When I was studying in Spain in college, I would have killed for a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese with tuna and frozen peas and onions. Also, Toll House cookies. Mom tried to mail me some, but she sent them by boat, and by the time I received them, they were as hard as hockey pucks.
One girl in Spain had her parents send her a care package with Wonder bread, Jif creamy peanut butter, Hershey bars, and marshmallow fluff. You should have seen the disgusted looks on the faces of all the Spaniards at our hostal as she explained the joys of Fluffernutter sandwiches.
In Russia, I would have killed for a decent glass of orange juice. Organges were only available then at cooperative markets, and they were crappy and very expensive.
Also, does anyone know where I can find Lindt bittersweet chocolate bars filled with kirsch? I bought one in Switzerland, but have never seen them anywhere else.
I’ve found Marmite (and Vegemite) to be pretty easy to find in the United States - most grocery stores around here seem to have it tucked away in the international aisle.
The thing I miss most from South Africa is non-dessert pies. Light flaky crust with a delicious pepper steak and gravy interior. Heck, at this point I’d even do steak and kidney again.
I also miss Nandos and take-away pizza. No South African chain would dare just use pepperoni and call it a pizza - interesting flavors and tons of different toppings are far more standard. Large chains in South Africa have much better pizza than the large American chains, although the best pizza I have ever had is in a small place in Boston. But I’ll take Debonairs or St Elmos over Papa Johns or Dominos any time!
US to Hungary. Being in Budapest (a large city), we can find almost anything we might want-- it just costs a lot more. For example, we can get a 20 oz. can of refried beans at the market, but it’ll cost $3.00+ where the same can at WalMart in South Carolina would be way under a dollar.
But what we cannot get, that I would dearly love, is Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They have truly wonderful pastry here, but they are not my beloved chunks of sugar-coated heaven.
When we were on vacation in Italy my husband and his mother got so desperate for eggs that they ordered a pizza with quail eggs since that was the only egg on the menu. It didn’t satisfy their need for eggs and it wasn’t breakfast and it was hard boiled, but it was the only egg they got in Italy.
I cannot imagine life without cheese. I’ve only extensively traveled in Europe, where this is obviously not much of a problem.
The only quintessentially American thing I can think of offhand is ketchup. Everywhere else in the world I have ever been, the ketchup tastes like sweetened, watered-down tomato soup and it’s absolutely disgusting.
Were I to move outside the USA, the foods that I would miss the most would be
iced tea, I actually miss being able to get good iced tea outside the south, but as long as I can get a box of Luzianne, I can make my own
peanut butter
cheese
good Mexican food
biscuits (USAmerican style) as long as I could get baking powder or buttermilk and baking soda, I could make these though
grits
cocoa wheat
barbeque, you know, the kind in which a pig must make the ultimate sacrifice
diet soda, I can probably count on one hand the number of sugared sodas I’ve drank in the past 40 years and now that I’m diabetic, anyplace that didn’t have diet available would leave me out of drinking them
From Hong Kong to the US. I’m actually from a Chinese Indonesian family though, and what I miss the most is a dish of good sate (satay). It’s very hard to find any Indonesian food in the US.
I most certainly am not, as I live in Quebec. From the Wikipedia link it seems not fully mature peanuts are preferred for this snack, and I don’t think I could easily find these here. I’ll remember to try some if I ever find myself in the Southern US.
Outside the southern US, I’d miss grits and proper (US-ian) biscuits and cane syrup. (In theory, the ingredients should be easy enough to find, but IME, soft wheat flour isn’t readily available everywhere.) Prepared BBQ wouldn’t be such a big loss, since my own barbecue is quite good. And tea doesn’t agree with me anymore, but I’d miss the notion that I COULD pop in anywhere for a glass of sweet iced tea.
I think if I ventured farther afield, I’d miss cheese and American-style breakfasts in a lot of places. I could survive anywhere for some length of time, though, so long as coffee was available to me.
