Foreign foods


What's a foreign food to your country that you love, but you can't get unless you can find them at a specialty import store? I love trying new foods in restaurants, but it's still using local ingredients for the Canadian pallet.
For me;

South Africa; Biltong and Iron Brew
USA; Chicken in a Biskit and Grits
UK; Percy Pigs
Austria; Zotter's

Number 1 on my list used to be Magnum Ice Cream, and while flavours differ and some countries are lucky enough to have pints (which were soooo good) at least I can now get them.

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[deleted]

๐Ÿคจ

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There is a section in the North Bronx where the Irish still dominate, up near the Yonkers border
The shops there sell all sorts of chocolate bars I've never heard of and they are all really good

The Dominicans in the middle of The Bronx introduced me to Plantains...they are pretty much like large, hard bananas and are great if fried, grilled or beaten into a paste with olive oil and garlic (a sprinkle of blackened and crushed bacon is a good topping)
The Dominicans call this dish 'Mofongo'
Very tasty and filling

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Fried plantains are great. I don't see them here very often.

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Oh they are very good!
A fine thing about NYC is that the waves of immigration have resulted in all sorts of new foods one might never have heard of

There are a couple Jamaican and West African shops down in the city that now sell goat...I'm looking to try some goat but my wife is less than in love with the idea

Quipe is another delight I should have mentioned...pasted Bulgur wheat wrapped around a core of meat (chicken, beef, etc...) and deep fried
The Dominicans know what they're doing in the kitchen!

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I can a lot of game here, like goat and yak (I love yak steaks), but they don't taste the same as they do in other places. I'm sure it's the feed and the water but most meat tastes differently on different continents.

I'm sure it's no where near as much as NYC but I can get many different cuisines in restaurants here, which is fantastic, but I'm always sad when a country has a candy or chip/crisp flavour, crackers, chocolate bars, pop flavours (especially when I know it's bottled by Coca Cola), sauces, or spices that I can't get at home.

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Yak is uncommon here but it looks tasty!

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I've heard Goat Cheese on a bagel is to die for. Better than Cream Cheese, and I like cream cheese a lot.

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Goat cheese is delicious!

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Huh
I'd give it a try for sure

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Heard this a couple times. I'm going to have to give GC a try, when all the Forces align.

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Goat cheese is not a common item in US supermarkets? I eat it all the time, especially the soft variety.

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It may be but I never ate it when I was a kid (joke). I don't think it sits next to the Philly, but I've heard it's good with bagels.

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It's good in salads as well and on crostini. And a good combo with honey.

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Goat cheese is also really great with red meat, or with beets.

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It's in the cheese section. The fancier cheeses, wherever your grocery stores would put their brie.

It is great with bagels. It's not as smooth and spreadable like cream cheese -- more crumbly than that -- but it has more flavour than cream cheese.

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I had some trouble with Feta a couple hours ago, haha. It was in a little cup and there was no way to get it to stick to anything. Finally I puzzled it out and took the pita (which had no pocket) and poured the crumbly Feta on it and folded it over like a hot dog bun and ate it like that. Worked !

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I eat goat cheese and drink goat milk all the time.

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You can find them at Safeway stores or Mexican grocery stores.

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I'm not sure where you are, but they are a little less common where I am.

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I can find them around here if I chose to. I'm bad about fresh vegetables and fruit. I take too long to find that right time to eat it, and if it goes bad I'm less likely to repeat that mistake.

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Do you have a Trader Joe's in your city or Whole Foods or Walmarts? They have all kinds of cheese.

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There was a Dominican guy at the grocery store who seemed pleased to see a Whitey like me buying a big bag of plantains. We got to talking and he was telling me how his wife cooks them. I like to keep it simple with a sprinkle of salt, but crushed bacon sounds like a good idea.

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oh yes, try the mofongo

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It used to be Mezzo Mix from Germany, but now Fanta sells it over here as well.

Also Schweppes Cream Soda and Fruit Loops, which I can only get at the Asian supermarket.

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I had no idea Schweppes made a cream soda. Schweppes keeps introducing new flavours and products here all the time for a limited time only. Grr. lol I always really like those.

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It's probably from Asia. It used to be the only cream soda available, but now my local supermarket sells cream soda in several flavours, including bubble gum.

Schweppes has no interesting products here. Even in Belgium they offer more flavours, like golden grape and citrus fruits.

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I always like to see good ol' Vernor's Ginger Ale, which is/was popular in Detroit. I'm not sure where I would find that out here, but I have a couple of possibilities, but generally, I don't drink soda much these days.

