Favorite Hard To Find Food
 

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.

:)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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

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

Someone mentioned All Dressed Ruffles?? ;)

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

What's all dressed ruffles?

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

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. $#^(@*&#$!

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.

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

Couldn't find anything close.

Those little Ice Cube chocolate squares!

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.

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...

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.

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 :D. 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 :D. 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! :mad: 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!!

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

^ 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!! :thumbsup:

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

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

^^ Agreed.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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. :)

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

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?

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.

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....

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!

As a general rule, if you can find coke in glass bottles, you've found Mexican coke. Higher-end grocery stores around the country often have it.

I miss lobster roles, carne adovada, and oat flakes, which Post quit making years ago :P

is that in the village? my sister went to NYU, I think she told me about this place.

anyway, I never realized how great I have it here in San Francisco. One of the most diverse and gastronomically-centered cities in the states, I can get pretty much anything I need (which includes many of the things discussed in this thread) - usually in one place, the Ferry Building.

those of you speaking of these UK Ruffles that have everything on them sound amazing. A chip company here called Snyder's of Berlin used to have a Kethcup Kettle chip and I loved them, it tasted like you were eating a bg of flat french fries a real treat. I have had other ketchup chips but they were just not as good as the Snyder ones, since they were a thicker cut and had a great crunch to them. Can you guys get a Ruffle ketchup chip over in the UK, or does it only come in the loaded chips?

As for Mexican coke. I have heard that we here in the US are the only ones who use the HFCS while everyone else uses the real stuff. Beware though, I will double check just to be sure, but you cannot just use the glass bottle rule of thumb to get "Mexican" Coke or Coke made without HFCS. Here in Ohio (I worked at a grocery store for 12 years) we get Coke in small 6 pack glass bottles and I would have to say it is probably made with the HFCS as well so double check the labels just to make sure it is actually made with sugar.

You can't find a beer shop in Phoenix that doesn't have Fat Tire... and yeah, it's yummy.

Ski -- it's a mountain dew-like drink they pretty much only make in eastern kentucky
Halvah -- it's just hard to find, and expensive!
Fruit-a-burst gum: they stopped making it a long time ago, and there has never been a better gum in history.

Swedish moonshine... this pink stuff that sits under the sink and ferments into an incredible clear, rose-colored, knock-you-on-your-patookus liquor.

Kebab... no, I'm kidding. That stuff is horrid.

There was this Swedish pear zider that was fantastic, too. Found it only once back here in the States. Green bottle, black and green label.

Wiri-wiri peppers. Literally non-existant outside of Guyana and the Guyanese culture. They'll burn the crap out of both ends of you, but a fingernail-sized sliver adds amazing flavor to anything.

a good sovlaki ...... i tell ya i live in Queensland and you can't find a good sovlaki anywhere! i spent a year in melbourne and had the best food in the country! amazing. there is the place on chappel st called lamb on chappel!! GOD DAMN the best tasting sovlaki ever! damn! there is some great food melbourne ..... now i'm hungry .... mmmmmm

a really good cuban sammich - short of being in cuba... there used to be a little hole in the wall diner on 9th avenue in the high 40s in NYC that made amazing cuban sammiches and served proper cuban coffee... Heaven... I'm a fairly capable cook, but I have never been able to make a cuban sammich at home... they don't have hole in the wall cuban diners in the hell that is new hampshire... :(

Molson Golden
and
Croc meat.... like chicken but tough like steak.

Irn Bru! A Scottish pop. Tastes a little like cream soda, but knocks cream soda on its pansy pink hiny. Pronounced like "iron brew", not "urn". It's awesome. It's in the Imported Foods section of many grocery stores around here, but it only comes in the expensive little bottles. I love to go to Scotland where I can buy a can or a big friggin' two-litre bottle or even order a tall glass of it in a restaurant. Man, Scotland is the best.

I also love British juices like Ribena, which is occasionally available here in specialty stores, usually in concentrated syrup form. Oasis is another juice, quite possibly the most delicious juice I have ever ingested. I've looked everywhere for it this side of the country and I've never found it. There's some kind of juice called Oasis here but it's not even close to the same thing. :(

I forgot to add Gouda cheese made from goats milk.... oh god it is to die for. And I hate my grandparents for introducing it to me from the beginning.... I'm officially addicted.

dried fish
unsalted unshelled sunflower seeds
kvass (fermented bread drink)

Oh... <drools> those things are so greasy! I love them! Whenever I visit home (CA), I get a Sourdough Jack and french fries from there... their fries are better than any other place... when McDonald's and Burger King had their "Whose Fries are Better" battle, I kept thinking "Neither".

Pickle Chips (dill pickle flavored potato chips) that I had in Iowa were great for cravings.

My bf misses Sierra Nevada beer from home, while I'm wishing I could find Wyder's Pear Cider.

When I lived near Portand I used to love to go to Mongolian BBQs. If none of you have been, go they are great. I ate at one after boot camp in Orlando, but I cant find one in the mid Atlantic reagion where I am today.

How sad! When I lived in Hillsboro, OR there was a small Mongolian grill that a former employee of Chang's had opened up. God, I loved that place. My mom took me there all the time for lunch.

Now I rarely, if ever, go for Mongolian grill. We do have a good one here in Corvallis, though. One of the things you can put in your sauce is Deschutes Black Butte porter. You better believe that when I put my bowl together it has about half a bottle of porter on it!

miso, i live in houston and i know of one store that is always out of it