Imported foods worth to seek out..I'll start with candy from the UK..

[burlgurl]

You can't compare Cadbury's from the UK from here (I'm in toronto)...I'll make the trek to the british import store and spend the extra money for these treats..what other imports are worth it and where to find?...
Cadbury Tiffin-delicious chocolate, shortbread bits, raisins
Cadbury Golden Crisp-same chocolate with bits of "crunchie"
Buttons-little disks of perfect chocolate
Munchies-similar to Rolo, but squares of caramel and shortbread in chocolate
Bon Bon's-pink (strawberry), yellow (lemon), or white (caramel) balls of sugary coated chewy toffees...mmmmm
Cadbury's Flake..
Snack bars..small shortbread versions of a KitKat..

[FriedClamFanatic]

In Canada you may be able to get it, but here in the States, finding good British Bacon is a struggle. I find I buy 8 lbs or so at a time via mailorder and freeze it. Not quite the same, but pretty good.

And nowhere can you find MacDougall's Thickener here. It was the best thickener I ever used for stews or soups

[acme]

Lyle's Golden Syrup and Cadbury's Turkish Bars...yum!

[im_nomad]

Bisto Chip Shop Curry
Heinz Curry Beans
Walkers shortbreads
Nairn's oatcakes
Tunnock's anything !! (tea cakes, caramel logs, caramel bars, snowballs..)
Ediburgh Castle Rock
Flake bars
Cross and Blackwell's fish and chip vinegar
La Chinata Smoked Paprika

Oh how i wish i could still get the Heinz Vegetable Salad in the cans.....the UK sells one that looks just like the one i used to get (presumably made in Canada, but mostly sold in Nfld....they stopped making it about a year ago, because there was "no market for it"). The UK version doesn't quite taste the same, and i don't know why !! It had an "old" taste to it.

[lulubelle]

Funny, where I live the imported foods we crave are things like Doritos and Cheetos. I have spent close to 10 USD for a bag of Doritos in a moment of desperation, and they still don't taste right.

Cadbury is easy to get though.

[FoodieKat]

Cadbury Crunchie bars
Cadbury Double Decker
Cadbury Starbar
Nestle Kit Kat Chunky (especially with peanut butter)
Mars Delight
Galaxy milk chocolate
Galaxy caramel milk chocolate
Maltesers
Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles
Maynard's Wine Gums
And no trip to the international food store would be complete without biscuits and cakes:
Fox's Jam Cream Biscuits
Jammie Dodgers
Butterscotch Chocolate Digestives
Viscount Mint Chocolate Biscuits
Kiplings Cherry Bakewells
Kiplings Battenberg Cake Slices
And of course, crisps
Walker's Cheese and Onion, Marmite and Heinz Ketchup flavors
And Marmite, Marmite Marmite (oh, and Branston pickle too)
That's more like a whole British grocery store than a candy list, but there you go. There's a lot of things from the UK I miss!

[Harters]

In the very distant past, when she had just left school, Mrs H took a job at the local Kipling factory. She recalls that most of the Battenburg process was automated but great slabs of the stuff had to be moved by hand from the production line that put the quarters together to the line that had the marzipan.

And the cherries and so on, were put on the "fancies" by hand as well.

Those were the days!

[MMRuth]

"Kiplings Battenburg Cake Slices" - is this just slices of Battenburg cake - the pink and yellow squares? I loved that! Don't think I've ever seen it in the States.

Yes - did some googling - mmmm.

http://www.gastronomydomine.com/labels/cake.html - at the end, there's a recipe - can't believe she actually made it. Interesting that she notes that it is also originally spelled Battenberg:

"Fellow pedants may point at the title of this post and tell me off; you're right, it is also spelled 'Battenberg', but 'Battenburg' gets more hits on Google ... Battenberg is the spelling which is, in fact, correct; the cake is named for the (originally German) family who made up part of the British royal family, and eventually renamed themselves Mountbatten in World War I to distance themselves from Germany."

More about it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battenbe...

The Pepper-hot apple cake above it looks wonderful, by the way.

[FoodieKat]

Yes, it is. They're like little slices of heaven...with marzipan
(my mistake on the spelling. My hubby would tell me off for that. ;-)).
There's a shop based out of Laguna Niguel, CA that sells them.

Luckily, I live close enough to drive there, but you can also order them online: http://www.britishfoodshop.com/defaul...

[MMRuth]

Hmmm ... I might have to do that - or try making it myself, though it might not have that glorious artificial taste of sorts that the packaged kind has! I think loads of people spell it "Battenburg" - my intent wasn't to correct your spelling ;-). Just thought the original derivation was interesting.

I also love:

Maynard's wine gums
Rowntree Fruit Pastilles
Callard & Bowser Licorice Toffee
And packaged fruit tarts - don't remember a brand name now, or where we bought them.
Frank Cooper's marmelade - the coarse cut.

This is making me hungry!

[MMRuth]

There was also a biscuit that I liked - can't remember the name now - with dried currants ... very flat.

[FoodieKat]

Fruit shortcake biscuits. There's different brands, but McVitie's is the more widely distributed. I love those too.

[MMRuth]

http://www.basically-british.com - this is a good site too. I'm reliving parts of my childhood here! Ribena ... I love anything that is black currant flavour - not a flavour used much in the U.S.

[Caitlin McGrath]

Luckily, you can buy Ribena at Food Emporium!

