We have the Dare Maple cookies in constant supply at our local grocery store along with those Lemon Creme cookies and Chocolate Fudge ones also made by Dare. I can eat any three of them; my husband loves the Lemon Creme and in fact we have a package in our cupboard now as I speak (type).




Oops I forgot to add - this in the State of Idaho. Who would have ever thought.

hmmm, been away a few days... just a note on the gravol; dramamine is not the same and does not work anywhere near as well. I have tried many different kinds of alternatives but gravol is the only thing that works for me. (heehee... and my husband now -- even though I am the one moving, I'll make a Canadian out of him yet!

Oh, and has anyone been able to find mango sherbert in the US? The President's Choice brand is awesome but haven't found any in Upstate New York.

I found that out at Christmas when I had smarties and rockets in the kids stockings! LOL It was so funny!

When I go to the grocery store tonight, and I come back with bags of Dare cookies, I blame Cdnwmn!

*lemon creme......droool.......*

ooo ooo ooo....i found the recipe for rappie pie on the food network the other day....siiiiigh...that and poutine. methinks poutine won't be hard to duplicate here...oh and donair sauce...i dunno if i can duplicate that.

Karen, a friend of mine at home makes donair sauce all the time. She actually makes the meat too. Not as good, but tastes alright. Next time I call her I will get the recipe for you to try.

No Need to guess!

And for those who keep telling us to look in the "Larger stores like Albertsons" All we have is Stop&Shop, they are the biggest chain in the North East. They have a 275 stores compared to Albertson's who has 2500 or something. They are a two bit player who should be wiped off the face of the planet if you ask me. All of the other chains here are puny too. Theres very little innovation in grocery here. Cant even get creamed chipped beef! What up with that???

Thanks Peggy!

I would love the Donaire sauce recipie too.. I like it on Falafals!

that's too bad... I really like Albertson's is has a lot of the stuff I am used from back in CAnada

What exactly is donair sauce?

It is a white sauce that goes on Donairs.......... No really thou. Are you from Canada. You never had a Donair for real. They are the best. It is meat that is cooked on an open fire pit and cut off as you order a donair. It is spicy and so good. It almost looks like a hamburger meat. They put onions and tomatoes on it. Thats what my friend uses to make her's plus other stuff in the recipe. The sauce is made out of sugar, vinagar, and some other things. I will get it and post it for anyone that wants to try it.

I know! I was shocked when I first started visiting my husband here that there wasn't an A&P, or Kroger, or any other "big" chain. Around here (Boston) there's just Star Market, Stop & Shop, Hannaford's and one or two Shaw's. All places I had never heard of before, and all fairly small. Even "Super" Stop & Shop sucks. I don't know what I'm going to do when I move here! Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to move here, but it's going to take a lot of getting used to not being able to get certain products that I'm used to!

Ok, I just called my friend and got the recipe...........

Donairs...........

5 lbs of hamburger
1 cup of breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon of salt
1 and a half teaspoons of steak spice
1 and a half teaspoons of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion salt
1 tablespoon of tabasco sauce
1 and a half teaspoon of paprika

You can add more garlic or spices depending on your preference.


Mix well, form into shape. You can put this in a bread pan.
Cook for 1 hour on 350 or until center is cooked.


Donair Sauce

1 can of evaporated milk
3/4 to 1 cup of vinagar(all depends on how tangy you like things)
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of flour

Put into a shaker or closed container and shake well.

Hope ya try it and like it

*pout* we don't have Albertson's down here in the South....sigh

oooooooooooooo yummmmmmmmmmmmmmy! that recipe sounds delicious!!!!!!! thanks so much

ohhhh donairs........... *droooool*

The pizza shop next door to the museum I worked at made donair pizza, using donair sauce instead of tomato saude, then it had the donair meat, chopped onions and tomatoes, and some cheese.....SO GOOD.

Ya know.. Donairs are an East Cost thing mostly. We used to be able to get them in Toronto but not any more. They were replaced with Gyro's with that garlic sauce. Now that I have a recipie for Donair sauce, Im going to make it for the Comapany Xmas party this year.. Should be good.

Uhmm...I wonder if the donair sauce you are all talking about is an East Coast thing? I'm in Vancouver, plus I'm also Greek. I eat souvlaki and gyros with tzatziki!!

