snowy

All of us have foods that we love that may be hard to find where we live or hard to find period. What's your favorite hard to find food?

I love All-Dressed Ruffles, but unfortunately they are only available in Canada. So every time I visit BC I stock up. I also love Japanese peach water; fortunately that's easier to get at an Asian market in Portland. European Fanta (very different from American Fanta) is another favorite of mine that I can't get my hands on frequently.

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GakFace

not really sure... I can easily find it because its at a restaurant not far from home, but its the only place I know I can get it and its not exactly the cheapest item on the menu... that being said

Swordfish.

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Ripsaw

Yamamomo. Still haven't found a supplier of fresh ones, even in NY.

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the_marq

My favourite foods that I rarely get to enjoy:

Pocari Sweat: A great Japanese version of GatorAde that I have yet to find in North America. Great for hangovers.
HB - Icecream Bars: Only available in Ireland so far as I know.
The souls of the innocent: Just hard to find anywhere these days.

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rockzilla

Maldon Sea Salt - This salt is cultivated by evaporating sea water. It comes in large, crumbly flakes and has a distinctive mineral taste. I finally found some in a gourmet shop on the other side of town and have resolved to never use regular table salt again. There are a few other exotic varieties of salt that I'd still like to try, French 'Fleur de Sel', which is considered the rarest and best salt from a batch of sun-evaporated sea salt. Or Hawaiian Red Sea Salt, which gets its colour from the iron oxide in the clay in the water that the salt comes from. The flavour differences that you can get from a dish depending on what kind of salt you use is amazing.

maleficent

Zucchini Blossoms... stuffed with a little bit of goat cheese with some light herbs, lightly lightly sauteed. Absolute heaven. Had them in Australia, and have been hard pressed to find them anywhere else.

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ScottKuma

A number of Japanese delicacies, including (but not limited to) the following:

UCC Melon Soda

Melon pan

Pocari Sweat

Vermont Curry (used to be stocked by a local grocery, but they stopped! BAH!)

There was this wonderful apple tea that I drank when I was in Japan - I have not found it since.

Oyako-donburi (found a place in Brookline - near Boston - that serves GREAT donburi...but nowhere in Cincinnati)

Suave

Team Cheerios. Only available in the US. Also, Four Cheese Pizza Pockets which are only sold at Superstore in small packs.

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longbough

Galler chocolates - the REAL Belgian stuff (forget that Godiva shite). Even the simple milk chocolate bars are unparalleled.
Cadbury bars from the UK - i.e. Picnic, Double Decker, Flake (especially in ice cream)...
I'll have to add a vote to european Fanta.
Good cream soda - I remember having this as a kid but haven't found a decent one since - the search continues...
Decent (i.e. not wimpy) ginger beer - actually I've found a decent source a couple of months ago

kulrblind

...Sounds to me like we have the makings of an international food-swap scheme here on TFP.

Someone mentioned All Dressed Ruffles??

paj

ting
best drink i've ever had
its a jamaican grapefruit drink, had it in st. thomas, seen it once or twice here in toronto, but thats it

Kid_Karysma

What's all dressed ruffles?

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the_marq

I'll take this one if no one minds.

A "Ruffle" is a type of potato chip (or crisp for our UK members).

Ruffles are known for being a little thicker than a regular potato chip. The "All Dressed" kind (also my favourite) are seasoned with everything. So they have all the regular chip flavours mixed together (salt and vinagar, ketchup, BBQ, et al).

They're awesome

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cyrnel

This one will get some yawns...

Lemon cucumbers

So easy to grow, but our weather means 6, maybe 8 weeks, then they're gone. Never see them in produce sections. $#^(@*&#$!

MiSo

there's no 7-11's in my area.

7-11 is a convenience store for those who dont know. its open 24 hours.

there have the best hotdogs.
mMMmmm..... yummy

hotdogs and slurpee's, can't beat that.

ScottKuma

When I was in Japan, I was craving for good ol' Kraft macaroni & cheese.

Couldn't find anything close.

cyrnel

Those little Ice Cube chocolate squares!

splck

fresh wasabi..It's available once in a while, but not often enough.
salted herring...the local Dutch food store has them, but they are not as good as the ones in Holland and also quite expensive.

