Stalking British Foodstuff in SoCal - Christmas Edition

After NaBloPoMo, I was stoked to see how long I could keep up with posting daily.

I lasted until yesterday.

Considering that the holiday season is now in full-swing, I don't think I did too badly. But I predict that I will be skipping more days as we continue the countdown to Christmas and New Year.

Megan had a half-day on Friday and then began her winter break. I don't know who was more excited about this: her, me -- or her teachers. Last Monday's homework-thon must have been their last gasp. She barely needed 20 minutes to finish her assignments and Tuesday and Wednesday, and all the parents were shocked when there was no homework at all on Thursday. And no projects assigned over the holiday break. Hallelujah!

So now we have three, glorious weeks without the stress of all that homework.

Hebrew school is also out for the duration of the school break, so the only structured part of Megan's life right now is gym. My husband and I dropped her off yesterday and took advantage of the time to get a little Christmas shopping done on our own.

As I've mentioned before, this year's holiday will be different for us. My sister and brother-in-law can't come down for Christmas, so we're spending it at their home and merging our traditions. We wanted to pick up some Christmas goodies that were distinctly British: you know, Christmas pudding, Christmas crackers, sweets (the British candy companies put out some amazing collections just for Christmas), etc.

My husband especially wants a Christmas pudding, which is similar to a fruitcake. I know that would turn a lot of people off, but the pudding is worth trying. The difference is that it's very moist, because it is steamed before serving hot. It's really, really good when you top it with a hot brandy sauce.

So we decided to lunch at the one really good pub in the Valley, The Robin Hood -- which made it easy to hit their Friar Tuck imported food shop next door.

But we were disappointed to find most of the shelves bare. They still had a few assortments of sweets and some very small puddings -- but nowhere near the selection of items we expected. And there were just two sorry packages of crackers.

"I'm sorry, luv, you should have come a couple of weeks ago. We were overflowing with it," said the grandmotherly lady behind the counter.

It's weird, because in years past, we've done our shopping here right on Christmas Eve and have found everything we wanted.

Maybe with the terrible exchange rate (it's now about $2 to the pound), the owners didn't want to be stuck with leftover inventory they might have to discount later, I surmised. They probably didn't order the quantities they have in the past.

I remembered that Williams-Sonoma stocks crackers and imported Christmas puddings every year, and we were near Sherman Oaks Fashion Center - so we decided to check it out there. Sure enough, they had both in stock (and the packaging of the pudding was really nice, with a traditional cheesecloth wrapping instead of the plastic bowl the Friar Tuck's puddings come in). But the crackers came in Williams Sonoma packaging which indicated that they were made in China. So my husband concluded that wasn't authentic enough for him.

So today, we headed out to Brit Central in SoCal: Ye Olde Kings Head pub in Santa Monica. According to my husband, the British tend to want to congregate by the sea, and years ago, this became the logical center for L.A.'s ex-pat community. The first time any British person comes to town, he or she is likely to show up once at the Kings Head, and the walls of the clubby pub are covered with photos of those visits: Margaret Thatcher, Richard Branson, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Grant, Michael Caine -- surely, that one of Queen Elizabeth must be an impersonator? But maybe not...

The Kings Head is also connected to a shop, so the plan was to mosey over there after breakfast. And if they didn't have what we were looking for, we could try the Tudor House Tea Room and shop across the street.

Fortunately, we didn't have to go that far. The shop at the Kings Head had everything we were looking for, and then some. We picked up bunches of Cadbury stocking stuffers, tins of biscuits (cookies to us Yanks), shortbread fingers and a big box of Tom Smith crackers (est. 1847), complete with warrants indicating they are the official Christmas crackers of the royal family.

Ironically, they were also made in China.

And while the Kings Head had several large Christmas puddings to choose from, all came in the same objectionable plastic bowls. So tomorrow, I'm going back to Williams Sonoma to get one of theirs. I think I'll pick up some brandy sauce, too.

Comments

[Lin]

Every year my Mum goes to M&S or Sainsbury's just after Xmas and buys me a couple of puddings and fruitcakes (for the following Xmas). Then when I'm home I pack them up and bring them back with me and stick them in the fridge. They've always been fine, fresh tasting, fabulous. So I've got my pudding and cake and I'm getting ready to make my wee little mince pies. I got the crackers at Home Goods a couple of months ago and you're right...no matter how upscale a brand one buys, they're all bloody made in China.