~Off Topic Thread~

[Jeraly 4]

Tea and crumpets

WAIT! Do they have crumpets in the US? I never thought of that!

Yes - I have seen them... sometimes they are packaged as "English Muffins" LMAO

[Alex & Rachel 78]

If they call crumpets English muffins, what do they call English muffins?

[Jeraly 4]

Oh if you see those they are called English muffins as well - just that different manufacturers don't seem to really have much of a clue!!

[Mags 112]

English Muffins are called English Muffins here, never seen any crumpets, packaged that way or otherwise.

[Jeraly 4]

Really!? Maybe it's just the crazy Californians then... or did I see them in Oregon? It might have been Oregon actually - I remember Jeremy pointing them out and asking if they looked like real English muffins and I laughed and told him no

[Mary Lou 681]

My local food shop carries crumpets. I just bought a package, they are called Duffey's Crumpets. Theres a Union Jack on the label and all lol

[gwen75 0]

i've found crumpets here in nyc imported from Canada once but havent seen them since so i tried making my own, quite easy to make actually!

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Evening!

Oh yeah, it's tea time in the UK!

nothing better than tea and strumpets

[no name 1]

Trader Joe's carries proper crumpets.

[Jeraly 4]

Oooh - how can you make them?! I sense a recipe is in order

Heheheh

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Trader Joe's carries proper crumpets.

I love Trader Joe's! It was a proper shopping experience. I loved the Victorian-style packaging and I'm a sucker for organic/free-range food anyway.

Oooh - how can you make them?! I sense a recipe is in order

Heheheh

Here's a recipe!

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

we've had two visa processes going at the same time. One for him to be here and one for me to go there. for the UK one they had our passports for months, so I ended up going to godforsaken Croydon 3 times to pick them up for travelling.

Oh god, not Lunar House? My sympathies. I remember waiting in line at 6am waiting to get my ILR stamp moved to a new passport, in the freezing February pre-dawn. Croydon ALWAYS means Lunar House to me now!

Yup, the very place. The first time i went there i used my oyster in London bridge, and there's no oyster to get out. The ticket guy was going to fine me £20 , then his supervisor (an Indian guy) came over, and asked what the commotion was about. I made a very sad face, and told them i had no idea that croydon didn't have an oyster thingy, i'd never been there, and I was only there to go to Lunar house for immigration reasons. The guy took such pity on me they let me off!!

What did you do in Telly Maven?? Very interested as I had a short spell in TV land myself

Just to add, I also loooove Trader Joes, can't wait to have a wholefoods or TJ's as my local Supermarket. Anyone know what their cheese selection is like?

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

I love Trader Joe's! It was a proper shopping experience. I loved the Victorian-style packaging and I'm a sucker for organic/free-range food anyway.

When my OH came to the UK first he looked at some of the packaging in the shop and said 'oh is that the welfare food?' It was the pared down packaging that the organic/otherwise-worthy-food comes in. When his mom came to visit he had to explain to his mom that we weren't on food stamps - it's how the good food looks!!!

[Jeraly 4]

Haha - I saw imported cheddar from Bristol!! It was soooo expensive compared to here - and it was orange - boo!! I have a pic at home - someone remind me and I will post it when I get back

[Alex & Rachel 78]

I didn't look very hard at the selection of cheeses while I was over there, but I did buy a block of cheddar for my lasagne and it tasted like normal cheddar to me! Then again I'm not very well versed on cheeses; they give me terrible indigestion so I largely ignore them. Sad, I know.

The food is definitely the most important part, but it's amazing what an effect good packaging can have on even those of us who know all about marketing techniques! Then again, maybe I'm so enamoured with the packaging because I've done design courses.

I was so tempted to buy a big, clingfilm-wrapped slab of chocolate at Trader Joe's, but they were pretty expensive! I went for one of the more fancily-wrapped bars in the end.