Like this:

In April last year last year I told you about my great underwear crisis: my Australian brand Davenport boxers are not available in Britain, and neither are Holeproof Explorer socks. Luckily Pam came to my rescue with the boxer shorts (some more are on request at the moment!) and Mark picked up some Explorer socks when he was in Australia in August (though they’re not as good a product as they used to be).

Being the Christmas/New Year party season, my thoughts have recently turned to Australian snack foods that I miss. I would kill for some BBQ Shapes (above). Alas, no Arnott’s products are readily available in UK supermarkets. When I was a university student I used to work at the Arnott’s factory in Burwood. There was nothing like a fresh BBQ Shape straight off the conveyor belt.

Mark prefers Cheddar Shapes.

I have just found a specialty online store called Sanza. Based in the UK they import products for expats from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. I have just spent half an hour looking through their stock fantasising about what I would put in my shopping cart.

Definitely Milk Chocolate Royals. At Burwood we only made the dark chocolate ones – no comparison.

Mint Slice!

Samboy Salt and Vinegar potato chips.

Allens Lollies! Freckles.

Oooh Cheezels! One on each finger. Put them at the top with BBQ Shapes.

Jaffas. Roll ‘em down the aisles.

Milo – but not mixed with milk, just by the spoonful straight out of the tin.

Bananas.

Raspberries!

Freddo Frogs!

Caramello Koalas – I love their gooey middles. Bite the ears off first, then the rest of the head.

Cheese Twisties! OK, Chicken flavour if I was desperate. Yellow fingers!

Fruit Tingles. Tingly.

Fantales. As a teacher, Fantales were my bribe of choice with the kids. I used to buy them in 5 kilogram wholesale bags.

I miss my Furry Friends!

Wash it all down with some Passiona (pronounced pash-ee-own-a).

Luckily you can buy Vegemite just about anywhere in Britain but you can’t get Kraft Peanut Butter! Other peanut butters can’t compare.

This isn’t edible but it’s another Australian product hard to get my hands on. I used to used Eucalyptus Oil to get all those sticky adhesives off products where you remove the price tag and there’s residue left. Also great for other cleaning purposes. In Britain you can only get inferior brand oil in tiny bottles designed for aromatherapy.

Things SAZNA doesn’t stock: Heinz Concentrated Tomato Soup. You get Heinz soup in supermarkets here but they only do Cream of Tomato, which has milk added. This is disastrous when you make a bolognaise sauce (hey, I put in real tomatoes too!) – all this oil rises to the top and the taste is completely different. My lasagne has never been the same due to this. Also you cannot get Kraft Processed Cheddar Cheese, another staple in my lasagne, for the white sauce.

I contacted Sanza and they suggested I try Rosella Tomato Soup, which they stock. Unfortunately they can’t import the Kraft Cheese because it’s a dairy product.

I’m off now to fill my virtual shopping cart!

 

 

 

 

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