The Things They Carried…Back
Before leaving Berlin on a recent trip to Tacoma, Washington – a place I used to call home – I conducted an informal email poll of people I know here in Germany asking them what they brought back for their kitchen and cooking when they came back from abroad. (To those who responded, thank you.)
All of us have had the frustration of getting knee-deep into an English-language recipe only to discover that the key, non-substitutable ingredient was completely unavailable or far beyond practical to get your lemon-pickled little fingers on on this side of the great Teutonic divide. To fight against this, we go to great (and perhaps friend-annoying) lengths: We have people send us cooking “care packages,” beg friends to sneak jalapenos into their luggage, and keep a mental list/map of places to get those prized and rare ingredients.
Below, I will present a brief, somewhat-organized list of the responses.
Before jumping there, though, I’d like to open up the comments to everyone as a little “cook’s therapy group.” Know of a great mail-order place or hidden-away shop? Want to throw out an ingredient and see if someone reading this blog knows where to find it or a suitable substitute? Know where to get that ingredient? Tell us about it! Help your culinarily handicapped chum! After people respond, I hope to put together a little printable (PDF) list of what people have suggested, and we’ll incorporate the other suggestions into the blog’s links.
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On to the analysis:
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Keeping it “real:” I found it interesting that people referred to what they were used to as being the authentic thing, but in some cases you have to agree with them. People looked for “real sourdough bread,” “real cornmeal,” “real grits,” “American-style brown sugar,” “real mayonnaise” and (for the echt Anglo) “proper rashers.”
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The practical: Ziploc bags (are the ones here that bad?); Arm & Hammer baking soda; and double-acting baking powder.
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Chips: Yes, we all know the chips you get in Germany – I hold no punches on this – really, really suck. That’s why people went looking for “Jalapeno-flavored Cheez-It crackers,” cheddar goldfish (and, on the cheddar theme, extra old cheddar cheese and spicy Jalapeno cheese), Zaps Louisiana Kettle Chips, and Tayto Crisps. (Oddly enough, most of these suggestions came from one unnamed, Auburn-loving individual.)
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Seasonings: decent poultry seasoning and McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning. (Did they not tell you it was Germany when you got here? Seasoning? Spinnst du?)
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Miscellaneous: Organic hot chocolate, molasses, smoked salmon, vanilla extract, Hershey’s chocolate chips, canned clams (without MSG), salsa, steel-cut oats from Canada, applewood-smoked bacon, Jell-O, and Crunchie Chocolate bars.
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Same tongue/ different palate: I particularly liked seeing what my 
British/Scottish/Irish acquaintances brought back. Every last one of them mentioned some tea brand: PG Tips tea, Barry’s tea, Fortnum & Mason tea. Then there were: Aranmore country soup, Guinness, cider, Clonakilty sausages, Dean’s shortbread, tins of Haggis, salt & vinegar Hula Hoops, Marmite, Fray Bentos steak tins, kidney pudding, and – from someone perhaps unaware of the food-focus of the request – Men Only magazine.
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JW
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October 3rd, 2007 at 10:30 am
Where can I Find it: Anyone ever seen plaintains in Berlin? And as crappy as they are, they’re still the best I can find in Berlin — Solomon Bagels — I’d love to see a comprehensive list of outlets that carry them. I don’t want to schlep all the way to their store near Ku-damm from my new place in X-berg. To start with, the Ben & Jerry’s store on Kastianenallee near U-Eberswalder has them frozen.
Where to Get it: There is a health food store in PZLberg with real brown sugar; has anyone found it elsewhere in the city? It’s on Marienstr. between Vinnstr. & PL Allee, on the south side.
What I Bring: As for me this last time, I brought real chocolate chips and anise essential oil. I looked longingly at my bottle of Trader Joe’s organic vanilla extract back home, but gave it away instead. I can deal with the dried vanilla powder here OK. Before I went I carefully stashed my extremely expensive KaDeWe-bought American pumpkin pie mix and the Crisco needed for the pie crust. There’s still enough for this Thanksgiving!
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:28 am
Cornmeal: You can get “Mais Mehl” at the Bio Markt near my place. It’s very finely ground, which may not be what you want, but it makes damn fine cornbread.
Mayo: It takes 30 seconds to make your own mayo with an immersion blender. (I got mine for 9 euros at Kaufhof.) It’ll come out even better than what you bought in the US.
Brown sugar: I’ve found this in the Bio Markt also. The dry brown sugar they seem to call “Rohrzucker” and the soft, moist stuff seems to be called “Vollrohrzucker.”
Arm & Hammer: I’ve bought this in the familiar yellow boxes in Korean markets in Germany.
