After we speculated upon what American chums might crave as gifts from the UK in Cairn‘s question Episode 72, Peter from Chicago has been in touch a few sensible recommendations:
Cricket bat: Although you may find it hard to believe, most Americans wouldn’t know where to get a cricket bat if their lives depended on it.
Snooker table: Not one of those scaled down 10-foot American versions, a full 12-foot long British one. This will be too large for carry-on.
Tea: Many in the United States might not get the concept of tea not in a tea bag, so you may have to explain just how to brew tea without a tea bag.
I’ve always wanted a tea tin in the shape of police call box.
(Yes, I’m a fan of the old Dr. Who. My grandmother even knitted me scarf like Tom Baker.)
Thanks for the native advice, Peter! Although in these paranoid times I think it could be quite hard to get a cricket bat across the pond. Willow has on the prohibited substances list ever since Bin Laden used it to reinforce his garden fence.
Just for you, Jim: a recently spotted cheese wedding cake
On the back of the same discussion, we also received an impassioned response from our US food expert Jim in New Jersey:
Yes! The best and most desired British foodstuffs here in America are your cheeses. Good lord, you don’t know how lucky you are. American cheese is cheap, spongy, and flavorless. We even have an entire state (Wisconsin) devoted to cranking out tons of the stuff, most of which ends up being given away for free to poor people. But a good piece of Stilton, say, is pure heaven.
So if any of you British listeners are swinging by New Jersey anytime soon, be kind and drop off a care package of cheese to Jim. Of course it may be difficult to transport Stilton across the Atlantic since Bin Laden nominated it as his favourite baked potato topping – or for the reason that Alan from famed cheese county Cheshire points out:
I thought that US immigration prohibited visitors from bringing animal and plant derivatives into the country. So answer me this: is it legal to take cheese to America, or were you just trying to get your listener a very intimate experience with a US immigration officer?
You’re right, Alan – we lost our sense and distributed irresponsible advice. Such is the power of a fine cheese.
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November 7, 2008 at 8:50 pm |
Actually cheese was fine to bring in to America. They were just worried about whether I had any meat or had been fondling any farm animals. They also took my word for it when I told them I had no involvement in any genocides, which was nice of them.
They loved the cheese by the way, so thank you for the fantastic answer.