any ex-pats - food you miss

[momofkhm]

DD is coming home from 6 mo in Germany today!   :hurray:  I'm trying to plan meals for the week.  What AMERICAN food did/do you miss?

 

I asked what she wants tonight and she said sushi, so we are going out.  They have sushi over there, but it's rather expensive.  

 

When we went for a week, what ds missed was normal breakfast food.  OH!  DD wants to stop on the way home from the airport for a bagel.   :P

 

I'm no where near a great cook.  I can hold my own.  I guess I should plan meatloaf one night.  The whole family likes that.

 

 

[Chris in VA]

Well, not American, but in Israel, it was very hard to find tacos! So "Americanized tacos" would be my pick!

[Amira]

No matter where I live there's always different food I miss, but I don't think I've ever missed much of anything American.  I can make many of the things I miss, but sometimes it's hard to figure out how to cook Uyghur food in Mexico or Burmese in Kyrgyzstan or whatever.  So when I'm in the US I love having access to lots of different ingredients so I can make so many more things.  

 

Did your dd eat much Turkish food in Germany?  Going out for doner kebab might be fun.  I'm no help, I know (but I'm working off the sushi angle). :)

 

Apparently my son asked for American tacos when he visited the US earlier this year.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Tacos come to mind also.  My MIL always asks me to make them when I go there. 

 

Fried chicken.  They have it, but it's not particularly common. 

 

Uhh, honestly that is all I can think of.  The food is not radically different.  I miss good bread when I leave!

 

Oh beef.  Good cuts of beef. 

 

 

[momofkhm]

 

 

Did your dd eat much Turkish food in Germany?  Going out for doner kebab might be fun.  I'm no help, I know (but I'm working off the sushi angle). :)

 

Apparently my son asked for American tacos when he visited the US earlier this year.

 

 

Tacos...  Will get those on there.  

 

Doners!  That's what I will miss from visiting *her* there.  NO clue where to get them here.  (Yes, she ate Turkish food.)

[Happy]

We missed tacos and Mexican food in general. We also missed BBQ. Chopped brisket, pulled pork....sigh...

[J-rap]

The biggest single item we all miss when we are living out of the country is peanut butter.  The kind where nothing is added but salt.

 

When our son-in-law is here (he lives in another country), he loves an American burger.

 

Meant to add:  How fun that your daughter is coming home today!!  Have fun hearing all her stories.  :)

[Kareni]

Enjoy having your daughter home again!

 

My daughter missed peanut butter, Mexican food (particularly refried beans), and bagels while in New Zealand on a study abroad semester.  She misses all of those things plus good chocolate now while in South Korea.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Camelfeet]

I usually miss pork/ham, but it is unlikely that would be something that your DS misses!  I miss really good buffalo sauce over some chicken wings.  I miss certain yogurts from costco.  I miss poutine.  I miss mexican food that doesn't taste a bit like indian food.  I miss fresh local produce or stuff from my mom's garden.

 

We have some of these things where I live but it isn't the same or it is really expensive.  

 

[SorrelZG]

I miss Mexican food, country breakfasts with bacon and biscuits and hashbrowns, and breakfast burritos.

[Cammie]

Another vote for Mexican food.

 

And cheese.

 

We actually get decent bagles in Bangalore now (and cream cheese!)

 

 

[Lanny]

Blue Bell Banana Pudding Ice Cream.   True BBQ.  

[SparklyUnicorn]

hahaha...cheese...something I miss when I leave Germany

 

 

[DawnM]

When I was a kid I remember telling my mom that I missed baloney and cheese on white bread with real mustard.

 

Funniest part of that was that I NEVER even liked baloney in the US.  I just missed that I could have had it had I wanted it! ;-)

 

I found it much harder to come back here and no be able to get some things I grew up with overseas.  But I think it is different when you grow up with something than going as an adult.

[TeacherZee]

I was going to say bagels :lol:

 

pretzels

cambells chicken noodle soup

Mint chocolate chip ice cream

grape jelly

pulled pork (although that has arrived here)

[regentrude]

Good beef and tortilla chips are the only things I miss about American food when I am in Europe.

 

(Now there are many more German foods I miss here in the US)

[regentrude]

Another vote for Mexican food.

 

And cheese.

 

We actually get decent bagles in Bangalore now (and cream cheese!)

 

I understand you are elsewhere in the world, but I had to chuckle:

If the OP's girl is coming home from Germany, she won't miss cheese. In fact, she may recognize that most of what Americans call cheese is a very poor substitute for the real thing.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Good beef and tortilla chips are the only things I miss about American food when I am in Europe.

 

(Now there are many more German foods I miss here in the US)

 

bread!

