Moving to US - what should I take?

Me.

LOL @ Mogic!

TBH, if it were me I think I'd go with nothing and go nuts in the supermarkets over there discovering lots of fab new things. What on earth is the mango chutney for?

Chocolate, if you like it. American chocolate just aint the same.

What are the food restrictions for the US?

To have with curry obviously. Very hard to get apparently.

Gingey wife, you're funny ?

Thanks...i think.

Are you taking curry with you as well then? ?

No cos I can make that, silly!

Are you seriously going to lug jars of mango chutney with you? It's easy enough to make and I'm sure there is a plentiful supply of mangos in the US.

Teabags aside as I know lots of people take tea bags places with them (although you can get decent ones in the US) I'm not sure I get why you are planning on taking half a UK supermarket with you?

I'd take crisps. american ones are not the same

How are you planning on taking all this stuff in? Sewn into the lining of your suitcases? ?

Baked beans and branston pickle - even if you don't like them. ?

I read on the British Expats forum that it is tricky to find a squash equivilent.

When do you go?

When I lived there I managed to find Tetley teabags in the supermarket.

If you like HP Sauce and Salad Cream then you should take them. Cabdbury's chocolate can be quite hard to find and expensive so some huge bars of that probably won't go wrong. The other thing that I missed was Ribena.

Going food shopping for the first time took me hours - I had to go up and down every single isle looking for things and when I found them there were so many different types, it's hard to know which to choose.

Where are you moving to?

I've never made a chutney or jam in my life.

I'm not actually planning on transporting Sainsbury's with me but I was just thinking if there are a few choice things I couldnt live without and couldnt get there. Mr G will be doing a couple of trips before we actually move so i wouldnt have to leave clothes behing :o)

Gingey - if you get there and you're desperate for anything, my brother does transatlantic hops all the time, and I can give him a parcel of necessities to post to you when he gets back to the US. ?

Give me a shout if you need anything. I had an HP mercy call from him when a business trip was cancelled and he was left without. ?

When it says "Cadbury's" on the label in the US, don't believe it. It's made under license by Hersheys, so is like American chocolate anyway. ☹️

When i lived out there the things that I missed (and got people to bring out to me) were baked beans, blackcurrant squash & chocolate. If you are shipping stuff out - which i guess you are - I would be taking these with me.

Apart from stuff that you wouldn't be able to take with you anyway like bacon, sausages etc, I haven't (yet) found anything that I haven't been able to buy in a supermarket over here.

I bought Ribena yesterday (haven't found a US squash equivalent), as well as Baked Beans (we've tried several tins of the American ones and didn't like them).

Some supermarkets have a "British" section and stock chocolate, HP sauce, Salad Cream, Marmite, biscuits, chocolate, tea bags etc etc etc. You will pay more for it but it's not impossible to find!

To be honest, unless you will only drink one type of tea or get through a mountain of mango chutney every month, then I wouldn't stress about it. If you're shipping stuff over and have room for a few tins and bottles, then by all means, go ahead, but I haven't found food shopping over here to be half as bad as other people were making it out to be before we moved!

CJJ, I think a lot of it is down to where you are living. I was in New Mexico and seriously, people asked me if we had cars in England so I doubt I'd have been able to find a British foods section ! I'm guessing that in the more cosmopolitan areas (thinking east & west coasts) it's a bit easier.

Fair point!

But Gingey is moving to the DC area, so I expect that there will be some British foods in the supermarkets.

Gingey, in that case I wouldn't bother taking much. I reckon DC is going to be well set up for "foreign tastes" ?

phew! I was getting a bit worried about explaining to Mr G the lack of backed beans (he classes it as a veg!)

Thanks all. I'm looking forward to going shopping now.

Thanks everyone. As for the Qs. Its DC area (actually North Virginia) and likely to be end of October, if we can get our fingers out with regard to the visas.

Where are you moving to? Manhattan for example is pretty good for finding english stuff - the middle of Texas, not so much. Most palces have soem sort of Brittish store around though although admiteddly the one here looks like soemthing out of the 1950's!

You can get mango chutney - most gourmet store have it and I've seen it in many supermarkets - getting a good curry is another matter though as they generaly do a different style of indian cooking here and Americans seem to be scared of spicey food. (Or so the guy who runs my local indian and used to work in London told me)

You can also get decent teabags - tetley's brittish blend are pretty good and I've seen PG tips and yorkshire tea (of all things)

Squash sadly, no. There's really not an equivalent over here, especially if you like blackcurrent stuff.

There's loads of on line stores that will ship brittish stuff over here. The shipping can be pricey but often team up with other expat mates as the bigger your order the cheeper shipping per item is IYSWIM. I mainly get crisp and cadburys chocolate this way. I also get wendsleydale cheese mail order from the UK. I have seen it here but it's stronger and less crumbly than I like.

I found I missed loads of things at first (I craved chippy chips which i hardly ever had anyhow but having been here 4 years I'd miss things from here far more if I went back, and it's things like the service and the shops being open late - stuff I absolutaly couldn't get back in the UK.

On our first visit to the local Indian restaurant I asked for mine to be 'hot' and was asked if I was sure because it would be properly hot and not 'American hot' ?. I have a feeling that a few people have been surprised in the past by what they were expecting for a hot curry!

DC you will be fine - you'll be able to get everything you want.

When I lived in NH, I had to rely on bringing a lot more stuff over than I do now.

So, I live in a major metropolitan area, as you will be. I can get Pataks mango chutney in the Indian grocery store, or in a major supermarket chain. I can also get a less good brand called Geeta's in my local 'gourmet urban (i.e. overpriced, but very convenient!) supermarket' . I tend to go the the India grocery store as its the best place for a good range of curry pastes, spices, lentils, rice etc. at bargain prices.

WOuldn;t bother with the chocolate either. Although most Cadbury's tastes like crap, there are several places where I can but British imported stuff.

THe things I bring back are:

Tea. You can get it here, but its really expensive. I paid over $4 for 40 PG tips tea bags when I ran out last week. I can buy a bag of 1000 at home for about double that.

Marmite. You can only buy small jars and its about $5 for the tiniest size. I like the big squeezy jars.

Garibaldi biscuits. I can get lots of English biscuits, but not these

Dried mixed peel - hard to find except at Xmas, and ridiculously expensive

Custard powder - well, I used to, but I have recently found a couple of places that stock it so won;t bother now.

I have recently discovered that you can't get treacle over here.

Not sure what supermarkets you have in DC, but if you have Shaws, they have a good international section. Also, if you shop in a part of town with a certain ethnic population, you find that the supermarkets are geared accordingly. I sometimes go to supermarkets in different parts of town to shop for this reason.

There is actually very little that you can't buy - its just a case of knowing where to look (for example, I can get Ribena in my local Indian corner shop and Chinese supermarket) and often being willing to pay a premium price for it (chocolate hob nobs are $5.49 a packet!). Indian and Chinese stores are a good source of English food.