I ate my way through the 'American' food in a UK grocery store. Here's how everything stacked up.

Recently, I returned to my hometown Glasgow, Scotland, to visit family. I was coming from the US and once I'd eaten enough Scottish foods like haggis, black pudding, and cranachan, I was craving more North American flavors.

Luckily for me, Sainsbury's has a fantastic range of international foods — from Indian to Italian to American. I was excited to check out Sainsbury's American food selection — and have my Scottish family try some offerings.

There were a large Sainsbury's and two smaller Sainsbury's Locals shops within a five-minute driving distance from where I was staying.

In hope of finding the most options possible, I headed to the big store in the Partick neighborhood of Glasgow, close to where I grew up.

To find the first of Sainsbury's American-inspired items, I had to wade through a sea of seasonal chocolates and Christmas trees in pots.

I'd heard Sainsbury's carried Sticky Texan barbecue cooking sauces, but couldn't find them.

My disappointment didn't last long — I found a whole refrigerated section with ready-to-eat barbecue dishes from Mexican pulled pork to Brazilian pulled coconut chicken. All of these products are made with British beef, pork, or lamb.

They aren't technically made in America, but a few options were specifically advertised as being inspired by barbecue in the US.

I resisted all the sweet honey and smoky barbecue pork options and grabbed boxes of Texas-style barbecue beef brisket and Kansas-style boneless beef ribs.

After 25 minutes in the oven, the beef was easy to pull apart and mix with the accompanying sachet of sauce. After five more minutes of cooking, it was ready to eat.

The meat was tender and the sauce was tangy and delicious — I could taste the brown sugar, tomato, pepper, and the wonderful, slightly bitter kick of molasses. The ingredients also mention smoked sundried tomatoes, smoked black pepper, and smoked sugar. This attention to detail really elevated the flavors.

For £5.75, around $7.01, this was great value.

Sainsbury's own Kansas-style boneless beef ribs just needed to be popped in the microwave.

According to the box, the boneless ribs had been slow-cooked and came with barbecue sauce. The mustard, ginger, smoked paprika, chili, sugar, tomato, and vinegar combined to a very good version of a Kansas City-style barbecue sauce.

This cost slightly less than the Texan version at £5.50.

This was my aunt and uncle's first time eating American-style barbecue and it definitely won't be their last — they loved it.

Ben's Original rice is made in the US and its smokey-barbecue offering seemed like the perfect thing to serve alongside the two American-style beef dishes.

It had similar flavors to the barbecue — tangy tomato, paprika, garlic, and "smoke flavoring." I ate every last grain.

Sainsbury's also has a 72-item American-inspired snack collection that I was able to order ahead of time and pick up at the store. The snack box cost me £12.

The heavy, unbranded cardboard box I picked up was crammed with two packed plastic trays and so many breaded, deep-fried items.

The American one contains 18 sweet-corn fritters, 18 potato wedges, 18 breaded mushrooms, and 18 chili-cheese bites.

This was the only thing from my shopping spree that disappointed me. In my opinion, this American selection seemed like it was inspired by the items left over at the end of the day in a gas station's food-to-go display case.

Although the origin of mozzarella sticks is highly debated and perhaps not American, these fried snacks are certainly super popular in the US.

Sadly, I thought these mozzarella sticks were a bit limp and bland.

I think these sticks needed a bit of hot sauce to perk them up. Luckily Sainsbury's sells US-based Frank's RedHot sauce (£1.80) — with that added, these gooey cheese fingers sizzled.

I rounded a corner and encountered drinks like A&W root beer, Gatorade, and 7UP Free cherry, a variety I actually think is only available in the UK.

Reese's and Nerds dominated the American candy shelves, but I skipped a few of these because I've already tried them.

Jelly Belly is a US-based brand, but I've never seen this before and am not entirely sure if this flavor is available in the US. Still, jelly beans are considered to be a pretty American treat.

I laughed when I saw the bag was resealable because there was no way this tiny £1.50 bag was going to last long enough with me to be saved for later.

On opening, I was surprised by how much the jelly beans smelled like doughnuts. The glazed one really tasted exactly like a glazed doughnut.

The blueberry and apple varieties were hard for me to tell apart. The strawberry tasted creamy and sweet and the chocolate tasted like a chocolate glazed donut.

All in all, I found these surprising and confusing. I still ate them all.

Funny enough, Dino's Famous products say "All-American" on the labels but the brand is not based in America.

Still, I enjoyed them. Dino's Famous chili stacker pickles had a definite kick — they were crisp and vinegary, with a touch of sweetness. The vinegar, mustard seed, and chili were a wonderful combination, particularly when piled on top of the beechwood-smoked Brooklyn Big Dogs.

With a scatter of crispy fried onions and ketchup and mustard, this could pass as a street-cart hot dog. I'd buy all three of these Dino's items again.

Although marshmallows can be found in many places, big ones are apparently an "American" thing.

These marshmallows were enormous. I ate one, then gave the rest of my friend's kids. She may never speak to me again — the amount of sweetness in each mallow could probably power an entire city for a week.

If you were using these to make s'mores, you'd need practically an entire bar of chocolate.

There was even an "American" section in the Sainsbury's Local small convenience store around the corner from my dad's house.

It also stocked much of the same range of candy and drinks, but with even more flavors of Nerds and boxes of Marshmallow Mateys cereal, a competitor to Lucky Charms.

There were way more American products on offer than I had expected even though I couldn't find Sainsbury's Texan barbecue sauce or American-style pancake and waffle mix.

Its store-brand items were a solid value and there were plenty of American-inspired products and imported snacks to keep an ex-pat happy.

I wouldn't get the American-inspired snack collection or mozzarella sticks again, but I will definitely be inviting my aunt and uncle around for more Texas- and Kansas-style barbecue next time I'm home.