Happy American Thanksgiving! (belatedly) [S. Worthen

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I'm dashing about until weekend's end, so suffice to say that

printperson did a stupendous amount of cooking, I helped, and Thanksgiving dinner number 2 of the year was impressive indeed. There was turkey and gravy and squash and green bean casserole (with the world's slowest bechamel sauce) and rolls and stuffing and a gorgeous pecan pie and chocolate truffles, handmade by

ewtikins.

Where would one go to buy corn syrup in London? Waitrose doesn't stock it.

Also, happy sixtieth birthday to the biro, aka the ballpoint pen.

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There are 17 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I've found places like Fortnum and Mason and Harrods Foodhall are usually good (if monstrously expensive) for non-UK-standard ingredients.

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Thank you - although going to a Great London Foodhall for corn syrup would be like going there for milk or sugar. (Not that I'm one to talk - I went to Lafayette Gourmet in Paris and came home with six kilos of salt...)

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I use golden syrup instead of corn syrup. I tried an experimental pecan pie this year that replaced corn syrup with half golden syrup and half molasses - it worked out pretty well, and wasn't quite as teeth-achingly sweet.

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That's exactly what my mother did - and it was a mighty fine pecan pie too.

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Pecan pie with maple syrup sounds decadently good.

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This is what I do too and have never had a problem.

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From the rec.food.cooking FAQ and Conversion Guide: "Corn syrup is common in the US but not always elsewhere. Sugar (golden) syrup can be substituted."
http://vsack.homepage.t-online.de/rfc_faq.html

Which I see has already been suggested. But you might want to keep this FAQ in mind for future reference.

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Thank you. There are some useful things in that FAQ.

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I had a side job at a stationery store while at York. The first time I encountered the term:

Customer: "'Scuse me, where do you keep your biros?"

Me: *crickets chirping*

I figured it out soon enough though :)

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Embarassingly, when writing the post, I couldn't think of the term "ballpoint pen". I knew the ballpark of the N.A. term, but ended up having to look it up so I wouldn't get it wrong. (Rollerball? Ball-tipped pen?)

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Like everyone else said, use golden syrup. Works just fine. Possibly tastier, too. BTW, Quasisismajor said she couldn't find corn syrup without vanilla flavouring added in.

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BTW, Quasisismajor said she couldn't find corn syrup without vanilla flavouring added in.

In the US or the UK?

The pecan pie as it turned out - with golden syrup and molasses-enriched brown sugar - may have been the best I've ever had.

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Hi owlfish! - Charles Levi told me to write to you about moving to England - I'm engaged to man in London and want to marry & of course live with him next year. If you could give me any advice on how to do this (such as what you did, or others you may know) I would love to hear about it! Thanks so much!

Oh, and is pumpkin pie impossible to get in London? My guy looked for it and couldn't find it...pumpkins yes, pie no...

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Is the man in London British? That'll make everything a whole lot easier and will mean I can give you useful advice. I also know lots of other people who've moved over for this reason. Are you Canadian? Commonwealth doesn't mean much these days, but if you have a Canadian driver's license, you can exchange it for a British one which I, as an American, couldn't do.

Also, do you have your heart set on marrying in Canada or the UK? Which side of the ocean the ceremony is on also has visa ramifications.

Pumpkin pie filling is for sale at my local grocery store, if you like to make your own not-entirely-from-scratch. Also, there are a fair many American restaurants in town, some of which are likely to do pumpkin pie around the holidays. In general, though, it's a rare creature over here.

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Yes, the London man is British - born in Glasgow - I myself am an American, but I don't drive in any case so I'm not worried about that. I would love to get married in the UK, in fact it's what we are planning to do next summer.

I am happy to know the filling is available, as I wasn't looking forward to attacking a pumpkin myself to make one!

Thanks for replying and where do you live in London? My guy Marcello lives in Streatham...

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Excellent. You're not currently living together and presumably haven't been much lately, which means you aren't eligible for a commonlaw spouse visa.

To be married over here, unless you're already over here on some other appropriate visa (work visa), you'll need to get a fiancée visa before coming over. There is a major downside to this visa: you can't work while you're on it.

As soon as you're married, you can apply for a limited leave to remain visa. This will let you stay in the UK for two years, working, living, staring at the ceiling, whatever you want to do.

If after two years, you're still married (and there may be a minimum residency requirement to this too), you can apply for indefinite leave to remain.

Note that every time you apply for a visa, you get to pay more fees. (

Relevant websites for official information - always to be preferred to what random people like me may tell you, for visa requirements change sometimes - http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/ and http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/

For my visa, I was living in Toronto at the time, but had to apply through Chicago, as I had to apply from my permanent address. I could file my application and make the payment online. Appointments with the consulate could only be booked up to two weeks before the appointment itself. I spent about a month gathering all the necessary paperwork - including my partner express-mailing me his passport, a necessary part of the application. I didn't have to attend the appointment in person, but given the amount of sensitive paperwork involved, I didn't really want to send it away through the mail or a courier service. My experience may vary somewhat from yours, as I was applying on the basis of being a commonlaw spouse.

I live in the east end, in the Docklands.

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Pumpkin pie again - they aren't going to be cheap, but, out of curiousity, I looked up some places which do them, at least by commision.

Baker and Spice, a good bakery with three branches.

A list of some of the London restaurants which served American Thanksgiving this year, including pumpkin pie.

Thanksgivingy food is what's served for Christmas dinner here, so American Thanksgiving is usually do-able. Canadian Thanksgiving, being that much further from Christmas, is much more of a challenge in terms of tracking down ingredients, I'm sorry to say.

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S. Worthen | Weblog

Happy American Thanksgiving! (belatedly)

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October