Living abroad as a British expat or any other nationality, can deny the expat of certain products that he or she loves from back home. This can also include dishes from the homeland. I absolutely love a good English marmalade (see link) or homemade marmalade. I am also shamefully addicted to Marmite (see link). I am trying to get help at 'Marmite Anonymous' and go to regular secret meeting groups. However my cravings still remain. You can buy it in Moscow from a man in a hat, if don't mind waiting and can pay in dollars or you can buy it via Perter Justesen (see link) mail order or from one of the luxury food stores here in Moscow. You can get HP sauce, (see link) custard and other such fantastic English condiments. I also miss a good English cheddar cheese. All imported food is costly here. Weetabix (see link) can be found here but is a like the lesser spotted woodpecker, its rare and hard to find and costly but necessary for normal bodily function.
You can get curry here or any other dish that you like, but prices are high and the quality is fair to poor. I have not yet found a good curry like they serve back home at a good British curry restaurant. I miss English dishes such as Toad in the hole, (see link) no toads are killed or harmed to make this dish, Shepherds pie, no shepherds are harmed or killed to make it, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, (sadly a beef does give his life for this dish) Trifle (see link) and other such traditional English dishes. You can try to make these dishes at home but its not the same (I would burn the kitchen down) and ingredients can differ or be hard to get. You can always get peanut butter (peanuts do die and end up being mixed with butter) anywhere in the world but its rather harder to get good bacon for an English breakfast. You can get very good English sausages here in Moscow via home delivery from John Warrens sausages (see link). Two more specials, Branston pickle and Corned beef (see links) they are essentially British and really good. Corned beef looks horrible but combined with Branston pickle and crisps in a sandwich its the best. For best results, kick off your shoes, sit on the sofa, switch on your favorite TV show and drink a large tea with milk or a beer with this sandwich.
Many expats, stock up on much loved foods when they fly home and come back with loaded suitcases. There are Marks and Spenser's (see link) around the world, including here in Moscow but sadly they don't sell M&S foods like they do back home. You can take the Brit off England but you cant take England out off the Brit. I am sure the same applies to the French, German, Slovaks, Americans and other nationalities living abroad. However if you don't mind paying and have to look, you can find almost anything in your host country. I have lived abroad for over seven years but still not found a good curry like back home but I have not given up searching.
I am sorry if you have no idea what I am talking about as far the above products and recipes go, but if you not a Brit (we cant all be perfect) you may not know. Try them and feel reborn. I should also mention an unknown hero, sticky toffee pudding (see link). Its orgasmic and better than a naked Thai girl dancing on your lap. Eat it with custard (See link) or cream (That's the sticky toffee pudding and not the Thai girl). On seconds thoughts, why not eat it with a naked Thai girl in a bath of custard!
It was in 1902 that the Marmite Food Company (later Marmite Ltd) was set up in Burton on Trent. There mission, then as now, was to share the joy of Marmite-eating and make it available to all those with excellent taste. Join the Marmite fan club here
For any sandwich, chefs try these:
1 Peanut butter and jam on thick toasted bread
2 Marmalade, a mashed egg and sausage on thick soft untoasted bread
3 Corned beef, Branston pickle and crisps on soft white untoasted bread
4 Cold turkey and jam on soft white un toasted bread
5 Cold roast chicken with mayonnaise and crisps on soft white untoasted bread
6 Marmite and cheddar cheese on soft white untoasted bread
7 Mature cheddar cheese with Branston pickle on soft white untoasted bread. Drink a warm ale by a fire in an old English pub or at home in front of a good TV show.
N.B Sorry I hate vegetarianism and so can only suggest you eat a cabbage sandwich and drink it with a broccoli smoothie while wearing your knitted slippers.
© All Rights Reserved.
I can assure you that the same applies to Americans living abroad! Have you received shipments from Peter Justesen? I haven't had anything shipped to a Russian address yet and am curious how that worked out.
ReplyDeleteYes sir. We get the catalog at my wife's office and all order between us. Wine, tins, whiskey, electrical goods etc. Cheap and tax free.
ReplyDeleteHP is sold in "7 kontinent". about £3-4 / bottle.
ReplyDeleteI understand your cravings for I had the same situation when stayed in Manchester for a year.