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yellowchef

my dad looooves JC Potter hotlinks. They scare me but he manages to score them from people visiting Oklahoma often.

Euro fanta, pocari sweat as well(though when my cousin first gave it to me I thought I would be grossed out who drinks "sweat"?)

not so much hard to find as it is EXPENSIVE fleur de sal which is found at Miami Beach's Epicurious and maybe maybe maybe whole foods

french fries and gravy.. like the crazy canadians eat not hard to find the ingredients for, just hard to find out while dining

malt-o-meal the hot stuff...

Bacchanal

Every time I visit family on the east coast I get blue crab. Living in Kansas it's pretty tough getting them at all, not to mention fresh.

I could also mention about 100 beers I got in DC. A place called the Brickskeller has/had the Guiness World Record for the most varities of beer commercially available with 1072. Also in DC, Ben's Chili Bowl has the best chili dogs and chili cheeseburgers I've ever eaten.

K-Wise

I don't even think they make these anymore but "Obosies" potato chips from Keebler. There was another product from Keebler when I was young, a cookie..it had chocolate with cookie wrapped around it so that the chocolate was on the inside...and I think it may have had a kiss on the top of the cookie but I'm not sure. Those were awesome . "Cookies & Creme" Twix candy bar (My favorite candy bar of all time). Kool Stuff Oreo Toaster Pastries (I REALLY miss those). Then theres this little pizza joint in the mall in Greenville Texas called "Andy's Pizza" and it is some of THE BEST pizza I've ever eaten. Matter of fact everything they made there was good. Also when I lived in a town called Commerce Texas just outside of Greenville there was this resturant called "Paesano's" and there they had the best Chicken Parmesian I've had in ages and THE BEST chicken Parmesian sandwhich in the world! Well probably not but the best I've ever had yet. HUGE sandwhich...you had to dislocate your jaw to fit it in your mouth. They had really great Cheese pizza too which was a favorite during Lent . I worked at a resturant in Commerce called "Lonestar Pizza Works" and as time went on my boss decided to get a grill to add new menu items including burgers made from real Angus Beef. Best damn burgers I've had yet. And we got to be the taste testers for all the new ideas . Definitely miss working there. All my female co-workers were gorgeous too.

Cinnamon Mini Buns cereal was definitely a favorite of mine I don't think they make that anymore either. These days I'm seeing less and less Sbarro's in the malls around us. That really pisses me off! In Dallas Texas theres this place in one of the malls thats called "Cornerstone Bakery" I think and they have probably the best sandwhiches I've ever eaten. Also there was this chain in Corpus Christi Texas called "Redline Burgers" those were some damn good burgers. Hmm can't think of anymore just yet.

Asta!!

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yellowchef

mmmmmm oboisies and I can make you the "kiss cookies" those are easy to make, they were called like sweet spots or something and mega yum!

cookies n cream twix made me want to gag tho

K-Wise

^ You could? Sweet Spots? I see. You didn't like Cookies N Cream Twix eh? Haha actually now that I'm older I might not be able to handle the sweetness of the old bar...What I wouldn't do for another taste though. Oboisies were the best! You rock!

Asta!!

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screamincheetah

Does anyone remember when McDonalds used to have the Burgers of the Month? For a while around '94-'96 they had some creative ones.

My favorite was one called the.....hell, what was it called??? Damn, damn, damn. It had like an onion bun, pepperjack cheese, and a spicy sauce. It was like the Spicy Burger, or, or, or.....crap! Does anyone know what I'm talking about here? Yeah, well, it's hard to find because they only offered it for like a month, and it never came back. It was good though.

Man, I'm starving!

Hedgehog

Hard to find good Malaysian food in America. I got hooked when I went home with my fiancee earlier this year. Curry Mee is soooooo good, as is Roti Telur and about 1000 other things I had there.

I also can't find Diet Wink any more in stores. I used to drink Wink as a kid, but it was too sweet as an adult and the diet stuff was perfect!

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Sargeman

Fresh crawfish.

