fleur de sel - it is a special sea salt from Reunion Island in France. It is only harvested once per year and for only for a period of a few weeks. It has a very salty taste and it a little damp to the touch. It is expensive to say the least. I found some in a specialty store once, but haven't been able to find it since.

It is a finishing salt, not something you cook with, it is really good on steak and chicken.

Try penzeysspices.com. I think I remember seeing this stuff in one of their catalogs.

I'm a long time Chicagoan, living in Colorado. While I'd never move back, I'd kill for decent Chicago style pizza.

DOFU, and yea I spelled it right. It's a Korean dessert made from agar agar. Coconut is definately the best!!

Loved the yoghurt from France. It has a firmer texture, which you can't find in the US. Also, I love Ric-Roc (sic) cereal from France too. MMM. Also, pain mie with Nutella....oh, and the tartines! Oh, and fresh baked tartes- so much better than pies here. CHOCOLATE MOUSSE from the cafes with my friends! ARF! Can't say I liked the milk though. LA VACHE QUI RIT, although it's not considered a good cheese....mmmmmm.

I can't say that I enjoyed any of the interesting foods in Russia...except maybe their chicken that the family I stayed with picked up from a vendor.

A wonderful Cajun sausage stuffed with pork and rice dish called Boudin. You would think that it would be easy to find in Dallas, But sadly, the only place that sales it is one of the most expensive restaurants in Town, called Papadouxs.

oh my god! someone else knows what those things are! they're SOOOO good!

cherry mello-yello, so sayeth my husband. i liked multi-grain cheerios once upon a time... do they still make those?

i totally agreee with the international TFP food exchange program! :crazy:

I'd kill for a Spy's Demise!

It's a secret recipe of The Safe House in Milwaukee. Comes in a tall glass, tastes like fruit punch and is about 80% hard liquor.

While I'm reminiscing about Wisconsin... some Sheboygan Summer Sausage would be nice too.

Let's not forget Merkt's Cheese. I can get a few of their flavors out here in NY but they keep all of the good stuff in-state!

i love peanut butter M&M's. very hard to find, but they sure do taste great. they truly melt in your mouth.

i also love hot dogs from a conveniece store called 7-11
they have the "cheeseburger dog" which is one of the best damned things since sliced bread. plus they have a nacho cheese machine which i use to top it off with. add a slurpee to that and you've got yourself a killer meal.
why is this hard to find?! because i used to live in miami and now im living in GA with no 7-11 around =(

i love the mint m&ms that they only seem to roll out during christmas-time

i am, however, frightened of eating 7-11 hot dogs (it's a pretty crap-shoot thing to put in your mouth!)

I LOVE strawberry shredded wheat cereal- you know, the stuff that only comes out for a limited time etc. I totally stockpile it whenever I see it being sold. Sadly, it's been over a year since i've last seen it on the shelves.

Bloodwurst, its so hard to find someone how makes these

Have you tried those little reeses pieces bites that ressemble M&M's? I'm sure they're the same thing and they're reeses! I think they still sell those.

Asta!!

I occasionally crave a good Punjabi Chicken Tikka Masala and rice. Either that or Tandoori Chicken (also Punjabi).

But Chicken Tikka Masala and Rice with a Lentil soup....mmmm, good times.

damn.. too many things to list.

Icelandic Hot Dogs
Icelandic Lamb
Filipinos (portuguese cookies)
Tim Tams
Violet Crumble

I'll someone else's favorite, and add some of my own:

Galler Chocolate Bars, as Longbough suggested. Longbough, I'm in Northern Cal, too, and the one market that carries them maybe has them one week a month; they sell out that fast. I asked management for more, and they said the Galler distributor is, like, totally unreliable. My personal favorite is Noir 85, 85 percent cacao. At that strength, good chocolate actually gives me a little high.

Masa Sovada, or Portuguese sweet bread. You can only get the real thing in certain stores, around easter time. Yeah, there's this stuff called King's Hawaiian bread that's a poor substitute, but it's not the real deadl. Masa sovada is a somewhat sweet egg bread baked in a round loaf; it's crumbly, but really good. The real, hard-core Portuguese bakers put a whole egg (in the shell) in the middle, so that you eat the bread and then eat the egg (if you dare).

Malasadas. Hard-to-find Portuguese fried dessert; deep-fried dough rolled in powdered sugar. Sort of like a disorganized donut. I think I had them in a restaurant once; otherwise, you got to get someone's Portuguese or Porto/Hawaiian grandma to make them for you.

Mexican Coca Cola. All the American Coke bottlers switched to high-fructose corn syrup in the '80s to save a few pennies, but the Mexicans kept making Coke with cane sugar. There's an intense, sharp sweetness to it that the corn sweetner just doesn't have. It's the Coke I grew up with, not this blando crap everybody else drinks. In California, you can only get it in Mexican markets and a few taquerias.

One thing that took a very long time to find was a place that sold good sausage. Obviously no local grocer carried anything fresh, exotic or tasty. Luckily we found a sausage shop in a town only 20 minutes away. They make a relatively large variety of sausage with just the right spices and even have seasonal sausages like cranberry sausage near thankgiving and several others that I can't remember. Another thing that I can hardly find in restaurants are excellent biscuits, they are either to bready or soggy or fake tasting, luckily my mother makes the best biscuits I've ever had but sometimes it would be nice to get good ones at a restaurant.

