From Irish rashers to Jamaican Pukka sauce, the Web lets you scour the globe for merchandise you can't find in your home town. Many of the sites we saw double as travel guides, offering tourist information and sometimes even museum tours.
Next time you are planning a dinner party, how about serving tasty baked goods from England for dessert? Elizabeth Botham & Sons , a family owned bakery since 1865 located in the ancient port of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, offers tasty biscuits in ginger, chocolate chip, and double chocolate, just for starters. You can also order plum breads and cakes. For a small surcharge, you can even specify a greeting for your sweet! You can also meet the staff, share a joke, or download the store location. Don't forget to try the famous Whitney gingerbread.
The Fossil Company
is an on-line catalog for fossils, mineral specimens, and crystals. This site is heavily illustrated and also offers information about the United Kingdom's geology.
London Calling lets you wander the famous Portobello Road Market. Visit The Tea and Coffee Plant, where they roast on the spot and blend and grind to your specifications. Coffee varieties come in continental roasts, medium-strong, and medium-mild roasts. Teas are available in tea bags or loose-leaf. There are minimums for ordering and International Money Orders or Sterling Cheques are accepted. Europe's largest street carnival is also here to visit complete with images, maps and sounds.
Internet Business Ireland: Breakfast Specials is a perfect example of what makes global shopping truly unique. Imagine having an authentic Irish breakfast delivered anywhere in the world in 72 hours! Whether you're homesick or just looking for a very different gift, you can have Irish rashers, sausages, and black-and-white pudding whenever you like.
All hot sauces are the same, right? Not here! While International Hot Foods is in Chicago, it searches from the valleys of Thailand to the hills of Belize for all things hot. Look for salsas, barbecue sauces, peppers, seasonings, and gift baskets. Choose from over three dozen items, including Hot n' Honey, a unique blend of tropical honey, herbs, and super hot chili peppers from Puerto Rico; Chocula, which comes from an authentic family recipe in Jalisco, Mexico; and Pukka sauce, which originates from a 100-year-old Jamaican Busha recipe. While you cannot currently order on-line, you may e-mail or call the 800 number.
The Italian Internet Winery gives you a chance to discover the many wines of Italy. Wander the sites, feel the ambiance of the wine cellars and choose from a wide variety delivered right to your door, though you'll have to make special arrangements with the winery for shipment to the U.S. There is also plenty of information about wineries and travel. You may shop in English or Italian.
Don't have time to fish the islands off the coast of Scotland? Look to Fresh Seafood from Shetland , where you can order fresh, smoked, and marinated fish and seafood, all caught in the North Atlantic or farm-raised. When we visited this site the current selection included salmon, herring, mackerel, and white fish.
MarketNet: The Electronic Marketplace is a British multilingual shopping mall that provides many services, from flowers and chocolate to banking and travel.
by Nicole Ericson and Art MacCammon