If you have moved from the UK to the US...or lets says you decided to move to the UK... WHAT are a few items that would be hard to do without or that you would miss from the US?

Ginger altoids.
Reese's peanut butter cups
American style toilets(ok I'm odd)

American style toilets!! Never would have thought of it BUT I agree!! And I will also say public restrooms as well!

I missed Saltine crackers and mac n cheese powder. Stangely enough, the last time I ate mac n cheese was in the UK over 2 years ago, but I went thru this phase there where I HAD to have mac n cheese, but only with that bright orange powder & I couldn't find it anywhere. So I got my mom to mail some over, lol

Also missed a decent cup o joe...please don't lemme come to your house and you bust out with the Flavor crystals!

I know there's a bunch more things....cos I love to whinge...but atm I can't think of owt else.

Ohhh I forgot about coffee...yes that is so SO hard to live without when there. Never do Nescafe...can't even force.

I'd miss Ice.

There was this coffee stand in the Sunderland bus depot which made really good REAL lattes. Everytime I came into town (which was often)...I'd stop and get one. It got to the point where the lady behind the counter would see me walking and she'd start making my latte before I even reached the stand, lol

I'd have to agree with the Ice and public restrooms, also shops that stay open later then 8pm.

The ability to shop till I had ten bags of stuff in the back of the Jeep from four different shops, and drive it all home at once. Not having to haul things on the tram and shop in small spurts.

And a good proper American bar burger with no filler in the meat. I would so totally miss that. Even if it's not something I eat all the time, I know it would just be the one thing I would drool for when I got back to the States.

~Liza

American style loos??

I didnt notice a difference, apart from public toilets in Atlanta (maybe US) have a half inch gap
round the frame of the door, so that youre not quite as private as the ones here in th UK..

what is it with that??
Ill be missing going to the loo with a complete door.

American style loos, at least for me means the way the actual bowl is constructed. To be graphic, in an British loo there's very little water so your poo just kind of sits there half in, half out of the water(assuming you have a small poo). In an 'American' toilet there's more water in the bowl, thus the poo is more submerged, thus stinks less. No yucky stains all over the bowl so the next person in knows you had a curry last night either.

A speedy courtesy flush takes care of that probbo

Things I missed the most in the UK:


MEXICAN FOOD!!!!! damn, what I wouldn't have done for some good mexican food -- they have stuff called Mexican food which can be good but it is not Mexican food.
A good burger they doesn't cost over $10
Deli!!!! I am not jewish but I need a regular dose of kreplach, kishka, lox and cream cheese and a big overstuffed roast beef sandwich served with a pickle
jars of big pickles
decent shower pressure
screw the English fryup, I wanted an American breakfast
I was never able to find canend black beans - even dried black beans were hard to find
free refills
being able to swim in an outdoor pool


umm, I'm sure I'll think of more

There is actually less water in a flush in USA toilets. There is a restricter valve that limits the water in the tank.

Incidentally, the first time I went into a public restroom in the states was the highlight of my year. Go to toilet, it automatically flushed...then went to the soap dispenser, it automatically dispensed soap!! Then the tap came on automatically! Then...and THIS is the killer I can tell ya, the paper towel dispenser automatically gave me some towel!! I spent at least half an hour there, putting my hands under the towel thingee, pulling them away, putting my hands back and so on.

Must have been gone ages.....Larry almost sent out a search party!

Robin, I missed Mexican food so much while there too! D found this 'Mexican' restaurant in the Metro Center so we went for lunch...THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SOUR CREAM WAS!!!

Oh, and it cost an effing fortune!





HAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!

You should be in the next GEICO commercial

I also missed closets -- i can understand some older homes without closets but new builds without closests? why do you want a wardrobe to take up half the space in the room, why?

big refrigerators! That's one I forgot

Robin, you took my #1 thing.........

I also found it inconvenient that shops closed early. The offset in my mind was the closeness of the shops and the public transport to get to them.

Food? Hmmm....I was pretty well happy, but then I was only there 2 weeks. I bet I'd miss mexican food.

I kind of liked the little refrigerators. And the little cookers. I'm amazed by the 'space efficiency' of European appliances. I think I'd find it annoying to not have a dryer though.

Mags....along with the toilet theme.....I'll not ever forget flushing a European toilet for the first time at the airport in Dublin. I thought it was going to suck me right down the hole! I couldn't believe the water pressure! I'm pretty sure I stood up quickly.....

Well the public loo I am really thinking of is the one I had to pay like 10p for..that was stainless steel and freezing.


Mexican for sure. I'd miss that! I have Chris addicted to Fajitas.

I miss hot sauce when I am there. I always take a bottle with me.


But I LOVE english baths. They are long and deep and lovely!

I missed......are you ready?.............LECCY OUTLETS IN THE BATHROOM!

Ahhh, feel so much better now that's off my chest

Becs...the little fridges are ok, but after a while they get to be annoying cos you can't put a lot in there...so if you wanna do a big shop, there's no room to put everything.

