|
|
|
|
In 1983, my parents retired to Columbia, South Carolina. Only my baby sister (Mom's menopausal surprise!) went with them. We remaining six children were all much older, scattered and gone from home. But we did go often to South Carolina to visit. At Mom's request, anyone visiting went to Friedman's bakery and then packed the carry on bag containing a dozen bagels, a dozen hard rolls, and sometimes a roll of Taylor ham or a pound of frozen hot Italian sausage from Pianncones. If you didn't double wrap the garlic bagels, halfway through the flight the whole cabin started turning in their seats and sniffing. Anyway by now you can get bagels in SC but baby sister, now married, still pines for really good, chewy, Jewish rye and hard rolls. If you find this strange then obviously you don't come from a family of foodies! The only cable channel I watch religiously is FoodTV. OK I do confess to the Sopranos on HBO! Now six years later I can find a lot of the below here. It may be at Wahlmart or at Superamma an upscale grocery in Guad. And yes the prices will be higher than in the U.S. Just remember this is Mexico and you may not be able to find it all the time! Before we moved ;whenever we visited Ajijic, I would e-mail friend Gordon a week or so before departure for "the list. " If we had room in our bags (we always tried to make room) we would purchase the items on the list and bring them to the needy! :-) Needy in this case meant:
Over the years there have been some interesting items. 500 tablet bottles of a particular denture cleaner, a certain brand of CD rewritable that only worked in one music machine, and often food stuffs. One time it was Manischevitz (sp.?) potato pancake mix. Gordon craved specialty flavored pastas like lemon pepper, or the black squid ink kind. I brought a foodie friend two big bags of fresh fennel seed. I have never had a problem coming through customs at the airport with any of this stuff. Which brings me to the question are you going to bring some of your special "stuff" when you move? Starting at the beginning can you?? From what friends have told us, unlike the U.S. there is no beagle food police at the border into Mexico. You know him, that cute little tail wagging guy, who comes and sits down next to your bag, if you enter the U.S. with foreign plants or food. The USDA man is usually right behind him and your "stuff" gets confiscated. Crossing the border from Texas, friends have told me of bringing in plants, rose bushes and boxes of food purchased at a specialty food store in McAllen, Texas. Is is legal? I don't know. But from what they say usually no one in authority gripes and if they do $20.00 will fix it. Harry has already told me I CAN NOT bring all the houseplants along and set them free! So...when we move and since we are driving, I hope to find room for a box or two of foodstuffs. What will I bring? I hate mayonaisa and I have learned to like the fat free kind. I have never seen it on any of my shopping trips in Ajijic or Guad. Four or five bags of the tiny spaghetti ring pasta that my Mom always used for her macaroni and shrimp salad. It is hard to find in the states so I doubt I'll find it in Mexico. A big box of Country Time sugar free lemonade mix, a couple of boxes of Krustea's non fat muffin mix-both blueberry and cranberry orange. Lots of boxes of Jolly Time low fat microwave popcorn. Some bottles of the Ken's fat free and non fat salad dressings that we like. Spices/mixes like Emeril's and Bobby Flay's that are in my spice rack. You know things like file powder for gumbo and any of my weirder Indian spices that are fresh. I'll need a couple of boxes of MirAcid the miracle grow powder for acid loving plants. This is to feed the camellia, which hates the alkaline soil. They have to eat too! That is about all I can think of so far.. but I am sure as your day approaches there will be more things you may want to add with your partner shaking their head in the background. |