Today's blog post is courtesy of our friends Anisa and Katherine from the popular travel website Two Traveling Texans.  They can also be found on Facebook.

Here are their picks for foods they think we could use on this side of the pond:

Clotted Cream - First of all, clotted cream is not the same as butter. I like butter but clotted cream is even better.  Clotted cream is made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. Unfortunately, it has a very short shelf life, so virtually none is exported.  I have seen some clotted cream in the US but have not found anything the quality of what I had in England.  (Please let me know if you have had good clotted cream in the US!) The texture and flavor of clotted cream is creamier and sweeter than butter.  It is most commonly used to spread on a scone, like we might spread butter on a biscuit.  I have to admit, I have eaten it with a spoon - it tastes that good!  I also tried clotted cream ice cream which is very tasty.

Fish Pie - It is sort of like shepherd's pie but made with fish instead of beef.  A mixture of different fish are poached (or baked) and combined with a cheese sauce and vegetables.  Then it is topped with mashed potatoes and little more cheese and baked in the oven.  Traditionally, it also has a hard-boiled egg in it, but since I wasn’t sure if I would like it we left it out.  Russell made it for me for New Year’s Eve, and I really enjoyed it.  It is time consuming to make, but definitely worth the effort.

Black Pudding - If you knew what black pudding was made of, you might be afraid to try it - so don’t ask.  It is not pudding like we would think of in the US, the British use the term much more broadly.  I was scared to try it until my boyfriend made it for me, and now it is one of my favorite things.  It is similar to sausage but has a creamier texture.  Black Pudding is served as part of a full English breakfast along with eggs, toast, sausage, bacon (well Canadian bacon), tomatoes and mushrooms.  

Yorkshire Pudding - The best way I can describe this is that it is similar to what we would call a turnover.  It is a hollow muffin.  Yorkshire pudding is traditionally served at Christmas dinner, but it doesn’t have to be a special occasion, it goes well with any roast dinner.  I tried it for the first time at the Dabbling Duck Pub in Norfolk, and it was delicious, especially when dipped in gravy. 

Bread Sauce - Bread sauce is a milk-based creamy sauce that can be served warm or cold and is thickened with bread crumbs.  We had some bread sauce with our turkey for Christmas Dinner.  Bread sauce can be traced all the way back to medieval times, when cooks used bread to thicken sauces. It was probably invented when cooks wanted to use up their stale bread and discovered that it could be added to sauces to make them thicker.

Christmas Cake & Pudding - These Christmas desserts are similar but not the same as the fruitcakes you would get here in the US.  The cake is baked weeks in advance and then spoon “fed” a little bit of brandy each week.  Then, after the feeding is complete a layer of marzipan is added.  Finally, it is decorated, usually with white frosting and a Christmas theme.  The cake can have anywhere from a ¼ to ½ bottle of brandy in it (and the alcohol does not get cooked off), so it is the perfect party dessert.  The pudding doesn’t get decorated.  Instead a little bit of warmed brandy is poured on top and then it is set on fire (be careful, it will flame up).  You serve it with a custard sauce which is sort of like a creamy vanilla sauce. Both the cake and the pudding are moister than an American fruitcake and much tastier!