OMG...I FORGOT about lack of bathroom plugs! YeeGods, yes that drove me MAD!!!

Yeah, Lisa, you're right about the fridges on that one, I'm sure. Wes, being a bachelor and buying food as he needed it - well it wasn't a problem for him. And it wasn't for his bachelor brother either. I began to wonder if people even DID a big shop. I asked his cousin Ida and she assured me they did.....lol

ya know...it is a bit silly! But I missed wash cloths too!

MIL goes to the shops on thursday and saturday, mind you she has a big kitchen with loads of cabinets but a little frig. That would drive me crazy. I would also miss a proper size garage and a basement for storage.

Out of habit J & I both use the hairdryer in the bedroom instead. It's feels weird not to do it in the bedroom now...

I would miss Mexican food. That's about it really. UK has such better food anyhow, and for MUCH cheaper.

Fresh veggies, bread, and dairy products are far superior in the UK, but cheaper hmmm I have to disagree. Guess most depends on where you are from.

I missed a big fridge, big washer, using a clothes dryer because it did not greatly raise the electric bill and most of all stores closed way to early.

clothes dryers!!

About the US toilets thing....my husband says he doesn't like the way they make them in the USA because his um...(what's a polite word for balls?) "parts" hang down into the water. Do other guys suffer from that too...or is he just droopy or something? lol!

I was raised in the UK, but to American parents, and we visited the USA a lot, where family are. And we lived there briefly too during childhood.
I've always missed many things about the USA while being here

root beer
graham crackers
lots of flavours of pop tarts
taco bell
basements
large top loading washers
big watermelons
the beautiful sound of crickets at night (family is mostly from Florida)
mozzerella sticks mmmmmm

Ummm*giggle* Chris never complained about his balls in the potty!!

So interesting that you mentioned Top Loading Washers.....the fad now is the front loading ones!!

It seems to be impossible to get Mexican food over here now.... a few (well, about 10) years ago Mexican food was obviously 'the thing', and there were Mexican restaurants all over the place. Granted, most of them were awful, and they all charged a fortune, but there was the occasional half-decent one. Then Mexican must've gone out of fashion, because all the ones I used to know seem to have closed down.... weird. I can think of maybe three in the whole of London, and they're all appalling. A couple of years ago I was having a huge Mexican craving and went to... the one whose name I can't remember in Camden Town and... ugh. Suffice to say I remembered why I tended to avoid the place.

What I 'miss' over here (even though I live here still!) is being able to get decent food in bars without having to pay a fortune for it. In the States I've had some of the most fantastic, and cheap, food in bars (and taken a boxload of it home to finish the next day), and I love that you can do that. Over here... well you've got the 'microwaved frozen stuff' school of pub food (overpriced) and the 'we think we deserve a Michelin star (but our food is really not all that)' school of pub food (also overpriced)... I'm sick of paying about 7 quid for a crappy sandwich with some chips on the side - grrr!

There's loads of things that make me think 'damn, why don't we have that?' when I'm in the States... and loads of things I can't believe we have and 'they' don't. Like... online grocery shopping. I don't have a car and live a pain-in-the-arse bus journey from the nearest decent-sized supermarket (how I miss living directly opposite Waitrose... sigh) so I love being able to do a huge online shop with Sainsburys or Ocado. C is amazed by this concept and assures me there's no such thing available there (at least, not locally)... surely not?!?!?

I don't know about the online grocery not being available. I assume you live in a small town??! It isn't available to me either, I live in a tiny town. However, I moved from the city only about a year ago and it was available there. From what I understand it is becoming quite a fad in some areas. PERHAPS!! It is a good business venture!

I can't think of a meal I've had in the UK that was cheaper than the US. Even McDs and KFC are more expensive!

Whats with KFC, they don't even serve the proper side items! Tim and I went once in the time I was there and I was sooooo looking forward to BEEEE-SKITS (biscuits for you non-southern folks).

WHAT? You can't get any biscuts with your Chicken Burger?? *grin*

I only ate fast food out once in England...Mcds..terrible I know, but I love chicken nuggets and we were on the road. But they had sweet chili sauce to dip! It was amazing!

A Chicken burger? No thank you! I only ate McD's after being there a couple of months and I wanted beef. Sure it isn't my first choice, but I hated the taste of beef off the shelf in the grocery. Don't get me started on Wimpy ewwwwwwwwwww.

You gotta know where to go! I definitely had many. Esp supermarkets.

I think our grocery bills were about the same in both countries, but we got a lot less in the UK than we do here. Not to mention here in the states we are feeding three boys on the same money. Maybe for two people it can be less expensive, but for myself I just find it hard to believe it is cheaper to eat in the UK. We also have the luxury of being able to afford to go out to eat here in the states, which is fantastic for me to have a break a couple of nights a week.

For example:

My hubby & I were at the grocery the other day - sausages are crappier & way more expensive here. Full of fillers too.

