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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Kaya Toast of Singapore

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

It can be tempting while traveling, especially for more than a week or two, to revert back to ordering the comfort foods with which you grew up. This maybe means eggs and bacon for breakfast or something similarly boring. Of course we urge you to overcome the temptation and, instead, take even more to the local menus. In Singapore, this means Kaya Toast for breakfast.

Kaya jam, which can be bought in jars in the grocery store, is a mix of eggs, sugar, coconut milk and pandan leaf. It's spread between two thin, toasted piece of bread and cut to neat rectangles. Adding butter is optional, depending on how decadent you feel.

Yes, it's green, but once you get over that and just bite in, you'll immediately forget the color for the flavor.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: Australia's Kangaroo Meat, for Everything from Burgers to Curries

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're continuing our feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

You've seen them in movies such as Australia and Crocodile Dundee, or you've even been lucky enough to have the opportunity to pet and feed them during a trip down under. They's kangaroos, and now the fuzzy marsupials are great for more than just cuteness. They can be for dinner! Yes, you read correctly; kangaroo meat is quite common in Australia and really worth trying if you can get your hands on it.

Just like beef, roo meat comes in many different forms, from ground meat for burgers to filets for a more refined palate. We have even mentioned having a BBQ with kanga bangas, Aussie for kangaroo sausages.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Chinese New Year 'Yusheng' Salad of Singapore

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

This Sunday night is more than just any old Sunday night; it's the Chinese New Year, when the year of the rabbit ends and the year of the dragon begins. The celebrations surrounding the lunar new year are many, and based on tradition. There's the giving of red envelopes containing money, the eating of mandarin oranges and sweets, and the gathering with family. And with almost every other special occasion ever, Chinese New Year mandates the preparation of special dishes to celebrate.

In Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, the new year means eating a special raw fish salad called Yusheng, with ingredients added one by one, and each with its own deeper meaning (salmon for abundance, deep-fried crackers symbolizing gold, etc). Just as important as serving Yusheng for the new year is the act of mixing the salad with a toss called "lo hei." The higher you toss the salad, the greater you'll soar to new heights in the new year.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Spaghetti Bolognese Chips of Paris

Mmmm, chips. Mmmmm, spaghetti bolognese. Mmmm, spaghetti bolognese-flavoured chips. What?

Yes, spaghetti bolognese chips are what we found ourselves eating in Paris recently. Mainly out of morbid curiosity—we assumed they’d be inedible. But in fact…

The taste: Well we’re not going to say they were amazing. They weren’t. But hey, it’s very rare that a chip is inedible. We’ve had tomato-flavored chips before and these were similar, just with a kick of herbs, which actually wasn’t bad. Still, we won’t be rushing to buy them on our next trip. No, we’ll go for the cheeseburger or pepperoni pizza one next time. Mmm, cheeseburger chips.

The price: Cheap. Like 2-3 Euros for a full-size bag, to satisfy the snack appetites of several people.

Where to find them: Corner stores around Paris, likely next to the "fromage" flavor. They really aren't all that rare, but it does take a little open-mindedness to go for these over the more recognizable chip varieties.

[Photo: juliab]

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Fried Ice Cream of Taos, New Mexico

Fried ice cream was something we’d never considered until two weeks ago. In fact, it wasn’t something we were even aware of existing, what with being British. And then we were in the supercheap-but-superfabulous Guadalajara Grill in Taos, New Mexico, when we saw this huge thing looking like a deep fried brain, saying Fried Ice Cream $5.50. And we had to have it.

It didn’t look as brainy as it did in the display case, when it came. It was still huge, though – in a sweet taco shell, covered with a layer of cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry which we promptly scraped off. It looked a bit more brain-lumpy underneath.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Ponche Crema of Venezuela

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Hope you like rum. Since Venezuela is the producer for some of the world's best rums, it only makes sense that they've have a far better version of egg nog than most of the rest of the world. Their boozy, creamy holiday drink is called the Ponche Crema, and it's not just limited to Venezuela either; this is a drink enjoyed in the southern Caribbean as well, and since so many travelers head to spend Christmas break in the balmy weather, a Ponche Crema or two may be part of the holiday feasting.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Glögg Mulled Wine of Scandinavia

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

With only so much time left before the holidays, it's now that we get serious about winter treats. Gingerbread houses and candy canes are all well and good, but going farther afield to foreign Christmas traditions yields such yummy drinks as Glögg. This mulled wine is a decidedly Scandinavian tradition, but Iceland and Estonia like to get in on it as well.

