The Wonders of Double Cream and Gibraltar Living

Tristan has already written about the hope and disappointment of US keto-shopping.  Just as we had viewed the upcoming groceries stores of America as a keto-utopia while we were in England, our return to the UK also was being seen as rosier and rosier with every passing week we spent in America.  

We longed to return to double cream and nutritional information standardized to 0.1 g and per 100 g, regardless of the item.  We would know exactly what he was eating and be able to get more fat in him than ever!  

As with most things though, our return home was not the perfect paradise we had imagined.  We arrived back in our home after a total of 7 months away to find that the refrigerator is broken!  Back to living life out of an ice bag!  We were dismayed by our inability to stock up on keto-rific products from the local grocery store and begin the process of finding the very best cheese, sausages, and what not, but headed to the grocery store anyway as a sort of re-con mission and also pick up our life saver, double cream.  

One of Gibraltar's Macaques

Lo and behold, does the only British grocery store in Gibraltar, Morrisons, have double cream?  No.  They are out.  'Perhaps try again in a few days time. '  For anyone not British and in the know, double cream is essentially a Britain-only dairy cream product which contains about 50% fat and only 1.5 g carb per 100 g.  It tastes great, and makes our life so much easier when we're in a fat-pinch.

The sausage section had also been reduced to a gaping hole in the refrigerated aisle, and with Tristan's temperamental tendencies, it is a miracle one of us wasn't reduced to tears or found assaulting a Morrison's employee.  This time, I wouldn't have blamed him.  

One punched laptop later (someone was bound to get hurt, but the laptop took it quite stoically), we now finally have a working fridge, even if it is white and not sleek brushed metal, and we have also visited more grocery stores (Eroski carries some Waitrose products!)  Everything is actually going to be ok.

For the time being, there is no perfect keto-paradise.  Everywhere we have been has its pros and its cons.

America is stocked up on its low-carb wonders (still bugging Tristan to review his new favorite chocolates), and unusual ingredients like guar gum.  I have also come to realize what a true 'melting pot,' as it is so often called, America really is. Being from Texas, for instance, I take for granted the normalcy of having German sausages next to Italian next to Polish. Most of the cheeses in the 'fancy cheese section' as I call it may be imported for a hefty price, but cheese from all different European countries are a part of my normal cheese life.  It never would have occurred to me that it could be any other way.  These are great things, but I dont have to tell you, there are downsides to my side of the pond as well.

We are lucky in Gibraltar that we get the benefits of both British and Spanish products.  So for the next while, expect to see some British and Spanish cooking!