The Brits just love Barbados and mostly for the difference in weather from their home town. They also look for things to remind them of home. No doubt all nationalities suffer from the same loss of favourite items only available in their old home town stores.

When I talk to Brits in Barbados they often remark that they miss the football and we talk about the differences in weather. We discuss how they’ll sit in the frozen terraces of football grounds on cold and wet winter nights. On every occasion they tell me that their half time delight in the possibility of buying a hot cup of tea and a Pukka Pie. The Pukka Pies have become a tradition at football matches and in recent years have become easily available in the UK’s high street stores. Easy to hold in one hand with tea in the other, they’re hot, taste good and warm you up.

How pleased they’ll be to see the largest food store group, Supercentre, in Barbados, is now stocking a range of Pukka Pies in the freezers. They offer a selection of oven pies together with some of the 3½ minute microwave specials. No longer will the Brits miss their Pukka Pies, but maybe they’ll chase it down with a cold Banks’ beer.

Barbados is one of the few countries around the world stocking the famous pies. Pies are usually called patties in Bimshire (code for Barbados; sounds like a British county – ‘shire’). Available in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Malta, Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands; they’re obviously available where the Brits congregate, to talk about the football back home.

The pies in the UK are usually about £1.50 in a store and around £2.50 at a football match. In Barbados they’re $9, around £3. For those who like their Branston pickle, a small jar in England is around £1.40, but £3 ($9) in Barbados.

http://www.pukkapies .co.uk/ from Leicester, England.