A few weeks back in London, I wandered across a 'USA Food Store' (between Holland Park and Notting Hill Gate tube stations).
Curious, I entered. The shop wasn't massive and as you might imagine, filled with mostly unhealthy looking things.
Frosties are called 'Frosted Flakes' (Tony is still present), lots of Hershey chocolate bars and of course, Ramen Noodles (that look just like any other instant noodles).
However, when I saw it, standing there in the far corner of their cooler, I knew I had to try it.
Mountain Dew.
£1.25 for a regular UK size can. I'm not a soft drink drinker but I've seen this stuff so much over the internet and never before in real life, I felt compelled to try it. (Two friends later told me that it used to be common in England but I'd never come across it).
The taste is hard to describe, not bad, quite nice. But it had a thickness to it, like being on the cusp of becoming a syrup. I looked at the ingredients and thought the 46 grams of sugar might the reason behind that, so decided to pour away the last half.
Worth a try but hardly something I recommend.
Any interesting, good or bad, food products that aren't common to the UK that you ladies can share an insight/experience on?
>£1.25 for a regular UK size can. I'm not a soft drink drinker but I've seen this stuff so much over the internet and never before in real life, I felt compelled to try it. (Two friends later told me that it used to be common in England but I'd never come across it).
>>10826 Mountain Dew is disgusting. I know Coke is packed with sugar but it hides its sweetness behind acidity; Mountain Dew just goes full fucking throttle on the sugaryness, it's nasty.
It did used to be common around here though, anyone know what happened?
One product, also from the USA, that I would highly recommend checking out, is Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. It has a real tasty zing to it and goes well with lots of things.
Quite often I feel let down by chili sauces from local supermarkets and I'd definitely say this is in a different league to most.
I buy it from Amazon UK and is now something I have a small supply of in my cupboard.
>>10827 You're thinking of Mountain Dew Energy. It's a watered down product made specifically for the UK (and possibly rest of European) market. Even so it's way more sugary than most standard fizzy drinks and has a far lower caffeine content that proper energy drinks like Monster.
US made Mountain Dew is a completely different thing, just like US Budweiser or Belgian Stella Artois bear no resemblance to their UK counterparts.
>>10831 >It has a real tasty zing to it and goes well with lots of things.
No it fucking doesn't.
>I'd definitely say this is in a different league to most.
Yeah, like the Special Olympics. Tastes like shitty ketchup, it's not even mildly spicy. At roughly 2200 scoville that's only 44% as strong as a jalapeño- around 1000 scoville less than Tabasco sauce, for reference. There's no scoville measurement given for the Encona hot sauces but even their standard one is significantly hotter.
>>10837 Not the guy you're responding to, I'm not familiar with sriracha either, but just wanted to say that the chilli prickwaving routine is pretty fucking dull. I say that as someone who can see three bottles of chilli sauce from where he's sitting.
I fucking hate Mountain Dew, both the UK version and the proper Yank version. It's so sickly. It's probably as sugary as Coke or Irn Bru or whatever, but they're refreshing.
American sweets/drinks are becoming a lot more common in the UK I've noticed. My local Tesco Express has an American food section, which is comprised of bloody expensive Pop Tarts in flavours we don't get over here, and all the shit confectionery popular in America. And American sweetshops are popping up all over. The American sweet "Turkish Taffy" is very nice though. They also have loads of varieties of Skittles which is cool.
Asian supermarkets are the best places to get interesting foods. Really like sugared winter gourd, which is basically a freeze dried melon-like fruit that's crystallised in sugar. Mochi is nice too, unpleasant consistency, but nice flavours particularly taro. The aloe vera drinks are tasty, and OKF coconut drink is refreshing and it has a fun consistency with weird chewy jelly bits of coconut or whatever. Ramune (marble soda) is cool, I'd recommend the regular (lemon-lime) and melon flavours, it's just pop really but very tasty and it's kept sealed by a glass marble that you push down to open it up which is a cool gimmick. Most favourite food is pic related. Crispy seaweed snack, hot and spicy flavour. Very moreish, only problem is that it contains a lot of iodine so you're not meant to eat more than 100g a day.
Without googling the subject and pretending to be an expert I always thought iodine was harmless in excess, and actually good for you in moderation. Is there some sort of problem with iodine I don't know about?
>>10847 I was googling for this the other day, apparently iodine is bad but there's also arsenic in pretty high quantities in certain types of seaweed which is bad for you too.
>>10845 >My local Tesco Express has an American food section
Yeah mine too. What the fuck is going on? Surely there are more Turks than septics in this sleepy North London suburb. And I'd be very shocked if there was a demand for Hersheys chocolate.
>>10847 Iodine is definitely less harmful than the fluorine they put in the water supply. You might think that you can avoid fluorine with a clever filter or by only drinking bottled water but drinking isn't the only way it gets into you - it absorbs into your skin every time you shower or bathe.
Having said that, it's always the quantity that makes something toxic or harmless - even distilled water is toxic in sufficiently large quantities.
>>10862 No lad. 'Excess' describes a quantity - it is itself a quality. An excess quantity of heroin is clearly not the same as an excess quantity of water. Now go away and learn how to think.
Besides, an excess quantity of iodine can't be harmless by virtue of being in excess.
First of all I don't understand how you're disagreeing with me and secondly your point about excess being inherently harmful is wrong. See excess of jewellery and excess of tattoos for example.
See if they have any root beer in the glass bottles. Its pretty nice stuff when its been stored in a way to avoid the yeast eating up all the sugar (which I think is why its never took off here).
>>10830 They sell it everywhere at my university and I see it in a few stores it seems great for inducing a mud baby
>>10845 >Very moreish, only problem is that it contains a lot of iodine so you're not meant to eat more than 100g a day.
If ITZ hits us be sure to stock up on some of this as an iodine overdose is what anti-radiation pills do (clogs your thyroid gland).
>>10850 I quite like picking up exotic foods when I visit. Polish produce is pretty underrated.