[MMRuth]

Just what I need - more sugar ;-). I'm actually surprised at how many of these things are pretty readily available. Even the little market around the corner from me sells the Rowntree products, Aero bars, smarties, etc. But the Battenberg Cake, that I've not seen!

[Peg]

Garibaldis?
AKA squashed fly biscuits.

[MMRuth]

Yes - that's it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibald...

[im_nomad]

are you talking about sultana biscuits?

[smartie]

yes they are known as squashed fly biscuits.

[FoodieKat]

Harters, I would love to have a job like that. But I'd probably gain 1,000 pounds in the process. :-0

[Harters]

Luckily Mrs H was only 16 at the time and the job wasnt for long.

You familiar with "swiss roll" cake - thin sponge cake spread with jam and then rolled? Kipling used to make a mini-version - like say a very fat cigar - then covered in chocolate. The machine spread the chocolate but didnt always properly cover the ends. Dipping a brush in melted chocolate and touching them up by hand was the only way - skilled job that was (apparently).

Factory was large, BTW. Several hundred employees. The company's advertising slogan is "Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes". No, he doesnt! And they put a lot of neighbours out of work when they closed the place.

J

[FoodieKat]

Yes, it's lovely. Chocolate-covered? Sounds even better.

[smartie]

the best mini rolls are the Cadbury's ones, plain sponge, strawberry jam dipped in cadbury's choccie - I am almost missing the UK! Also love chocolate covered marshmallow biccie things - with the biscuity cake on the bottom and some jam and soft marshmallow.

[FoodieKat]

Yeah, I like those too. And those cake bars, especially the ones with caramel. Yum! Are those biccies you mean called tunnocks' teacakes? In the red and silver foil wrappers? Never tried them but always thought they sounded good.

[Harters]

Yep. Those biccies will be Tunnocks. There's a standard procedure for eating them - slowly pick off and eat all the choccie; then slurp/lick the marshmallow and, finally eat the biscuit base. It may even be illegal to eat them in any other way.

John

[im_nomad]

those are my favorite Tunnock's product, although the caramel logs are a close second. People seem to go for the snowballs first but i've always loved tea cakes. They were sold in the candy stores when i was little....can still get them in nfld. I didn't even know they were an import until i was an adult. We had mostly British confectionary growing up.

[Passadumkeg]

Scandinavian herring, herring, cheese & bread.

[Harters]

I look for middle eastern import.

But then I'm British and all the other stuff everyone's mentioning ain't an import for me. That said, I hate Brit chocolate unless it's 70% cocoa solids

[rockycat]

Jelly Babies! Basset's All-Sorts. And, if crisps count, smokey bacon crisps. Those things are pure evil in a packet. I once literally emptied out a suitcase so that I could fill it with a caseful of smoky bacon crisps. And they're even vegetarian, too.

[smartie]

plain chocolate McVities digestives. Sandwich spread. Heinz cream of tomato soup.

[lhb78]

my husband loves Twiglets- not a candy but a favorite UK treat that can never find here. luckily the SIL's mother is a flight attendant and hooks him up on her london runs

[dolores]

lhb78, before my supermarket stocked my beloved Hobnobs, I went here for all my Angliophiliac obsessions:

http://www.britishdelights.com/

and yes, they have Twiglets! "impregnated with Marmite" -- ewwwwwwwww!

JK, enjoy.

[fmed]

Oops...I guess I misunderstood your post. For English candy:

Do Potato Chips/Crisps count? - The English have the best flavoured crisps.
Basset jellies/licorice/etc are superior to the waxy jellies we get here.
Rosettes - similar to but better than Kisses
Wispa - similar to but better than Aero
Flake

Pretty much ALL commercial chocolate is better in England thatn here. I think it may have something to do with the higher concentration of hydrogenated fats in the fourmulation here (I have nothing to back this up).

[moh]

Yes yes! Beef flavoured crisps! I love them! And the U.K. Flake is very different than the N.A. counterpart. And fruit gums. And Jelly Babies.

I miss Marks and Sparks, I really liked their prepackaged Scotch eggs, and meat pies (steak and kidney in particular). And Branston Pickle.

[fmed]

Japanese Kit Kats - you can buy these at any Japanese convenient store in most major cities (eg here in Vancouver - Konbiniya, Fujiya, etc. I have not been able to find a store with more than half a dozen flavours) I love Japanese candies in general.

Spanish Nougat/Turron (I personally like the Blando, and Yema Tostada from El Almendro, and Delaviuda). I get these at our neighborhood cheese shop and Italian grocery around Christmas time.

Swedish Jellies and Licorices eg Gott and Blandatt from Malaco; Kack; Haribo - you can get some of these at Ikea.

[dolores]

Hobnobs, burlqurl. Oh those Hobnobs.

Violet crumble is delish in pancakes, although I don't like it alone.

But.....those hobnobs!

[burlgurl]

what is violet crumble?

[fmed]

It's an Aussie candy bar similar to Crunchie.

[miss_bennet]

Hobnobs are import? I ate those so much as a child! Maybe it's because I'm Canadian that they aren't imports. Or they are, and I didn't know.

[irishnyc]

Love the Hob Nobs!

[miss_bennet]

I'll have to try KitKats the next time I go to Fujiya in Victoria. That is, if I don't spend all my money on ebi prawns...