You don't need to leave the country in order to experience different cultures. Sometimes you can find it right in your backyard.
You don’t necessarily have to board a plane to get a “taste” of different cultures. I recently discovered a local specialty food market (British Food Shop) and enjoyed a fun Saturday morning browsing foods I was familiar with from my travels to the UK. My top goal was to find some crumpets and maybe some sticky toffee pudding if I was especially lucky, which is definitely my favorite British dessert.
If you can’t tell, I am diverging this week from my usual travel blog posts and instead sharing a little about finding different cultures in your local area, for me that was a great little British market a few cities over. I posted a video to YouTube, so go check that out to get an in depth look at my experience there.
So I had no idea this place existed until a friend came to me one day telling me about this amazing British food market. When she told me about it, I just had to go check it out! The British Food Shop in Laguna Niguel, Orange County was not what I expected. It wasn’t in a typical shopping center but rather in an industrial-type complex but it hooked you in as soon as you walk through the door with that great “international” feeling.
When I first walked in, I immediately gravitated toward the novelty items -- British flag napkins, Queen Elizabeth II playing cards, red phone booths, refrigerator magnets etc. I realized these are things found on every street corner in London so decided to move on to food goodies.
Browsing the “snacks” sections was probably the most fun. Of course there were potato chips (but the British call them crisps) and the ever-popular wine gums (similar to gumdrops but despite the name, they usually contain no alcohol). Looking through this section was definitely my favorite part.
Then I went to the frozen food section which had an assortment of foods you would find in a traditional English breakfast: British bangers (sausage), Irish bacon, and even Yorkshire pudding. I passed on the beef loaf patty, as it just resembled a giant piece of American meatloaf like my mom used to make.
Then I moved on to the canned goods. There was a vast assortment of canned peas and baked beans (baked beans are often included in a traditional English breakfast) but I was surprised to find my familiar Heinz beans in a baby blue can. But they still tasted completely the same.
Moving down the aisle, I saw a huge selection of cookies and British biscuits, the perfect pair for British tea. And next to the cookies were, of course, rows and rows of every type of tea. Smart placement if you ask me. Builders is a popular black tea brand and even says it on the box, “Britain wasn’t built on chamomile – You dig?”
Because I’m a crock-pot user, I found the international flavor packets interesting. I was tempted to buy the Shepherds Pie mix but gave it a second thought and ended up putting it back. The extremely large containers of Bisto gravy mix are supposed to be popular and the shelves were stocked so full that it that it looked like a flock of people were coming for last minute Thanksgiving shopping. So of course I had to buy some.
When I went to check out, I asked the clerk if he could bring out some crumpets from the back, which he happily obliged. Selfishly though, I only shared the crumpets with a special lady seen below. If you have not tried them, they are delicious with butter and jam. I will have to wait on the sticky toffee pudding – I just wasn’t quite desperate enough to try the canned option just yet and that was all they carried. It turned out to be a fun afternoon and got me excited for my upcoming trip to London..and for some fresh sticky toffee pudding!
So even though you might not be able to travel abroad, there are still so many different ways to experience different cultures in your area. When you go looking, I promise you will find them. Plus it’s always fun to have a day out on going on different adventures. Who knows, you just might travel to a different country without leaving your backyard!
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