I am now seriously thinking about emigrating. But where to?

[Colossal Squid]

I think the trouble with food in this country is our over reliance on supermarkets, which tend to concentrate on quantity over quality. There is plenty of good, fresh produce available if you're lucky enough to have a local greengrocer, butcher and baker etc. but you do have to pay a lot more for it. In fact so much more that it becomes prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, which in turn makes the supermarkets the only option.

Add in the fact that more and more of the local shops and businesses are going under each day, thanks to the extortionate cost of running a business and competition from the big chains, and it's not hard to see where things are headed unfortunately.

When you go out and eat in this country there is a very good range of choices, and certainly when it comes to Indian food you won't find better outside of the subcontinent. Quality can vary dramatically, as it can anywhere, but there's plenty of good eating to be found. We are actually quite spoiled in this respect and I think it's cooking at home where we are let down as a nation.

Personally I don't think there's anything inherently British I'd miss when I do make the jump to foreign shores. I don't drink tea and I can happily live without a deep fat fryer. Things like a full English breakfast are hardly difficult to knock together yourself (with the possible exception of black pudding) and it's hardly a deal breaker at any rate.

What I want from a country is to be represented by people I don't loathe and disagree with inherently, and a reasonable cost of living. Sadly this isn't going to change in Britain any time soon and I'm sick and tired of paying through the nose for a tiny rented flat and its associated bills. Id just like to be comfortable enough day to day, and to do that as a young person in southern Britain today you need to be earning considerably more than I'll ever see.

I shall miss my Guardian newspaper and my beloved football club, but other than that I'm afraid it's goodbye Britannia

 

[HovaGirl]

The thing I always find amusing about Greek (Islands, in my experience) butchers is that if you order beef, chicken, lamb etc, they just grab a carcas and after 30 seconds of insane chopping frenzy with a meat cleaver the resultant debris, bones and all is scooped into a bag and handed to you. No cuts of meat to choose from as such.

Exactly!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I don't know. I struggle to find anywhere decent to eat in the South of France, or in Italy, simply because everything is pasta. In the USA, there was too much meat and simply, too much salty and sugary food.

But I'm not actually talking about restaurants and pub grub is just pub grub - the British equivalent of the Greek Taverna. I'm talking about what is available in the supermarkets to buy at home. We're lucky, in that we have a French supermarket as our local, and it has a LOT more variety than Greek ones. Meat cuts in Greece are awful. We actually go to a butcher who lived for many years in Australia, so specialises in Australian and British cuts of meat. Very expensive, but worth it, and more like we get at home in the UK. You can hardly buy lamb in Greece because it all goes to the Tavernas and it is all very scrappy and fatty. The variety of vegetables in the UK is amazing. In Greece, we only have white cabbage the size of footballs. Without mint sauce on it, it is bland, and you can only make so much coleslaw.

Where did you go in Italy?

 

[HovaGirl]

Where did you go in Italy?

San Remo, Rome, Pisa, Cuneo, Sorrento, Pompeii, Venice, Genoa, Milan, Como, Maggiore, Ventimiglia, Florence, Naples, um, where else?

 

[Danny-Boy]

As soon as I finish my degree I'm planning on going either to Canada, or somewhere like Germany/Netherlands/Switzerland. In Holland, so I've been told, you don't need to learn a word of Dutch as they all speak such good English, even the cleaners. But then I'd be looking more at career opportunities rather than somewhere nice to emigrate to, so they might not tick your boxes.

I lived in Holland a fair few years ago, agree language isn't a problem, but their mentality is (or was, to me) if you lived in the country. They didn't seem to have much of a nightlife, the pubs shut early and weren't very interesting. But I haven't been back there for a while so it may have changed.
I hear good things about Slovenia/Croatia especially their Health Service which is tiil available I think on a quid-pro-quo basis. Better than spain's.

Of all places I liked Germany but again that was in the old days of East/West. Beers still good though! Last year I went back on a town exchange-trip, forgot to pack a razor so bought a pack of 3disposables in a local supermarket there. They did cost about £5 but I'm still using them over a year on!

 

[Danny-Boy]

too soon

Red and blue warning, Croydon's a-mourning....

Any jokes about Reeves Corner might result in trubble...

 

[Danny-Boy]

Genuine British cuisine isn't particularly brilliant, and probably doesn't go much further than meat pies, fish and chips, and traditional Sunday roast dinners. I wil say though, I've never had a better breakfast anywhere else in the world. Can't beat a Full English.

Might give you rather too much chloresterol, but hey...

 

[seagull_special]

And the greatest British breakfast to be had is in my avatar and is right here in Hove.

I love Harry's - pure quality and I had brilliant fish and chips at the chip basket, yes I do shop at Waitrose and M&S and I know you pay a premium but I also use local butchers and grocers and go down to the fish market when I can, I think the British are much more discerning these days and although the cities are flooded with mediocre chains and supermarkets, if you have the inclination you can find quality. I must say in your defence Herr H that at my in laws we had fish that was boiled to death with overcooked peas and undercooked chips and had to control my gag reflex. You can find shit food anywhere in the world but I think in the last 30yrs there has been a food revolution and long may it continue.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Cape Town is very nice indeed. The crime thing is so overblown, mostly by people who have never been here. Sure, there is lots of crime but it's mostly in the townships and very poor areas where you will never need to go.

