Cooking in London

Whenever I decide to bake any food in London (and it's almost always bake, since I don't seem to "cook" much), there is always some ingredient I can't get in the local grocery store.  This seems to happen without fail, such that I always plan my baking for a period when I know I can go ingredient-hunting.  So, for example, when I've wanted to make:

• Chocolate pecan pie (highly recommended recipe, basically just a chocolate pie with pecans - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Pecan-Pie-III/Detail.aspx), I couldn't get Corn Syrup
• Chocolate chip cookies, I couldn't get chocolate chips
• Brownies from scratch, I couldn't get baking chocolate
• Gingerbread cookies (also highly recommended - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Big-Soft-Ginger-Cookies/Detail.aspx - but add more ginger), I couldn't get molasses
• Pumpkin pie, I couldn't get pumpkin
• Bacon, I couldn't get American-style (that is to say not big, and thick and gross) bacon (and honestly, I still haven't made it, but I know where to get it now!)
• Wings (haven't made these yet either, remember, I bake!) I couldn't get Frank's Red Hot.

Frustratingly, these are all things you can get at any American grocery store year round!  And now I've finally learned where to get all of these things in London (though Pumpkin is available only in November).  In case you are ever here and need to bake something, the best places to get these ingredients, in approximate price order:

1. Whole Foods in Kensingon, where there are loads of American imports of packaged foods, including Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter from NYC and Boylan's soda from NJ, yum! (http://www.boylanbottling.com/) They also have many speciality foods that are hard to find despite being UK made (like chilli jelly for my crackers, cream cheese and pepper jelly snacks), and perhaps some American-style meat cuts, though I haven't looked (and they can't be, or perhaps just aren't, imported from North America).
2. Selfridge's Food Department, where I was able to find Tabasco Pepper Jelly (delicious!) and Marshmallow Fluff (which I don't normally get but was unable to resist) and baking chocolate (I think).
3. Partridges in Sloane Square, where I saw American-Style Oscar Mayer bacon from... Spain.  Whatever, it'll work.  Also there were numerous cereals and Mac & Cheese, which you can't get here.
4. Random little American Food Stores on various side streets (like one near Notting Hill Gate on the way to Shepherd's Bush on the right off of Holland Park Road) that sell outrageously priced sodas and chocolate chip bags.

You can also, now, find chocolate chips in teensy weensy 100g bags at large Tesco supermarkets, but they work out to be about the same as bags in the states are (despite being teensy weensy chocolate chips as well).

Finally, there's the Stateside Candy Co. online (http://www.americansweets.co.uk/), which is the only place I have found my beloved Wheat Thins (but have yet to order them).

I have yet, however, to find a place to buy an electric griddle other than a £50 number from Amazon ($75!!!!).  This despite checking all of the major department stores and specialty kitchen shops I could find.  Apparently, Brits don't like griddling things (the fact that "pancakes" are giant crepe-like things here probably hurts the cause).

So, the main reason I wrote this post was that I made gingerbread cookies today, and you should too.  I've posted the recipe above, and it was fabulous.  I'll let you know about how my attempts to make molasses-brown sugar-balsamic vinegar mustard work out (to copy delicious Fox More Than A Mustard from Vermont - http://www.sugarbushfarm.com/Products.aspx?pn_deptid=157)

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