 

That is one thing my husband misses a lot. 

[Heidi]

After living in Germany, I miss good Mexican, good burgers, and American pizza.

[waa510]

tacos, quality pizza and steak, burgers. I'm fairly spoiled here in being able to get a lot of American things at the commissary, though. Going out to eat is pretty limited. I'm working on learning how to cook the dishes I miss the most. 

[MEmama]

After living in Germany, I miss good Mexican, good burgers, and American pizza.

The last time we were in Munich, American style pizza places were *everywhere*. My cousins kept wanting to take us but we wanted German food! We still laugh about how much more common pizzerias were there than here. That wasn't the case when we were just in northern Germany, however.

 

Funny the things we miss. When we lived in eastern Canada, all we wanted was a good Irish pub. We used to drive to the States to get our fix. :)

[mumto2]

I was going to say bagels :lol:

 

pretzels

cambells chicken noodle soup

Mint chocolate chip ice cream

grape jelly

pulled pork (although that has arrived here)

Since you occasionally visit here, the grocery stores frequently have really good (as in better than American brands) pretzels in the international food section with the Polish foods.

[momofkhm]

I understand you are elsewhere in the world, but I had to chuckle:

If the OP's girl is coming home from Germany, she won't miss cheese. In fact, she may recognize that most of what Americans call cheese is a very poor substitute for the real thing.

 

Funny you bring up cheese.  Her story about shopping for cheese in the German grocery was that she knew the word for cheese, could find it at the store, but could not tell what was what - was that (white) cheddar, mozzarella, ??.  She could tell Swiss because of the holes.  But most....

[MooCow]

We always make our in-laws huge onion burgers on the BBQ.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Not that you can't get good cheese here, but it's so much more expensive.

 

 

[TeacherZee]

Since you occasionally visit here, the grocery stores frequently have really good (as in better than American brands) pretzels in the international food section with the Polish foods.

 

I'll have to keep a look out for them next time I'm over. Thanks!

[In The Great White North]

 

 

Funny you bring up cheese.  Her story about shopping for cheese in the German grocery was that she knew the word for cheese, could find it at the store, but could not tell what was what - was that (white) cheddar, mozzarella, ??.  She could tell Swiss because of the holes.  But most....

 

Cheddar is hard to find, imported from Britain and rather expensive there, as is cream cheese.  Mozzarella was plentiful.  All cheese there was white.

 

I missed Mexican (refried beans were $5 a can), real chocolate chip cookies (the missing ingredient was brown sugar - never did see it there.  They had "raw" sugar but not brown sugar.), moist brownies (the "brownies " at the grocery store tasted like hard tack), American cakes, turkey and stuffing.

[regentrude]

Not that you can't get good cheese here, but it's so much more expensive.

 

Ridiculously expensive, plus normal grocery stores here don't carry good cheese.

For us, buying good cheese requires a 200 mile round trip to the city.

Locally, we can get halfway decent cheese at Aldi, but forget about soft cheeses, triple cream brie, gruyere...

[regentrude]

Cheddar is hard to find, imported from Britain and rather expensive there, as is cream cheese.  Mozzarella was plentiful.  All cheese there was white.

 

??? Cream cheese is abundant and cheap in Germany. Even the cheapest discount grocery stores that sell out of cardboard boxes carry cream cheese.

[Carol in Cal.]

When we used to have German assignees come to the US for a few months, we would introduce them to Mexican and Chinese food.  Then they would take some of the ingredients back with them so they could make their own. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Ridiculously expensive, plus normal grocery stores here don't carry good cheese.

For us, buying good cheese requires a 200 mile round trip to the city.

Locally, we can get halfway decent cheese at Aldi, but forget about soft cheeses, triple cream brie, gruyere...

 

We buy a lot of cheese at Aldi.  Trader Joe's has good deals too.  Every year we go on a cheese tour.  It's about an hour drive from here, but basically several dairy farms have an open house.  The cheese is amazing.

 

My local stores have a pretty decent selection, but the good stuff is as crazy as $25 a pound. 

[shawthorne44]

When I was a kid I remember telling my mom that I missed baloney and cheese on white bread with real mustard.

 

Funniest part of that was that I NEVER even liked baloney in the US.  I just missed that I could have had it had I wanted it! ;-)

 

I found it much harder to come back here and no be able to get some things I grew up with overseas.  But I think it is different when you grow up with something than going as an adult.

 

 

Yeah, I found I craved potato chips in Germany.   I don't know why.  I eat potato chips maybe twice a year.  The ratio of good tasting vs. bad for me isn't worthwhile.  But, in Germany I have to buy Pringles once a week.  And it isn't like German food is lacking in potato dishes.  