Ironic posting, given the author's tipping point was the recent UK crime, which has been mostly in the inner cities and very poor areas...

 

[Marty McFly]

I'm leaving for New Zealand on Monday. Can't wait!

 

[Pavilionaire]

I know some pensioners who have emigrated have found since our currency has weakened their pensions aren't going as far as they'd hoped, and that coupled with negligible savings and investment income they're financially screwed.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

San Remo, Rome, Pisa, Cuneo, Sorrento, Pompeii, Venice, Genoa, Milan, Como, Maggiore, Ventimiglia, Florence, Naples, um, where else?

and you're seriously telling me all you found was pasta. I've only been to Rome, Florence and Pescara and found plenty of food beyond spaghetti. In fact I arranged to meet a colleague in a restaurant/ bar in Florence which was closed due to local foody convention. The organiser spoke to me as I waited outside and let me and friend in....I stuffed my face with some of the finest food I've had, for free, and not one item of pasta.

I presume you're teasing me.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Will you need to work? If so, think carefully.

I have heard many stories of SAffers emigrating to Aus and NZ with a job, only to find that when they get there, they have an understudy and once ready, the understudy takes over and they are retrenched. It may be, of course, that they just dont like SAffers!

I am not saying this is going to happen to you, but with the world economies as they are, there will be lots of people around trying it on. There are, however, plenty of countries with skill shortages. SA is one.

Also, don't forget that however awful you think the UK is, you always have the safety net of the welfare state. In many countries you dont and you will be on your own if things go pear shaped. There is a fair likelihood that you will end up paying for healthcare as well. It is easy to presume that everywhere in the world is like the UK and it is easy to take things for granted.

If you do go for it, good luck to you. Make the choice and stick to it - do not start having regrets as soon as you leave. The grass can be greener, but you have to make it so.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I love Harry's - pure quality and I had brilliant fish and chips at the chip basket, yes I do shop at Waitrose and M&S and I know you pay a premium but I also use local butchers and grocers and go down to the fish market when I can, I think the British are much more discerning these days and although the cities are flooded with mediocre chains and supermarkets, if you have the inclination you can find quality. I must say in your defence Herr H that at my in laws we had fish that was boiled to death with overcooked peas and undercooked chips and had to control my gag reflex. You can find shit food anywhere in the world but I think in the last 30yrs there has been a food revolution and long may it continue.

Harrys and The Chip Basket get a lot of my custom. Lovely places run by lovely people.

 

[Scoffers]

I would go to British Columbia if I could convince the wife. The scenery is gobsmacking and the standard of living is excellent, added to that, my brother lives out there.

So, any advice on how to convince the wife?

 

[Commander]

If you don't need to work then go to Argentina. Fantastic country. You would need to learn Spanish though, but you could do that there.

 

[Simster]

and you're seriously telling me all you found was pasta. I've only been to Rome, Florence and Pescara and found plenty of food beyond spaghetti. In fact I arranged to meet a colleague in a restaurant/ bar in Florence which was closed due to local foody convention. The organiser spoke to me as I waited outside and let me and friend in....I stuffed my face with some of the finest food I've had, for free, and not one item of pasta.

I presume you're teasing me.

Again, I find myself agreeing with you. The food in Italy is remarkable in it's quality and low price. And much amusement is to be had in the service stations on Italian motorways - full of lorry drivers stopping off for lunch, and from what I could see, instead of ordering crap like sausage and chips drowning in ketchup, they order proper food, typically a pasta based dish with a side salad. It is literally a case of "pass the balsamic vinegar, guvnor"

 

[bhaexpress]

Food in this country is at best, adequate. The one thing that foreigners complain about here is not so much the quality but the price, very hard to argue.

 

[HovaGirl]

I know some pensioners who have emigrated have found since our currency has weakened their pensions aren't going as far as they'd hoped, and that coupled with negligible savings and investment income they're financially screwed.

And in many countries abroad, your UK State Pension does not rise with inflation. It does not rise at all. Then you have to think about health insurance . . .

 

[fork me]

To a Brit, Britain does have great food and you miss some of it when you can't get it. Up in the frozen north, we need some of that stodge to keep us warm (even in the summer!). There's also a great deal of variety. French; Chinese; Japanese; Italian; Indian, etc, etc. Go to a Greek Taverna, and the food is exactly the same as the Taverna next door and every Taverna you have ever been to. The menus are identical. And when will they ever learn the idea of starter followed by main? The whole lot turns up in one great table-full (and the tables are never big enough) and by the time you get past the mezedes, everything else is cold. And there's never any gravy and the choice of vegetables is limited.

Cyprus is nothing like that at all. The food is good, loads of variety. There's even a decent chippy in Limassol now.

Weather is a pain in high summer, but most places indoors are air conditioned. An Italian friend of mine once described Greece as what Cyprus would be like if the British hadn't been there.