EXPATS in the south of Spain have to travel all the way to Alicante to stock up on their British favourites, according to an online map.

The company behind the interactive map, Which Offshore, claim to have produced a comprehensive and global list of British food stores, to help expats track down British food stockists whereever in the world they may be.

But there isn’t a single listing in the British hub of the Costa del Sol, and Morrisons in Gibraltar doesn’t get a look in either. The nearest mapped stores are in Alicante, or in the capital Madrid.

Despite only listing four British food stores on the Spanish mainland, the website’s editor Michael Brinksman said: “Spain and France seem to have the greatest number of British food shops.”

The team is asking for people to contribute new places to the map through its website, however.

Brinksman said: “We want users in other parts of the world like Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to let us know of any other stores as the aim is to continue updating it.”

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33 COMMENTS

  1. But seriously, you’re living in Spain. What did you expect, fish and chip shops on every corner, Marks and Spencers, Waitrose, Tesco and the Red Lion pub selling John Smiths and CAMRA real ale. Get used to the Spanish culture and try integrating for goodness sake. I’ll bet most of the ex-pats living on their urbanisations/colonisations have never even thought about trying to do without ‘home comforts’ because their all just too set in their ways and no doubt complain incessantly about the lifestyle and way of life, but sit happily on their porch lapping up the sun whilst claiming all their British benefits and allowances and bragging about it to anyone who cares to listen. Total hypocrisy regarding immigrants, travellers and migrants who enter the UK and make a new life for themselves. Like it or lump it and bugger off back home to blighty.

  2. David, you are a prat. No comment anywhere in the article about British people complaining. You are coming across as the myopic contributor. Others are merely commenting about the poor research of Which Offshore, whoever they are. It is a nothing article and deserves little attention, why get so high and mighty.

  3. David, you seem to be suffering from some kind of inverted xenophobia which is usually the preserve of journalists who write for The Guardian. Only a Brit would criticise their compatriots in this way. I am a landlord in London and my tenants are from Lithuania, only eat Lithuanian food, watch Lithuanian TV, work with Lithuanians, shop in Eastern European food shops and speak very little English. My Indian tenants in one of my other flats only ever eat Indian food, watch Punjabi TV and moved to the area because the local shops provide the Indian food they like. Of course I do not have a problem with any of this but presumably you think I should tell them all to bugger off back to where they came from. Exactly how does it work in your world? When you are back in the UK, do you go around all the Polish shops and cafes telling people to shop at Tesco or bugger off or do you endlessly extol the virtues of multiculturalism and ethnic diversity in Britain – my money is on the latter? People always have and always will like to eat the food from their country of origin. The kind of utopian integration that you so clearly crave is only exists in one place, the likes of Ken Livingstone’s *** dreams.

  4. It doesn’t seem a very comprehensive list. There are Iceland stores at Mijas and Puerto Banus as well as Vera and San Javier before you get to Alicante. If they had done a bit of research – asked on FB where the British shops were – they would have found a lot of English shops.

  5. Hiya. I actually took part in making this map, and it is admittedly not as comprehensive as we’d like it to be, but the point is that we’re looking for input from expats to make it so. This means you commentators! (Thanks Alun Whittaker, I’ll add Russell’s British Foods in Torrox and Nerja and Arkwright’s British Store in Alcaucin).

    Also, as far as Iceland is concerned, we’re looking to promote independent shops rather than massive chains. I’ve added a couple of Iceland shops but to add them all would seem a bit redundant.

    As for Jennifer’s excessively punctuated comment “Did this person actually travel to these locations!!!!!”, of course not, no one traveled the world to put this together, it’s a bit of fun and eventually (re hopefully)could be a useful resource for expats.

    You can email whichoff@gmail.com if you’d like locations added or amendments made.

  6. David, I think you are living in the wrong gaff. If you are that much of a culture vulture, you should be living somewhere like Kazakhstan or how about Syria? Just think, not an Iceland in sight. I’m sure integration would be a doddle.