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I've never heard of it before. I don't drink much soda, but I always love to try new flavours.

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If you like ginger, you'll love Vernor's. If I'm remembering correctly, Vernor's is also aged in wood caskets, so it has a unique flavour.

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Well, if I ever see it, I'll certainly give it a try. I've always been a fan of the ginger soda by Surinamese company Fernandes, which has a sweeter and stronger taste than the usual ginger ale.

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Korea: Kimchee. Fortunately, my martial arts Master makes his own, with the jars properly buried in the ground.

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I can get kimchee here and we've made our own as well.

One thing that has frustrated me just a tiny little bit, was when I was in central America, I think it was in Belize, where I bought an adobo packet that was amazing. I've tried several here from the mexican tienda and none of it has been the same. I don't remember exactly where I was so when I bought it so I doubt I'll ever find it again.

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I love fermenting my own veggies, but have never made Kimchi. Right now I have a few jars of garlic-basil sauerkraut with carrots fermenting.

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Sounds interesting. You must add the kraut to something else, correct?

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I eat a couple spoon fills with most meals. I also have just carrots fermenting with garlic and peppercorns.

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Sounds like a fun hobby, if you don't mind me calling it that. Canning doesn't sound that hard, as opposed to say, sewing. And unlike knitting, you don't have to devote a lot of time to it. But unlike textiles, you either eat that food or you just look at it.

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Its easier than canning and no risk of botulism. Sauerkraut is just cabbage, salt and whatever flavors you want. Add it to a jar and let ferment for a few weeks. Here's the process:

Traditional lacto-fermentation involves submerging vegetables in a brine solutionโ€” salt and water. The salt-brine method involves two stages:

In stage one of lacto-fermentation, vegetables are submerged in a brine that is salty enough to kill off harmful bacteria. The Lactobacillus good guys survive this stage and begin stage two.

In stage two of lacto-fermentation, the Lactobacillus organisms begin converting lactose and other sugars present in the food into lactic acid. This creates an acidic environment that safely preserves the vegetables - and gives lacto-fermented foods their distinctive tangy flavor.

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You Rock !

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You can get them at some Safeway stores or Target.

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Not exactly foreign food, but I grew up where there were lots of great Jewish delicatessens, and there's not a single one anywhere near I live now :(

I miss those sandwiches, and half-done garlic dill pickles.

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I understand that pain. Even having a restaurant in your area that has a dish that is their own, and then they close and you're left never having that yumminess again.

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Yes ๐Ÿ˜ข

Or even a restaurant that makes a non-uncommon dish but makes it in a way unlike and better than anywhere else.

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I do miss the ethnic delis I used to see in Chicago and Dearborn, MI. I didn't give it much thought at the time. They were just independently owned small businesses and I was just a kid without much money. The closer the better.

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We moved from NF to On back in the 1970s and I missed all the British biscuits and sweets which we couldn't get here in Toronto. I remember the name was Tunnock's tea cake and coconut bars. You could only get him at British food stores and they were expensive.

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IGA used to sell a scrumpet, and it was kind of a mix between a scone and a crumpet. I've looked everywhere and I can't even find a recipe online for one like it. The only ones I've seen have peanut butter and chocolate in them and that's not what they were. I've only found mention that the empress hotel in Victoria used to have them.

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Newfoundland also had it's own like of biscuits and stuff called Purity. Could not find them back in the 70s. Walmart sells sells them now in some stores.

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Tunnocks is good stuff, The tea cakes and caramel wafer ๐Ÿ‘

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๐Ÿ‘

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Funnily enough, I was at a children's party for my daughter and they had Tunnocks tea cakes there. None of us have a sweet tooth in our household, so these sorts of things don't normally get bought or eaten, however, on this occasion (slurp!).

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Philippines: Jollibee (Philippine-American Hybrid Fast food chain)

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I live in a rather White area. Of course we have a number of Thai places, and I drive past a Cambodian diner regularly, but one thing that intrigues me is the two or three Oriental grocery stores there are in town. I'm not a gourmand, but I imagine they have a lot of product you won't see at the conventional stores.

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No, I haven't. I find it ironic Bend would have the last one, but I guess it has to be someone, right? Bend is a tourist town, a lot of breweries. I get the impression you are either rich (own a condo or something) or poor (service industry) if you live there. A lot of recreation, skiing, the Deschutes River, bike or hike trails. They also have the Les Schwab Amphitheater where they have a lot of good rock acts. And like our own Matthew Knight Arena, I have never been there.

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