Molasses: I have used sugar beet “molasses” as a substitute and couldn’t tell the difference in the end result. It’s called Rübensirup and you can get it in any supermarket.
Jalapeños: Yes, it’s a shame. I’ve resorted to growing my own in my window sills.
Salsa: Never found a good one here. I grow the jalapeños to make my own.
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:56 am
The cornmeal available in Germany is either too fine (the Turkish kind) or too coarse (polenta) to make decent cornbread, sorry.
Plantains are available in shops catering to Indians, because they also cater to Africans. I can think of one on Mehringdamm, and another on (I think) Schleschisesstr., although there are doubtless a lot more. Also Vinh Loi has them most of the time and Asia Mekong some of the time. They’re called Kochbananen.
As for bagels, I find those from the Bagel Company chain better than Solomon’s. Not sure where these people operate, but there’s one by Friedrichstr. station and another on Rosenthaler Str., and they also do catering at the ICC. If you must have Solomon’s, they have a bakery in the Potsdamer Platz Arkaden. Neither is as good as Bagel Brothers (or is it Brothers’ Bagels?), which have locations in Leipzig and Lübeck, among other places.
Looking at the main post, Zip-Loc bags are widely available here, made exactly the same as in the States. Arm & Hammer is widely available in “Asia” shops, and any Brit who can’t find PG Tips, either at Broken English or at any Indian store, isn’t trying very hard. Broken English, although pricey, is a very good source for a lot of things. I’m wondering if the British Food Shop which used to operate in Wilmersdorf and Spandau still has its Spandau location open. They were an excellent source of “proper rashers” and other British meats, tinned savory pies, and a zillion kinds of potato crisps.
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I forgot to mention, re: the expensive pumpkin pie mix:
Do you mean the can of pumpkin goo? If so, hokkaido squash are on sale at every little sidewalk produce store right now. Scoop out the innards, cut the shell into cubes, boil until soft, then puree. I have made several pumpkin pies this way with great success. (I’ve read that most of the canned pumpkin goo in the US isn’t even really “pumpkin” anyway, it’s cheaper squash.)
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I understand about “proper” and acquired tastes and the like, but who in their right mind would want to buy any Hershey’s in a country, let alone a continent, where you can substitute their cardboard crap for “real” chocolate?
And smoked salmon? are you kidding me? There is several good quality fishmongers in Berlin, at the very last in the KaDeWe where anybody should be able to find something decent. If you don’t like the already quite decent stuff they sell at any supermarket.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Well, on the salmon issue, there is a particular alderwood-smoked salmon that people who’ve lived around Seattle are very acquainted with and which has a taste unduplicable — probably due to the lack of alder trees — in Europe. But yeah, smoked salmon’s almost a culinary cliche around here.
And I agree on Hershey’s: the chocolate you can get out of U-Bahn vending machines is better.
October 8th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I’ve also bought American-style (ie soft/moist) light and dark brown sugar at the Vinh-Loi’s near Wittenbergplatz.
It’s true that Toppits bags are ubiquitous but I find them extortionately priced, which is why I stock up on Ziplock bags when I’m home.
Hmm, I’ve been burned trying to substitute Rübensirup for molasses - I found the flavor very different - but it depends on what you’re making, I suppose.
An interesting discussion!
October 10th, 2007 at 9:07 am
You can get American-type brown sugar at many of the Asian markets … the biggish one by Alex-platz definitely has it. Has anybody seen a decent place to get Mexican or Latin ingredients?
October 10th, 2007 at 9:55 am
I recommend you take a look at http://www.lateinamerika-in-berlin.de/. It hasn’t been updated in a while, but it has a lot of stuff. My food recommendation is LatinoAmerika on Bundesallee. For info, go to that site, go to “Hadeln” and then “Lebensmittel.”
Thanks for visiting our site!
October 11th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
By the way, here’s a very nice guide to creating your own vanilla extract, for those who haven’t yet begged it or carried it back:
http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2007/10/9/project-vanilla.html
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:47 am
I always crave Orville Reddenbacher’s microwave popcorn. Home made over the stove doesn’t work as there is too much moisture in the kernels and the popcorn always turns out chewy. And freshly made corn tortillas (although Atomic’s are supposed to be excellent, haven’t tried).
I second the Trader Joe’s vanilla extract and potato chip (cheese curl?) thing. But the ease of obtaining great french fries nearly makes up for it.
Not food but also I need deodorant that works- Dove solid antiperspirant, thanks, and Tom’s of Maine toothpaste.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
i’d suggest befriending an american diplomat. a lot of this stuff is available at the embassy commissary.