ReplyDeleteApart from food, it is better and cheaper to get stuffs like clothes (especially for kids) from outside Russia using ebay or other e-shops, I guarantee it! I do it myself on a regular basis and save two or three times more.
regards
I forgot!
ReplyDeleteCool blog. I spent 2 hours of my worktime reading it!
Hammurabi tut tut naughty reading in work time you would like my bit on expatriates see type 1. I hope you like my blog and I am only joking read it all day if the work is boring!! If it passes that day read it and enjoy.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
ReplyDeleteHP is sold in "7 kontinent". about £3-4 / bottle.
I know thanks. I prefer fruity HP !!! :-)
I love your blog! Thanks for finding me and following, am now following back. Looking forward to reading more.
ReplyDeleteHave lived as an exiled Englishman in Moscow for 16 years and in that time I have neither pined for nor hunted out English food or drink. Don't miss it all. Russian food is far healthier. English food is full of preservatives, out of a can, tasteless, bland and mostly indigestible.
ReplyDeleteMoscow Exile, We are all different as you say you are an exile maybe that's why you dont miss any English foods? Is there nothing you miss come on I cant believe you. Can you tell us what Russian foods, cans, sauces etc that you like?
ReplyDeleteSurly, all foods have preservatives unless they are organic.
While it's true that all pre-prepared foodstuff has preservatives, fresh fruit and vegetables, however, together with recently slaughtered livestock, have no preservatives, no nitrate compounds, no flavour enhancers, and no other similar potential carcinogens added. My Russian wife buys fresh fruit and vegetables daily from a local market; our meat mostly comes from there as well. Russian - or, more exactly, Azerbaidzhan - tomatoes have real flavour, unlike those tasteless forced tomatoes from Dutch greenhouses on sale both in the UK and Moscow. Russian housewives spend far longer in the kitchen than do their British counterparts, which latter employ a tin-opener as their main kitchen implement. At a rough guess, I should say that Russian housewives spend up to twice as long preparing meals than do British ones. I repeat, having lived in Russia for the past 16 years, I miss no English foodstuff whatsoever. I cannot abide that milk and sugar solution that the British call "tea", having all my life drunk tea "Russian style", so I immediately felt quite at home when I settled in Moscow in 1995. Tea-bags, in my opinion, are an abomination! I eat Russian porridge oats, with salt, as I did "back home": Russian porridge oats are identical to those in the UK. I always buy "Hercules" oats, unlike many newly affluent Muscovites that prefer to buy imported Western Quaker oats, thinking that they must be intrinsically better than the Russian ones. I eat Russian mustard and horseradish, the latter especially with "kholodets" - jellied meat, which is much to my taste, it being similar to the "brawn" of my native Lancashire. Russian and British mustard are similar, in that they are both eye-wateringly "hot", unlike the sweetish European varieties. Russians think a meal without soup is unthinkable, and Russian soups are always home-made; so it's
ReplyDelete"borshch" and "shchi" amongst many others for me: no tins of Heinz "Cream of Tomato" soup in our kitchen. I much prefer "kvas" to that undrinkable, sickly-sweet Coca-Cola concoction, and I should rather eat home-made Russian "kotlety" to the those seemingly ubiquitous, horrendous McDonald's burgers. There is absolutely no foodstuff from the UK that I miss. My favourite Russian dishes are "selyodka pod shuboi" - "herring under a fur coat", marinated slices of herring under cold mashed potato, carrots and mayonnaise, "olivye" - "Russian Salad", and Russian mushrooms lovingly gathered in the forest - an art long forgotten in the UK; I love Russian "black bread", especially the "borodinsky" variety, and the enormous variety of Russian milk products such as "kefir", and "smetana". The spicy sauce that I like most here, though not Russian - it being from the Caucasus - is "adzhika". In the 16 years that I have lived here in Moscow, I have only ventured back to the UK 5 times, and for very short periods at that. I suppose I must have gone native.
Moscow excile
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that its very interesting. I love all food and love to try foods from other countries and cultures.
I love borshch and if eaten with a fresh crispy bread its total heaven. I also like Blini with red eggs or black with thick cream. I lived in Slovakia for a long time and liked Slovak food but it can be very heavy. I dont think I would like Russian black bread.
I am an Englishman so tea without milk goes against all that is sacred and holy. I cannot drink black tea.
