Immigrants: what foods from home do you miss most?

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  • kimmymayhall
    kimmymayhall Posts: 419 Member
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    I spent a lot of my childhood in Malaysia. I miss roti canai, rambutans, and good Chinese food :sad:
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    Originally from Iowa, U.S., and been living in Canada for 11 years. What I miss:

    - A&E small curd cottage cheese
    - Oscar Meyer beef balonga
    - Fastco hot dogs
    - chocolate milk

    Up here, all the foods that have casing (sausages, hot dogs, cottage cheese) come with thick casing. I found hot dogs that I like, except biting into them is like biting into minced meat stuffed into a 1/2" chunk of plastic. Cottage cheese does not taste "right", extremely blah. The chocolate milk is somewhere between red and purple in color rather than a brown.

    I also miss the cheapness. Food's much more expensive when it has to be shipped on an overnight ferry.
  • MelissaL582
    MelissaL582 Posts: 1,422 Member
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    Funeral Potatoes. It's a Utah thing.

    I had this a few years ago. My husband's fav.
  • taunto
    taunto Posts: 6,420 Member
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    I was in US for 10 years, I missed many things. Some of them I could cook myself or find in restaurants but they weren't the same and some I simply cannot find in US.

    Ful (pronounced fool) fava beans boiled till they break, with veggies, cheese, falafel, olive oil, spices. It is extremely yummy. Cannot find anything close to even the real thing in US.

    Hummus: What is it about Americans and getting rid of the chick pea flavor in hummus. The US hummus tastes like cream to me. You're supposed to taste the chick peas in it. With olive oil

    Mutabbaq: veggies with meat and eggs on cheese wrapped in very thing dough and then lightly fried! yes please. Cannot find anything even close to it in US

    Biryani: Cannot find good biryani in US

    Many other things really but these were the biggies.
  • MSam1205
    MSam1205 Posts: 439 Member
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    Just a lower NY transplant to WNY but I so miss the NY thin crust pizza:sad: :sad: Nothing like it in Buffalo... We overdose on it when we go home to visit family. I understand the beef on weck issue, but what i've heard is the salt does not travel well when they are shipped!:bigsmile:
  • Booksandbeaches
    Booksandbeaches Posts: 1,791 Member
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    I spent part of my life in Asia. I miss fruits like mangosteen, rambutan and things like jackfruit, string
    hoppers (like a noodle pancake).
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,138 Member
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    I spent part of my life in Asia. I miss fruits like mangosteen, rambutan and things like jackfruit, string
    hoppers (like a noodle pancake).

    Mangosteen is the best fruit in the entire world. I could happily spend eternity eating only that.
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
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    I was in US for 10 years, I missed many things. Some of them I could cook myself or find in restaurants but they weren't the same and some I simply cannot find in US.

    Ful (pronounced fool) fava beans boiled till they break, with veggies, cheese, falafel, olive oil, spices. It is extremely yummy. Cannot find anything close to even the real thing in US.

    Hummus: What is it about Americans and getting rid of the chick pea flavor in hummus. The US hummus tastes like cream to me. You're supposed to taste the chick peas in it. With olive oil

    Mutabbaq: veggies with meat and eggs on cheese wrapped in very thing dough and then lightly fried! yes please. Cannot find anything even close to it in US

    Biryani: Cannot find good biryani in US

    Many other things really but these were the biggies.

    Next time, try Dearborn, MI.
  • taunto
    taunto Posts: 6,420 Member
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    I was in US for 10 years, I missed many things. Some of them I could cook myself or find in restaurants but they weren't the same and some I simply cannot find in US.

    Ful (pronounced fool) fava beans boiled till they break, with veggies, cheese, falafel, olive oil, spices. It is extremely yummy. Cannot find anything close to even the real thing in US.

    Hummus: What is it about Americans and getting rid of the chick pea flavor in hummus. The US hummus tastes like cream to me. You're supposed to taste the chick peas in it. With olive oil

    Mutabbaq: veggies with meat and eggs on cheese wrapped in very thing dough and then lightly fried! yes please. Cannot find anything even close to it in US

    Biryani: Cannot find good biryani in US

    Many other things really but these were the biggies.

    Next time, try Dearborn, MI.

    Lived about 45 minutes away from Dearborn MI (Flint, MI). Believe me, I've looked.
  • _meesh_
    _meesh_ Posts: 73
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    Not an immigrant, but a Canadian ex-pat in Japan.

    Most of the foods I miss aren't really good for me but I obviously didn't eat that great if I'm here trying to lose weight.

    Humpty Dumpty Cheesies (or cheese sticks if you prefer), Though I did recently find Herr's baked cheese curls at a foreign food store, and they're pretty close.

    Cheeze Whiz!

    Campbell's Tomato Soup (again I can find it but it's really expensive ~3$ per can)

    Sour cream, I can find it here but it's almost like cream cheese texture and super expensive, but I have recently started using greek yogurt which has been a decent substitute,

    Powdered onion soup mix (for dips)

    The choice in pre-made frozen dinners. The only kinds you can really find easily here are pasta, I miss lean cuisine type meals.

    What will I miss when I go back to Canada? Garigari-kun bars and Melon Soda.
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
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    I was in US for 10 years, I missed many things. Some of them I could cook myself or find in restaurants but they weren't the same and some I simply cannot find in US.

    Ful (pronounced fool) fava beans boiled till they break, with veggies, cheese, falafel, olive oil, spices. It is extremely yummy. Cannot find anything close to even the real thing in US.

