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

[Seagull27]

I can't believe anyone is arguing with HT that our food is shit. It is. Go to Calais and check out their supermarkets and the difference in what is available is there for all to see. Good social eating just isn't part of our culture, sadly. Local restaurants just aren't a part of the fabric of society here. Instead, we have pubs. I'm not knocking it, but that is a fact. It's not that you can't eat well at home here, but expect to pay through the nose for the privelege.

As for my choice, well it has to be Canada - I lived there for a year and nearly emigrated over a decade ago. Great standard of living, pro British, as bhaexpress says, all the best bits of North America but with comparitively few of the problems the US has. And what's more, you're only 5 hours from home if you're in Ontario or Quebec.

I guess a lot of it comes down to our eating habits. Apart from possibly a Sunday dinner, in general in this country we sit down for a half hour or so, eat food and then get back to what we were doing. A lot of families don't even eat together.

Whereas in a lot of other countries, the main evening meal lasts a good few hours and is a big family social thing. Again, not saying it's better or worse. Personally I'd rather have a relatively quick meal and then socialise down the pub, although a restaurant-cooked meal can be nice as well.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Hobart would be a lovely place to live.

 

[Simster]

I guess a lot of it comes down to our eating habits. Apart from possibly a Sunday dinner, in general in this country we sit down for a half hour or so, eat food and then get back to what we were doing. A lot of families don't even eat together.

Whereas in a lot of other countries, the main evening meal lasts a good few hours and is a big family social thing. Again, not saying it's better or worse. Personally I'd rather have a relatively quick meal and then socialise down the pub, although a restaurant-cooked meal can be nice as well.

I agree entirely. The quick meal/pub thing only works when you haven't got kids though!

 

[Steveapps71]

Red sky at night ?

Croydon's a-light.

too soon

 

[colinz]

The Boarding School where I work in Auckland is presently hosting a few schools from the UK, that have come down here to play a bit of Rugby.

Every person (pom) that I am introduced to on hearing my accent tells me that I did the right thing (living down here). One bloke from Gravesend blamed everything on the East Europeans. Somebody else from up North reckons the UK is on the brink of Civil War.
Maybe they're just being polite.
Dreading tomorrow, 74 arriving from Caterham probably all Palace fans.

Thing is I've always quite liked the UK when things go tits up, fond memories of living near Brixton during the 81 riots, had a good time there back in 94 during recessionary times.
Nothing worse than being in the UK during an economic boom, everyone telling you about their share portfolio, and how much their house is worth.

 

[Steveapps71]

West Australia for me, a few mates are in Perth & I would be there if I could but I cant for family reasons.
Love the place & its great for holidays as i cant get over to live.
Once all this chavvy mindless stuff calms down it will alll be okay!!
Lets face it when the sun us shining there isn't too many places in the world better than BRIGHTON X

 

[chucky1973]

I will hopefully move to the South Of france within 10 years. Kids learning the lingo now and we are looking into business opportunities down there now. love the place. Only worry is, Im not sure what it is like to live there down there in Winter.

 

[Simster]

I will hopefully move to the South Of france within 10 years. Kids learning the lingo now and we are looking into business opportunities down there now. love the place. Only worry is, Im not sure what it is like to live there down there in Winter.

We have relatives who live in Nice, and it can get f***ing cold in winter - their swimming pool actually freezes over!

 

[chucky1973]

We have relatives who live in Nice, and it can get f***ing cold in winter - their swimming pool actually freezes over!

thats my worry, where we stay near Bezier, it also gets blooming cold and the place is empty for about 5 months, no one goes to the beach towns or villages and all the shops and restuarants close up, so for a business venture, would it be seasonal and hope to rake it in, or find something which is all round which may be tough.

 

[NMH]

I guess a lot of it comes down to our eating habits. Apart from possibly a Sunday dinner, in general in this country we sit down for a half hour or so, eat food and then get back to what we were doing. A lot of families don't even eat together.

Whereas in a lot of other countries, the main evening meal lasts a good few hours and is a big family social thing. Again, not saying it's better or worse. Personally I'd rather have a relatively quick meal and then socialise down the pub, although a restaurant-cooked meal can be nice as well.

Having lived in a few countries now and enjoyed varying eating and shopping habits with food, I will add that an INDIVIDUAL'S habits are formed by their family and stays with them generally.
Hence, I will eat cleanly organized meals with most food groups present, but salt any potatoes and not often use sauces.
Plus there's a requirement to end with a dessert - which actually isn't so great as habits go. We don't need sugars very much, and the effect of them after a carbohydrate-wealthy meal is to encourage the spare carbs to turn into fat. The key of course is to make sure the carbs do get burned.

In Sweden, as everyone knows they consume a lot of herring - which is healthy. Salmon is very available, along with other, white fish.
The downer is that a lot of meats are smoked. I've bought turkey that tasted like ham, and lamb ....that tasted like ham - because they insist on smoking meats a lot. I don't care if I never eat anything smoked, ever. Top beef cuts are expensive, but moose, boar and venison are basically on a par price-wise. Lamb is difficult to find in our traditional style as a leg joint un-changed by pre-preparation.
Prawns and crustaceans are easily available and there are fridges especially in supermarkets with a scoop for them and you pay by the kilo weight.
Trouble is you are then paying for the water weight, as they are all iced and come as hard seafood shaped lumps.
Pork is everywhere, very available and cheap enough, but I don't eat much pork.
So, fish and chicken it is then!

