My best from high school moved to California a few years ago. She was recently home for a visit, and insisted, within hours of arriving, that we had to go a certain locally famous barbecue joint so she could replenish her supplies of their sauce.
Another friend of mine, also a Tennessee-California transplant, recently asked me on FB to send her sauce from a different but also locally famous barbecue joint.
And, of course, when I was considering moving up north last year, somebody (maybe Oakminster, maybe Rushgeekgirl) rightly pointed out that I’d be cutting myself off from easy access to grits and proper sweet tea.
Which brings us to the thread question: If you moved to another country, what food from home would you most miss?
That was very likely me. And in the unlikely event I ever live outside the South again, I’ll be needing care packages of grits and Luzianne Iced Tea (I’ll brew it and sweeten it myself).
In my experience, it’s food I never actually eat when I’m in the UK - things like (unsweetened) sliced bread, or bacon. (Bacon sandwiches are high on my list of Things I Must Eat when I’m back for short visits.) Baked beans. That sort of thing. I am way, way more English when I live somewhere else, it’s terrible!
I live in Japan, and think that food here is better than in the US, in general. I miss Entenmann’s devil’s food chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting, regular-flavor Snapple iced tea, and Double Stuf Oreos. And Lucky Charms. Junk food here just isn’t tasty enough.
ETA: ooh, and brown bread that comes in a can, to eat with baked beans. I hafta make my own. pffft.
Well, I actually did move to Spain as an exchange student, and what I missed most was: Mexican food. I couldn’t even make Mexican food at home, because I could not find cilantro, sour cream, or any kind of hot chile.
Also missed cakes, pies, cookies, donuts, and miscellaneous American-style desserts. Again, I couldn’t make these at home because supermarkets did not sell certain ingredients. No baking powder, baking soda, chocolate chips, etc.
Also, frappuccinos. Now, Spanish people make excellent coffee, but there wasn’t a Starbucks to be found anywhere, so no frappuccinos.
Edited: Oh yeah, cheese. American or cheddar cheese that actually melts so that you can make a grilled cheese or put it on a potato or a burger. Spain has lots of different cheeses, but they generally fall into the “really hard aged Manchego-type cheese” or “squishy farmer’s cheese.”
Those of us living in small cities and towns in China seem to talk about missing real cheese the most.
Whenever I travel to visit a larger city I frequently hear “please bring back some cheese”.
Miss the cottage cheese (pasty yummy stuff, not the slimy ick-balls), chocolate, huge variety of sausage, mushrooms of about 30 different kinds, specially salted and dried fish. While at it, sunflower-seed oil is a lot harder to get out here than it should be.
Granted, you can get some of the above-listed stuff in international food stores, but highlands of Appalachia aren’t very friendly to those.
A different country? How about anywhere other than Rochester, NY? There are days when I’d kill for a Zweigel’s white hot. Yes, I’d commit murder, but apparently I can’t be arsed to pay the shipping costs.
Last fall my parents were there and brought some back. I’m still having a mouthgasm.
My family lived in England from '83-'85, and I found that I really missed soft pretzels. When we came back to the States, I missed some of the candy the most (Aero bars, mmmm…).
When I moved to Australia from the U.S., the things I missed most were Mexican food, American-style pizza and turkey for Thanksgiving. I don’t even like turkey, but it seemed weird to either skip Thanksgiving or to have the frozen turkey breast I found in the back of the grocery store freezer.
There were lots of foods I liked better in Australia, though, especially the bread.
Every American I know that has moved to China or Cameroon has developed a single-minded obsession with cheese. Life without cheese sucks. You have to change pretty much all of your cooking habits.
American breakfast is also a common craving. While we are used to eating a variety of foods for lunch and dinner, we tend to be pretty conservative with our breakfasts. You never quite get used to spicy noodles first thing in the morning.
Moved from the US to the UK, for what I thought would be for life:
Donuts. The jelly doughnuts sold in shops are stale and a pale imitation.
Iced tea. Nobody knew what it was or how to make it.
Mexican food. The UK is another country where it’s not common; I think there were one or two Mexican restaurants in London.
Corn on the cob. A staple of summers growing up. There’s sweetcorn everywhere in England, but it’s never seen on the cob, only in cans and then strewn in lots of places where it doesn’t belong, like pizza or curry.
Moved back from the UK to the US:
Battenberg cake. This would be a massive hit here, especially in my own house: tygre loves marzipan, L loves jam, JP loves cake. What’s not to like? But even in Canada you can’t find it. Nobody has even heard of it. I can’t even find a recipe that doesn’t involve “First, get some Battenberg cake…” It’s almost a conspiracy that I can find every kind of UK confection, cake, or other pudding within an hour’s drive of here (either in the US or Canada), but not Battenberg cake. You couldn’t go anywhere in England without it appearing somewhere. It’s like the stuff ceased to exist. Gah.
Yorkshire pudding. Yes, I know I could make it myself, but every time I’ve tried it’s failed miserably. Restaurants here don’t serve it either, so I’m stuck without it.
Swede. I guess I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here. But I sort of liked it, and turnips or parsnips are not the same.
It’s surprising to me that most of the things I liked in the UK are available here if you know where to look. Even Jaffa cakes, PG Tips, and mustard pickle are sold at the local Wegmans now. Truth be told, a lot of the things I enjoyed in the UK were of fairly low quality, bought because I couldn’t afford better quality food.
It’s a Yankee thing. B&M makes the bread & the beans to be served alongside them. (From her time living in New Hampshire, my father’s home, mother would occasionally open the cans of beans & bread. Or make New England Boiled Dinner. Or parsnips!)
If I left Texas, I’d definitely miss Tex-Mex/Mexican food.