Its interesting what you say about Russian women spending ages in the kitchen, maybe their men should help out more but its good they make the effort, the UK is fast food nation and microwave nation, so fresh cooked food is the best IMO. You are lucky that your wife cooks so well.
I do all the cooking. I love spicy carrots salads you get here and rolled stuffed pancakes. I hate cabbage and would be afraid to buy meat from open air markets, I do buy my fruit and veg when I can from markets in Moscow. I agree UK veg is tasteless.
Eat and enjoy.
I still have to try many Russian dishes and look forward to it asap!!!! :-)
I should have added that we are very fortunate to possess a dacha with a garden full of apple, pear and plum trees; there are rasberry, blackcurrent, redcurrent, and gooseberry bushes as well as strawberries and we have a large greenhouse. In summer my wife makes huge quantities of juice from the berries and also salted gherkins, not those sweetish marinated ones sucha as can be found in Germany. We grow gherkins and tomatoes in our greenhouse and potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions and garlic as well as many herbs in our kitchen garden. All this is typical for dacha owners, who can be seen late summer returning every Sunday evening from their dachas, laden with their home-grown produce. My family live at the dacha most of the summer, whereas I, unfortunately, have to commute there from Moscow during the summer months.
ReplyDeleteMoscow exile, I am JEALOUS. Lucky man.
ReplyDeleteIt was the same in Slovakia many people grow their own veg and fruits and make home made wines and spirits from plumbs and pears. Its a pity you are stuck to work in Moscow with a commute but work is work.
I expect your wife makes lovely fresh pies as well from the fruit in the garden !!!!! Delicious !:-)
Life is sweet for you in Russia.
Yes, this dacha culture is an Eastern European thing and what is grown at one's little house in the country certainly is beneficial to East European fare, which can tend to be stodgy. The "garden settlements" where most Russian dachas are located were handed out to Soviet citizens by post-WWII Soviet governments, each territory usually belonging to workers of a particular industrial plant or part of the huge bureaucracy. Our dacha is situated on a territory still officially called "MinFin", so I suppose it was originally allocated to those employed at the Soviet Ministry of Finance. When life was considerably more difficult for many back in the USSR, having a dacha certainly improved the quality of many Soviet citizens' lives. Many now, however, only use their dachas as places of rest and relaxation. That's essentially the purpose of our dacha: we can buy fresh fruit and vegetables if need be, but it is much more rewarding to grow your own crops.
ReplyDeleteIt must be so nice to have a dacha as an escape. Although, I have taken some trips out of Moscow and we spent many hours to get out the city due to the thick traffic. I would love to visit a Russian dacha and eat with a Russian family and real Russian cooking. I have not yet been lucky enough to experience that yet.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was a kid, we grew veg and herbs at the end of out garden in North London and it tasted fab.
You are an interesting person and I bet could tell many a tale about Russia and life here. Would you be willing to share any experiences on this blog? I could add you as a contributor on a new section. Its easy to set up or you could simply post your experiences on here if you agreed by emailing me?
If not never mind, we can just chew the fat on here as and when any of my posts interest you.
I love Branston pickle. With a good Stilton . . . and I'm a Yank.
