American Food Abroad

[liuzhou]

I'm confused by M&Ms being seen as difficult to obtain outside America. They're everywhere I've ever lived. I don't even need to go to an "American" store or '"foreign section" in a supermarket. Here in China, every Mom 'n Pop store has them and has done so for at least 30 years.I can order some for delivery through my phone app and they'll be here wiith 30 minutes. I first ate them in China. I've seen them in Mongolia,Japan, India, Vietnam, Thailand, as well as all over Europe. I doubt my neighbours even know they are American.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 23 by liuzhou (log)

[bokreta]

Astonishing that some may have had a different lived experience than yours in the course of their life in different areas of the world than where you live/have lived.

 

I promise that in 1991 Yugoslavia (pre- and mid revolution) the local shops didn't have an "American Aisle" or M&Ms.

 

 

[liuzhou]

47 minutes ago, bokreta said:

Astonishing that some may have had a different lived experience than yours in the course of their life in different areas of the world than where you live/have lived.

 

I promise that in 1991 Yugoslavia (pre- and mid revolution) the local shops didn't have an "American Aisle" or

 

 

 

Sure, of course the Soviet controlled countries weren't exactly replete with American products. I lived in Soviet Russia in the 80s. Even the Berioshka stores (with armed guards to keep out the rabble), exclusively reserved for foreigners and high ranking Communists and only accepting US dollar payments, had no American  goods. In 1988, in Moscow, Air Rianta, the Irish Airport Authority opened Russia's first airport selling foreign goods (mostly Irish), but nothing American at that time. Two years later McDonals arrived. desecrating 'Moscow's Pushkin Square with their crap. (They had to change the Golden Arches logo as it was identical to the Moscow Metro signs.)

 

North Korea probably doesn't have M&Ms today, either. In fact, they don't have food. much.

[chromedome]

9 hours ago, bokreta said:

I gotta admit, when I spent a year abroad on a Fullbright as a youngling, as much as I LOVED being where I was and the food that was widely available, I seriously missed M&Ms and Kraft Mac & Cheese.

 

I had a chance encounter with a traveling American business man and helped him navigate a sticky local situation. Once he got back to the States, he sent me a care package of those plus a few other treats. I almost cried when I opened the box and rationed the heck out of that box for the next many months. Certainly not tastier or better food, just what the heart wanted after another day of everything being new and different.

One of my sociology profs and his wife (an anthropology prof) spent a year in the Soviet Union back in the 70s, teaching for part of that time but mostly doing research on the treatment of indigenous peoples there (indigenous studies was their area of shared specialization).

He said that if he went back, he would fill an entire suitcase with peanut butter. Apparently it was unavailable there, and a leading example of "what the heart wanted" among the small community of Canadians and Americans living/working/studying in the USSR.

[liuzhou]

31 minutes ago, chromedome said:

 leading example of "what the heart wanted"

 

Here it was always cheese. The locals didn't want it and there weren't enough long-term foreigners to justify importing it. In recent years, with many more foreigners working in the larger cities and with online shopping, cheese has become much more available. Still a limited choice of varieties but much more than when I arrived when it was limited to 'zero'. I don't recell ever seeing North American cheeses here though - mostly European and New Zealand. Plastic American cheese is made here now. I call it 'fake fake cheese'.

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

In Costa Rica, hot dogs are sold with plastic skins that must be removed before cooking. I don't think there's a gringo here that hasn't thrown a hot dog on the barbie and wound up with melted plastic skin the first time. My friend Lenora couldn't figure out why would they would wrap them in plastic to sell them. I had to explain that they were made that way and that they were just too lazy to take off the skin before they sold them.

[chromedome]

10 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

In Costa Rica, hot dogs are sold with plastic skins that must be removed before cooking. I don't think there's a gringo here that hasn't thrown a hot dog on the barbie and wound up with melted plastic skin the first time. My friend Lenora couldn't figure out why would they would wrap them in plastic to sell them. I had to explain that they were made that way and that they were just too lazy to take off the skin before they sold them.

At least a few brands were sold that way in Canada too, though I don't recall when I saw one last. It was probably the 90s, because I remember making that kind for my kids.