Memorable foreign food you can't get at home.

[Chuckanut]

Yesterday I was looking about my pantry trying to find a can of something when I came across a bag of chocolate bars I had brought home from Turkey a year ago. I had placed them in the pantry intending to eat them on special occasions. Out of sight, out of mind, and the fact that I possessed them was forgotten.

But, the memory of these goodies was never forgotten.

I am wondering what goodies discovered while traveling and not easily available at home are part or our travel memories.

My contribution are these candies. ETi Karam Gurme bars to be precise. They have a bitter chocolate cover and filling which wraps itself around three or four layers of light, thin wafers. Absolutely wonderful!

http://www.asliberry.blogspot.com/2013/05/eti-karam-gurme.html

 

[springnr]

Asian market, next door and a thousands of miles away.

This AM, coffee &
http://www.asiansupermarket365.com/v/vspfiles/photos/PRTEYZ-3.jpg

 

[MichaelB]

Too many things to list. There's good food everywhere we've ever gone. A few favorites are Lebanese pastries, chipirones (squid in it's own ink) and tequeños (cheese inside dough, fried in oil).

 

[ronin]

Palusami used to be a real treat on Sundays when I lived in Samoa. Probably was relative to how bad everything else was the rest of the time.

 

[mn54]

I just received a few bottles of lizano salsa from costa rica. Can not get it in the U.S. It is used on everything in Costa Rica like ketchup in the states.

 

[braumeister]

Most of my list would be beers from small breweries throughout the UK, Belgium, and Germany.

 

[MRG]

Most of my list would be beers from small breweries throughout the UK, Belgium, and Germany.

I still remember a sunny day sitting on the canal in Amsterdam. Asked for a recommendation of a Belgium beer, never could say the name. I wondered why it was so small, it tasted great, an instant appreciation of great beer. After part of the first little beer I understood the size.
MRG

 

[F4mandolin]

A good Vindaloo.

 

[Midpack]

My list is too long also. Some things that come to mind, good Panettone, true Mexican food (vs the Tex-Mex that most people think is Mexican), wild caught seafood, world class pastrami...but I could go on endlessly. I know where to get most anything in Chicago, but I'm not always inclined to drive for "it."

 

[growing_older]

Really good french bread. Some "artisan" breads are becoming available locally that are very very good, but in France, every little bakery everywhere seemed able to produce amazing bread and pastry. They were everywhere and even the tiniest little newsstand would have excellent croissants if they offered some.

Really thick "Chicago-style" pizza. There are some deep dish places here, but nothing like I remember.

Swordfish steaks. Hardly ever see this on menus anymore.

 

[AnAtomInTheUniverse]

I can get Taiwanese fried stinky tofu here, but its not the same or near as good as from the night markets in Taipei. I'll never forget the first time I tried it. It was love at first bite!

 

[MBAustin]

White asparagus in Germany/Austria/Switzerland in the spring. With a strawberry dessert. Can't be replicated anywhere else.

 

[brewer12345]

It is amazing what you can find if you dig around. We hit a Persian/Iranian market and among other things I came home with a package of dried barberries, green almonds, and fresh loquats.

 

[robnplunder]

I find that even in Bay Area where there are many international restaurants, I can't find genuine food I've tasted in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan, Korea, .... Things change when they cross ocean. The best udon I've ever tasted was from a hole in the wall place next to a Tokyo subway station. They don't have it in Bay Area and there is a Japanese restaurant in every shopping center.

 

[NW-Bound]

In today's globalized economy and with the mobility of immigrants, most of the food from abroad can be obtained locally if we only know the right ethnic store in town that carries it. Still, there's the pleasure of sampling local products when we travel. Quite often, it is the only time I get out of my way to try something different. Being in a foreign place also makes the meal more memorable. A pan of paella eaten in Valencia is remembered long after one eaten in a US restaurant, even if the latter is prepared by a Spanish immigrant (unlikely!).