ReplyDeleteExpatress, I suppose even Americans can have good taste !! :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree, Stilton is good with BP but did you ever try it with a mature Cheddar in thick white bread washed down with a warm ale by a fire in an English pub or when watching TV at home. HEAVEN is in a sandwich :-)
This talk about cheese reminds me that I do have at least one criticism about Russian cuisine: the cheese is generally awful! I'm a cheese lover and couldn't agree more about Stilton, "The King of Cheeses". I once presented a French acquaintance with a wedge of Stilton, and he just couldn't believe it was English. I convinced him in the end (this was before the Internet and rapid access to the Information Highway), but his ancient father categorically refused to accept that the "Anglais" could produce such a fine cheese. There are some decent cheeses to be had in Russia, but they're not Russian: they're from the Caucasus and are soft, white goat or sheep cheeses that resemble the stuff that you can get in Greece. The Russians try hard, but their cheeses have no consistency. You can find a good local cheese, and then the following week you buy the same stuff and it's too salty or like rubber. I think the fault lies in (a) Soviet style quality control, namely it's not so much the quality but the quantity, the targeted output that counts and (b) as a result of Soviet co-operative style farm management, Russian dairy farmers usually transport their milk to a central cheesery which might be miles away from those farms situated on the administrative district perimeter. The milk suffers when being sloshed around for miles over country dirt roads and the resulting cheese is of poor quality. That's my theory anyway. Another thing that I've never seen here is mint sauce.I once brought some back from the UK and none of my Russian acquaintances liked it. The French and Germans whom I have tried out mint sauce on also find it a curious substance to add to lamb. It's generally hard to find lamb in Russia anyway: the Muslim peoples of the Russian Federation eat mutton of course, and its from them that I order lamb. When I first came to Russia, many Russians thought I was Muslim because I often made "shashlyk" (which is most certainly not a barbecue) with lamb: the Russians use pork, which is fine. In fact, Russian porkers are like the ones I remember when I was a lad: big fat rascals and not the streamlined, pumped-full-of-hormone creatures that have been genetically tailored for Western tastes and whose flesh is so anaemic and bland. I prefer lamb, though, probably because that was what I was largely brought up on in the North of England. Another favourite Russian dish of mine is the cold summer soup known as "okryoshka". It's made up of finely diced sausage (the type known as "kolbasa, namely boiled "German" sausage) and chopped herbs and spring onions. The liquid body of the soup is "kvas",a drink made from fermented "black" (rye) bread. Kvas is a great drink. It does have an extremely small alcohol content, but I should think you would have to drink about five buckets of it to feel even the slightest effect of intoxication. Another fermented drink that I like, though again not Russian, is "kumis" - fermented mare's milk. It's from Khazakstan and I love it.
ReplyDeleteThe only cheddar Ive see here was on the bottom of my feet.
ReplyDeleteAs an American in the UK (I am not a Yank, as I'm from the South), I can say that I really am enjoying getting to know British food. I just love Marmite - and pickle and cheese sandwiches. They're excellent!
ReplyDeleteI don't miss much from home because I really can get most of it here except my favourite cornbread which is actually comes in a box... one of those just add water and eggs things. My sister brought me 7 when she came last month.
Brandy do you like the UK???
ReplyDeleteOh yes! And something that I've never found in Moscow during the course of my long residence here is Christmas pudding. Each Yuletide have I searched Moscow in vain for traditional English plum pudding. My sister usually sends me one from England. Yes, I suppose I should say that I "miss" real Christmas pudding, but as I only eat it once a year, I have certainly not gone into withdrawal symptoms because of its absence from my diet. When I was a student in the Soviet Union, I knew some English girls that were studying with me at the Voronezh State University, situated some 300 miles south of Moscow, and each weekend they used to make a 24-hour return rail journey to the capital simply to visit a small shop at the British Consulate, where they bought such things as chocolate McVitie's digestive biscuits, Mars bars, Tetley tea bags, Nescafe instant coffee, Scotch whiskey and gin. Waste of time and effort if you ask me! There was nothing wrong with Soviet tea, biscuits and vodka; Russian chocolate is streets ahead of the British stuff, which in the EU cannot legally be called "chocolate" as it has too little chocolate solids in it; the instant coffee available in the USSR was just as horrible as Nescafe. I think this yearning for "food from home" is basically a symptom of homesickness, something that has never happened to me, though I certainly have been sick of "home".
ReplyDeleteMoscow exile it seems to me you dont like or miss your homeland and have accepted or even embraced Russia as your home. I only miss the UK for it once was but not how it is now, if that makes any sense to you? I do miss many foods and products from the UK as I mentioned above.
ReplyDeleteYou can of course make Xmas pudding yourself if that is the only thing you miss from the UK.
Yes, I often tell those Russians who voice their disbelief over my claim that I do not miss my home country that I find it hard to yearn for something that in my opinion ceased to exist over 30 years ago. The England of my childhood and youth is not, for better or worse, the England that exists now; in fact, on the rare occasions that I return to the UK, I feel very much a foreigner there, most especially in the capital. And when I'm asked if I never feel any homesickness whatsoever, I always reply that of course I miss home whenever I'm away from there for any period of time: I miss Russia whenever I'm in England. As they say: "Home is where the heart is".
ReplyDeleteOn that point I totally agree with you in not missing how it is now.