They are seasonal and you really find them down in south TX and Louisiana sold in the big 40+lb sacks. I know you find crawfish pretty much anywhere around ponds and lakes but the southern "farm raised" that you buy at the seafood markets and stands are awsome. Then you boil them alive in shrimp and crab boil and some cayenne pepper.

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Jonnymax

Deli Sliced Salsa Turkey. So spicy and good, and so hard for me to get my hands on...

Tophat665

Kaputzinger Schwartze Hefe-Weizen
Fat Tire Ale (not sold in Virginia)

Beef Master hot dogs. Best hot dogs ever. Taste like steak in a convenient tubular form. Found them at a Harry Peter in North Carolina once. Haven't seen them since.

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Jonnymax

mmm.... Fat Tire is so good. THis is why its good to be in the NW.

snowy

^^ Agreed.

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Pellaz

K-Wise-Have you tried Munchos? They ain't Obosies, but they're the closest I've found.

Also from that time period were chips called Ripplins, which were the best bbq chips ever.

My favorite food thing to have that's hard to find is probably a good Moscato. I live in a dry county, which means we're surrounded by sores selling hard liquor and very little wine, and can't have any shipped. Plus, I'm damn picky. After that, those pos rectangle sasauge pizza's we had at my high school. I'd KILL to be able to get like 8 million cases of those.

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Bratwurst

I would say two very different items....

There is a place I got a sushi roll at that was just amazing: fatty tuna roll with jalopeno peppers in it. Amazing. Never seen it since at any other japanese place.

Also, I used to live in Arizona but moved to Virginia where there is no Jack in the Box fast food joints. I miss their tacos.

K-Wise

Yes as a matter of fact I have had Munchos. First had them in grade school many many moons ago...Kids would go ape shit or them and "Spirals" those 2 were gone almost instantly and all that was left were regular potato chips or Funions. I eat Munchos on a regular basis. Fantastic chips. My old friends in grade school used to put ruby-red apple sauce on those very same pizzas you speak of . I just couldn't understand it.

Asta!!

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flat5

No one imports Fig Newtons to Holland.
Have not found Sara Lee cheeze cake either.
Cottage cheeze is hard to find.
Buttermilk is very different here.

avernus

Biltong - get it from South Africa or make your own. Like jerky but thicker, seasoned differently and less dry. Damn tasty.

Fresh figs from Portugal, right off the tree.
Lepcuken (sp?) biscuits from Germany.
Italian espresso.

braisler

Root beer barrels! For those of you not in the know, these are little hard candies that are flavored like root beer. Brach's makes an "A&W" branded root beer barrel that is probably the best I have had, but can't ever find outside of a blended mix (who wants to buy 1 pound of hard candy for 10 root beer barrels?) My wonderful wife went out of her way to find a local candy shop that carries root beer barrels, though not the Brach's kind. A close second though.

My other cravable food is the 7-11 slurpee. Nothing else like it. There are no 7-11 stores anywhere near where we live now. Probably a good thing since I would get one of these every day if I could. When we travel I always take my collector's Slurpee mug with me in hopes of passing a 7-11 rich area of the country.

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Malou

Dried Cuttlefish, and Dr. Pepper. They just don't have them where I live.... too rural!

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irateplatypus

i'll second (or 3rd or 4th... whatever) the vote for Pocari Sweat. after backpacking japan in the dead of summer for a month i developed a keen eye for the ubiquitous japanese vending machine stocked with the stuff. not too sweet, not too bland... good times.

even though i wasn't that fond of it, i'm curious to know if there is a case of crystal pepsi to be had anywhere in this world?

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Suave

Even at KFC? They have AMAZING gravy at KFC, and pretty good fries. It's an absolute travesty if for some reason the KFCs down there don't make gravy (or even worse, there are none!). Due to close proximity to Asian folk, I am learning to enjoy a lot of, as the grocery sections say, "ethnic foods". This includes an ice cream called "Ice Cream Omochi" which is ice cream inside a sort of dough. Mmmm.

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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

Captain Nemo

I am normally not a Gatorade fan, but the Chironja flavored version is excellent. Unfortunately, it appears that it is only available in Puerto Rico.

Aside: any TFPer's in PR? If so, I would make it extremely worth your while to assist me in getting some shipped up to Indiana....