Canadian Coca Cola is the same. American Coke is the only Coke in the world made with corn syrup as far as I know. The difference in taste is amazing--I buy large amounts of Coke product to bring back to the States when I'm in Canada.

white castle cheeseburgers.
i just went back to kentucky and ate a bunch.
i'm looking for a place to post the pic
of the tower of empty burger cartons.

the frozen version we find in the groceries stores of TX
just don't come close.
there is a local guy who makes a pretty good slider, though.

a slider is a small cheeseburger.

Oh my god, I never knew the explanation of that, but I've definitely noticed the difference over the years in the times I've had it, and I always thought it was just me. Cool, I'm going to be sure to buy the stuff whenever I see it. (And there's a place right near where I live that always has it.)

Being born and reared in Louisiana, it is good to see that people love the local food as much as I do. I love the idea of travel, yet, I don't know if I couldn't get good boudin or crawfish I would say I am a happy person.
This is a food-laden culture I was born into, on my limited travels, I was always on the hunt to find decent food and often came up short, if I didn't expect to spend a fortune.
To go to a crawfish boil, the water filled with spices, potatoes, corn, onions, garlic...tastes wonderful. The vegetables infused with the flavor, just as prized as the mudbugs themselves.

As to the food I miss...When I was in college, I had a Vietnamese and a Chinese roommate. Their parents would send them all sorts of treats that, honestly, I'm not sure what some of them were called.
One was a dried bbq pork, delicately sweet. A great snack.
Another was a Thai pre-packaged noodle, like Ramen is packaged, that had two flavor packs, a dry herb one and the other was a sort of spicy fat.

We may have good food in Louisiana, however, finding other authentic cuisine to enjoy isn't easy.

Speaking of Violet Crumble, I found one at the local Albertson's and gave it a try. Not to my taste, but not too bad either.

I always KNEW there was something different with the Coke after New Coke disappeared and 'old' Coke was returned. I couldn't put my finger on it. It wasn't the same.

Squash, a Tang-like drink from the UK.
Cadbury's Fuse chocolate bar (it's got rasins in it).
Conn's Potato Chips. These come from southeastern Ohio. They have a really distinct taste. Luckily, you can order them online.

Zucchini Blossoms
 

Simple answer (from a newcomer to these Forums) Grow your own. Zucchini grow almost anywhere, even a large pot on a patio or balcony.

You should also be able to get them if you make friends with someone in a farmer's market.

LG

Cote D' Or Dark (70% cauco) chocolate, and Raffaelo - both only available overseas... thank goodness for "sisters" who keep in touch. Stateside, Alpine Spice used to have a Cranberry Apple Cider drink that seems to have mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again. And Chocolate Rice Krispies. I only seem to find those in Mexico.

McDonalds Pizza. Although I haven't had it since I was 7...I'm afraid I might've dreamed the whole thing up. Seems to me they discontinued it. I don't want salads from McDonalds...I WANT PIZZZA!

you can also find zucchini blossoms canned in some specialty grocery stores. they'll be in the mexican section labelled "flor de calabaza" they're not as good as fresh (duh) but they do make a mean quesadilla.

When I visited my in-laws in Bogota,Colombia they had so many great things that I miss eating. One of my favorites was a little pear shaped hunk of cheese with guava jelly inside. They were so good and fresh. They made them at the store across the street every day. If only they would last longer than a couple fays in the fridge...

I don't even know if they make them anymore but Doritos used to have Taco and Pizza Hut flavored chips, damn they were good!

Oh, I loved the Pizza Hut flavored Doritos. Yum.

In Montreal it's called a steamer, in Saskatoon it's called a prairie dog,....steamed hotdogs. Mmmm,...with fried onions, mustard, mayonaise, ketchup and sometimes saurkraut and sour cream.

And at Easter,..solid chocolate, the real stuff. The stuff you could hardly cut with a knife.

Hot Tamales.

Although abundant in WA, Brownes Coffee Chill is hard to find elsewhere! :eek:

Rose flavoured anything. I haven't been able to find anything rose flavoured in stores ever. Somedays I could kill for a good rose candy... The other day I had Purdy's Turkish Delight, but it's not the same as the European stuff.

Anyone have any idea where in the GTA I could find some good rose candy?

Damn you all and this thread. Now I'm fiending for these hard to get foods. :D

favorite hard to find food...
 

Chicken twisties

The low German food in south central Kansas, especially Hillsboro sausage.

I don't know what they spice it with, but damn, is it good. Bierocks too. I've never seen Bierocks outside of that area. Schmek Gut!

Belgian french fries - they are the BEST in the world, trust me
english fresh pork sausages (all sorts of flavours)
english back bacon

You are correct on all accounts.

I feasted on sausages this weekend...


European eggs. The yolks are some much more yellow than North American ones...

Pom Frites in New York City is a Belgian style fries place. VERY tasty.

As for some of my h-t-f foods, Good Russian and Puerto Rican food, fresh salt water taffy and my number one...Henry Weinhart's Root Beer. The BEST in the world and only sold in the west.

Since moving to the West Coast I can't find: Humpty Dumpty BBQ chips or Cinnabons.

My girlfriend mailed me Cinnabons from Ontario for Valentine's Day though, that was a nice surprise.

-Tamerlain

for me, two words shamrock shakes. damn!