Advice: Items unavailable or expensive to bring from Canada?

Our family is moving to the UK in March and we are looking for advice from many of you who have lived or traveled for a longer stay in the UK. We would like to know what items we could bring with us that may be to expensive or unavailable in the UK that we are used to normally having in the UK (other than a Tim Hortons w/Drive Thru lol).

Thanks for any advice

Basically teddyy, EVERYTHING is more expensive here. You get used to the prices and paying through the teeth for everything, so quite often it is more a question of "what can't you live without" that you won't be able to get here?

For example, if you regularly take aceteminophen or ibuprofen, buy a big bottle and bring it. They sell it in 12-pack blister packs over here - it's a joke.

Neo-Citran - if you like it in the winter for colds (I do), bring it. Closest thing here is lem-sip which tastes like furniture polish.

Peanut butter. You can buy it here but it tastes different and is drier.

Cereals - can't get Apple Cinnamon Cherrios over here - I am addicted, I bring boxes of the stuff over whenever I am home!

I don't like Cheez Whiz myself, but a lot of Canadians here crave the stuff and bring it over - same thing for Miracle Whip

If you smoke, the cigarettes here are rather gross - not as bad as American, but heading that way. You can get Canadian ones at duty free on the way out of Canada and you can buy a LOT and bring them into the UK (not just the 200 like Canada lets you bring in).

If you are shipping furniture, you can bring your lamps - just change the plugs and lightbulbs once here - I saved a fortune doing that rather than trying to replace them.

Paper products (toilet paper, paper towel) is easily double or triple the price. If you are shipping your stuff in a container and have room, stock up!

POPCORN. I can't find popping corn anywhere. Have tried the microwave popcorn here out of desperation - it's gross.

If you have specific things that you like/use and want to list we may be able to better advise you.

I brought summer savoury for my turkey stuffing (oh - stuffing - if you like the stovetop stuff bring it, can't get that here).

POPCORN. I can't find popping corn anywhere. Have tried the microwave popcorn here out of desperation - it's gross.

You can sometimes get old-fashioned airpop popcorn in Asian supermarkets. Harvey Nichols also has... Asda also sells popcorn, according to their website. Ebay is also a good way to find things here. You can even by Skippy peanut butter!

This may sound stupid but, if you have a swiffer and enjoy using it, and have the room for it, I'd bring it. You can find the cloths everywhere (different brand, of course) but the brooms are almost impossible to find and then are close to $20. The refills are a similar price to what they are at home. Electronics are more expensive here. If you're not in need of a new laptop you might as well bring yours over. It should be able to handle the different voltage, and will only need a plug adaptor to work, which is only about 3-5 pounds.

Get used to different names and words for things. There are far too many for me to list here, not to mention it differs depending on where in the country you are.

Foods we think Britain generally does well:
- Pork
- Poultry
- Most dairy products
- Fresh Eggs
- Trifle

Good foods in Britain that can be easily found elsewhere:
- Fresh Battered Fish
- Chips (the French fry kind)
- Coca-Cola
- Fresh Potatoes
- Chips (the Lays kind).

Foods Britain generally fails at:
- Pretty much everything else.

Things you can't get at all:
- Coffee Crisp
- Jolly Rancers
- Pierogies
- Dill Pickle chips
- Kraft Dinner
- Chocolate chips in packages larger than 1/2 cup.
- Liquid molassass, as far as I'm aware.
- Fruit juice concentrates - don't be fooled by "squash" - its just full of artificial flavours and sugar/sweeneter
- French's Mustard

Red Twizzlers and Mennen Speed Stick.

And McAuslan/St Ambroise (out of Montreal) Oatmeal Stout beer. (Though it must be said that they understand beer here.)

Good luck with the move.

Nigel

Add to that list...

