I don't travel abroad as much as I'd like, but I always enjoy bringing back some foreign candies for friends. Some things we can get locally in upscale shops, and much you can get from Amazon, but most folks don't bother. I recently came back from Iceland and brought probably $20 in little candies. Lots of licorice-based stuff - that's apparently a big thing there. Just little fun bits to pass out to friends when I come back.

But I've always enjoyed poking through grocery stores traveling abroad - China, UK, Russia all were interesting in their own way. Seeing what's similar and what's different. Yeah, cool - they have Pringles too - but... wow... such weird flavors. I do remember seeing canned horse in a couple of Russian stores. And in one upscale Moscow grocery, they had a huge fridge case for 'cheeses from around the world'. Germany, Italy, France, UK... kept going... got to the 'US' portion and ... tubs of 'Philadelphia cream cheese'. I thought I'd taken a pic of that but sadly can't find it any more. I really thought it was a joke.

Given that almost everything is a subsidiary of Unilever, the 'I wonder what they'll have' question has faded. But finding local flavors of things is still fun. Greece is likely my next bucket list trip. Any suggestions on foods to try or candies to look for - let me know! :)

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al_borland 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Given that almost everything is a subsidiary of Unilever, the 'I wonder what they'll have' question has faded.

There can still be variety in international offerings. In the US I find Kleenex to be a bad product and am a die-hard Puffs customer. When visiting England my allergies got the best of me and I needed some tissues. Puffs was unavailable, but they had something like “Kleenex Mansized”, which seemed a bit silly, but it was great. 1000x better than any Kleenex I’ve seen sold in the US.

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shimman 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Have nothing to offer but have you compared bakeries in different countries? I feel like a neighborhood bakery can offer a lot of local flavors that are affordable + unique, can't share with friends tho.

	▲	mgkimsal 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		not as much as grocery stores. Most stores are big enough where I can get lost in them for a bit. A lot of bakeries tend to be smaller, a bit more crowded, more transactional, and I don't always speak the language well. It's not that I've never been, but they tend to invoke a bit more anxiety than browsing in a larger store. BUT... have had some great breads, pastries, pasties and such in Moscow, Romania and Iceland. With that said... they may not actually have been great. The article touches on it - some of my memory of "great food" is just... the experience of having that food while abroad. I've told friends "oh, i had some great ____ over at _____" only to get told that that place is garbage and has the worst ____ ever and I should go to ____ instead. They may be right, but part of the 'taste' is 'first time trying $foo in $bar' which adds to the memory (usually good). Also... whether I'm with someone or on my own has an impact - usually the whole memory is better when I'm with friends or family.