[Tsuga]

No matter where I live there's always different food I miss, but I don't think I've ever missed much of anything American.  I can make many of the things I miss, but sometimes it's hard to figure out how to cook Uyghur food in Mexico or Burmese in Kyrgyzstan or whatever.  So when I'm in the US I love having access to lots of different ingredients so I can make so many more things.  

 

Did your dd eat much Turkish food in Germany?  Going out for doner kebab might be fun.  I'm no help, I know (but I'm working off the sushi angle). :)

 

Apparently my son asked for American tacos when he visited the US earlier this year.

 

The only think I ever missed overseas was good Mexican food, like, authentic and not made with ketchup or BBQ sauce. And I'm from Seattle so it's not like we have the world's best Mexican food here, either. I'd say as Mexican food opportunities go, we're probably  average for the US which is not saying a lot.

 

But if anything made me appreciate some Yakima farmers' Seattle hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, it was living in Eurasia.

[Amira]

The only think I ever missed overseas was good Mexican food, like, authentic and not made with ketchup or BBQ sauce. And I'm from Seattle so it's not like we have the world's best Mexican food here, either. I'd say as Mexican food opportunities go, we're probably  average for the US which is not saying a lot.

 

But if anything made me appreciate some Yakima farmers' Seattle hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, it was living in Eurasia.

 

Definitely.  There was exactly one American Mexican place in Bishkek and it was a major treat to go there.  

 

But I have been ruined now and have absolutely no desire for American Mexico food anymore, and I think that wouldn't change even after I'm lucky enough to live in Tashkent someday.  There is almost no real Mexican food anywhere in the world outside Mexico which is one of the saddest culinary facts ever.

[MEmama]

Yeah, I found I craved potato chips in Germany. I don't know why. I eat potato chips maybe twice a year. The ratio of good tasting vs. bad for me isn't worthwhile. But, in Germany I have to buy Pringles once a week. And it isn't like German food is lacking in potato dishes.

We bought Clarkeys brand potato chips at the supermarket in Germany--keep an eye out for those. They were better than anything here. I think we just had salt and vinegar. Yum. (we don't normally eat potato chips either, but had put some things together for picnic lunches)

[Heidi]

Definitely. There was exactly one American Mexican place in Bishkek and it was a major treat to go there.

 

But I have been ruined now and have absolutely no desire for American Mexico food anymore, and I think that wouldn't change even after I'm lucky enough to live in Tashkent someday. There is almost no real Mexican food anywhere in the world outside Mexico which is one of the saddest culinary facts ever.

This is true. I've never eaten in Mexico, but I have found only three places in the states that served what I thought might be close to authentic mexican. Both were connected to a Mexican store, no one spoke English, no white people ate there,and it didn't look like a restaurant from the outside. And no rice and refried beans in sight. Amazing food.

 

Same with Chinese food. I had some German Chinese food in Germany (it was served with potatoes) and of course American Chinese food, but authentic Chinese is something completely different. I suspect you can only find it in China towns in the states.

[momofkhm]

Same with Chinese food. I had some German Chinese food in Germany (it was served with potatoes) and of course American Chinese food, but authentic Chinese is something completely different. I suspect you can only find it in China towns in the states.

 

Not really.  But you have to ask someone who *is* Chinese.  When I was in BSF, one of the ladies there was Chinese and I asked where the best place to get authentic Chinese food was.  The Kroger in the next city over, of all places

[LisaKinVA]

Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Portugal all seem to have a much better selection of ethnic foods than where I've been in France, Spain and Italy.  Plenty of "American-style" burgers, etc.  We haven't been able to walk around most of those cities without running into a wide selection of ethnic foods (when we went to the Netherlands, I asked about eating traditional food from the area, and they looked at me like I had grown a third eye.  They were very big into ethnic foods there...especially Thai, Indian and Chinese).

 

Things that are more difficult to come by are Mexican food (although you can find it in every city I've been to -- it's not quite like home), BBQ items (chicken, pulled pork, ribs), and depending upon where you are, Asian, and other ethnic foods, and certain Italian foods.  Mostly what we miss are some of the "fun" things that we really can't get here (favorite candies, certain chips, soda, and "Americanized" ethnic foods -- because Italian in the states resembles traditional Italian fare, but Americans like it with a bit more spices than are used in Italy).

[Rosie_0801]

 There is almost no real Mexican food anywhere in the world outside Mexico which is one of the saddest culinary facts ever.

 

There is one in my city! He was even selling corn fungus at one point. The sad thing for me is he has to use tinned cactus because he can't get anything decent locally.

 

 

I'm having trouble imagining a world where cheddar was hard to find. Cheddar is the boring, cheap cheese for everyone civilised enough discount plastic cheese as food.

