Trouble to find ingredients?

[Alsfia]

I figured I should post this thread in the international section since it's more likely to happen abroad...
I love cooking and I gladly cook and bake traditional holiday dishes or just something I'd normally eat at home when I visit my SO and his family, but sometimes I have a hard time finding what Im am looking for. For example, last Christmas I was to bake some buns when I found out that shops aren't allowed to sell fresh yiest in the UK! I have since adapted to using dry yiest, but there is also stuff like lingonberries (to be fair theyre rarely sold here either, but they grow here atleast). It's not only ingredients, it's also cooking wear (cast iron pans ect) and scanning tesco for toothpicks?...
So I was wondering if something like this happens to you guys when visiting eachother and what you miss most (for me it's probabbly plain cast iron pans)

[TwoThree]

I can relate to that, to a certain extent, as in I make sure to always take certain spices/ingredients with me when I visit my SO and know that I will cook certain dishes for him. There are things that I know I will never find in Finland, even in "ethnic" stores so I have to be prepared. I will have to buy a decent sized copper mortar and pestle to take with me when I move because the ones in Finland are either made with wood or stone and that's just useless to me It's going to be very heavy in my suitcase but I can't live (and cook) without one!

They don't have toothpicks in the UK? What's up with that? Are they so hell-bent on perpetuating the "Brits have bad teeth" stereotype?

[JoeyBug]

I can relate to that, to a certain extent, as in I make sure to always take certain spices/ingredients with me when I visit my SO and know that I will cook certain dishes for him. There are things that I know I will never find in Finland, even in "ethnic" stores so I have to be prepared. I will have to buy a decent sized copper mortar and pestle to take with me when I move because the ones in Finland are either made with wood or stone and that's just useless to me It's going to be very heavy in my suitcase but I can't live (and cook) without one!

They don't have toothpicks in the UK? What's up with that? Are they so hell-bent on perpetuating the "Brits have bad teeth" stereotype?

We do have toothpicks, I can't think of which aisle they'd be in, but I know they exist probably the party food aisle because we use them for cocktail sausages and cheese and pineapple at parties.

[mllebamako]

Most things, I have just adapted to live without. You can find a good variety of spices here in Mali, although I wish there were more Asian ingredients like curry pastes and such. I miss having convenience foods, like easy things to throw together when I don't feel like full on cooking. Some other things that I miss are certain fruits (pears, berries, plums, peaches, and the list goes on) and vegetables (I miss you, red bell pepper!)

A few things I cannot find here that I cannot live without: floss (also had an impossible time finding this in France), women's stick deodorant (it's all roll-on here), and contact lenses. As for certain foods, I've just had to get used to missing them

[kittyo9]

I needed nutmeg and feta cheese for something my SO really wanted me to make for him and his mom while I was in Peru. It took us AGES to find either in his grocery store, and they were like 3x the price they are here. They didn't have any ground nutmeg, so we had to grate it ourselves. That was frustrating!

[lucybelle]

Most things we can find here, just gotta pay the high prices. Stuff I can't get (good mustard, fish sauce, Sriracha, grits, etc) I stock up on when in the USA. It's not too bad although I do miss blueberries!

[TwoThree]

They didn't have any ground nutmeg, so we had to grate it ourselves. That was frustrating!

But self-ground nutmeg is so much better! I never buy nutmeg in any other shape than... nuts.

[TwoThree]

In a reverse type of situation, if my SO had to move in to my country I'm afraid he'd run away after a couple of months. No berries here (except strawberries, and they're expensive), no pork, very very limited selection of low-fat cheese and yoghurt, salmon (frozen) is very scarce and very expensive (it's his favourite kind of food, like ever) and there are a lot of stuff he uses on a daily basis that I could never find here. He'd be miserable.

Or he would adapt and be thrilled with the great variety of fresh, un-imported fruit and vegetables!

[lucybelle]

Or he would adapt and be thrilled with the great variety of fresh, un-imported fruit and vegetables!

That's one thing I have a love/hate relationship with here. Everything is fresh and as soon as something goes out of season you can't get it anymore. Like last week I tried to find eggplant and there was not a single one anywhere. So I guess it's out of season and I don't get eggplant again until it's back in season. But it's also nice to know that all the fruits and veggies are always fresh!