    Hummus: What is it about Americans and getting rid of the chick pea flavor in hummus. The US hummus tastes like cream to me. You're supposed to taste the chick peas in it. With olive oil

    Mutabbaq: veggies with meat and eggs on cheese wrapped in very thing dough and then lightly fried! yes please. Cannot find anything even close to it in US

    Biryani: Cannot find good biryani in US

    Many other things really but these were the biggies.

    Next time, try Dearborn, MI.

    Lived about 45 minutes away from Dearborn MI (Flint, MI). Believe me, I've looked.

    I had some lovely Ful in Dearborn. Maybe the restaurant is no longer there. DC would be second best for Middle Eastern food--some decent Lebanese restaurants there, at least.
  • KettleTO
    KettleTO Posts: 144 Member
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    I am Irish and have been living in the US for 14 years. I have never recovered from missing Irish cadbury's chocolate. Dairy Milk from the fridge, specifically! I can find it here, but it is just not easily accessible when I get the craving.

    Flake bars are only made in Ireland....in Canada you don't have to go to a British import store to find them...
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,026 Member
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    I was in US for 10 years, I missed many things. Some of them I could cook myself or find in restaurants but they weren't the same and some I simply cannot find in US.

    Ful (pronounced fool) fava beans boiled till they break, with veggies, cheese, falafel, olive oil, spices. It is extremely yummy. Cannot find anything close to even the real thing in US.

    Hummus: What is it about Americans and getting rid of the chick pea flavor in hummus. The US hummus tastes like cream to me. You're supposed to taste the chick peas in it. With olive oil

    Mutabbaq: veggies with meat and eggs on cheese wrapped in very thing dough and then lightly fried! yes please. Cannot find anything even close to it in US

    Biryani: Cannot find good biryani in US

    Many other things really but these were the biggies.

    Next time, try Dearborn, MI.

    Lived about 45 minutes away from Dearborn MI (Flint, MI). Believe me, I've looked.

    I grew up in Saginaw. :)



    I miss pickled bologna, ground bologna, red hots, Mackinaw Island fudge, pasties, morel mushrooms, ham and been soup, goulash, salt water taffy, packzis, and on and on...

    Damn it, now I am homesick.
  • caribear1984
    caribear1984 Posts: 203
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    Not the exact same, but I moved from California to Georgia. I miss good artichokes. Random, but true. and In and Out Burger.

    Oh yes, I miss the artichokes too. And tree-ripened oranges and tangerines. I still get these things at the store, but they are not even close to the real thing. Oh, and there was this little restaurant called Tommy's that had the best chili fries in the world, and Tommy burgers with chili... nutritionally they were horrific, but they tasted soooo good.
  • determinedbutlazy
    determinedbutlazy Posts: 1,941 Member
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    UK living in Japan.

    I miss marmite and wholemeal seeded bread, any kind of baked pie or savoury pastry, fish and chunky chips, roast beef and gravy, roast potatoes, good sausages... I could go on and on but I'm making myself sad.
  • xDahliaNoir
    xDahliaNoir Posts: 1
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    Hagelslag!! Man I miss that too. I'm also from The Netherlands & moved to the US in 2010. I never realized how 'Dutch' certain foods are, and how much I'd miss them once I couldn't get them as easily anymore! Stamppot, boerenkool & rookworst, cheese, all kinds of Dutch candy (especially real licorice is hard to find here), and a lot of good Indonesian food. The dairy products also aren't the same here. Om nom, now I'm hungry.
  • Hannah_Banana
    Hannah_Banana Posts: 1,242 Member
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    I spent a year in New Zealand on an exchange in high school. I might saw off my own arm for a shipment of meat pies. They came in these individual little baggies and you just popped them in the oven. Sweet baby jebus I can still SMELL them. :love: :love: :love: :love:
  • oregonzoo
    oregonzoo Posts: 4,251 Member
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    Being in the northwest a majority of my life, I MISS REAL seafood.
    I miss clam digging, I miss Dungeoness crabs, I miss yummy alder smoked salmon.

    You cannot convince me that freaking catfish is seafood. Ugh.
  • humpbax
    humpbax Posts: 34 Member
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    I'm an American in Australia... I miss gravy and biscuits!!!! Scones are too sweet and I just can't make breakfast gravy without sausage. The sausages here are very bland and very greasy. I have found an American food store but it's in Melbourne -I'm near Brissy (like Florida and New York) so I can get things like grits but everything is soooo expensive. And all the foods that are based on our foods are just ever so slightly different - Doritos, coke, etc. OOOOh and I miss the COLD of winter at Christmas and Thanksgiving!!!
  • Hannah_Banana
    Hannah_Banana Posts: 1,242 Member
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    I'm an American in Australia... I miss gravy and biscuits!!!! Scones are too sweet and I just can't make breakfast gravy without sausage. The sausages here are very bland and very greasy. I have found an American food store but it's in Melbourne -I'm near Brissy (like Florida and New York) so I can get things like grits but everything is soooo expensive. And all the foods that are based on our foods are just ever so slightly different - Doritos, coke, etc. OOOOh and I miss the COLD of winter at Christmas and Thanksgiving!!!

    When I was living in NZ I also noticed things that were relatively cheap staples back home were very expensive. Pringles sticks out in my mind - like $4/can, and Bisquick (if you could find it) was like $6/box. And I was NOT a fan of Cadbury chocolate. I missed Hershey's like the devil.

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