http://www.yahoo.com/s/566285

I do miss British-style ready meals.

Yeah, they're good but Sainsbury's meals are better than Tesco's.

I predict Tesco won't penetrate the US market to any major degree because the US market is already saturated with supermarkets and Wal-Mart-esque stores, e.g. Wal-Mart.

If any UK store tries to take over America I want it to be M&S Simply Food. Mmmmm.

Yeah, I'm not saying Tesco are the best, just generally...you can't get frozen meals in the US like you can in the UK.

And I'll second the Marks and Sparks notion. I have fantasies about the smell of their bakery and the vegetarian moussaka...mmm...

Yeah, but that's sort of a good thing too, isn't it? Ready meals are generally not very good for you.



Yeah...I like it all, except for their handmade crisps...those are rubbish. The rest of it is pretty yummy tho!

I agree. I loved M&S.

If I ever needed a nice meal (as a treat) I'd always get something from M&S. Never failed to please!

Awe man, M&S food! I'd much rather see that come over here. Their adverts in the U.K. are evil, but so delicious! I can still here that sultry woman's voice tempting me to go buy M&S profiterolds [she haunts my dreams....in a tasty way]. I have to say I don't think I've ever had such good food that was ready-to-eat, their smoothies were good as well.

Oooh, their deluxe variety of tea biscuits! And their tub of flapjacks! I'm a sad human being for how excited it gets me.

Oh yeah, those little square flapjacks in a tub! LOVED them.

The one thing that US supermarkets lack is things that I can just take home and eat, because I don't always feel like cooking after a long grocery shop. I really miss that about UK supermarkets, even if its just the deli section with yummy onion bhajis, scotch eggs, spring rolls and the like.

Sounds like Tescos are going to fill that gap. I doubt they'll be opening near me any time soon though.

I do have to say I pretty much agree, there's not a lot in American supermarkets that is really appealing for take home or ready to eat. I did like that M&S had a lot of tasty ethnic foods and such a larger variety of dishes. I hate being stereotypical, but I think the majority of American tastes do sort of have that resistance to trying new things so it's rotisserie chickens or sandwiches for take home. Still, with the explosion of 'foodies', it's starting to change a bit.

Don't worry Dr_LHA, if you and Tesco's were meant to be [and I think you are], it will come to you!

Sounds like its going to be mini-healthy-tescos, aww!

I am also in the pouting boat with Dr_Lha, none around this way!

What is the fascination with frozen and prepared meals? I find it difficult to even eat left-overs I prepared the day before. Sorry they have that refridgerated taste.......insert vomit smiley here.

Some of the ones do taste pretty nasty, but some of them are good; you just have to experiment.

On the one hand I will miss ready meals, but on the other I won't. They're very convenient and not really that expensive to feed an adult, but they are an awful awful habit to get into. Most of them are full of sugar, salt, fat, etc. They're just not good for you. I cooked more in the US than I do here and I lived alone in the US; I did it because I had to. You can get tons of microwaveable frozen meals in the US; I don't know what that other poster was on about when she lamented the 'lack of variety', but they're just no substitute for a proper meal. If I'm forced to cook more, that can't really be a bad thing.

I think I was the poster you were reffering to, hehe. I mean, I'm definately more the home cook because it's true that it makes such a difference when you KNOW what you're putting in your food. It's just as easy to cut up potatoes into sticks and stick em in the oven as it is throwing on the frozen kind. Still, when time pushes for ready-made or frozen dinners, I did prefer what the UK had to offer better. Here it's basically fried chicken dinners, Italian, or Mexican. Over there I just felt like there was much more variety and a wider range of choices if it comes down to not having time to cook from scratch.

That's another thing, the lack of Indian restaurants unless you're in a bigger metro area. Here, it's all about the Italian food or chinese food. I miss being able to get a good curry delivered to the door. I'm learning to cook them myself but it's hard to find Naan and poppadums. [Awe man, prawn crackers! We don't get those here either].

Maybe that's just where you live; I left Texas six years ago and there was way more on offer than fried chicken, Italian, and Mexican. Italian and Mexican dishes freeze well and microwave well, so they'll be popular everywhere...but it sounds like where you live and/or shop suffers from a lack of variety as opposed to the US as a whole.



Hehe, we had no lack of them in Texas. We even had Indian supermarkets so I had no problems finding naan bread or poppadoms, and those sloppy Sharwood's stir-in sauces too for when you want a British curry. Dallas had a bigger variety of Indian restaurants than Austin did; Austin seemed to be dominated by southern Indian restaurants while Dallas had a nicer mix of all sorts.