  7. I guess many are different, but after growing up in the US, I come regularly to Spain to enjoy the many DIFFERENCES, including the great food, wine, activities,etc. If I wanted all the same as I got in the US, MORE DIVERSE THAN MOST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD!, I’d stay there always. In Spain I enjoy MANY different, and usually better things. Those US desiring of typical US foods, try Taste of America in
    Madrid, for those from the UK, try contacting one of the local UK Clubs like BAM or RBL, etc. For those other Nationalities, try contacting the AIC of Nerja – all glad to advise.

  8. Incredible attacks against David for making intelligent comments, which of course are not liked by little Englanders.

    Yes it’s true that many immigrants to other countries cannot/will not let go of the mindset of the country they left – then why bother – did you only come for the sun which does’nt shine everywhere in Spain but it does’nt stop the idiots from spouting this rubbish over and over again on this forum.

    I have many issues with Spain but it does’nt include the traditional foods which you never see in restaurants nowadays only in Spanish peoples homes.

    I was lucky enough to visit Spain before it prostituted itself for the tourists money and the regional foods were very different and much better cooked than today – nowhere in Spain did they serve chips with everything.

    Most Brits live in self imposed ghettos (so do some Germans and Dutch) they do not want contact with the indigenous people and get annoyed when the Spanish speak Spanish to them.

    We now live in France but still at least 3 days a week I have tostado con tomatos for breakfast . I brought 25K of excellent coffee beans with me when we left Spain – Mercadona No.4 because I knew that the French mostly only sell ground coffee and it’s bitter like German coffee.

    Pollo a la Granadino/pollo asada/ white fish cooked with garlic (learned in Galicia)/many pinchos from N W Spain, it’s a long list and this from one who has been castigated by scrotes for being anti-Spanish LOL.

    Now we are in France I cook many regional dishes from the Midi-Pyrennees.

    David, there are those who are character armoured and are incapable of encountering different cultures in any meaningful way and there are those like ourselves who actively seek out such contact.

    There are many Brits here who neither speak French or have any meaningful contact with the local population – I echo David’s words – if you don’t like the culture – leave.There are now a few companies that will deliver Brit food to your door and it includes junk like – sliced white bread/malt vinegar (puke,puke) brown sauce and other assorted rubbish.

    The corruption and certain aspects of Spanish culture we could’nt accept so we left but it was’nt the traditional regional foods which are only kosher in their particular regions.

    To put things into context there are many Spanish who when abroad exhibit exactly the same mentality as these Brits that cannot really let go of their homeland – pobritos.

  9. Stuart: I bow to your culinary expertise, and agree with your views. With the exception of one item you deride. After leaving the “Pictures” on a saturday afternoon, ten years old, eating a hot bag of chips (in newspaper) that has been liberally doused in salt and malt vinegar, evokes gustatory delight in this old codger.
    As for brown H.P. sauce on a bacon butty.. that will have to be prised from my wife’s cold, dead hands…

  10. i thought we were in the EU???????? i will eat what i want,when i want and david i abide by the law,and pay my taxes ITS SUPPOSE TO BE A DEMOCRACY….why will the spanish not give me the right to vote in the national elections here,and only local??try to intergrate?…not allowed to.2nd class citizen treatment for years…and yes! hoping to leave this country soon before you ask!!

  11. Bill, very funny though probably more hygienic and flavoursome than some of your homespun mush. Good old Charlie Chaplin particularly cared for boots. I hate concrete bagels as much as I hate raw Spanish sausage, and probably as much as I would Scottish Haggis.
    I couldn’t stomach English tripe which brings me back to Stuart and David. Lighten up you two. I am sure others have just as many favourite fine foods as you pretentious, sanctimonious and arrogant snobs, but pretensions.
    Stuart can’t you confirm your comments to the French Press though I’m sure they’ll be treated with as much disgust

  12. Sorry, please delete ‘but pretensions’ from end of penultimate para

    Hmmm just had a slice of French bread with Dutch cheese, Danish bacon, Irish mushrooms, German sausages, New Zealand butter, Spanish tomatoes, English eggs and ‘American’ hash browns, accompanied by coffee from Brazil. Ignoring comments from foody snobs/fattists what a wonderful so called All English Breakfast.

