A Modern World

I would be the last person on earth to suggest to anyone to search out English food establishments or suppliers when in another country, as a fully subscribed "gastronaut" I FIRMLY believe in using local ingredients wherever you may be in the world and adapting these to your favourite recipes, and most certainly try what the locals are eating. However, almost by accident, after a recent visit to our Spanish bank we saw and visited the large supermarket Iceland which was on the opposite side of the road. Well, we may well have been transported directly back to England! in here was stuffed full of all sorts of produce, tinned, frozen, packets; you name it, if it is sold in England here it is, aisle after aisle of the stuff.
Now, as I said earlier, we don`t usually go searching out English products when abroad  but I have to admit it made me smile to think that if at any time I have a nostalgic moment for a McVities digestive or a tub of English cream or a Yorkshire ham sandwich with Colmans English mustard on English bread, here it is!!!
On this occasion feeling the need for an "English", we purchased a few products which included some really good frozen Yorkshire puddings which we later had onboard to accompany a Mediterranean style roast lamb dinner, sublime and surreal.
When we started our Wonderful World adventure I could not have dreamt in a million years we would be eating Yorkshire puddings out on the Mediterranean on a hot sunny day.
I suppose this is the way of the modern world, a smaller world made possible by the relatively low cost of modern airlines and refrigerated  trucks which enables produce to be sent anywhere in the world freshly and quickly on a regular basis.
To top it all, we were discussing this point with a Spanish friend of ours, and I am stilling laughing inside me as I can hear his words ringing in my ears " yes, Iceland, I love those frozen English pork pies".

A very modern world indeed.