Does this make me look American?

A couple of weeks ago my partner commented that I still seem to suffer from culture shock far more then he ever did (I wouldn't know, he came to Canada from India the year before I came here - but from the stories i've heard from his friends, his adjustment was much harder in the beginning then he remembers now). Yes, it is true that I still hit culture snags from time to time. And at this point they mostly affect me when I am intentionally looking for something comfortingly familiar so I think they hit even harder.

For example, I don't usually eat cold cereal here but I have been craving Grape Nuts for about a month now and last week I finally gave in. I went to the "Adult Cereal" section of the grocery store (Cultural Side note - besides all the "plain" and granola-y cereals the Adult Cereal section seems to be the home of all the chocolate flavored cereals as well, so Canada probably has some actual rules about marketing unhealthy/misleading foods to children) and there was no Grape Nuts. Undeterred I went to another grocery store and again, no Grape Nuts!! Suddenly I wanted Grape Nuts even more then I ever have before . . .

Anyway, my partner knows that mainstream Canada doesn't have what he wants when it comes to things like food culture-wise, so he frequents "ethnic" and specialty stores and is overjoyed when he finds things in a mainstream store. Perhaps it is a matter of perspective - maybe I just need to lower my expectations . . . but that can still be hard when I get utterly blindsided by subtle differences.

This week I made a christmas cookie (treat? chocolate?) that we make every year in my family. There are pretty much three ingredients: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and lightly salted peanuts. Seems easy right? In the grocery store I struggled mostly with the peanuts - apparently "seasoned" is how people like to eat their peanuts - or no one worries about their sodium intake. There wasn't even a place on the shelf for "lightly salted." So I got unsalted peanuts to play it safe. I went home, I made them . . . everything went fine . . . . until they didn't quite set up. My first thoughts were absurd - 'It must be the altitude!' 'It must be warmer then I think in this apartment.' And then I tasted them, and it became clear that butterscotch chips here taste distinctly different. Likely they have a different composition and are the reason for the texture/setting difference. There was only one type of butterscotch chips at the store (which seems to ring true to my memories of the states too) so I never even thought to look at the ingredients or taste them before using. (Chocolate chips are the same!)

Ah well, now my partner and I joke that I need to find the online product comparison between the US and Canada likely started by a transplant as bothered as I am by these subtleties.

Probably the only thing I remember from taking French in middle school (It was an excellent lesson in how even if you try really super hard, you are not meant to be good - or even ok - at some things in life) was this story my teacher told of living in France. While he was living in France - as a poor student - having the time of his life, he found he missed one thing (product, not place or person, those are different) from America - peanut butter. This being a pre-globalized world he craved it for months without being able to find it . . . and then finally found it in an international foods store across the city. The jar was small, and it cost a ridiculous amount, but he got it and didn't regret it.

it is interesting how different senses connect us to place . . .but that is not my point today. While on my travels in America I craved one thing from Canada (besides my bed - why is it my family loves overly soft mattresses?) - All dressed potato chips. I've only ever had them a few times while i'm here (they are delicious), and I certainly didn't overtly use them as a symbol of Canada . . . . but apparently in some subconscious way I have made the link. Several times over the course of my trip I found myself craving them, but yet since I got back, the urge has been gone and I have not had any.

On the flip side. When I was living in America, I made conscious choices to avoid high fructose corn syrup when I could. Here I had noticed that they don't seem to use it (not that they don't use refined sugar products - just not HFCS) but hadn't really thought much about it. While in America I had a beverage and I could distinctly pick out the taste of HFCS in a way I never could before. . . . and damn was it tasty! So I had more the next chance I got. I see why people claim it is an addictive flavor . . . it certainly is a flavor in a way I don't think I appreciated before. Perhaps I will now start craving it while I am in Canada???