Since Glögg is essentially just one version of mulled wine, other country's attempts at the beverage are also totally fine if Glögg isn't available. Germany/Austria/Switzerland's Glühwein is, for instance, an excellent substitute, as is the vin brulé of Northern Italy (especially the ski resort towns). Just be sure to serve it with a bit of gingerbread or a few ginger snap cookies on the side.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The French Fry-Encrusted Corn Dogs of Seoul, South Korea

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

American amusement parks and state fairs could learn a thing or two from the way South Korea has mastered hot dogs. They're available in every way, including spiral cut, wrapped in bacon, stewed in a curryish chili paste, and nearly tempura-ed with vegetables. Even some rice cakes, like Ddeokbooki, imitate hot dogs. Still, our personal favorite remains the infamous french fry-coated corn dog.

These deep-fried snacks usually figure into visitor's breathless descriptions of Seoul, a little like this: "The palaces! The shopping! And the ice cream cones...they were this tall. And and and the corn dogs were covered in french fries!!"

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Vegemite-Flavor Potato Chips of Australia

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

If you have ever been lucky enough to visit the "Lucky Country," you know how Aussies love their Vegemite. We have talked about it before, but allow us to explain it again: Vegemite is a yeast extract spread fortified with vitamins and designed to put on toast for breakfast. Now, however, the salty deliciousness isn't limited to breakfast.

Every year, Smith's potato chips asks customers to create four new limited edition flavors , and this year Australia voted for Happy Little Vegemite. It only makes sense to extend Vegemite's salty and sweet goodness to chips, but yes—the Smith's flavor will stay limited to Aussie shores.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: Costa Rica's 'Resbaladera' Drink

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

The first rule of drinking the chilled rice drink Resbaladera is not to call it horchata. Though you may be tempted to and in all fairness the drink could be horchata's twin looks-wise, the two drinks actually differ in every other way. For one, they're from different countries. For another, where horchata's ingredients are rice, milk, vanilla and cinnamon in Mexico, Costa Rican Resbaladera calls instead for rice, milk, barley and clove.

Resbaladera is a traditional beverage of the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica—the northwestern corner, on the Pacific but just under the Nicaraguan border. This happens to be the region to which JetBlue just yesterday launched direct flights from JFK, which is also why we're here sipping this sweet stuff.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: Ohio's Peanut Buttery Buckeyes

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Buying off-brand Peanut Butter Cups is risky. Oftentimes they just aren't as yummy as Reese's and, even worse, they could come in a holiday tin with a Currier & Ives scene printed on the top. Yuck. That's why it's high time to share a secret indulgence of our own which can only be gotten in parts of Ohio.

The peanut butter and chocolate treats are Buckeyes, shaped like the actual nuts they're named for, but tasting so much better. Their existence is a school- and state-spirit thing, and you'll find them in Columbus to honor OSU, and Toledo, because that's nearest where they're made (in Perrysburg, Ohio). Both cities are usually passed through on road trips, but we advocate taking an hour to detour and find Buckeyes.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

We once read somewhere that pizza is the most effective means of putting a lot of cheese into your body. Never is this more true than when you're gobbling up a deep dish pizza, Chicago-style of course. With a crust of more than 2" in height and the contents nearly as high, a Chicago pizza resembles an actual pie—mozzarella cheese is the filling, tomato sauce the topper and all held together by the mighty Italian bread crust. One piece is almost an entire meal. A "personal" size can actually feed 3-4 people. In other words, it's serious stuff.

Devotees of Chicago pizza have their favorite places to order from, and for us it's the classic of Giordano's.

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