Sounds vaguely familiar...

Aren't there crazy customs laws though about using pasteurised milk or something along those lines? Some weird reason that all American cheese tends towards the "rubber" variety...

Me. Cos it's a department store. (Kind of)

Yes - so you aren't really gonna get good goat's cheese and what not. Some places have decent stuff, I don't know how strictly it's enforced, or if they are dealing with illicit substances. Proper Iberico jamon was banned until recently. I find it strange that Europeans have eaten this stuff for the millennia yet we Americans need to be protected by the USDA.

Guess what! They have them!!

Thanks so much, LeahJane!

Never say never!! I don't like tea (I know ) but I am sure I am going to soon realise what I miss

Yes there is. But it's a lot better than some other places, I suppose.

http://www.britishfoodshop.com/

Get it shipped to your door.

Expensive but you will find it's about the same as the US British stores.

Yeah, we have been ordering tea since Wes first arrived about 3 years ago. Actually PG Tipps isn't our fave but it's a far better alternative than american teas. We usually order irish teas such as Bewleys or Numbarrie.

What I like about being able to get it off the grocer shelf is I don't have to order a boatload of tea to justify the shipping costs.

Next is definitely not like Banana Republic! I would say Old Navy...same for Primark
Waitrose is nicer than Walmart by far, more of an upscale grocery store, maybe Publix
Tesco is like a regular grocery store, Kroger or Safeway
Monsoon is probably like Ann Taylor
Debenhams is like Macys

Gucci Giant. Love it. You are all making me miss the US tremendously.

In Washington (DC) we had Safeway. So there was the Social Safeway (posh Georgetown), the Soviet Safeway (northeast, never anything on the shelf), the UnSafeway (southeast, bad neighborhood), and the Gayway (Dupont Circle....you figure it out.) There is something about naming each branch that makes the chains not feel so soul-less.

Can anyone explain to me the English obsession with chain stores? I've been in London for two years and keep trying to find a neighborhood with some originality...they all feel like highway exits in the US...same restaurants, same liquor stores, same pharmacies, same bars. Depressing and a little bit weird.


Homesick American.

I don't know - we seem to love the chain stores here in US as well unfortunately


I love the naming of the Safeways

Yikes! That brings back nasty memories!

I don't know - I find London quite diverse but then I have never lived there- I think if you go to smaller out of the way places then you are less likely to get the generic bumpf you get everywhere... nice local pubs... ohhh how I am going to miss them

oh, I definitely see what you mean about the chain places in the UK, but I find there are PLENTY of unique places if you just look

I used to live near Broadway Market in East London (still not that far away, actually), and it's FANTASTIC - in one short stretch we had Russian (Little Georgia - now moved down the road a way), Argentinian (Buen Ayre, with a proper open grill which is, or at least was, the only one of its type in London; the place has been packed nightly since it opened), Mediterranean (Cilicia - there's one other in Stoke Newington, so may technically be a chain, but does wonderful Turkish and similar type food, and has beautiful gourds hanging from the ceiling) and Indian (Joy); there's a great gastropub (Cat and Mutton) and a brilliant taverny type pub called the Dove, with an amazing selection of Belgian fruit beers and a menu of mixed traditional (bangers and mash, burgers) and Thai... and of course there's the ubiquitous fish'n'chip place, and a kebab shop, etc

I know similar places in Stoke Newington - the Blue Legume, just for starters - and loads of places in Soho as well... and I've been to excellent places with friends, but they were more local to them so I don't remember names and locations off the top of my head

and I've managed to live here almost four years and never step foot inside a Maccas, or a Burger King, or an Angus Steakhouse
been to Cafe Nero on and off, and Starbucks occasionally - mainly for the frappucinos - but generally I can find somewhere unique and different a few minutes' walk away so if I do go there it's usually by choice

My question is always - who does eat at the Angus Steak House?

