamy frosting in the midde – yum!
I’ve grown to love and know I would miss these items if I ever move back to the states:
Yorkshire Pudding, Sticky Toffee Pudding, English cucumbers, Maltesers, mini Babybel cheese, Elderflower flavour fizzy drinks.
*I totally hear you on the cinnamon roll. I would kill for one of those right now. mmm
CHIPOTLE!!!! Oh my God… I’m buying a plane ticket right now.
And Cheesecake Factory cheesecake…
And Chicago pizza. sigh…
If any of you lovely American ladies wants to make her fortune, open a decent deep-dish pizza place in the UK. English pizza has the weirdest pizza sauce ever…
Malt loaf, Lilt, chocolate digestive biscuits, Bakewell Tarts, balti curries………..yum.
From home I want Cheez-its but if I moved back I’d want Quavers. And greek yogurt with honey.
Nick got me Kraft macaroni and cheese for the inauguration and it was the best! I died and went to American heaven. I would like Kit Kat senses, all the Quorn products, Caramel McVitties that don’t cost $6, cheap brie and other cheeses (I’m glad you all understand my excitement for this), cheap champagne that is still delicious.
YankeeBean, you are so right about the pizza – what’s up with that? I’d liek to bring real pizza here, Kraft mac n cheese, Chioltle burritos, Taco Bell, Cinnabons…
These lists could go on forever…
From the UK, I would miss the cute flower carts/shops/stands….the combinations of colors and textures are beautiful, and there is always something new! I know it isn’t a food item…but it is something that always makes me happy!
FYI, Harvey Nick’s in Leeds has Libby’s pumpkin pie mix, and Hershey’s chocolate syrup…mmmmm….cold, sweet chocolate milk!
Dear
It was just the American in me…..
Wow, great to know that Harvey Nicks sell Pumpkin Pie things…will go have a look!
Great answer above too, very thoughtful!
It is great how so many of us share similar ideas about what we miss and the new things we have discovered since moving.
Market researchers take note!
From home, I miss Tex-Mex food in general and particularly real corn tortillas. My in-laws brought an entire suitcase full of tortillas, Velveeta and Rotel tomatoes and chilis when they visited last year and my aunt sends regular shipments of Welch’s grape jelly.
If you get desperate, this site has a decent selection of our American favourites.
http://www.americansoda.co.uk/uk/American-Soda/Home/Groceries/default.aspx
This is great!
I’ve been reading through this blog (newest to here so far) after randomly stumbling on it.
A while ago I was moaning on facebook about the pain in the bum that it is having to convert american recipes into english measurements. Especially as I heard that the british volume measure of a cup is different to the american one. An American friend of mine (Yvo from http://feistyfoodie.com/ ) said she would send me some bog standard (to her) measuring cups, and other goodies I can’t get here.
Thinking it’d be fun to send some British stuff to her, I started planning a gift box of yummies and bits and pieces… but after marmite and a few bars of Cadburys chocolate, I kinda hit a standstill. Looking through these comments has really helped give me an idea of what can’t generally be bought in America, and thus what treats I should send over
You guys can keep your Kraft macaroni and cheese – I’m sort of a nut about avoiding MSG and artificial flavourings and colours!
I love UK cheese – you can get Kerry’s Irish Gold cheddar cheese in the US in lots of supermarkets, even in midwestern small-town cultural deserts. At the main supermarket in my sad rust belt town, you can even get real imported English wensleydale with cranberries in it, which I love on occasion. Although it’s not as good as the kind you can get in the UK – must be substandard stuff for the export market.
I really miss Rachel’s organic dairy greek yogurt with coconut – heaven. Like ice cream that isn’t frozen.
I miss Waitrose, generally. I think I’ve shopped at every one in London at one point or another. Sometimes I would take the tube to go to a long way to one, because they would carry something the others didn’t have.
In one town I lived in for 18 months in Zone 6, most Sundays I used to walk 4 miles along the Thames tow path to the Kingston Waitrose, put my groceries in a backpack, and walk the 4 miles back home again. I think of that all the time – the beautiful walk, with swans on the river and people rowing, Hampton Court Palace at the start of my walk, the beautiful bridge at Kingston that I crossed over, just as (apparently, according to a website I read) Caesar had, the Waitrose in the basement of the John Lewis there, the vegetarian Indian ready meals and nice pizzas and lovely butter from France in a log and creme fraiche and mini veggies like the tiny aubergines, organic turkey in the deli and 3 kinds of Rachel’s organic greek yogurt… etc. Ahhhh.
I miss Pizza Express. Soho pizza with extra olives.
I miss Thai food.
I miss scones and clotted cream.
I miss hiking miles through the countryside to National Trust or English Heritage properties and having a scone and pot of earl grey tea in the cafe, and buying my mom a little something (mailable) in the gift shop.
I think this is veering away from your care package theme. In fact, almost none of the things I miss could go into a care package. But it’s been an enjoyable 5-minute reverie, just the same.
By the way, several food shops in London have whole American aisles with imported foods – even some of the smaller corner shops in the better-off neighbourhoods do!
One of the biggest American food sections is at the supermarket in Harvey Nichols department store, which is down the road from Harrod’s, in London. They’ve got things like marshmallows, Aunt Jemima syrup, chocolate chips, Hershey’s syrup, southern BBQ sauce, maraschino cherries, fried onion things for ‘green bean casserole’, canned pumpkin, Twizzlers, Kraft mac & cheese. Also, the Selfridges department store food hall on Oxford Street has an American aisle.
Also in London, in the month before Thanksgiving, Waitrose on Kensington High Street stocks Libbey’s pumpkin pie filling.
There are food importing companies on the internet (food for both directions).
Also, you would be surprised what you can order on Amazon.com from the UK, although sometimes it’s expensive. Never tried it the other way around (US food from Amazon.co.uk)