My family moved from Iowa to Wyoming when I was 13. In Iowa, I was a big fan of Hostess Ho Hos, a chocolate snack cake with whipped cream swirled in the middle (see here). But in Wyoming, there were no Ho Hos. What?! I was astounded -- so astounded in fact that I approached a Hostess delivery man I saw at the neighborhood Mini-Mart one day. “Hello kind sir, I was wondering if you could tell me as to why there are no Ho Hos here in the fine state of Wyoming.” He informed me that in the Rocky Mountain region, they sold Chocodiles in place of the Ho Ho. In case you are unaware, Chocodiles are (or were) basically a chocolate-covered Twinkie (if you are from and in another country reading this, I’m sorry because you undoubtedly have no idea what the heck I’m talking about, but check out this explanation for Chocodiles). Let’s just say that Chocodiles never made it onto my regular junk food menu.
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| Here I am, back in Iowa a few years ago. Our dear family friends, Sharon and Don, remembered how crazy I was for Ho Hos and kindly bought me a box (I think Don wanted to take them back, that's how yummy they are!). |
When you travel to another country, it is interesting to experience a local grocery store, supermarket, market, food store, whatever you want to call it to see just how many different packaged foods are out there. Those of you from the U.S. are surely aware of a rather recent surge of “drinkable” yogurt on the market, mostly geared towards kids. Mexico, and I’m sure many other countries, have been selling it for years, and not as a childhood novelty snack packaged with cartoon characters in neon colors. When I spent time in Guanajuato, Mexico over a decade ago, the little supermarket I went to had shelves and shelves of different types of drinkable yogurt, all different flavors, many of fruits we do not typically find in the U.S. I had it every day, at least once. It was something I missed when coming back to the U.S. All I could find at home at the time was Kefir, and comparatively, it wasn’t that cheap. It was good, but just not the same.
Something else I enjoy when traveling in Central America is the soda/pop/soft drink called Fresca. It is a grapefruit flavored soda and is so amazingly refreshing on a hot day in the tropics. But the Fresca here in the U.S. is, and always has been, diet. Ummm ... yuck. I did, however, discover a store here in Austin that sells the south-of-the-border version of Fresca, so that was tasty news. I won’t make a habit of drinking this sugar-laden beverage too frequently --- just once in a while during the hot summer.
You may find a need for a grocery store while traveling abroad, and not just as your own personal field trip to investigate differences. You may need food! This can be very fun, even when you can’t read the labels printed in another language. You look at the label and try to decipher what is inside the carton/box/container/can/bottle and determine if it is something you want for your six-hour bus trip the next day, or your hike to a waterfall, or your late night snack. You might buy something that looks like a dried fruit roll-up, but ends up being some sort of dehydrated meat pancake. Or you think you’re buying a sweet cookie to have with a nice cup of tea, but it ends up being a salty cracker that would go better with a beer. Or you assume that the bag of chips you bought is some kind of local potato chips, but ends up being dried, salted bugs.
See what adventures you could experience just by going to a grocery store? Who knew?
Please use the comment section below to share any “weird snack” experiences you have had visiting other places in the U.S. or other countries.
