Trader Joes. Since moving to Iowa, for the first time in 20 years I have to shop at a regular grocery store for everything. How can I throw a proper party?
Oh geez, any kind of ethnic food, aside from Chinese (well, there is a European restaurant around–not sure which type exactly–but it’s both out of the way and not open all that much. Good though.) No Japanese, no Mexican (unless you consider Taco Bell Mexican), nothing aside from the standard fish ‘n’ chip places, fast food, and maybe a steakhouse or two. Which blows now that I’ve been living in Halifax, because I can’t get sushi around here 
Hell, we don’t even have pizza delivery.
One of the only good things about living on the MA/RI border was that the Chinese food places made a mean strained chowmein(in other words you could get it without veggies as well as with) sandwich. Oh god are they good. I’ve yet to find a place in NH that has any idea what they are, less have them on the menu. We’ve experimented with making them ourselves, but it’s not the same thing.
Sonic, Jax, Rally’s and the like. They seem to appear in a totally bad part of town, last a year, then vanish. What a surprise! Chik-Fil-A is slowly moving this way, but way too slowly. Oh, and a delivery Chinese place. Pretty impossible outside of a major urban area.
I am confused by this last. We live in a strictly suburban area and have Chinese Delivery. Of course every other strip mall in NJ has either a Chinese or Pizza Place. Many have both.
Chicago style thin crust (I’d kill a puppy for some Monical’s). Decent seafood - not Red Lobster.
There never was an apostrophe 
The official name has always been Tim Hortons.
Unheard-of in SoCal outside of a limited area in a major metropolis. Lots and lots and lots of Chinese take-out, but none of them deliver.
I never knew that. I really only know San Diego and a little of LA. In San Ysidro we had Chinese delivery.
Cake. Cake mix. Crisco. Pumpkin, canned or fresh. A real watermelon. Antihistamines, or any cold medicine which might actually work. Any kind of takeout I can stand to eat. Books in english. Kids’ breakfast cereal.
There was more but I can’t remember, I must be going native here in the Netherlands. I will say, the chocolate makes up for a lot.
At least that’s what my boxes mostly contain (well, other than the watermelon) when I come back from the states. Most of this stuff can actually be gotten but it requires ording from the American store.
Well, I’ve lived here in Nevada most of my life, with a brief stint in Pennsylvania (four months). My formative years were in Texas.
So let me think.
I miss this small chain of restaurants in San Antonio called Taco Cabana. They made the best Tex Mex ever. Mmm.
And as for the east coast, I totally miss Dunkin’ Donuts. There’s nary a Dunkin’ within driving distance of where I live now. Screw Krispy Kreme. I like my Dunkin’.
Oh, and there was little tiny Italian place in Reading, PA called Italian Garden that I loved - they made awsome spaghetti and pizza, and this wonderful bread we affectionately called “crackbread,” as in, so good it’s addictive, like crack. The best part was that they delivered everything on their menu, and it was yummy. God, how I miss it.
~Tasha
I’d love to have a Trader Joe’s. We are due to get one in the Triangle area pretty soon, but of course it’s going to be 30 miles away in frickin’ Cary. I hate going to Cary.
Full Sail and Shiner are plentiful around here but I’d kill, like… eight people to get Three Floyds where I am.
Or Dogfish Head.
And, leaving the world of retail goods for a moment…freaking fireflies! I turn 37 in a week and I’ve never seen a damn firefly! Running around after glowing bugs on a warm summer evening…I mean, how cool is that?! Closest I’ve gotten is flopping around in the surf while the grunion are running.*
*which is, granted…pretty cool.
Sonic
Taco Cabana. There’s not much better than decent fast food Mexican WITH MARGARITAS.
Bill Miller BBQ
Concord Grapes. I think I may have seen these in Florida once. In 1994. For 20 minutes (till I ate them all ;))
What (he asks with a shudder) is a chowmein sandwich? In the Bay Area we have Chinese restaurants every five feet, and I have yet to see such a thing. Is it from the kind of Chinese restaurant I used to go to in North Andover, which served bread and looked at you funny when you ordered rice?
So, I’m not crazy :). Well, I may be, but not about this. Whatever - I still don’t want to drive for a day to get a double-double.
Trader Joe’s. I’d even settle for a Whole Foods. We’ve got nuttin’, which baffles me.
Taco Cabana! I forgot about them. And while we’re at it, get a Steak & Shake out here, too.
I want an Arby’s Famous Roast Beef Sandwich shop. Closest is 30 miles. When I pass on the way to elsewhere I will stop for one even if I’m not hungry.
Products I can’t find at all any more:
Ragu Rich & Meaty Mama’s Meat Pasta Sauce
Quaker Puffed Rice
Vernor’s Golden Ginger Ale
Lipton’s Chicken Soup Mix *without *the chunks of dried chicken that tastes like bits of sponge. Even when the shelf has tags for both varieties they will only stock the chunk style.