Cheese is everywhere, in variety and in huge sizes. It's unhealthy to eat a lot of hard cheese though, so I don't consume much of it.
EVERY kind of milk product is represented - lactose-free, yogurts in every style, curdled soured creme-fraich cottage-cheese and etc.
I like yogurt on my cereal, and sugar free muesli with nuts and fruit is also easy to find.

Like the whole bloody world, you can't get great tea like we can in Britain. I have to bring it back after visiting the UK, or get a visitor to bring some.

It's inexpensive to eat at home generally, but lunch menus when at restaurants are generally okay - I can get a very decent meal for around £7 or £8.
Service is highly taxed, which means drinks are bloody amazingly high priced.
Swedes tend to drink at home and go out late. I drink lightly and not too fast, so budget for a modest 3-beer evening.

 

[HovaGirl]

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. QUOTE]

Well it would be. It's a bit like saying that the food in one chippy is the same as the food in another chippy.

British food is generally crap and is laughed at by most other European countries. We do have some of the best restaurants in the world though. But, below this, we generally have no pride in what we cook.

If there are 100 restaurants in Athens, 97 of them will be identical Tavernas. If there are 500 restaurants in Athens, 485 will be identical Tavernas, and the rest will be Italian with a couple of Oriental. If you go to the islands, or to the resorts, you won't even get that choice, just the identical Tavernas.

British food suits Brits but it may not suit foreigners. My Swedish and German friends, for example, never put gravy on their roast dinner. They're horrified by mint sauce on lamb. Many of my foreign friends like salad cream on chips. It's a culture thing. You like what you are used to, what you have been brought up with.

Greece has few vegetables. I'm fed up with peppers roasted in olive oil. I'm fed up with cold cauliflower in salads. I want stews and casseroles with veggies and gravy.

When I lived in Germany, I put on two stone. I liked the food well enough, but avoided sauerkraut and over-vinegary stuff. Much of the food was fried. Each to their own. Nicht war?

 

[HovaGirl]

I am prepared to admit we have some great restaurants in this country. I could easily rattle off 20-30 in a minute with little thought. In fact, we have some of the best in the world.

But, generally, food is shit. We simply do not have brilliant meat, fruit and veg in the supermarkets. You must be insane to think this. Or maybe you just shop at Waitrose. Ever tried buying fresh salad leaves in a supermarket? This is a particular bug bear of mine. The high street is littered with chains. The pubs generally serve stuff from the freezer and use food as a non-alcohol item to make a healthy profit on. The big company owned pubs meals has to sell food for something like 5 times its unit price...I dread to think what goes into it. There are exceptions of course, but I'm talking in general and around the country, not just here.

In general other European countires have it much much better.

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.

 

[HovaGirl]

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.

What about stews and casseroles and farmer's wife home-cooking? Can't beat it.

 

[sydney]

why don't you try poland , i hear it's f***ing booming.

 

[HovaGirl]

I will hopefully move to the South Of france within 10 years. Kids learning the lingo now and we are looking into business opportunities down there now. love the place. Only worry is, Im not sure what it is like to live there down there in Winter.

Very cold and quiet, except at Christmas time when it is cold and noisy!

 

[Birdie Boy]

thats my worry, where we stay near Bezier, it also gets blooming cold and the place is empty for about 5 months, no one goes to the beach towns or villages and all the shops and restuarants close up, so for a business venture, would it be seasonal and hope to rake it in, or find something which is all round which may be tough.

Thats the time to go snowboarding! Perfect, sun in the summer and snow in the winter.

 

[HovaGirl]

why don't you try poland , i hear it's f***ing booming.

It is, after finally getting some independence. It is probably one of the countries of the future to watch. Krakow is an amazing city.

 

[chucky1973]

Thats the time to go snowboarding! Perfect, sun in the summer and snow in the winter.

thats a good shout, we are only 2hrs drive from the french pyrenees!!!

 

[Commander]

I'm not talking about range or variety, I'm talking about quality. The range is vast, the quality of what is available is generally crap though. The original post to which I replied used the term 'great food'. I disagree very strongly.

Fair enough, I guess it depends where you shop then.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

If there are 100 restaurants in Athens, 97 of them will be identical Tavernas. If there are 500 restaurants in Athens, 485 will be identical Tavernas, and the rest will be Italian with a couple of Oriental. If you go to the islands, or to the resorts, you won't even get that choice, just the identical Tavernas.

British food suits Brits but it may not suit foreigners. My Swedish and German friends, for example, never put gravy on their roast dinner. They're horrified by mint sauce on lamb. Many of my foreign friends like salad cream on chips. It's a culture thing. You like what you are used to, what you have been brought up with.

Greece has few vegetables. I'm fed up with peppers roasted in olive oil. I'm fed up with cold cauliflower in salads. I want stews and casseroles with veggies and gravy.

When I lived in Germany, I put on two stone. I liked the food well enough, but avoided sauerkraut and over-vinegary stuff. Much of the food was fried. Each to their own. Nicht war?

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.