One thing I remember getting very excited about when I lived in the Midwest, was when our local Dillons created a British section. Well, history is mirroring itself, and now I find that our local Sainsbury's has created an American section. I was intrigued to see what kind of things would be stocked. 12-yo and I were discussing in advance what we would like to see there, and, sad to say, I found it hard to remember the detail of what went in my supermarket trolley (cart). I do remember some particularly delicious soft Dillons cookies, but I'd pretty much given those up by the time we came home, once sugar had become the big foe, and I'd worked out that they probably had a higher sugar content than sugar itself.
It turns out that sugar is the predominant ingredient in the Sainsbury's American section. Sorry, Americans reading this, but that does seem to be what your foodstuffs are known for over here.
12-yo became very excited at the sight of Lucky Charms, but I swear we hardly ever allowed them to sully the inside of one of our cereal bowls. If anything falls into the category of "edible food-like products", it's Lucky Charms. You can't read the text on the photo, but those small pots are gluten-free Lucky Charms. Something so unfood-like doesn't deserve to have nutritionists working away at reproducing it in a gluten-free way. This is where capitalism goes wrong. The market isn't always right.
Reese's products are always sorely missed by American living abroad (I've read your blogs, I know your Reese's lamentations). Personally, I thought Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were invented by someone who was aiming to win the "Food most difficult to scrape off the roof of the mouth with the tongue" award, and none of my family likes peanut as a flavour (which was something of a problem for us in the US), so I suppose Reese's products were never going to do much for us.
Speaking of edible food-like products, what about these?
Including Ghostbusters limited edition ones, with key lime slime. Sainsbury's, what were you thinking? On special offer too.
Moving swiftly on...
12-yo was happy to see these, and I have to say I have a fondness for Nerds, because of their name.
Here's something that I'm sure the Americans living in my city miss from home.
And this too.
Ooh look. Another one on special offer.
Snapple has nothing to do with a Grapple, but I'm not sure I ever told you about my encounter with a Grapple in Wal-Mart, in my early days in the US. I came across a fruit that looked like an apple, but was packaged up and labelled as a Grapple, and purported to be a cross between an apple and a grape. Intrigued and somewhat suspicious, I bought it, wondering (a) what on earth food producers would think of next, and (b) why it looked just like an apple rather than what you might imagine an apple-grape cross would look like. When I got home and read the very small print on the label, I discovered that it was an apple injected with grape flavouring. Only in America... (Actually, it really is only in America that I've ever come across that distinctive grape flavouring which doesn't taste like grapes at all, but is often used in children's food products: Calpol equivalent, for example).
You've probably despaired of me finding anything I liked in the Sainsbury's American section. But wait! Look here!
Aaaaahh! Kraft Mac and Cheese. Love the stuff. Every mother's easy dinner. Cheap, quick, tasty. I seem to remember it was 99 cents in Dillons, unless you got the deluxe version which had posh creamy cheese sauce in a sachet instead of the powder version. The only downside to Kraft Mac and Cheese is that it ruins all those homemade macaroni cheeses you used to make, because your children think it's much more delicious and so you will never again think it's worth spending the time making a white sauce and grating cheese. Actually, I've just thought of two other downsides. First, naughty despicable Kraft bought up Cadbury's, promised they wouldn't close a factory in Bristol, and then did, and we all now live in fear that they're going to turn Cadbury's Dairy Milk into Hershey's. Second, I've noticed that in the UK, we now call good old Macaroni Cheese by its upstart American name, "Mac and Cheese". I've seen "Mac n Cheese" on several menus. Sigh.
12-yo and I thought of one item that wasn't in the Sainsbury's American section that we would have liked to see there. Goldfish! Definitely something we miss from our American days. What about you? If you're an American expat in Europe, or if you're a Brit who has lived in America, what American food do you miss here?
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