My New Weekly Series - A Bit of Britain at Home

For those of you who read this blog at any random period of time or know me well enough, you’re familiar with my love of Britain. It’s a part of my identity like having brown hair, or voting Conservative or being allergic to shellfish (yes) or being a dog lover. Literally, I have Anglo-Irish, English and Scottish blood running through my veins like Chamomile tea (thanks, Mom!), so it suffices to say that I’m obsessed with all things British. To be fair, it’s one of the things that have kept me going since January of 2009 – while I wait impatiently for November 2016 to show up, but that’s a different, complicated story for another time.

Point is, I’ve decided to write a wee post describing how an Anglophile like me gets her fix while living in North Carolina, 4,000 miles away from the nearest London airport. I'm just happy I don't live in my native California; you can't imagine your in Dorset in your mind's eye when your exterior eyes are glazing over sand, palm trees in an arid climate.

 Feel free to adapt my idea to your own region/city/realm. Are you dreaming of Britain and would love to visit, but have nowhere near the sum of currency that it would take to get you there and back? Do you need a substitute experience to hold you over before you do? Maybe you’ve already been to England (*YAAASSS!) but won’t be going back for a while or ever again (NAAEEEE!), so you need a metaphoric soul-pacifier to satisfy your crumpet-loving spirit?

Look no further.  Here’s my first installment of my weekly series, "Help me I belong in a country not my own but I'm stuck here in this other country help help heeeelllpppp!" This is how hard core Anglophile gals do it! When a Styrofoam cup of tepid Lipton’s ™  tea and a Lance ™ vending machine cookie won’t stand in for a good cuppa and biscuit or bacon butty, read the following:

•   Problem: I’m in the mood for a lovely pub, but there is no such thing in America. Only a seedy bar. What do I do?

Solution: Find a British-themed restaurant and love it to death.

The Big Ben British Pub in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte is where it’s at, brother. The food is as close as you can get to real pub fare in the U.K. The owners are from England, so you can be sure it’s authentic. On weekends, a crowd of soccer (or football) fans, usually Arsenal, come in and watch the game with a pint and some fish and chips. It’s a cozy atmosphere that should not be missed. Plus, it’s near uptown, so it makes a great dinner-and-a-show destination. 

Ri-Ra’s Irish Pub is on Tryon Street uptown. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s basically a chain restaurant, but who cares!? It’s the atmosphere that draws me; the soda bread with real Irish butter (or so they like saying) just feels right in the winter months and don’t miss the Beef and Guinness stew. When the restaurant reopened a few years ago after a fire, the parquet floor that was put in as part of the renovations was manufactured by Harland and Wolff, the same company that funded the Titanic. What with the dark wood, chandeliers, Irish music playing over the sound system and other embellishments, it’s easy to conjure up feelings of Ireland and James Cameron film shots. It’s certainly worth the trip uptown.

Ri-Ra's: The Upstairs Bar

• Dilemma: There are no Tescos or Waitrose’s in Charlotte. It would be great to have a box of real British tea or a bottle of Irish mustard (just go with it) in my kitchen. What’ll I do?

Solution: Find your local World Market or Big Lots. Shop there. A lot.

You’ll usually find a good selection of British food items at either store. World Market can get a bit expensive (I once paid $5.00 for a candy bar…never again.), but if you’re desperate, you won’t care. Especially during Christmastime. Puddings, HP sauce, canned Devon Cream, tea, biscuits, crackers, you name it. If it can survive in a delivery box from the U.K. to the U.S., it will (again, usually) be there.

However, there’s a new Big Lots right up the road from my house, where one can buy a $2.00 box of Typhoo tea, where it might cost $7.00 elsewhere. Just today, I bought a small package of Bourbon Cream Biscuits for $1.20…a dollar freakin’ twenty, kids. Brought a lovely smile to my face.  Most of their items are insanely cheap, whereas the same item at World Market will cost ten times that. So do a bit of research before you buy anything. :-)

$1.20. Yaaaasss.

I'll have more tips next week! Learn to love your local Highland Games and make BBC America your best friend. Cheerio.

*What is "YAAAS", you say? It's the Scottish equivalent of "Yessss". It's my new thing...dig it.