Not sure if these products are truly unique to the US, but…
For several years we had an apartment-mate from Austria. He was fascinated by and became addicted to several foods while he was here, so we served them at his going away party, and also gave him large quantities as a going-away present.
Easy-Cheese (a metal squirt can which purports to be full of real cheese). Possibly made by Nabisco, but I’d have to check the label.
Nestle Quik/NesQuik (yeah, I know Nestle isn’t a US company, but he looooved the containers of chocolate milk, and drank at least one every day). Since we didn’t think milk would travel well, we made him a gift of a Costco-sized cannister of it in its powdered form.
Kraft Macaroni n Cheese (Dinner) - he loved this stuff. I know this is ultra-popular in Canada, but I don’t know about Europe.
And when a friend of mine was living in Switzerland for a few years I sent him regular care packages of Oreos, Chips A Hoy, Kraft Mac-n-Cheese and Hamburger Helper. (the poor guy couldn’t cook and complained that Swiss cookies weren’t sweet enough).
Decent salsa/picante sauce- I dunno about most of the world, but a friend who married an Aussie said that the stuff they had that claimed to be “salsa” was more like ketchup with onions in it. Ick.
I found it next to the spices in a Loblaws food store near Ryerson University in Toronto. The store sells cleaning and home maintenance supplies as well as food, so that probably explains its prescence.
I would imagine that corn on the cob, butternut squash, acorn squash, rutabaga, watermelon, tangerines, and possibly blueberries (?) would be hard to find if you weren’t in the US.
'Course, most of that isn’t terribly practical to ship, I suppose.
Marmite is a weird British spread- I’ve heard it’s similar to Bovril- a meat flavoured spread made out of yeast. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. You can get it all over Toronto, and I have friends that eat it. I’ve never tried it, though.
Perhaps this is why Americans are hated around the world - our toilet paper. We can never truly be hard asses like the rest of the world when our toilet paper is so squeezeably soft.
Nonsense, when I was in the UK, I found the toilet paper to be soft, quilted and very very luxurious. I can only hope that is a trend throughout Europe, as when I was in Spain a few years ago it was like wiping with parchment paper.
I’ve heard a rumour that you can get peanut-butter M&M’s in the USA, and I’ve certainly never seen those anywhere else - just as well, I suppose, cos if they sold them over here I’d probably be well and truly addicted by now. For a long time, we couldn’t get Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups over here, and every time anyone in the family went to the USA they would bring back bagfuls of the things.
Yup, I’d definitely go with the American candy/chocolate idea
Marmite is disgusting. Vegemite is delicious. Yes, there is a difference.
I can confirm the peanut butter M&Ms and they are the absolutely best M&Ms ever created (I will NOT argue about this!). Maybe I’ll send you a bag for your birthday
i lived in france and was actually able to find one brand of maple syrup (the real stuff) and peanut butter in the store (in a backwater town). things i couldn’t find were:
orange soda (the minute maid kind, the stuff that looks like toxis orange sludge. they have plenty of orangina type)
-root beer
-decent salsa
-decent tortilla chips
-popcorn (except in movie theaters)
-decent cookies (though the other pastries are good)
-pepper flakes (for anyone who wants to make red beans and rice)
-pumpkin pie mix
-stuff with mint in it
i found lots of candy over there. they have candy bars and such, though not as much as sugar candy (there are really good peach gummies). don’t you dare bring chocolate like hershey’s…the chocolate from chocolatiers (shops) is miles above anything made over here or in britain (sorry guys), though cadbury is good and sold year round there grin