  13. Again ex-pats (or ex-ex-pats like many on here) getting involved in other ex-pats lives and what they like or don’t like in Spain. I love an English fry up with brown sauce once in a while. But prefer the mediterranean diet, as in large SALADS with olive oil before most meals.

    Why not do things that remind you of home if you want to – like watching UK TV.

    Try this phrase interferers – BUTT OUT!

  14. I am a bit torn here. My heart is definitely with David and Stuart, I came to Spain to be amongst the Spanish, not to live in England with sun. Which we dont see for 4 months of the year here!There are no English speakers here, and only a handful of expats, most of whom live in a sealed bubble and are only here because they couldnt afford the Costas. And eventually leave. But when it comes to food, you are a product of where you grew up. I actually eat food from anywhere and everywhere, I have a recipe book that includes dishes from Albânia to Zagreb, and I will try any of them if they sound good.But there are times when I miss English food. I dont need a Morrisons on my doorstep though, and would never pay the overinflated prices on the internet to get a Fray Bentos pie! If I want English food, I cook it myself, with the excellent local ingredients. To the person missing fish and chips, do them yourself! I managed to get fresh cod a week or so ago, a real rarity around here, so I made my own batter, used some good frying potatoes, and wrapped them in the local free paper! Absolute bliss! Then next day I cooked Higado com Pimientos and the day after Xiuvetch (Slavic) then chicken curry. Eat what then hell you want, integrate more, learn the language and have a good life!|

  15. PG. you do have the right to vote in National Elections, I do it every time. But if you are still voting in British elections you cant do both. You have to choose. As I live here now, it made more sense to me to vote in a place where election results have an impact on Me. Sorry if that sounds selfish!

  16. Stuart, stop being such a snob and get real. There is nothing wrong with malt vinegar, and Brown sauce is a joy! British inventiveness in a bottle. You do come across as a bit desperate, what “corruption” are you running from? Poor soul, it sounds more like you are running from yourself! I hope France gives you the life Spain didnt, but it sounds to me like the issue is you, not the country you happen to be in.

  17. John Simpson. English eggs? Are you in Spain? Arent they a bit addled? Spanish eggs are wonderful, no additives in my rural idyll and as golden as the sun! Dutch cheese? have you no taste man! French bread? You managed to eat it before it went instantly stale then. German sausage? For breakfast. I admire your cast iron stomach. New Zealand butter? good local butter not good enough obvuously. And why the hell do you need Irish mushrooms unless they come with a free Leprechaun. Ladies and gentleman, we have been looking for a scapegoat for Climate Change for years here he is! The man has his food imported from all over the world than eat food from his doorstep!

  18. Very amusing Bronagh but you have slightly missed the point as I was responding purely to Bill a ‘foodie’ from USA – now there’s a novelty
    Written from the UK I was outlining my willingness to eat internationally, by selecting carefully different countries for each
    To respond as much as I care to, without denying my preferences for non healthy foods, my eggs are free range from the local farm and many excitingly double yoked. Even fresh Tesco UK and Iceland, Spain bread is preferable to any found in France or Spain where they soon dry out. Very nice fresh from the oven as they are anywhere and including Lidls across Europe. Cakes in these countries always look better than they are possibly because of adding longlife preservatives – which don’t work.
    Without being too precise I live 3/4 of the year in the West Country where one can find no better cheeses that Cheddar or Somerset Brie. Local farm sausages too but all cooked properly!
    As to butter then I would have to say that New Zealand matches/betters that bought locally or in Spain, and bacon likewise from Denmark piggies
    To add to my misinformation I have a banana from who knows which republic and porridge conceivably from Scotland via Tesco for brekky.
    Not clear about your reference to climate change. Don’t forget that many Spanish fruit exports are grown in VAST plastic tents in Almeria where only sub-Saharan workers can survive. All that plastic doing wonders for climate change – that’s if they contribute but that’s another topic entirely

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