[Hollandia]

I ran into a problem with substitutes quite often. It is not as bad as the first time I went there and was lost in the supermarkets over there, but still not what I am used to. The ones I had a really hard time finding was stuff like baking powder, baking soda, yellow squash and turkey when not in "season". The fish selection there is a fraction of what I am used to as well. I don't live that far from the Chesapeake Bay...nuff said. LOL. There are butchers and fisheries here that sell almost any meat or fish you can imagine year round. I am used to Costo and BJ's and Walmart Superstores. I have just touched the tip of the iceberg of what I can buy over here and not there.


The food is fresh in NL, but the downside is it goes bad .....quickly. The bread might be good for day or two. My bread here is fine for at least a week. I know it is supposed to be the chemicals. I am confused, however; when I bake my bread from scratch over there it lasts longer. It does make you wonder. The same question I have about the veggies I grow in my garden here lasting longer than the ones from their markets. Anyone else run into this? The only thing I can think of is their fresh food is taking too long for transportation to the seller from the grower/baker.


My SO hates the idea of my importing anything in that cannot be bought in the NL and so I just make do. I love him , so no biggie. I am looking forward to upgrading some more of his pans and knives, but that is just a bachelor thing in my eyes, he rarely cooks when I am not around.

On a personal non cooking note for me, I miss the diet cherry 7-up. diet raspberry ginger-ale, diet root beer......etc. I know soda is not great for you, but with only a few like fanta zero and sprite zero over there , I tend to drink more wine. I also really miss my flavored Decaf coffees. I want to bring on the plane, but I think it might cause a problem, so I did not even ask.

Wine in the kitchen while cooking for my Baby and winging it as I go at times.....it can be a bit of van adventure at times.

[lucybelle]

Randomly remembered some other stuff- a lot of times when I can't find something I want, I make it myself. Like I couldn't find unsweetened apple sauce, only the gross kind with all sorts of crap in it. So I made my own and it was delicious!

One thing I can't make and miss every day- rye bread. Goodness there is nothing more delicious than a piece of rye bread toast with butter. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[mllebamako]

Randomly remembered some other stuff- a lot of times when I can't find something I want, I make it myself. Like I couldn't find unsweetened apple sauce, only the gross kind with all sorts of crap in it. So I made my own and it was delicious!

I did some homemade applesauce too here (of course, only when apples are in season ) And it was so easy and delicious!

I miss bagels. So badly.

[Alsfia]

Randomly remembered some other stuff- a lot of times when I can't find something I want, I make it myself. Like I couldn't find unsweetened apple sauce, only the gross kind with all sorts of crap in it. So I made my own and it was delicious!

One thing I can't make and miss every day- rye bread. Goodness there is nothing more delicious than a piece of rye bread toast with butter. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Oh rye bread!!!! Luckily I can get rye flour in UK, so it's solved for me. I'll have to make a h***a lot of hard bread for summer once I get over there. I really miss crisp bread!
I had a similar problem with too sweet sauce, but instead of apple sauce it's libgonberry jam. The only one I've found over there is from IKEA and so Swedish, and their jam is way sweeter than ours generally...

[milaya]

When I'm in Denmark, I have a hard time finding the ingredients I want for Japanese/Asian food. We have an Asian shop, but there's a lot of things they don't have - especially things that spoil easy, like fresh tofu. I also miss things like konyaku, chikuwa and other very Japanese stuff.

When I'm in Japan it's the other way around. They don't have the prober low fat milk I want, they don't have rye bread (and other European bread), they don't have bacon that actually tastes like bacon, they don't have the types of meat that goes with Danish cooking.
I seem to be loosing no matter where I go.

[Dezface]

I probably have it a lot easier than some of you guys but I still get frustrated with this. I am really, really, accustomed to Mexican food. Being from SoCal, it's everywhere and it's delicious! While I can make some things here no problem (like tacos,) I can't make...chile rellenos. I can't really make enchiladas either. Or, I could, but it would cost me ridiculous amounts of money to get the ingredients form specialty shops. So I won't. It took me forever to find black beans. Of course now I've found them lots of places.

There's lots of times i go to make something and then realize I can't get an ingredient, or don't know the closest substitution. It frustrates me more than it should on occasion.