McDonalds. About 10 years ago I spent several months in Mexico, miles from the nearest McD’s, and when I get home I wanted nothing more than to have a big juicy quarter pounder. I was a pretty big eater of fast food back then and you don’t realize how much you miss that stuff until you’re away.
McDonald’s was quite useful when I was living in Tbilisi since it was owned by a member of Parliament and never lost electricity. In my area of town (one of the better ones), we had just 4-6 hours of electricity each day. I never bought much food at McD, but endless cups of tea… with no gas and no electricity elsewhere, tea was either made over a fire outside or at McD.
Locals on our street would burn furniture and scraps of wood/newspaper on the sidewalk to cook over or just to keep warm. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate electricity now.
Slurpees. I always miss slurpees.
I lived in Budapest for 4 months in 2001 (hence the username). I missed ice cream. They had this fagyi (gelato, basically), but it wasn’t cold. I missed cold ice cream so much that I would actually go to McDonalds just to get a chocolate shake. Ironically, I don’t eat as much ice cream these days, so I probably wouldn’t even miss it now.
Ever since, I’ve missed really really fucking good public transit, though Hudson County isn’t as bad as most of the US.
Another vote for water fountains. Especially in airports and museums.
Shower curtains in hotels. Do they expect me to flood the bathroom? And no, those swinging glass partitions don’t count.
American drug stores, where you don’t have to ask the pharmacist for every little thing.
Reasonably-priced produce. How on earth can Europeans afford fruits and veggies?
Shower stalls with American-sized openings. I’m overweight, but not as big as a lot of other people, and in my last hotel in Paris I practically needed WD-40 to squeeze into the shower.
English-speaking TV. Come on guys, a big chunk of your economy relies on English-speaking tourists. Would it kill you to give us even one English channel, even if it’s CNN or BBC?
Window screens.
Mexican food, for sure. Growing up in Las Vegas means excellent Mexican food available anytime just about anywhere. I totally took it for granted. Moved to the a different part of the world and, lo and behold, can’t find anything even remotely close. ::sigh::
I’ve been to the USA quite a few times and normally go for 3 or 4 weeks.
Towards the end of every stay I realise I truly miss the sound of English voices.
And decent Fish and Chips
Fairly mundane, but… Pepperidge Farm Goldfish. My elder son got a bag from his dad in September when he came to visit, and I was surprised at how much I just wanted to scarf the whole bag down (which I didn’t). Had my mom send a value pack, which will last me a while.
I have been in South Korea all year and I really miss stylish architecture.
All the buildings here look the same - they are all concrete tower blocks with very little to distinguish them. In fact everywhere I have been in Korea looks pretty much like everywhere else.
Underline mine. I don’t know where were you, but in Liberia we were lucky to find anything other than seedless green grapes, mangos and Washington apples; same for the fish, yes there was fish in the company’s cafeteria every day, but they only used two species with an occasional show by a third; there wasn’t a single fishmonger in town, nor did the supermarkets have a fresh fish section. The weird thing is that Costa Rica exports berries and fish…
Just curious, where were you? It doesn’t sound like either the UK nor southern Europe, by what you say.
Or Northern Europe, at least not Sweden.
Good cheese. Leave europe and it just disappears.
Small convenience stores mightn’t stock peanut butter but it is present in every single supermarket I frequent. I hear this a lot though. In Dublin you can buy American brands of peanut butter in specialist stores but in any supermarket you will find local brands of peanut butter. It seriously is not uncommon in the slightest. I agree on the Mexican food though, I live here and I miss it. 
Twiglets. I used to think they were disgusting when I lived in England, but I’d always eat them when they were lying around.
Now I realize they tasted a million times better than any similar snack food in the US (pretzel sticks, I’m lookin’ at you!)
I didn’t miss it, but some of my compatriots did. There was literally one grocery store in Budapest (and probably Hungary) where you could get it. It was the Asian import grocery store in the basement of the nagycsarnok.
When I travel I always miss the sheer availability of almost any kind of food and also the freshness of the food. Also the variety. I think I live in one of the best places in the world for food. Fresh fish, fresh produce and a huge variety.
Add me to the list on the drinking fountains as well.
This may surprise some of our Northern European friends, but Americans are much more reserved than…a lot of people in the world, and I have found myself missing that respect for personal boundaries. I lived in Bulgaria from 2006 to 2008 and then I spent this last summer in India and in both places I got really, really tired really, really fast of people just horning in on my business. In India, I lived across the street from my office, and my coworkers would just come by before or after work and knock on the door until I answered it. If I didn’t feel like being sociable, too bad. They would come around the side and yell my name into the window until I came to the door. My landlady in Bulgaria drove me up the fucking wall. She once came over and took a nap in my house for a couple hours. Indians all wanted to know everything about my family. Bulgarians all wanted to tell me about how I needed to marry a Bulgarian boy and settle down in the village and have a bunch of kids. And yet I didn’t punch anyone in the face! Go me.
In India, I missed GOOD BREAD. In both Bulgaria and India, I missed cheddar cheese. (I never thought this was possible, but I actually got sick of Indian food after awhile. I’ve been back for about five weeks now and I still haven’t had any Indian food in all that time.)
Cold skim milk. Every time I have spent any amount of time in Europe I have found myself hankering for a tall, cold glass of skim milk. Most milk in many parts of Europe is either whole or 2%, and even in places where they sell skim it tastes… off, in some undefinable way. Also, shops and restaraunts in many places don’t seem to keep their drinks really cold, just slightly cool.
Also, peanut butter, as others have mentioned. When I came back from 6 months in the Czech Republic one of the first things I did was buy 4 litres of skim milk and a big tub of peanut butter and just lie on the couch and enjoy!
Along the lines of things you didn’t expect to miss, I’d say advertising. Like most Americans–hell, probably like most people in the world–I feel like lots of advertising is ugly, intrusive, and overdone.
But when you go to the other extreme–no billboards, no logos on buses, no come-ons in shop windows–it’s amazing how dreary and lifeless a city can look. Such was the Soviet Union, during the bad old days of 1986.