I spent 9 yrs in the CDn navy prior to joining the Air Force. i was stationed in Victoria BC, but many of my courses were in Halifax. And yes donairs and the sweet donair sauce was an east coast thing. In Victoria they were called Gyros and had the tzatziki sauce. The east coast version was FAR superior!!

it's funny that ppl are complaining about how the they can't find in the US what they used to find in Canada... Well, i have the opposite dilemma! lolol...

I was living in canada all my life, and am living now in the US. A few months ago, i went back to canada, and it seems like they have less of a variety with groceries there than the US... I mean, i've never seen vegetarian bacon strips/hamburgers/ground beef in montreal!

Oh ohhh, i think im already being americanized! lol

yep, 'cause donairs were invented in Halifax!

I've had gyros here in Tulsa, and they aren't bad at all, but just not the same. I am definitely going to have to try that recipe.

nina1, I am shocked you can't find a variety of vegetarian stuff in Montreal. Isn't the Yves brand made in Quebec somewhere? The grocery store in my lil hometown of 8,000 people had a whole section of it near the produce section and also in the freezer section. Weird!

I've just read through this very long thread.... ... and had to smile and nod my head in agreement many times!

Probably the biggest thing I miss about Canada right now is Tim Horton's. Fortunately, I was able to find one not far from Cleveland though, as I drove back home to IL from NY after Christmas. That fix is gonna have to last me for a LONG time though! Who knows when I'll be allowed back into Canada, without hurting my AOS application!

I was surprised that nobody here has mentioned that they miss Heinz tomato soup from Canada. I (as well as my whole family) LOVE that stuff. My sister brings cases of it back home to NY with her, everytime she comes back from Canada. Growing up, my mom often made us up macaroni with Heinz tomato soup and cheese. If you don't have Heinz tomato soup (there are no exceptions) then it ain't worth makin' up! So I miss that dish a lot.

To be honest, I haven't noticed a big difference between the American and Canadian KD. I mean sure.. it's called a different name.... but the taste is similar enough that I can't complain about it.

Here in the States, I've found that they have a POOR selection of Lipton SideKicks. Almost all of them are rice-related or something like that. They had so many good choices back in Canada. So I kinda miss that too...

In general though, I LOVE the selection in the States, when it comes to groceries. I mean just go look at the cake-mix aisle would ya!! And I've found groceries to be way way way cheaper down here in general, then in Canada. For example, quite often on say a $50 outing, I'll find out that I saved $25. I mean that just didn't happen to me in Canada folks... maybe I was just shopping at the wrong grocery stores... I don't know.

The other cool thing here is that I've found some President's Choice stuff. I LOVE their chocolate chip cookies! And I've found some President's Choice stuff in the frozen food section too!!

I agree. I find the prices here way lower than back home at a SOBEYS food store

I have some Heinz tomato soup in my cupboard right now, maybe it is not available in your area or you just haven't found it yet ..... I bought it from our dollar store called "99 cent only" that is the best dollar store

sigh.........

Food does it to us every time, doesn't it? Yes, there are things from home that I miss terribly. I have learned the hard way not to buy a whole lot of American versions of things. I swear, every dratted thing on the shelves has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it!! Talk about sweet... bleahhhhhhhh
My biggest complaint may be very regional vs national. Here in San Antonio, TX, there is only ONE grocery chain: HEB. They squeezed everyone else out of the market (no pun intended LOL). You can buy groceries at HEB, or at Walmart (yuck) or at Super Target (double yuck). There is no other chain in town. So, with no competition, HEB sucks big time!
I get livid, positively frothing at the mouth, over the meat packaging there. Any package of meat will look good on top, but the bottom layer of chops or the bottom of a roast will be inedible due to gristle, fat, etc. AND they stick chunks of fat into the chicken legs, wrapped in the skin underneath, to increase the weight and cheat! So, that 8lb bag of chicken leg quarters for 59cents/lb that seemed to be such a great deal....HA! I actually weighed one package after I removed all the extra skin and fat that had been put in and it came out to 4 and a half pounds. Can we say FRAUD, boys and girls???
I really miss lamb, too. For some strange reason, lamb down here is $6 to $15 per lb, even stew meat. Go figure! It ain't the cheap meal I was used to, back in Ontario, that's for sure.
Oh, and a word of warning to newcomers who like Pepsi? DON'T! It's not the same recipe down here. It's disgusting. I think that's what I miss most: Canadian Pepsi.

what? How am I supposed to open up a poutine stand when no one will hire me because all my experience is in Canada? (I've been reading the getting a job horror stories...)

I know from visits that some things are hard to find in the US, but on the flip side, the selection of other stuff is enormous. Still, I've started making notes.....

Great news Hockeygal!!!!...You were given some bad information from another member!!! Now you can open your very own Poutine stand!!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_curds

Yeah, they can make fake cheese curds with pasturized milk. The law is the same in Canada.. I think Quebec was the last holdout. Still, there are places to buy a little old world cheese here and there. Illegal yes.. Tasty too.

And here is a link to get 5 pounds of them in the mail. USA made..

http://www.rockcheese.com/supfreschees.html

You need to head out to Dairy country!

It took me a while, but I finally read the last page.

I appreciate the info about the flour---I, too, make my own bread and found it was just impossible and that was taking into account the elevation (SE Idaho---south of the Snake River plain).

In the place that I visit and will be moving to (if things work out for 2007), I have found that the prices are all about double what I have paid for stuff in Canada---with, perhaps, the exception of here in Calgary. There are tons of people here who have tons of money and the prices reflect the wealth.

Surprises were the lack of price difference between large flake rolled oats and "quick" rolled oats---large flake cost more in most places that I have lived in Canada. Since I can no longer eat "quick" oat without gagging (gad they're gross), I do not know if the large flake cost more or less than quick oats because the store that I buy oats from doesn't carry the grody quick oats. But, in Idaho, they are the same price---and that's in WinCo or Fred Meyer (Albertson's just plain costs more).

BUT, Albertson's is a hold out for Jello 1 2 3. Anyone old enough to remember when that used to be in Canada?

Thanks, also, for the heads up about the corn syrup ubiquity. No wonder the boyfriend looked at me strangely when he discovered that I did not know what Karo Syrup was. He spoke of it like "Karo" was the substance from which the syrup was made---and I had never heard of such a plant or fruit. Then, when he showed me some, I realised what it was (my mom used Beehive) and that I still hadn't heard of it. (We needed some for a pie.)

I found that the plain cappuccino that is dispensed from a machine in the Stinker's chain of gas stations / convenience stores is a good substitute for Timmy's English Toffee cappuccino. I don't really care for anything else that Timmy's sells---I *did* like the tim-totes, but they don't sell them anymore.

Cheese curds are made in Logan, UT and it's a quick jaunt over the ID border to go get some. I can't remember the name of the store at the moment. And there's a rumour that they also have cheese curds up near Rexburg . . . or on the way to Rexburg . . . .

Yes, Buckley's is available online to the states, but it is only the kind with Dextromethorphine (sp?) in it. The regular Buckley's still has to be purchased in Canada. I gave some to my boyfriend last year for his birthday after fielding the complaints about the online stuff.

Oh, Yves brand of veggie "meat" is from Vancouver, not Montréal.

However, as the produce department in *any* grocery chain in SE ID is far more extensive than anything I have seen anywhere (except California)---I can live without Timmy's instant sugary powdered coffee mix, Y&S licorice cigars and can put up with having to specifically buy "bread" flour.

Ah, but yes, it *is* good to ###### sometimes. :-)

well, after living here in North Carolina for a year and a half, I've about found my way around and learned to adapt a few things.

First, I, like Velvett, HATE High Fructose Corn Syrup (I even recently ranted about it on my blog.) I really miss my Pepsi, among other things.

Heinz is now making an organic ketchup which is made in Canada, and contains no HFCS, so I've switched to that, after using up the last of my Canadian Heinz ketchup recently.

I'm also now selling Watkins Products and none of their products contain HFCS (or MSG). The Meat Magic is like Worcesteshire Sauce back home, (even Lea & Perrins here in the US has HFCS in it of course )

At Christmas time I ordered a bunch of stuff from Canadian Favourites because my husband tried to tell me that there's no difference between Canadian KD and US Mac & Cheese. HA! So I ordered a couple boxes and yes, he agreed the Canadian is better. Plus I got some "real" Cadbury's chocolate, some Shreddies (another thing that I miss from home!), and some Bits & Bites for hubby.

They have also added Health & Beauty products, and you can order Gravol and Neo Citran from there.

Locally I have been able to find a few Canadian/UK favourites. I can get Dare cookies and Stoned Wheat thins crackers at Ingles stores (tho recently they haven't had my fave Cinnamon Danish cookies). Wheetabix cereal can be found in the "organic" food aisle in some stores. And sometimes at Big Lots they'll have some Canadian imports.