I'm guessing tourists...? certainly no one I know

and I figure that's why they're in such prominent positions in such touristy areas - right on Leicester Square, Shaftesbury Avenue, etc - so exhausted tourists just slump inside and don't bother going that extra block in search of something better

It's no wonder England has such a bad reputation for food if that's where the tourists are eating

well, not any who visit ME

and I've never eaten there, so I can't comment specifically on the quality of the food, but I avoid them sort of on instinct

To be fair, I haven't eaten at one either though I always imagine they are a slightly upmarket version of Wimpy (if that even exists any more)

I really miss Wagamamas. Yasai Katsu Curry. *sighs*

In fact I just miss curry, but I did love my once a week lunch there.

apparently they opened a Wagamama in Boston - a bit far to go for noodles, but they might be planning to expand!

Oh I know - I am soo going to miss my Indian... they're about - I know San Fran has some and so does Vegas but there are none that I know of where I will be living - Jeremy loves Indian as well though so at least we can miss it together!! Or devise our own

Sometimes you'll find things in the oddest of places too. I went into a corner store up the street from me (that I had previously never been into) and found a whole range of Irish foods. They had imported sausages and rashers, walkers and taytos, a variety of McVite's digestives, steak pies, and just about every Cadbury product (along with some of the British Nestle products...yummm aeros) imaginable. Very strange as I think this small store has almost as much variety as World Market when it comes to food from that part of the world.

Come to Cornwall We have nothing!

In Chicago realm of IHOP's (International House of Pancakes) we have the Big Gay IHOP in Boystown. I guess we are missing the GayWay...as the only grocery store in the neighborhood is Jewel.

The Gay IHOP! Just reading that sentence made me miss my Chicago days of a long time ago. I remember the Gay IHOP as the destination of choice for those who spent the evening drinking at The Closet or Manhole (now closed, I believe)

Now I just need them to open one in Indianapolis...



That has to be the best club name ever - The Manhole.

The Closet is still there, but I'm not 100% if The Manhole is. I agree there is nothing tastier at 3 am than the pigs in a blanket served to you by a queen wearing rouge and eyeshadow.



Yeah the Machine Shop is just down the street from the Big Gay IHOP too lol. I'm sure THAT place has a leather room!

I thought that it had closed, but I have not been to Chi-town in a few years. I never knew anyone who went there (or so they claimed anyway, lol). Back in the day, my mother was in town for my cousin's wedding out in the suburbs and we got back to my Lakeview apartment at something like 2am and wanted something to eat. Now where would be open at that time? Gay IHOP! I think she found the experience very educational.

I currently live in Lakeview myself, and I take friends from out of town there more for the experience than anything else. There are certain requirements for going to the Big Gay IHOP:

1) You must have a blood alcohol level of at least 2.0
2) It must be after 2 am
3) You must be able to put up with the state of the bathroom during the inevitable bathroom breaks.

I don't spend as much time anymore as my friend who lived on Grace and Broadway has moved away, but I still like to go there on the odd night. Clarks is a bit closer for me, but it can be uber-hipster.

So when did you live in Chi-town? And did you ever indulge in the deliciousness of cinnamon rolls from Ann Sather?

Ann Sather! (starts weeping at the thought of the cinammon rolls) I loved Ann Sather

I lived in Chicago from 1993-1996 - so that was back in the dark ages (or so it seems). I lived on the corner of Oakdale and Clarke.


LOL at the Big Gay IHOP rules - when I took mom, I was drunk but she was sober. Is Berlin's still there? That was the favored destination for going and shaking your booty to Erasure with the gays back in the day.

Oh Berlin certainly is open. I live pretty much around the corner from it...I'm about Sheffield and School (but I'll be moving in a month up to Rogers Park). We get a lot of "romantic trysts" from "couples" that meet there in the alley next to me if you know what I mean. I don't know how it was in the mid 90's but it is a really sketchy bar now, and you certainly want to watch your drink when you are in there.

Oh it was kinda like that back then too, it was all part of the charm. Maybe it's got sketchier though

I just looked Berlin's on Citysearch. Under the "cons" section someone wrote "not a place for the shy or unfabulous"

I'll have to go to Prince night (as in Purple Rain)...that sounds like a lot of fun.

I once saw a Cher impersonator walk out of Berlin.

Now that would not surprise me - there is another citysearch comment comparing it to the bar in Mos Eisley in star Wars. Sounds about right. Is Delilah's still around on Lincoln?

I miss going out in Chicago, so much better than going out in LA

I miss taxis.

I suppose you could take a taxi to Hollywood from where you live - it would cost something like $50 each way!

Yeah.

There's the taxi, and then there's the 'tude - if I went out locally to, say, Abbott Kinney, I might suffocate from all the self-conscious hipster fauxhemian vibe. You could say the same thing about a lot of places in NYC. Chicago people (for the most part, in my experience) just know how to get drunk and have a good time.

Robin -- do you mean there's nowhere good to go out and just get drunk and have a good time in LA?

*starts hyperventilating*

dev -- any thoughts on this?

No, I don't believe it. I know that there are at least *some* Irish people in LA (Irish people, not the makey-uppey Irish-American people who pronounce their own names wrong) and they have survived. So there must be a way to go out and get drunk and have some fun without having to go to a silly poser club or something.

There just has to be.

oh there is - it's just you gotta live near them! Venice (where I live) is surprisingly dead though.


I have the solution to this problem, however - maven and poiteen have to move to within a $10 taxi journey of me and D. If nothing else, you will not be without drinking buddies

Poiteen, I think Robin's right about this. We have no choice but to 1) have a weird UK VJ enclave in LA and 2) open a speakeasy for VJ folk only.

To enter, knock three times and whisper the secret password, which is of course: DUVET.

I can honestly say the only time I have been flootered since I moved here was when an ex-colleague was staying at the Roosevelt on business and we went out on Sunset and behaved outrageously (we got kicked out of the saddle ranch - don't ask) and I was able to crash on the floor of her hotel room.

Love it! Must remember that one as an ace synonym.

see I knew there was a reason all the Irish people always stick together, and open their own bars (it's just a pity they don't resemble pubs in Ireland or the UK)




now if you were from my neck of the woods, you would have spelled it fluthered.

flootered is an excellent word and should be used frequently! I never heard fluthered before - gotta start working it in my vocabularly.

Now for English pubs, in our neck of the woods there is the King's Head - sometimes the expat celebrity can be spotted here (I have seen Johnny Lee Miller and Damian Lewis), but it seems generally more favored by middle-aged Scouser expats. I beer can be a bit flat and sometimes I am less than satisfied with my food.

http://www.yeoldekingshead.com/

There is the Cock and Bull - favored for watching the football. It's run by Irish people I think. Favored by the Scouser expats who look like they may have been to prison, but generally a mixed crowd. Sometimes if you ignore the weather outside, you could pretend it was a night out in Essex, but they do salsa dancing on the weekend which undermines that slightly. the foor looks terrible, I;ve never tried it but the beer is good

http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/163743

for irish pubs, there there is finn mccool's

http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/163704?raid=2641199

and O'brian

http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/1...restaurant.html

both of these are on Main Street in Santa Monica. Both kind of plastic paddy, though Finn McCools is run by an Irishman and the bar staff are Irish. Food at Finn McCool's is pretty decent, though they have things like "irish quesadillas" Not the most hopping places, and have a certain frat boy element to them, but generally good - I've done more afternoon drinking here than evening.


My favorite LA English pub is the Cat and Fiddle (rumored to be favored by Morrissey when he lived in LA) on Sunset in Hollywood. Good beer and wine and food and the courtyard is a very agreeable place to have a few lagers. Unforuntately, I always have to limit it to a few, because I have to drive home!


http://www.thecatandfiddle.com/

I love the kitty & the fiddle! Sadly, a $50 cab ride for me, and more for R.

There's plenty of places to get drunk (I could easily get schnockered at Backstage, R) but it's just that you have to plan in advance & take cabs - which are not cheap.

I can walk to several kick a$$ divey bars.

oh no we killed the thread

anyone got an equivilent for More4 in america??

or for that matter any of the TV channels. I already miss RTE2 from Ireland. I'm soon going to miss a whole new set of channels. Is the BBC iPlayer still only for IP addresses in the UK?