When I lived in the UK, I used to bring back corn tortillas from America when I’d go home for a visit. You could find “corn” tortillas, but they were mixed with flour and did not taste nor function like corn tortillas.
Jicama is another thing I buy now and again, but it’s really hard to find where I am.
Fatback is common in Southern cuisine, added to greens, fried for breakfast, et al
no such thing as too much W sauce!
I love scones and clotted cream and buy them whenever I can but clotted cream is not easy to find where I live. And scones are also limited.
I mean, if we are including common items which we eat more of than the average bear (popcorn, Worcester Sauce, others), I drink a gallon of whole milk every two days. 
Clotted cream is easy to make, if you can source cream that has a high enough fat content and isn’t ultra-pasturized. It takes time, but that’s all.
Here’s a recipe:
I hope this is useful for you! Saves money, too.
I’ve given this thread some thought. I make most things from scratch, so I tend to buy “building block” groceries, not many of which I need often or are particularly uncommon.
Chickpea flour, maybe? It can be a good substitute for wheat flour for some recipes.
Fenugreek for certain curries, juniper berries for sweet and sour cabbage. But I don’t purchase them often enough to qualify as regular.
Cilantro, certainly. Every week.
A house sitter I had once was overwhelmed at the sheer variety of staples in my pantry. I keep things on hand because I hate getting part way through a recipe and finding I don’t have an ingredient, and there is no decently stocked market nearby. But I didn’t think the things she found exotic – red curry paste, hoisin sauce, tamarind, e.g. – particularly were. Just not in her experience.
Hey thank you! This might come in handy for me.
Another vote for anchovies, but marinated Cantabrian anchovies - hah! (Not sure that link is going to work). Also anchovy paste.
Schoug - I’ve sung its praises here before.
Confit de canard (I buy it tinned in France).
Plus we get through no end of Greek and Turkish (and other Mediterranean) dips.
j
Yes, I’m aware of that, which is why I mentioned that in most of my dishes that call for fatback, I prefer to use fattier bacon from a flavor preference. Fatback is traditional in quite a number of such dishes, but especially with greens, I want the smokier taste of bacon, and still miss when the market carried smoked pork jowl which was even better.
Back when I cooked regularly I was like you. Mostly from scratch and wide variety of staples on hand.
I used to pass the time waiting in the groc checkout line watching what people ahead of me pulled from their carts and put on the belt.
It was amazing how rarely I saw them buying anything that overlapped with my cart.
If somehow our carts got swapped we’d have both gotten home with nothing either of us could use.
It freezes well, in case you make too much (if there is such a thing as too much hummus).
You’d love my Polish deli where they sell smoked fatback! And peppered fatback (unsmoked).
Mashing up avocado is too much work for me so I tried making guacamole toast. Nowhere near as good. Too much garlic for breakfast.
Walmart carries it in the ham cooler. Smoked turkey legs also.
I probably would. Out here in Blando-Land (white bread Colorado Springs) finding most adventurist food options requires going to Amazon, Penzy’s, or driving to Denver. The one quality Asian market has a number of good options, but not everything I want/need. And it’s hell and gone across town. 
Hmmmm. There are a couple of Walmart options not too distant from me. Though the local market DOES have smoked turkey legs. I may have to find the time to go into the closest Walmart Grocery Store and check. Though I realllllly shouldn’t… it’s deadly dangerous to my ongoing diet.
As an example, cut the jowl (maybe 3-4 oz) into medium-ish cubes. Cook in medium skillet until much fat renders out. Then cook some fresh, sliced jalapenos (maybe 1-2 diced serrano’s as well) to cook in the fat. Then add a pouch of Trader Joe’s Wheat Udon noodles (soak then carefully separate) and give them a bit of color in the pan and fat. Lastly, just before pouring all into a bowl, spoon in 2 tsp of chili crisp and a handful of cilantro leaves. Salt, or a dash of quality soy-sauce to taste.
Smokey, salty, spicy. Just enough grease to cook and coat everything with flavor, without leaving your mouth too coated to taste. But it’s a heck of a calorie bomb.
ETA - Sadness. My local Walmarts (online search) show smoked neckbones and hocks (good in their own right, but not what I wanted for the above dish) but no jowls, smoked or otherwise. Likely because of the aforementioned Bland-topia.
Oh, yeah. Mexican food in the UK is in a sorry state. You can’t even cook it correctly yourself because half the ingredients are nigh-impossible to find.
I’ve never even heard of that one. Plantains are the thing I buy when they’re available, but they rarely are.
I sometimes think I must be buying “odd” items that no one else buys… but then I think about the fact that the store is stocking the item in the first place. Obviously people must be buying it, or they’d replace it with some other product. Right?
I’m actually curious, for those who are in the grocery business- how well does an item have to sell to keep it on the shelves? Surely me spending $5 twice a year on a jar of giardiniera (to pick something at random) is not enough to make that shelf space profitable… but how many are really selling? Is it really worth it to stock? Or are specialty items loss leaders to keep me in the store- if I know I can get all the fiddly things I want, I’m more likely to go to that store first?
Sing it, sister.
I don’t care for red curry (or any capsaicin) but we also keep hoisin and tamarind around. We don’t use all that much of either, but they keep well and it’s handy to have them on hand.
I suspect we’ll never share a dish. 
I ate the rest of it yesterday. I just got back from HEB with a new set of ingredients and I’m going to make it again today. Right now in front of God and everyone.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME??
Two days ago I was a normal old lady, living my small simple life. Today I am a Ramen-Noodle-Slaw-Junkie. I’m going to start hanging out in the salad department at HEB, fingering the bags of coleslaw and broccoli mix. (Hehe, today I got broccoli slaw–yeah, baby…) Loitering by the packages of ramen noodles, making sure the cider vinegar has its mother.
It’s not a pretty sight, watching someone slide down the slippery slope…
I’ll have you know I can and do prepare dishes for those who don’t share my (granted, abnormally high) preference for capsicums! And I know you’re on the entire other end of the spectrum from many such threads, so I promise I would make you a dish suited to your needs if ever we meet in person. I don’t promise I won’t think, deep inside, that "this would be so much better with just a little chili crisp though.
I promise to not infect you with a dangerous desire for heat, unlike a certain poster who lead our beloved @ThelmaLou down the path that rocks… er the path of temptation. Yes.