Chorizo/proscuitto/meats/cheeses costs a fortune here & is cheap in the UK.

I was a student in the UK & definitely found cheaper food than in America.

Don't know if you have fresh markets up your way, but if you like cheese as much as we do they have a nice selection. We buy Kerrygold there, and yes it is expensive but yum. They also carry fresh breads at a reasonable price. Tim also found Brie at Walmart of all places for about 3.80 a lb, he claims that is a really good price. He also likes Krogers marbled cheddar, which sometimes can be gotten for 3.50 for a 2.5 lb block and thats when we stock up lol. We spend a small fortune on cheese !

It is all down to what you prefer I guess. I cook a lot so fresh veggies and such stretch a long way.

Well, I live in London at the moment, but it'll be Cincinnati when I get there. I suppose online grocery shopping must (surely) exist in some places, and thinking about it, it couldn't work like it does here anyway... I mean, what with the UK being so tiny, supermarkets can deliver nationally here - in the States you'd (not 'you', I mean, just people in general!) need to find out if there's anything in your area, etc etc etc. I was just surprised that he seemed to think it was such a radical idea, 'cos I tend to think that anything we have here has already been available in the States forever! I love online food shopping... great for carless people like me, I can order tons of heavy stuff (and loads of bottles of wine) and not have to carry any of it anywhere.

And then of course it won't all fit in my stupid tiny fridge, but never mind!

when I got back from the UK, I became really aware of which groceries were more expensive here in hte US (mainly because my husband kept pointing them out with a speech that began "it's such a fallacy that everything is cheaper over here...blah blah blah")

Anyways -- quality meats and cheeses, and good bread - deffo cheaper over there

one thing that still amazes me is the price of lemons -- I mean I can grow a lemon in my back yard and they cost twice as much at the store as they did in M&S, go figure

If you and devilette are up in Cinci, we will all have to do a meet up sometime. We are just about an hour and a half south near Louisville.

Well sure, when we cooked at home (which was actually a lot), we'd come out a bit ahead - depending on what we'd bought.

I'd be curious to know 'where to go' when going out that is going to be cheaper than the states. We've tried pretty much every type of restaurant while I've been there, and I've always had a chuckle at how expensive it was. Maybe it depends some on what part of the UK you're in.

We were in London - deffo not cheaper! We found places that have quality food for not a lot. Here all I find is crappy very fatty giant portions and it's not even all that cheap! AND DEFINITELY not quality. I'd rather pay the same amount of $$ & get less but better food.



Not in Cincy! NYC, yes.

Hey, to get you excited(they have a giant UK section), altho Twiglets cost like $4.50 a packet there!:
http://www.junglejims.com/index.cfm?fuseac...050FB0F3A632740

Tim has gotten totally addicted to a local Mexican restaurant. We go on Thursday night have a couple of margaritas each at .98 cents a piece, two huge plates of food all for less than $20. The real shocker for him is that they give us a to go box to boot lmao.

He loves food so it is good fun to watch him when the menus are presented and his eyes get great big. I am quickly learning to point out what he might like, this helps speed up the ordering process lol. He would read a menu like a book if I let him and we would be all night just placing an order.

Eating out in the UK was a luxury we couldn't afford.

That is so strange. My experience has definitely been the opposite.

I kid Chas because I ask him what he misses here and he always says 'the food'. Shouldn't his answer be, "Why you, darling!"

I had to laugh at all that 'Merrye Olde Englande' stuff (although even at $4.50 a pack, Twiglets are among life's essentials and I'll have to go there just because of that!)... then I saw the word 'Wensleydale'. Mm, Wensleydale... any shop that sells that stuff has got to be a good thing. I meant to post that yesterday, that I'll be pining for Wensleydale* cheese once I get there... but maybe not. Yay! (and thank you!)

* speaking of which, I believe I have a big chunk of it in the fridge... hmm. Time to stuff my face some more.

They have a giant animatronic Robin Hood, be very afraid. But they have the good cheddar! J & I bought some West Country cheddar (the Bristol in him says W.C. or bust) - it wasn't that big a chunk & yet cost $7. Damn.

Yep, I am very afraid, alright... whose benefit is that for?! The expat shoppers, going 'ahh yes, a giant animatronic Robin Hood, just like they had in my local M&S food hall - no I don't feel so homesick anymore!'....?

Still, they have cheese, and good cheese, and therefore I will most definitely be paying a visit (or several) - Robin Hood or no Robin Hood!



Yikes...! Still, if it tastes like proper cheddar (as opposed to that strange stuff that bears the name 'cheddar' but is not even the most distant of relations to the kind you get in Somerset), it'd be well worth the money. Maybe I've just been unlucky with cheese over there, but all the so-called cheddar I've had from the supermarket has tasted powdery and had a really strange texture - there's definitely something in it that there shouldn't be!

Oh my hubby & I agree, altho he is MUCH snobbier about it than I am.