[DawnM]

This is true. I've never eaten in Mexico, but I have found only three places in the states that served what I thought might be close to authentic mexican. Both were connected to a Mexican store, no one spoke English, no white people ate there,and it didn't look like a restaurant from the outside. And no rice and refried beans in sight. Amazing food.

 

Same with Chinese food. I had some German Chinese food in Germany (it was served with potatoes) and of course American Chinese food, but authentic Chinese is something completely different. I suspect you can only find it in China towns in the states.

 

 

I miss having a Chinatown, but we do have some authentic Chinese places around here, you just have to ask around.  And our small group at church is almost all Chinese and we have potlucks twice a month!  :hurray:

[DawnM]

Definitely.  There was exactly one American Mexican place in Bishkek and it was a major treat to go there.  

 

But I have been ruined now and have absolutely no desire for American Mexico food anymore, and I think that wouldn't change even after I'm lucky enough to live in Tashkent someday.  There is almost no real Mexican food anywhere in the world outside Mexico which is one of the saddest culinary facts ever.

 

 

Unless you have lived somewhat close to the boarder of Mexico.  We had great authentic Mexican places in Los Angeles.  And I have lived in Mexico City for 6 weeks with a Mexican family.

[sewingmama]

There is one in my city! He was even selling corn fungus at one point. The sad thing for me is he has to use tinned cactus because he can't get anything decent locally.

 

 

I'm having trouble imagining a world where cheddar was hard to find. Cheddar is the boring, cheap cheese for everyone civilised enough discount plastic cheese as food.

But thats because you live in Victoria.... in Adelaide Mexican is hard to find.

 

 

I always laugh when Americans complain about cheese being white. I've travelled many places and no where but the US and Canada do they have orange cheese. Seriously, When I first saw it I had to ask DH why they would add food colouring to cheese. So nasty.

 

 

If I was in Germany I wouldn't be missing anything...and ..pretzels...really...you can't get pretzels in Germany? Not even at one of the many specialty pretzel shops they have there that only sell 100 varieties of..you know...pretzels? lol

[Rosie_0801]

I always laugh when Americans complain about cheese being white. I've travelled many places and no where but the US and Canada do they have orange cheese. Seriously, When I first saw it I had to ask DH why they would add food colouring to cheese. So nasty.

 

There's Red Leicester. That seems to be a legitimately orange cheese?

 

Wiki says:

It used to be called Leicestershire Cheese, after the county in which it was originally made, but is now called Red Leicester to distinguish it from the White Leicester, which was made to a national recipe under wartime controls during the 1940s.

 

 

This suggests it might have been a little less than legitimate?

"Cheese with a rich orange hue was much valued as it signified a high quality cheese – notably a Double Gloucester – made from rich creamy milk."

An interesting read, if you think cheese is interesting. :D http://www.britishcheese.com/redleicester

[luuknam]

I'm having trouble imagining a world where cheddar was hard to find. Cheddar is the boring, cheap cheese for everyone civilised enough discount plastic cheese as food.

 

I think whatever is made locally is going to be the "boring, cheap cheese" for the area. In NL, that's Goudse (from Gouda). In the US though, it's usually too expensive/harder to find to use as my go-to cheap cheese.

 

Some PP mentioned having trouble finding local Dutch cuisine... if you're ever there again, try asking for a pancake restaurant. Order something like a bacon and cheese pancake, or if you're feeling a little more adventurous a farmer's pancake (which should have onions and peas along with bacon and cheese and maybe something else in it). Or if you're in a more dessert-y mood, an advocaat* (egg liquor) pancake (probably a little less common though). What can I say... IHOP was a very big disappointment here... International House Of Pancakes I think not. Also, it should be easy to find traditional Dutch Apple Pie (American apple pie sucks). It may be harder to find a place that sells pea soup, stamppot (potatoes, kale (called boerenkool = farmer's cabbage in Dutch), and smoked sausage), hutspot (potatoes, carrots, onions and smoked sausage), hete bliksem (hot lightning - potatoes, apples, and smoked sausage), etc. The good news is that if you've got a potato masher the latter three are easy to make. Serve those with mustard. Restaurants in NL are expensive... nobody can afford to pay 15 euros or something for a plate of potatoes, carrots, onions, and smoked sausage mashed together. But, if you're there again, try Indonesian restaurants. Those are everywhere (although they might present as Chinese restaurants, or as a combination), since NL owned Indonesia back when everyone had colonies. Indonesian food is one of the things I miss here.

 

We live in WNY and miss Tex-Mex breakfast burritos that were so easy to find in Corpus Christi, and a little harder but still doable in North Texas.

 

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocaat