ajax

One word: Quark.

flyingfkb

Yes, Quark. Something I really tried to explain to American friends and wanted to buy for them but it wasn't available.

tfar

I can tell you a funny Quark story.

As a boy I had a nanny from Naples, Italy. Her name was Luisa. Luisa's father was a baker in Napoli. And Luisa loved my mother's Suabian Cheesecake, made with Quark. My mom showed her how to make it and when she returned to Naples, she wanted to show her dad how to make the famous cheesecake. Unfortunately, the Quark didn't take kindly to the voyage en train from the north of Germany to Napoli and turned sour. This is why to this day you still cannot buy Suabian cheesecake in Naples.

Quark, fromage blanc and mascarpone are all hard to find or hard to pay for in the US.

Till

fradoc

Nice thread! During my two years in the U.S. i brought

• Drei Wetter Taft hair spray (the neutrally perfumed stuff)
• Tchibo espresso (because it is so cheap)
• Aronal and Elmex toothpaste (I am addicted to it)
• Tempo paper handkerchiefs (I did not need so many)
• sheet music (some major publishers of classical music are Germany-based)
• home-made Christmas cookies
• and a lot of German Riesling ^

across the pond.

Now I have a list with U.S. items I fill my stock with when being in the states.

flpab

florena face cream with olive oil. Cheap but great. Mustard in the tubes, knorr salat kronung dill krauter, packets are easy to pack. Last but most important, Berentzen apfel.

tfar

German Riesling. Good point. The stuff you can buy here is abysmal and ruins the reputation of German wine (unless you go to super specialty stores and pay prices that necessitate a double scotch on top of the Riesling).

The German Deli in Dallas should have most of the pre-packaged items. At my local Fiesta supermarket in Austin I can even get three different kinds of Dallmayr Prodomo coffee.

Elli

These salad dressings are made by Knorr and Maggi. Both are good and come in a variety of flavors. They are available in Canada, but are much, much cheaper in Germany, same as Marzipan and Ritter chocolate, as someone already mentioned.

mosburger

I regularly do pilgrimages to the Neukoelln Karstadt in Berlin for Muller-Thurgau, Silvaner and Riesling from the Saale-Unstrut region near Leipzig.

Some of the whites from this region are truly outstanding and hard to get outside of Germany. Perfect partners for fish and seafood dishes.

exbayern

Nivea, Nutella, Knorr, Maggi all reformulate for the American market ie they get the bad stuff, and in the case of Knorr and Maggi there are a lot of extra additives in the products they sell in the American market.

Überraschungseier are avaible at some foreign markets but are officially not permitted for sale in America in case one mistakes the toy for food.

Niederegger and Reber are available with limited selection at stores like Cost Plus World Market, but like Ritter it is a very limited product line.

Mon Cheri is filled with hazelnut not alcohol in America. Any of the decent alcohol filled chocolates are very hard to find.

Many of the 'adjusted' products sold on the American market are not sold in 'adjusted' form in Canada; ie Maggi, some Nivea, and the Nutella sold in Canada are the real versions.

Solution is home made Quark!

I like Nivea for Men shave cream in the original blue but don't see that in America (I tend to shop in the women's section more often, but have looked for it with no luck)

Tempo as mentioned, and in general small packages of tissue which are common in the rest of the world but not in America, regardless of brand.

Colgate Dentagard! Not only is toothpaste so expensive in America, they don't sell this version.

Dextro Energen! Also being phased out in Canada apparently but an online drugstore there still sells them. I stock up for diabetic friends as well as keeping on hand myself. The mini size I haven't found in Canada nor all the flavours.

Candy in the small boxes - very hard to find. Wicks/Vicks, Werther's, etc. And candy in the 'bar' packaging - Riesen, Werther's soft caramel. They all tend to come in the superjumbo family size in America, and not in a suitable for travel size.

Mustard/Remoulade/Mayonnaise in tubes, as someone mentioned.

Boneless and skinless sardines are very hard to find; Trader Joe's does sell some decent ones but generally quality is poor. Decent tinned herring. Kieler Sprotten.

Sahnesteif (to make whipped cream more stiff for cakes)

Jack Napier

Every time I'm visiting friends in the PHL area, I have to take a box of wine from my friends parents winery with me. The very first times I took boxes of 18 bottles with me, but after complaining about weight and handling issues on the way to and from the airport, I was allowed to bring boxes of 12 bottles

Last visit in two weeks ago, I once again had a box for 18 bottles, filled with 9 bottles of wine, ca. 4-5kg of gingerbread and 2-3 kg of black bread. I hope that fulfills my this years duty, as I'm heading towards PHL in tweo weeks again (guess why).

Helsinki Flyer

The Karstadt at Hermannplatz sure has a great food department downstairs. I once had an apartment not far from there for a while and it was always a pleasure to shop there. It´s not exactly KaDeWe´s top floor, but much more affordable and home cooking oriented instead of the tourist souvenir and food court thing they have at KaDeWe.

exbayern

Trader Joe's sells a very nice hazelnut and cranberry blackbread in some of their stores; most sell a decent plain one as well. Cost Plus World Market has an assortment but most of the lighter variety and not to my taste. The TJ one is very nice with cheese - and they sell Champignon cheese there for a reasonable cost, along with a wide variety of other cheeses.

Add a decent unsalted butter to the list; difficult to find in ordinary American grocery stores.

Graubrot is a little more difficult to find, as is white radish, unless in an Asian market or neighbourhood.

Generally if there is a Trader Joe (Albrecht owned by the way) or Cost Plus World Market in town I am set; otherwise I find it challenging to find decent bread.

Some Wegmans and some Whole Foods have decent Laugenstange in the bakery section.

flpab

I just made a huge Christmas order from them so that I can do German Christmas baskets for friends. Shipping is high but the items I ordered are heavy so not really complaining. We have Aldi here and they carry some great German items.

mosburger

How very true. Especially like their fish and cheese offerings. For veggies, I rather head to the Kreuzberg Marheineke market hall. Oh, apart from the wonderful variety of Spreewald gherkins that Karstadt has.

But even for those visitors without a cooking opportunity in Berlin it's a great place to find wine, beer and other delicacies from former East Germany.

tfar

Exbayern, many thanks for your excellent posts. THe Sahnesteif is indeed a very excellent suggestion. Mine is empty and I forgot to replenish. Will have my mother send some. Didn't know about most of the other things you wrote about. Very interesting for Albrecht owned Trader Joe's and hazelnut filled Mon Cheri as well as the Uberraschungseier. Very American on the latter two. Alcohol filled chocolates could be abused by alcohol craving teenagers and serve to circumvent the strict liquor laws and Uberraschungseier might actually kill somebody who'd be due for a Darwin award.

I once read in the signature line of a forum member something to this extend:
"How to get rid of most problems in the US? Just do away with all the product warning stickers and the problem will take care of itself."

Very mean but not untrue.

And thanks to the Karstadt at Hermannplatz and Markthallen suggestions. Will pass that on to my mother who is new in Berlin.

Till