Our latest ex-pat diary comes from the land of chocolates and beer - Belgium.

Simon tells us that despite being a great place to eat, there are some Lincolnshire treats missing...

I’ve lived and worked in Brussels for five years, but I can’t stay away from Lincolnshire for too long. Any day now, I’ll be driving back to the county on a vital mission.

You could say I’m in the food speciality import-export business. Not professionally, you understand (my day job is actually in the PR industry).

The problem with Brussels is the food. Not that it isn’t brilliant. The restaurants are fantastic and Belgium makes the best chocolate and the best beer in the world. No, the trouble is, you can’t get a decent pork pie anywhere.

Famous Mannequin Pis statue in Brussels

And (since Marks & Spencer’s branch in Brussels closed last year) no one here sells proper Lincolnshire pork sausages either. You can’t get haslet for love nor money. Or plum bread. You have to go to Lincolnshire to fetch it.

So I’ll be driving 350 miles each way (not counting the Channel crossing), with the cold box ready in the boot, to transport an obscene quantity of Lincolnshire ‘soul food’ back to Brussels.

Of course, I have to bring some Belgian chocolates northwards in part-exchange (my Lincolnshire family are canny folk; no chocolate, no bed for the night).

Strict BBC rules prevent me from naming the shop where I will make my purchases. But if you happen to see a Belgian-registered car parked next to a well-known butcher’s shop in Navenby, that’ll be me, the sad exile, stocking up on pork pies for the journey home.