And then, there might be just something that is not available locally, such as the roast suckling pig we had in Segovia. We were traveling with a friend, hence the 3 plates in the photo.



I did not have to go through the photo directory to refresh my memory, as I remember this occasion very well. It was a day trip by train to Segovia from Madrid. By studying beforehand, I knew that we wanted to visit the Alcázar (Royal Castle) of Segovia, see the Roman Aqueduct, and the colossal Cathedral. The following are my photos. And of course, we had to have the roast pig.





We hiked from the train station at one end of town to the Alcazar at the other end, and back. Looking at the map just now, I saw that it was around 2 miles one way. It was a good thing that many European towns were not that big.

On the way back, I was worried that we might miss out on the roast pig for lunch, as many restaurants were closed. Luckily, we found one opened right on the Plaza Mayor, right off the Cathedral, and yes, they had roast pig. The meat was white, and had a taste between pork and turkey. It hit the spot as we were hungry after the walk. And it was in January, so still cold.

What a memorable trip, but then I enjoy and cherish all our trips, foreign as well as domestic, fly-and-drive or by RV.

 

[springnr]

It would be great to grab a Unagi or Tsuna Onigri at the corner Lawson this morning.

 

[anethum]

Sweet corn fritters with a spicy peanut sauce at a market in Nan, Thailand. Roti, available for breakfast all over Malaysia and Singapore. Stuffed masa concoctions available in covered markets throughout Mexico. Razor clams in a to-die-for cream sauce I ate in Paris. Levain Walnut bread from Acme Bakery in the SF Bay Area.

 

[bltkmt]

I just received a few bottles of lizano salsa from costa rica. Can not get it in the U.S. It is used on everything in Costa Rica like ketchup in the states.

I am pretty sure you can get this online from many places in the US...even Amazon.

 

[Sesq]

Some of these can be found in the US, but when I think of local cuisine and trips, these were favorites:


Stroopwafel in Amsterdam (caramel covered waffle cookies)

Korean BBQ

Gelato in Italy

Blood Oranges (Italy / Spain) (mostly for novelty)

Tortilla sandwiches in Spain (Omelets with potato and onions on fresh bread, available in every bar).

 

[robnplunder]

Live sea cucumber. It was still moving around my plate even after it was chopped up in several pieces. Spongy outside, crunch inside, and fresh as hell. Mmmmmmm.

 

[Marita40]

European coffee--esp. Italian and German. No matter if you can buy the brand here and make it correctly, it still never tastes quite the same.

 

[MBAustin]

Reading the later posts reminds me of two unique meals in Spain - teeny tiny grilled snails (so small you needed to eat 50+ for a meal) and grilled spring onions (calcots). Mmmmmm

 

[nash031]

Kokoda in Fiji: cold coconut cream-based white fish soup with "pico"-type tomato salsa. Serve with garlic bread. Ate it every... single... day we were there.

 

[haha]

Too many things to list. There's good food everywhere we've ever gone. A few favorites are Lebanese pastries, chipirones (squid in it's own ink) and tequeños (cheese inside dough, fried in oil).

I first had a similar dish, only octupus, as pulpo en su tinta in Mexico City in 1964. I had been farther south, and was basically starving for enough protein. I met a woman friend in Mexico City who was similarly hungry. We were about to go home from having such fiery food and neither of us expected to survive. We walked past a nice looking white tablecloth French restaurant and just went in. "Por favor, pulpo en su inta para los dos!" Then a reorder. Then we topped it off with broiled corvine fillets. Finally, no longer dying of hunger. The waiters were practically doubled over, a young couple who didn't weight 230 together putting away food like that. I still remember it. Excellent food, excellent service, lovely surroundings, and the sauce of hunger.

I would not like to try to duplicate this, here or in Mexico or Spain. For me, good memories are better left as is.

Ha

 

[rodi]

cous-cous con pesce.
We make it - but I've never seen it in a restaurant outside of western Sicily. We had to learn how to make it because we craved it and it's cheaper to learn how to make it than to travel to Sicily every time we had a craving.