At the Grocery

Italian grocery stores are pretty different from stores in America.  Almost everything in the store is from Italy so that means no ingredients to cook internation food (Mexican, Asian, etc).  There are not aisles and aisles of processed food like in the States.  No doritos, no flavored potato chips, no soups in cans, no bottled salad dressings.  Hydrogenated oils are banned in much of Europe.  So margarine is actually illegal.

Now I am used to the new way of shopping and actually prefer it.  However, this time of year, I am making many of my traditional recipes and am once again missing American ingredients.

Here's my top ten list of things I wish I could buy here:

1.  Brown sugar
2.  Sour cream
3.  Plastic bags (like ziplock)
4.  Cheddar cheese
5.  Goldfish crackers
6.  Italian sausage (they sell sausage here but honestly it is not the same and not as good as the "Italian" sausage from stores in America)
7.  Ranch dressing
8.  Self rising cornmeal (I could probably use polenta but I haven't gone to the trouble to figure out how.)
9.  Cilantro
10. Corn on the cob (They only sell corn in cans.  Never fresh, not even frozen.  Only in cans.)
11.  I know I said 10 things but I have one more.  I miss breakfast food like English muffins, bagels, bacon, etc.

I could go on but really, I don't miss the things I used to eat.  We can do without the frozen burritos.  My husband lost 10 pounds within the first couple months of living in Italy.  Even though he probably eats more food here, the quality of the food is better.  Turns out the packaged food he ate for lunch on the go was packing on the pounds, but a three course lunch with fresh ingredients doesn't.  Hmmm.