I really wish I could find some proper bagels around here. It really is a regional thing tho, the bagels here in NC are mushy and squishy and really really yucky, but a couple weeks ago we drove up to Chicago for a couple days and the hotel had some not so bad bagels for breakfast.

I have a bread maker to make bread because store bought is disgusting and there's no bakery around here. But lately its been doing weird things and my bread is turning out mutant, the last one completely inedible Could be user error, or maybe the flour or yeast was funky. Dunno.

Anyhoo, now that I've finally either got used to US equivalents, or found where to get Canadian foods, we're going to be moving to Wisconsin in a couple or few months, and I'll have to start all over again. I do suspect tho that up there I will be able to get more Canadian things than I can here, and may have a better selection of "international" foods up there. At least its closer to the border and if I really need to, I can drive a couple hours up to Manitoba to grab a few things.

oh, and cheese! I dislike American cheeses, so I buy imports. English and Irish mostly, because for some reason the Canadian imports cost twice as much!

Looks like I may have to order Rappie Pie mix from Nova Scotia (Ted D'Eon makes the best!)....I'm a bit skittish to try it myself and of course you can't buy it here in the South. Thanks to Peggy I now have a recipe for Donair Sauce Poutine can't be that hard to duplicate either, so I'm confident with trying that. Sigh....I miss Nova Scotia

I'm goin gto give the donair reciepe a go soon. Always enjoyed my time in Halifax!! Head out to the bars, then donairs after!! Nothing better than waking up in the morning with a hangover, with a smelly donair wrapped in tin foil laying by your head!! The good old days, lol

[quote name='flames9' date='Feb 25 2006, 07:19 AM' post='46701']
I'm goin gto give the donair reciepe a go soon. Always enjoyed my time in Halifax!! Head out to the bars, then donairs after!! Nothing better than waking up in the morning with a hangover, with a smelly donair wrapped in tin foil laying by your head!! The good old days, lol
[/quote



Isnt that the truth Scott. I can relate to that.




About that Donair Sauce. I made that the other day, and I only put 1/2 cup of vinegar in the recipe. I still found the taste of it to overpowering. Seems like all I could taste was the vinegar. So just watch out when your making it. Only add so much of it as a time.

Im pretty new to VJ so its been fun going back and reading some older posts..I really enjoyed this thread..

Im American, my husband Canadian..and when I moved to Canada 5 years ago, I literally cried the first time I went grocery shopping here...I couldnt find anything that I was used too..over the years I have adjusted, but I look forward to getting home and doing some major grocery shopping!!....Our suitcases are always LOADED with groceries when we go for visits! I love the SuperWalmarts back home, the prices, the selection...etc..One of my favorite lines they carry is Blue Bunny!

I will however miss Ketchup Chips, Passion Flakies, Donairs, and the Chinese Food its alot different than it is back home in Las Vegas..

My husband just wonders if the cravings for Tim Hortons will ever go away...hes already missing it and we just sent in our paperwork!..LOL

Kimmbo

Ok going way back to the person who couldn't find the honey garlic sauce for ribs etc. We have them at all our grocery stores (King Soopers or Safeway). There's several brands that sell it and I use it for my chicken quite often.

Onion bagles? Yep we have those as well, I don't get them or buy bagles, but every once in awhile at work people bring them in and I always grab the onion ones.

Kraft Dinner to me tastes the same here as it does in Canada. Just of course the name it different and people wonder what I'm talking about when I say Kraft Dinner rather then Kraft Mac and Cheese.

And yes we have Mrs. T's perogies here, which I can't remember the brand I used to get in Canada, but they're pretty close to the same taste I think...

I personally think that the US has more choices in the grocery stores than Canada AND it's much cheaper. (I'm talking about San Francisco) It's not a big deal... just substitute it with something else!!!! I know I'm gonna get beat up when I say this but there are other better coffees out there. Tim Horton's not the only one!!!

Hpw do we go about banning MAO? lol I do love Timmys, but yes I do enjoy other coffee's as well. Prior to Tims though, i wasn't much of a coffee drinker.

I think the selection is pretty even between USA/Canada, price wise sort of matters where u live in Canada/USA. I know milk, dairy was cheap in SASK, but $$$ on the east coast of Canada.

Hehehe.. I knew I was gonna get beat up when I said that..

Beat up?? oh no, it shall be worse than that!!!! Sleep with the lights on!!