You will sometimes be hard-pressed to find Indian restaurants that serve the same ghee and meat-filled saucy/sloppy curries that dominate in the UK because those curries were either developed in the UK or have been heavily adapted to suit the British palate. Indian food in the US is different, but some of the Indians I've spoken to find it more faithful to actual Indian cuisine, probably because it's 'new' in many areas of the US and we have not had time to sufficiently bastardize it like we have done to Chinese and Mexican cuisine. It isn't that Indian food in the US sucks; it's that Indian food in the UK often isn't really 'Indian'. Doesn't mean it's not tasty tho.

It's funny you should say that because the curries I've been making taste nothing like the stuff I got in the UK, hehe. Making the fresh spice pastes and such, it tastes much 'cleaner' I guess than the stuff I had in restaurants over there.

And yes, I don't live in a place anywhere near what Dallas is like, or any of the bigger cities. I live in a small town where things like "Tahini" or "Kalamata Olives" scare people, they like their Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Even in downtown Tampa, it's very hard to find Indian food, though there are a few places. We're aiming to get the hell out of here ASAP, we need a place where you don't have to troll phone books endlessly to find a store that stocks Naans and cardamoms, hehe.

Most of the Indian food I've had in the USA is nothing like Homesick describes. Its usually a poor imitation of UK types of curries. Maybe in big cities you'll get "authentic" Indian food, but you can get that in the UK as well. I love real Indian food, I cook it and I enjoy it with Indian friends.

That said a new Indian just opened in my town (we have 3 now) which is really good, which reminds me - I need to make a repeat visit there! The other two - not so much, in fact the most popular one is definitely a "British Curry" place, just crap, the other is more authentic but their food is just plain not good.

Wow...that's...I'm so sorry. *shoulder pat* I haven't been to Tampa since the early 1980s, but I thought it was a bit more cosmopolitan than that.

Ever considered Texas?

Check these out,...maybe one of them will have what you need. Dunno how old these listings are, so maybe one of them is still there?

http://tampa.eknazar.com/YellowPages/viewL...hp?categoryID=2

Al-Aqsa Grocery
10805 North 56th Street
Tampa, FL-33617

(813) 987-2039

Map
Kiran Indian grocery
5691 E Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL-33617

(813) 980-1184

Map



http://www.thokalath.com/florida/grocery_stores.php

Bombay Bazaar Tampa Tampa
6808 Harney RD, Suite 2 Florida (FL) Phone: (813) 626 4134

Bombay Market Inc Tampa
1749 State Road 60 East Florida (FL) Phone: (813) 681 4884


Here's another one: http://www.saikrishnagroceries.com/

Contact our Indian grocery store in Tampa, Florida, for a large variety of Indian food items like tandoori and curry chicken.

Hours of Operation:
Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Bizarre. I guess we were just lucky in Texas then. Lucky in Texas...that's stating the obvious.



Only three? Say no more. To be fair a lot of the curry places in York are rubbish too, featuring rancid curries with colors not found in nature. There are some outstanding curry houses here but you really should never order a delivery from a place you've never even visited. It's just that there are so MANY curry houses here that you're bound to find a couple that you like. When you only have three Indian restaurants to begin with, you're a bit screwed.

http://local.yahoo.com/TX/Dallas/Food+Dini...ian+Restaurants

Nice big long list.

http://local.yahoo.com/TX/Austin/Food+Dini...ian+Restaurants

Shorter list, but some real quality restaurants there.

LisaD, you're so sweet. Thank you for that. I've been to most of those, I've gotten a hold of most of the spices and stuff I've needed at the places, but they didn't carry any Naans except ones with peppers in them. I can't remember which one it was, but one of those places had cans of coconut milk that were rusty, *shudders*.

To Homesick, Tampa IS pretty cosmopolitan but still sort of growing I think. You can find much more variety like Thai, Moroccan, Vietnamese, etc. For some reason, the Tampa/Clearwater area only has a handful of Indian restaurants, I suppose our location dictates there are just more Cuban/Latin style restaurants than anything. The culture is growing though, but I much prefer downtown St. Petersburg. Much more culture and restaurant variety.

