Comments on: Notes on Dining in America

By: miguel

miguel — Thu, 08 Aug 2002 10:58:33 +0000

Just remember they taste like dirt. Or reduced fat dirt. Or dirt with mint.

Also, similar to Sweden, you can get “Mexican food” here in Austria (reminds me i have a story about that) but it’s not good and it is expensive. And they have one flavor of Oreos in the “exotic” section of “supermarkets”, in little-bitty packages, which is why I don’t buy them. Oreo’s are meant to be eaten 60 at a time, with a gallon of milk.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 08 Aug 2002 04:31:46 +0000

I so want to go out and get a big bag of Oreos right now. Curse you, Miguel! :-)

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 08 Aug 2002 03:02:31 +0000

When I’m at school in the Bay Area I yearn for my home in San Diego if only for its decent Mexican food. I guess I haven’t given too many places a try up there, but that’s because I haven’t had much luck before. I miss having dingy little Your-Name-Here-berto’s on every corner.

Andronico’s is neat, though.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 08 Aug 2002 00:25:21 +0000

Peanut butter oreos? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.

Someday you guys will come visit the Bay Area, and I’ll pelt you with so much good food. Pelt, pelt.
The Mexican food here is probably the best you’ll find outside Baja California or, say, Mando’s in San Antonio (frogs’ legs are not considered Mexican food here). There’s a little dive in Rodeo that makes the best pork tamales on the planet, I swear, and they are just perfect for pelting.

I think you’d dig Berkeley supermarkets, too. Stuff isn’t sold in bulk so much as in diversity. the local Andronico’s has an olive bar – I haven’t counted the varieties as I just don’t do olives – and an exquisite wine section, like 1/4 the store. And three kinds of yeast paste (for when I can’t decide between english or canadian marmite, and just get vegemite. except I’d never do that. ew.)

By: francis s.

francis s. — Wed, 07 Aug 2002 22:47:35 +0000

They are definitely more into American-type food here in Sweden. They’ve got (mediocre) bagels, some (mediocre) Mexican food – even (very expensive) oreos in the American sections of most of the bigger grocery stores (by bigger, I mean a third of the size of a typical U.S. grocery store).

And yet, we sort of have the same thing whenever we go back to Chicago. The husband marvels at my parents’ two refrigerators, both of which are, well, huge. They are only two people, why do they need two refrigerators? Just because! And they are both filled with food, although my mother does cook a lot (the question is, how do they stay so thin?)

The husband also goes absolutely wild in an American supermarket. Me, I just get overwhelmed. I mean, how do you choose between so many brands of toothpaste, canned tomatoes, decongestant?

By: kismet

kismet — Wed, 07 Aug 2002 22:22:13 +0000

I am practically drooling now, thanks :P

Mexican food is one of those things I crave all the time. However, my only French “Mexican food” experience was one night in Paris, where instead of chips and salsa, we were greeted with chips and… bread. Not even good bread either, but hard rolls.

I was very disappointed and am yet to get brave enough to try again.

And bagels are one of those things I crave constantly. Of course, even if I could manage to find them here, cream cheese is also disturbingly absent, so it would be somewhat disappointing anyway. :(