Fluff: What favorite food/item is unavailable where you live

A good true Pork Tenderloin sandwich

IMO's pizza (St. Louis based chain) mostly in Missouri.   I literally will freeze them and bring them back home with me.  

Oh and there is a restaurant in New Orleans called Deanie's.  there is a dish there that I crave.  I had it three times while I was there, it's a cheesy delight:

Crabmeat Au Gratin 
Fresh lump crabmeat baked into our creamy four-cheese blend. Served with salad and French bread. 

I feel like it's the opposite here (well, outside most of the southern states where sweet tea is supreme ). I live in Colorado and have a hard time finding sweet tea. Almost everywhere has unsweetened though. Sonic & Chik-fil-A are my go to drive-thru's for one. On a side note, the last 2 or 3 times I went to McD's for a sweet tea, it has tasted like it wasn't sweetened.




I thought the same thing. Personally, I would never eat it because I don't like olives or bologna, but it's available here in the deli and prepackaged by Oscar Meyer (I think that's the brand who sells all the pre-packaged bologna.) (I did buy teriyaki pineapple turkey from the deli a week or 2 ago for my DH and kids to try. The pineapple through it was the same idea.)






I just saw the white covered Oreos in one of our stores recently. Within the last couple of weeks. I could look around again and grab a couple boxes to send to you if they're still there. Their were a few different coated ones, and I was surprised to see the white ones in a permanent looking spot on the shelf, so I happen to remember that.



Coffee Time!! I buy a couple bottles of this every time I'm back home. I'm from NH and I remember drinking this my entire life. My son loved it when he was little. I wish I could Cost Plus carried it. (Trivia fact: Coffee milk is the state drink of Rhode Island!)



I love these so much! AussieMeg and I exchanged candy boxes once and she sent those bars, and some bags of bite sized ones. The little bite sized ones were my favorite! We have Cost Plus and a couple smaller candy stores that carry some international treats. Anytime I'm near one, I go in and look for those and Cadbury Flakes. I love Aero Bars too, thankfully they're pretty easy to find. My grocery store has them in the "international" section.

Other foods I miss (pretty much all from NH/New England) are Fluff (can usually find tiny jars here at Cost Plus, but I buy a bigger tub when I'm home b/c it's way cheaper), steak tips (can't really bring them back in my suitcase, so I just eat a lot of them while I'm home) and Ah-so sauce (could probably find online, haven't really looked.)  I'm pretty committed to only using NH or Vermont made maple syrup, but I don't necessarily have to buy it out there and bring it back (although I often do). If I buy it here, I always check where it's made. My sister-in-law's cousins family owns a farm in VT that makes syrup, and when I'm out of the big jug I brought back with me in Nov, I'm going to order on line from them.

Ah! When you mentioned olive loaf, I assumed it was bread with olives in it. I'm pretty sure that in Australia what you call olive loaf is called olive mortadella. I don't think I've ever eaten it, but I do love olives so maybe I will give it a try next time I do my grocery shopping. 

Sorry, I just couldn't get on board with Musk Sticks! I can't imagine what would make someone decide that the scent of musk would make a good candy/food flavor. To be fair, I don't like candles or anything else that's described as musky, so that might be part of it.

I'm also not sure who thought making candy corn in all the flavors of a traditional US Thanksgiving dinner was a good idea! A few regular candy corns go a long way because they're so sweet, I prefer the orange and brown ones.

My son likes maple flavored candy too. I usually get him either the sugar ones that are shaped like tiny maple leaves (a very little goes a long way with those!) or a bag of the hard ones from farms that make maple syrup when I'm back in NH.

I don't bake often, and when I do, it's usually out of a package (for shame! I know.) or a poppyseed tea bread recipe from my mom (that's what my son wants for his birthday cake every year, so that's what we make.) so I just did a quick research on Nestle chips. (I did know that there were quite a few available, and I have a bag of milk chocolate ones b/c I thought making homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies sounded like a good idea while I was in the store one day ). A 9oz bag (I think that's the typical size bag sold) of espresso chips (sounds very good!) are $2.48 at Walmart, so yeah, $14 is extortion! I think the peppermint ones might be a holiday thing, I'm not sure. Have you checked Amazon for any of the flavored chips? I looked at Amazon US, and there were a bunch, but the prices were all over the place.

It's interesting to hear that Butterfingers are only sold there around 4th of July! Are they considered a quintessential American candy bar? Not sure why, but I find that super interesting.

Have you tried making mozzarella?  It's really not hard, I make it a few times a month, only takes about 30 minutes. 

I started years ago when I read a book all about eating local and she mentioned making mozzarella - I LOVED it in Italy and never found anything comparable in grocery stores so gave it a try - it takes maybe 30 minutes. Only issue is kids trying to eat it all while it's still warm. I use this kit:


www.sausagemaker.com/Ricki-s-Mozzarella-Ricotta-Cheese-Making-Kit-p/24-2426.htm

Duke’s mayonnaise is Hellman’s.

I buy 2 bags of the Coconut clusters (white and orange bag?) every time we go to Costco. We have one in my car or at work (and when my boss goes to Costco he gets bags too!) and another for the house.

Ginger Snaps. Specifically Nabisco. They are on the shelves for a day then gone for 3 months. And I thought I was the only person who liked them. 😂