I am currently 35,000 feet in the air crossing the Atlantic ocean, on my way to Germany for an extended stay. Most of my trips to Germany are short–just one to two weeks in length–but this time I will be staying longer. While I can normally get by a week or two without my comfort food, this time I am coming prepared, with a special “food” bag that contains one of my favorite comfort food items…
Refried beans!
Yes, beans. Good luck finding quality refried beans in Germany that don’t go for less than 3€/can. I love Mexican food and would eat it every single day if I could…actually I do eat it almost every single day. But good Mexican restaurants in Alemania? Nein, danke. They aren’t there.
So I come prepared–plenty of beans and salsa in my bag, leaving just cheese, tortillas, and eggs to make my tostadas or huevos rancheros. FYI, Germany does have good eggs and cheese.
Hopefully I don’t get flagged by customs. I am not trying to sell these!
What is your comfort food when living abroad?
When I travel to my company’s headquarters in Munich, Germany, I’m there for up to 2 1/2 weeks at a time and stay in a serviced apartment with kitchenette. I always take decaffeinated teabags and decaffeinated Starbuck’s Via coffee packets (Decaf? What’s that?). I also take spiced chili powder, as well as Indian or Asian spice mixes (all you add is protein / veg) and sometimes poppadum wafers. I frequently pack Cliff and or Luna bars for snacks. I also take several decent knives and a thin cutting board in my checked luggage, it’s heinous to hack at your food with a dull butter knife both during preparation and when you actually sit down to your meal.
You are a man of simple means☺
I don’t bring any food abroad –when in Rome… or always go for French cuisine.
Do you need an itinerary advice?:-)
Enjoy!
Hilarious. Have a good trip, and enjoy your beans. I’ll be flying over you soon, but no stops in Germany for me. I booked a Star Alliance award without any Lufthansa flights, hard to believe in some ways.
My comfort food? When I was an expat in India, it was Fruit Roll-ups. There was one store in all of Hyderabad where you could buy them (and for the not inexpensive price of about $6 a box to boot), so I would always pack my carry-on full of them.
People would laugh when I’d tell them that, but you don’t really appreciate stupid little things like Fruit Roll-ups until you can’t have them!
Reminds me of the time when I lived in Paris for two years. It was so hard finding tortillas, which in France is best described as a “crêpe mexicain.” I realized that it was just easier to bring them with me from California.
I guess they are TSA approved:).
Keep eating those beans and you’ll provide your own jet propulsion across the pond!
I travel with peanut butter, which the TSA considers a gel if I have it in the jar, but has no problem with if I put it between two slices of bread.
I also brought refried beans with me to Europe (outside of Paris). However, I brought the dehydrated variety, and I didn’t bring nearly as much as you did.
I’m on the same page as MeanMeosh. When we were in England for 3 years, it was the junk food that I ate only rarely at home, that I missed. So, I always requested grape kool-aid and kraft mac’n’cheese from visitors.
I think that realizing how hard it is to find mexican food when outside north america is one of those duh! moments that is a stepping stone in an american’s progression away from viewing the world in a totally US-centric way. The first country I ever went to outside the US was Australia in my early 20s. After several months I saw a Mexican restaurant, and realized it was the first time I’d seen one. And then I thought, “Of course Mexican restaurants are not that common in Australia”, but Laotian and other southeast Asian restaurants are. I love both the big and little things that you learn when you travel the world! Enjoy your refried beans, Matthew!
Going to Australia we took canned pumpkin so we could have a pumpkin pie on the US Thannksgiving day. The Aussie had never heard of such a use for pumpkin.
Omg, I hear you! I used to bring dry black beans every time I went to Serbia, until about 5 years ago. Now I can buy them at health food stores but until about 5 years ago, they didn’t even know what they were. And without black beans, one cannot make black bean soup…