Limited supplies

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velochic

Sous Chef
Joined
Sep 2, 2004
Messages
874
Location
Midwest
Here's the deal... you live abroad... you're American... your family can send (or bring occasionally) limited American items like...

-bourbon vanilla
-brown sugar
-jarred chili powder and some other spices
-cookie chips, although I can make my own chocolate chips, I can't make other chips
-evaporated milk (for fudge)

There are more, I just can't think of them right now.

So, assuming you have limited supplies, what would be your "must haves"?? We are a whole foods family, so most everything is made from scratch anyway. We don't use processed foods but some STAPLES like above, I miss.

I'd just be curious what the Americans out there would consider worthy of suitcase space. :)

A trip abroad is in the makes.
 
maybe a few jars of chilis and things you really can't get in Europe, but can't you get a lot shipped thru the mails via internet ordering?? There are such food purveyors for staples of flours and sugars rices etc you can't get locally.
 
Gee - my mom lives in New York & is surrounded by Asian & Indian grocers.

I live in Virginia, & while I can drive (hours) to Wash.DC for supplies, my mom regularly sends me anything & everything I need for Asian cooking.
 
velochic said:
Here's the deal... you live abroad... you're American... your family can send (or bring occasionally) limited American items like...

-bourbon vanilla
-brown sugar


is there something special at the US ones? I know I do get it here in Germany.. and I think it's good stuff..

velochic said:
-jarred chili powder and some other spices

we have an indian dealer here in Hannover, they sell about everything you can imagine.. can't you have a look for something in your area?

I understand about teh chocolate chips, they used to have some at Minimal/Rewe, not that expensive as the Dr. Oetker ones... but haven't seen them lately.. a friend of mine brought me some chips from her journey to the US in february :)
and I miss the maple syrup...
 
The brown sugar is different in the US. It is moist and in baking is considered a "wet" ingredient. Totally different than the brown sugar in Germany.

I can't find the same chili powder I find in the US. Even in Munich and with all of the new Mexican/ Spanish groceries.

The chocolate chips I find occasionally in Hertie and even in the local Tengelmann. They are packaged as dessert decorations. Cinnamon chips, buttterscotch chips, peanut butter chips... those you can't find.

Peanut butter... you'd be surprised how you get used to subbing Nutella for PB. That's not a hard one to miss.

I miss making my own fudge.
 
velo! Ever make your own Peanut Butter? I like to make cashew butter too, although it requires more oil than regular PB.

I'd have to have Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!
 
:) Chocolate chips are not a big issue as I think chopped chocolate works just as well just shaped different and the germans do have great chocolate,next instead of dragging big bags of brown sugar just get a jar of regular mollasses you mix into the sugar and you have light brown sugar you mix in more you have dark brown sugar a little goes a long way.As for the peanut butter I dont know how good it is but I bought a can of peanut butter powder all you do is add a bit of sugar maybe a pinch or two of salt and some oil preferably peanut oil to make peanut butter.I bought it as a light weight alternative for my husband when he was going to go out in the wilds of Kamchatka Russia as it turns out he did not go so Im going to open this can and try it out.After all it's the weight of shipping or bringing with you that makes it hard.I was in Cuxhaven at the end of 1999 and actually found Pace Picante Sauce and Taco Shells so I got to make tacos for my aunt and her kids they loved them
 
jpmcgrew said:
:) Chocolate chips are not a big issue as I think chopped chocolate works just as well just shaped different and the germans do have great chocolate,next instead of dragging big bags of brown sugar just get a jar of regular mollasses you mix into the sugar and you have light brown sugar you mix in more you have dark brown sugar a little goes a long way.

Re the chocolate chips... that's why I said "cookie chips, although I can make my own chocolate chips, I can't make other chips"

I can't find molasses either.

PB - I don't miss it at all. Amazing that it's such an American staple.
 
:) I was thinking you could get mollasses fron the states a little goes a long way.Oh! If you know anyone that has access to an american military base they could get you anything you want at the commissary.
 
velochic said:
The brown sugar is different in the US. It is moist and in baking is considered a "wet" ingredient. Totally different than the brown sugar in Germany.

I can't find the same chili powder I find in the US. Even in Munich and with all of the new Mexican/ Spanish groceries.

The chocolate chips I find occasionally in Hertie and even in the local Tengelmann. They are packaged as dessert decorations. Cinnamon chips, buttterscotch chips, peanut butter chips... those you can't find.

Peanut butter... you'd be surprised how you get used to subbing Nutella for PB. That's not a hard one to miss.

I miss making my own fudge.

oh.. I didn't know about the sugar.. but it works with the dry one, too.. ;o)
at least in my recipes.. :)
you are right about the different tastes of the cocolate chips..if you find them, they are just plain...
maybe these links will help you?
"click"
"clack"
 
cara said:
oh.. I didn't know about the sugar.. but it works with the dry one, too.. ;o)
at least in my recipes.. :)
you are right about the different tastes of the cocolate chips..if you find them, they are just plain...
maybe these links will help you?
"click"
"clack"
I can't get my cookies to come out chewy with the raw (brown) sugar in Germany. Maybe I'm not compensating correctly. But I've actually grown to prefer choc. chip cookies made with the Milka milk chocolate.

For vanilla, do you use vanilla sugar or the phials of vanilla oil?

Interesting links. For the most part, I don't pay the premium prices to get American items in Germany. When I have room in the suitcase, though, I'll bring it along from visits home. Part of living abroad is that you adapt to the culture you're living in. This thread was more of a "what if" question. I learned long ago that if you try to package your homeland and bring it with you, it will bring heartache. I tried to do that the first time I lived abroad at the raw, young age of 21... Moscow, Russia. I got so homesick it hurt. Embrace where you are. That's my motto.
 
Once when we lived in Hawaii, an Aussie friend commented that we Yanks had the very best invention in the world ... Karo syrup. We just laughed. It's something I never buy! When I lived in Germany as a kid, Dad was in the Air Force, so for the most part we could get stuff from military sources. The one thing we could NOT get was corn-on-the-cob. One year Mom got desperate and bought corn locally. It really wasn't meant for human consumption (it was for cows, if I remember correctly) and the gastric distress that followed is legendary in my family.
 
Claire said:
It really wasn't meant for human consumption (it was for cows, if I remember correctly) and the gastric distress that followed is legendary in my family.

:ROFLMAO:

you should be kid these days.. no you get almost everywhere.. but I thiunk it's horrible :yuk:

velo, usually I use the vanilla sugar... I have it in my kitchen... ;o))
and they are cheaper ;o)

My problem with the ccc is, I almoist never hit the right time to get them outr of the oven... :rolleyes:
 
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