I don't drink coffee at all, but my wife tried it while she was up there and of course my parents raved to her that she has to try it when we had visited last time. She did and was like, ok tastes like any other coffee. Only time I ever get anything from there in Canada is when I'm on the 401 visiting friends and then comming back to see my parents and they have those travel rest stops that always have that and either a Wendy's or a Sub shop in them. There's always a Tim Hortons. If I ever get anything it's a bowl of soup...

Just of course the name it different and people wonder what I'm talking about when I say Kraft Dinner rather then Kraft Mac and Cheese.

Yeah took my fiance a while before he understood what Kraft dinner was....


Of course I think Mac & cheese is goofy, but oh well....

I really missed crumpets and finally found an online place on the West Coast that makes real crumpets: www.teancrumpets.com - I ordered in 2 dozen hehehe and the price including the shipping worked out to be comparable to buying them in store in Canada. I also ordered in some crumpet rings from cooks.com so I can now make my own!

About the variety . . . well, having gone back to Canada for Christmas and joining my sister in law for a last minute run to a grocery store - Canada beats the US hands down for having much better and more variety of fresh produce including exotic or tropical fruits. Even Whole Foods here doesn't have as much variety as their local grocery store (used to be a Loblaws) and that is what I miss a lot. I buy a lot more frozen here and yeah, I use a lot more mixes to make things because things don't turn out the way they are supposed to when I make them from scratch. I did find some Heinz tomato soup that doesn't have HFCS - it cost twice as much as the other tomato soup does and it isn't carried in any of my local grocery stores (Target, Kroeger, Walmart - pretty basic stuff only). I can drive an hour to an hour and a half to get some things in Whole Foods north of Atlanta but don't do that often.

I haunt Big Lots! You never know when they are going to get in some of my favourite Canadian and British foods on a buy out:-). What I also miss is having a Dutch specialty store - love salt licourice! And I still miss real peamale bacon and 'old' cheddar that is actually older than 6 months! What gives with that?!! The extra old cheddar here is less than a year old and tastes like mild! I miss curds - I used to go to the cheese factory in Wilton Ont. to buy them still warm from the vats.

Dunkin Donuts Coffe Coolata(sp?) is similar to Tim's Ice Capps, but not the same. Yes, I'm recomending a place for coffe besides Wawa.

Dunkins coffee is ok, with their XL I have to get 7 shots of cream!!! Soo strong!!! When I walk into the store, I dont even have to say what I want!! I felt bad one day, I was like #5 in line, and the servers automatically got me my coffee ahead of the others,oops!!! pays to tip i tell ya!!

Kathryn I'm going to that link (www.teancrumpets.com) and it's automatically taking me to http://www.teaandcrumpets.org/, where you can buy tshirts, art and earrings but no actual crumpets. Can you please verify the link for me or let me know where I'm going wrong?

Cerise, of the wants crumpets too aura

Don't let em scare you Mao, I'm Canadian and I'm not that fond of Tim's coffee. It seems to me to be a much bigger deal on the East coast than the West coast.

I would agree Tims is bigger on the east coast and on the prairies, maybe not so much on the West.

Thank you ceriserose for your reply.. I am not a coffee drinker and once in a blue moon, I'll have a cup of coffee at work (when I'm very sleepy and I feel like I'm gonna doze off!) I'm more of a tea and water drinker! For me, I dont drink coffee that often because whenever I do, I pile on the milk and sugar and I know it's BAD for me! heheh I do have to admit that I like Tim Horton's chili, some of their donuts.. and their frappaccino! I do, however, have to give credit to the coffee they serve in Madrid, Spain. As a non coffee drinker, their coffee really is my cup of tea! (coffee, in this case) I've never had such a good cup of coffee that doesnt' leave a bad aftertaste!

Anyways... I know it's very frustrating for the person who is moving to start from scratch and adapt to a new place... environment, foods, choices in groceries, etc... but I guess as long as you're reunited with the one you love, you shouldn't worry about little things like that, right? I'm generally pretty flexible when it comes to things like that.... I figure, it'll give me a chance to try something new! Another thing I thought that might be the reason why a number of us are experiencing this is the fact that someone might have moved to the US from a more 'urban' part of the country to a more 'rural' part of the country where the choices are not as plentiful as they would like it to be.... Again.. that's just my opinion....

the Canadian version is different from the US version. The ingredients are different, and the Canadian tastes more cheesy. As Kath mentioned, even regular cheese here in the US isn't very cheesy. I have to agree. I usually buy imported cheese, at exhorbitant prices mind you! because anything I've ever tried that's made here in the US just doesn't resemble cheese IMO. Its like rubber and with very little flavour.