I didn't think Tampa was that bad; it has been over 20 years since I've been there tho so I wouldn't trust my memory of it. I had heard great things about it so I was surprised that it wasn't a good place for foodies. The Cuban thing does make sense...unfortunately I don't really care for Cuban food (too salty), Vietnamese (way too much stuff I can't identify/pronounce), or Thai (too sweet). I guess I'd be hanging out at the Moroccan place! I wub north African/Middle Eastern food. Wub wub wub it.

hehe probably not - but! on the other hand, being very close to a major university, with an international community helps so we can but hope Perhaps you should start a petition! ;P If not - road trip to Tesco anyone? lol As long as they carry my mint aeros, I'm all over it ;P Ahh scotch eggs, (or as our old called them egg meatballs) - our kids loved them and sausage rolls and super noodles! lol

If you live in Austin, that's generally a more cosmopolitan place than 99% of America.

Well yes, indeed. I've never lived anywhere in the USA that had more than that though. Clearly Indian populations are higher in some parts of America than others. My sister in law lives in the South Bay Area and she's tripping over Indian restaurants.

BTW - yes York isn't exactly well know for its quality Indian food. If you're talking Yorkshire though, Bradford - yummy!!!

I'd settle for a Trader Joe's. Sadly I think the massive presence of Wegmans in SC means that that'll probably never happen. If they open a Tescos in Philly I'll take you up on that road trip offer, as long as I can stop off in the TJ's in Wayne, PA on the way back. Its just off the Turnpike!

Actually the Giant near me just put in a huge new Organic section, so the Supermarkets are clearly trying to move upmarket. Presumably because the downmarket ones can't compete with Super Wal-mart.

No probbo!

Have you ever thought about taking a trip to Orlando? It's not too far and I'm sure there's no shortage here.

Man, I'm dense, that never even occured to me. Good idea. I've gone there for the British stuff at times since there's loads of it there.

I love M&S. My favorite thing is the lemon curd yogurt. I thought that Tesco was owned by a US company? For some reason I thought I heard that on the news.

Nope. You're probably thinking of ASDA, who is owned by Wal-mart. Tesco is its own company, listed on the stock exchange in the UK and is one of the UK's most profitable companies.

Tesco is apparently the world's 4th largest retailor.

On the flip side of this, the UK doesn't offer the variety of restaurants and take outs. I can call in an order for the two of us and pick it up on the way in from work, with a whopping 5-10 minutes of my time.

Guess I am fussy, I don't like frozen/ready meals here nor there Sam I am!

That depends where you live surely? Where I lived in the UK before coming over here had a great variety of restaurants and take outs, not really any worse than anywhere I've lived in the USA.

Where I live right now I basically have the choice of pizza or chinese for take out/delivery.

Eh...I lived in Austin from 1993-1997 (student days) and again 1999-2001, and I have to say it has gotten very self-consciously hip and the cool vibe of the city has been replaced by something completely fake and manufactured. It's just not the same. Dallas is and always has been more cosmopolitan than Austin, and its willingness to embrace its shallow materialism is actually very refreshing. Plus, it's not a tourist trap and the business convention people never know where the hip and trendy parts are (and those DO exist, in spades) so we have the city to ourselves. It's great. In Austin you're always dodging a$$holes with bongs, Jello dreds, and hemp sandals wearing Che Guevara t-shirts...and they all think they're ORIGINAL. Screw that. Austin does have a few things on Dallas, though....it has beautiful parks, it has the capitol building, it has my alma mater (UT-Austin), and it has jaw-dropping scenery. Dallas is flat and featureless.



Lucky her! 20 years ago in D if you wanted Indian food, you only had a handful of options. Thanks to all the Indian IT workers who flooded into Texas in the 1990s, there are now lots of Indian restaurants and grocery stores around. The great thing about Dallas is you can get pretty much any kind of food you like. When I lived there I recall going out for Ethiopian, Romanian, French, Brazilian, and Cuban food...all in the same week. Can't beat Dallas for eating out. It has more restaurants per capita than any city in America.



Yeah, we're not spoiled for choice in York I'm afraid. It's not a great city for dining out. Jaipur Spice is a good Indian place that is incredibly unique in that it has a free parking lot. Woooo! There are a couple of other good ones around too but you do have to be VERY choosy.




It does depend. I bet in London you can get any kind of takeaway you want. In York you're limited to pizza, chinese, curries, and kebabs.

This news about Tesco is very exciting to me! Not so much having the frozen ready meals, but having choices that are more healthy, and with an emphasis on no preservatives, no trans fat, etc.

I'm really looking forward to it - but doubt we will see any in our area either. But you never know - one article I read said they are also looking at areas that have become "food deserts" where large chain stores have pulled out. That could apply to some of the South Eastern Michigan area which would be very cool.

~Liza