Kool-aid or anydrink cyrstals at all inc Tang, etc - My kid went into withdrawal.
Hamburger Helper - I forgot how much I liked the stuff
Cooked Jello pudding - I love the cooked chocolate version and custard is NO substitute
A lot of the cereals such as lucky charms, proper fruit loops (I found a russian version at B&M's for some reason, lol), count chocula, etc (pretty much any of the US versions we're addicted to)
Betty Crocker cake mixes/frostings - now this one you can find lately but not the wide range of varieties in Canada. Chocolate and vanilla is all you like? You're fine.
Saw someone mention tylenol. Add Tylenol 1's to that list. They're expensive as hell and come in tiny blister packs. And they're real strict with handing them out.
No Old Dutch or Lays chips. And ketchup chips are hard to find (Walkers has a version but my son says they're not the same) And forget about all-dressed.(And don't forget they're crisps, not chips)

No Taco Bell or Taco Time mixes.
No Swiss Chalet mixes. (I stalked up on the chicken dip, lol)
And beef is dear! Hamburger is about £3.50 for 400 grams. at least up north it is. Chicken is cheap as get out. In fact, i nearly dropped when I saw how cheap chicken wings were. My son whose a huge chicken wing man, was thrilled.
Tomato sauce - I mean the canned stuff. You can get Tomato paste ina tube or sphagetti sauce, but not the straight stuff.
Oh and no philly chips dips. That one killed me. Morrisons has a cheese/onion dip thats not horrible, but deffo not the same.

Basically, if you like sweets, you'll love it in the UK. Herons has cheap Cadburys cakes, etc and chocolate and sweets you can get for merely p's.

And stop in at Greggs and geta sausage roll...yummmmm...

Excellent thread! A lot of stuff I didn't think about.

But...

- Liquid molassass, as far as I'm aware.

It's called treacle in the UK.

-- Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:38 pm --

How about CoverGirl Outlast (lip colour), Always (feminine products with wings) or (for my husband) Zesty Cheese Doritos?

hersheys chocolate, ketchup flavor chips *crisps*, kraft dinner, chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies (the british versions don't taste the same)...so many things but this is what comes to mind..miss tim hortons, yogen fruz frozen yogurt, mac sushi, teriyaki express, bubble tea..and so on...

Farmfoods (UK) do their own verison of Mac and Cheese it comes close to craft but does ok for a quick fix.

I miss jolly ranchers and Jello pudding.
Jelly over here is a bit scary when you first buy it is solid
Mircle whip the nearest thing that can be found is Dream whip.

The one thing that me and my mom miss is onion dip for chips/crisps.

Tea can be a bit hit or miss. Coffee to get the best coffee grounds is from whittards.

I've been in London for 2 years (from Canada) and I've found it takes quite a bit of searching, but a lot of the Canadian goodies I craved during the initial few months I have now managed to find here. (Or have found reasonable ways of ordering them online from companies within the UK.)

Something I really crave, and cannot find, is Coke slurpees. All summer long, I dream of them. The closest thing available is a slush cat, buyable at cinemas and at some small newsagents/shops here, which basically come in flavours of red or blue. They are very very sweet, and nothing like a coke slurpee except in consistency.

I like to cook, and I struggled for a few months to locate fine egg noodles. The typical ones here are sold in the Chinese section, usually Sharwoods brand, and smell terrible and have the wrong consistency (compared with the lovely Catelli ones from Canada). But more recently I've found an imported version from Poland I believe, at the larger Sainsburys.

I also couldn't find canned pumpkin anywhere, and I do love my pumpkin pies and soups. But during the holiday season I did find this at Waitrose, and stocked up for the next year.

The flour here is not the same as Canadian all-purpose! I couldn't work out why my baking and sauces were not the right consistency until I explored this. "All purpose" doesn't exist here. "Plain flour" is NOT the same thing. If you cook/bake, your recipes may need re-working. I'm still experimenting, but so far "strong" flour has yielded the closest results for baking, and "sauce flour" for sauce. Also note Corn Flour seems to be much stronger than Cornstarch (which afaik doesn't exist here).

I haven't found molasses.

Cover girl makeup products are here, Always feminine products are here, Doritos are here. French's Mustard - I've found this at Sainsburys.

I have found Taco Bell seasoning packets, jars, taco kits here in the larger Sainsburys in London. They are expensive... but needed sometimes.

Tomato sauce - it doesn't exist here, but you can buy Tomato Puree (aka "tomato paste" in Canada) in cans or in tubes. Mix 1 part tomato puree + 1 part water = tomato sauce. Works great in all my recipes.

Things I still stock from Canada: proper deodorant! shampoo (or I order it in - I like a particular salon shampoo from Canada; note that salon-quality shampoos are so expensive here that it's cheaper to order Canadian ones online!), and most of the items others have mentioned in this thread.