ReplyDeleteI could never live here full time in Moscow, its too big, too dirty, too expensive and a bit scary for me. If I spoke Russian and had a Russian wife or GF I am sure I would feel more like you do about than I do now.
However You must miss some things?? If you are honest with yourself.
Can I tempt you below:
A pub and a pint of beer and pork scratchings
British TV 1970 and 80s and 90s
Fish N chips
Kebabs
A curry
Cornwall
Devon
The countryside
The seaside
No/Yes?
As regards your list of things in the UK that I may possibly miss having become an exile in Moscow:
ReplyDelete1. A pub and a pint of beer and pork scratchings - I don't drink alcohol. I used to drink ale with gusto, but I grew out of it long ago. Pork scratchings always reminded me of very fat, old women's toe nails: you know, the sort that grow long and curly because, in their dotage and unhealthy condition, the women are incable of bending over and cutting them.
2. British TV 1970 and 80s and 90s - most certainly not! Much prefer the wireless, and with the introduction of broad band Internet services, I can listen to the programmes of my choice from all over the world, including Auntie BBC.
3. Fish N chips - no, make them here. Malt vinegar, though, is uniquely British and I always bring several litres back with me on the very rare occasions when I visit the UK, or ask my sister not to forget to bring some when she comes over. Fish and chips with diluted acetic acid is horrendous! If there is no malt vinegar at hand, I use cider vinegar. We always have abundant crops of apples each year.
4. Kebabs - Not really English food, and having become accustomed to Russian shashlyk, what liking I may have had for kebab long ago faded into insignificance.
5. A curry - again, I have never been a really big curry eater. I'm from Lancashire, the land of black puddings, Lancashire Hot Pot (mutton stew), tripe and onions, dark mild ale, Eccles and Chorley cakes, chip butties, steak and kidney pudding, meat and potato pies, Boddington's bitter etc. I have never had the multi-culti tastes of the capital. Like I often say to Muscovites: I'm not from London, I'm English.
6.Cornwall - never been there.
7.Devon - never been there.
8. The countryside - as I was brought up in a pit village, the countryside for me was always in close proximity to the heavy industry in which I worked. The Pennines and the Derbyshire Peak District, Snowdonia and the Lake District were easy to reach from my old home. Of course, the Russian countryside bears little resemblance to the hills and dales that were part of my past. However, the beauty of the Russian lanscape also gives me pleasure and I spend as much tiome at my dacha as I possibly can. I have never ever been as happy as I am whenever I'm there in my garden with my Russian wife and children. I do not miss the English countryside: I now have another one.
9. The seaside - Yes! And the smell of the ocean. And the wind! Russia is not a very windy place, in my opinion. More exactly, it's the close proximity of the sea that I miss. In the British isles there is nowhere further than 8O miles from the coast. I usually go to the Black Sea coast with my family, or, because of work commitments, they journey there alone. The Black Sea is not like the Atlantic or the North Sea, but it suffices. However, it's a 36-hour train journey from Moscow to the Crimea or, say, Anapa, whereas I could be at the seaside within the hour by train from where I used to live.
It' strange that you find Moscow "scary". I once worked for an American academic who used to come over here to delve the state archives in order to write a Soviet History. She was from a very old and well-to-do Manhattan family. When she first came here, I began to escort her from her hotel to the archives and back again late in the evening. It was September when she used to come to Moscow and the evenings were dark. But she soon got accustomed to Moscow and lost her fear. After that, she so loved returning to Moscow because she could walk the streets and ride the metro even after dark, something that she told me she would never risk in New York.
ReplyDeleteMoscow exile, I dont think her family background had much to do with it. I come from a village in England so naturally a mega city like Moscow scares me to bits.
ReplyDeleteExile, I like your answers on things you miss and dont from the UK I cant agree with you on Pork Scratchings, since I eat my own toenails on toast for breakfast. Kebabs and curry although not strictly 'English' have became an institution. The Russian version does not light my fire.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised a lad from a pit village has settled so well here. I think you must have a wonderful and beautiful wife a great kids to have taken so well to your new life in Russia.
I admire you but can't imagine doing it full time myself. Its too alien for me.
Do I like the UK?
ReplyDeleteAs a whole, I'll have to say ... no.