For example, Marmite Crumpets don’t exist. You cannot buy them at the supermarket. To be clear: you can buy crumpets, you can buy marmite, you can buy butter; but you have to assemble them at home.

If you walk into a breakfast cafe, they will happily serve you sausage / egg / bacon / french toast / bubble / squeak (whatever that is). But no marmite crumpets. If you ask them to make it, they will give you a very strange look. It’s not typically offered. It’s something you just have to make at home.

It is unbuyable. Any tourist who comes to the UK to try a Marmite crumpet would need to bring a toaster or an oven with them, or quickly befriend a brit and hope that they have all the ingredients at home.

It’s not a secret. You just can’t have it.

*munches into crumpet thoughtfully, and salivates at the juicy savory delight, whilst staring at you pityingly and condescendingly*

Anyway, what’s something that I could never experience unless I made it myself in your local?

  • Packet [none/use name]
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    93 months ago

    Buckwheat kasha, you won’t find it even in a Slavic restaurant. It is a simple dish of cooked buckwheat and milk, with sugar added if one desires. Such a simple breakfast dish is sold nowhere to my knowledge.

    • @[email protected]
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      23 months ago

      I’ve never had buckwheat that wouldn’t have funky smell/aftertaste. It just weird all the time. Probably trying wrong brand or IDK. I’m slavic so my ancestors ate shitton of buckwheat, though it was almost non existent in my childhood. And now it’s weird ingredient I’m scared of :-D

  • @[email protected]
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    43 months ago

    The Cannibal Sandwich, which doesn’t actually use human flesh, but is also not a sandwich. Anyway, you take a slice of rye cocktail bread, spread on some raw, ground beef, then top it with some sliced onion, salt, and pepper. You can’t get it ready-made, because nobody likes e. coli or salmonella poisoning. In fact, you have to make special arrangements to get the beef ground by a butcher in a clean grinder, and pretty much eat it the same day.

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        Me neither; after all, complaints about pockets are around everywhere. But at least i’ve learned how to deepen existing pockets. Next step will be how to create pockets

      • @[email protected]
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        13 months ago

        But they do?

        I had to buy a lewis pair because tall people doesn’t exist, and my stuff gets lost in the pockets.

        To be fair, my monoprix jeans pockets are exactly 1/2 smartphone deep.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 months ago

      I had the same issue until I discovered MTailor. It’s all I wear now. A bit more expensive but totally worth it.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 months ago

      I’ve only ever found one zip-up hoodie with decent insulation and pockets deep enough that my phone won’t fall out of them if I’m not careful, and you better believe I’m taking good care of it.

      • @[email protected]
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        43 months ago

        True, but it’s an important reason for many people to start to learn how to make their own clothes. It takes effort, but one can learn how to do this. And it used to be a very common skill. With today’s junk on the market, we have a good enough reason to start learning.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          43 months ago

          I patch my old socks with older socks, if that helps. And I fix armpit tears with a rough stitch. That’s about it.

        • MrsDoyle
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          43 months ago

          I can sew, but finding decent fabrics is hard. Back in the 70s I made all my own clothes and I can still remember some of the fantastic fabrics I used: a ming blue paisley sateen cotton; a red denim (for a duffel jacket with a toning floral for the hood lining); a soft purple lightweight wool; a dark green raw silk; glorious Chinese rayon florals in rich colours. So much choice!

  • @[email protected]
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    393 months ago

    A Twinkie weiner sandwich.

    1. Cook a hot dog
    2. Slice a twinkie halfway through the bottom longwise to get something like a hotdog bun
    3. Insert the cooked hotdog into newly created bun
    4. Squirt easy cheese along the length of the hot dog
    5. Dip in milk
    6. Eat

    Weird Al invented this in 1989 in his movie UHF and it’s still not available in stores for some reason

  • @[email protected]
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    3 months ago

    Here’s something that you can’t buy outside of Italy: mozzarella. I tasted proper mozzarella in Tuscany and it’s nothing like the shit labeled mozzarella sold in supermarkets around the world, and for a good reason: real mozzarella has a shelf life shorter than Trump’s attention span.

    • fmstrat
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      3 months ago

      We have a deli here that makes fresh moz daily, you can find places that do it all over. Shelf-life really only keeps it out of supermarkets. The problem for many forms of cheese in many countries, and especially the US, is the requirements around pasturization. Completely changes the texture and taste. And for moz specifically, the lack of Buffalo.

        • fmstrat
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          33 months ago

          As the other commenter stated, Italian moz is made from water buffalo milk, which the US doesn’t have. And unfortunately, it’s not importable because it wouldn’t survive the trip without pasteurization (and current risks of bird flu with less pasturized milks due to lax US handling laws). There are also laws in the EU about what can be called moz, which dont exist in the US (don’t get cheddar lovers started).

          US moz is made with cows milk, and while it can be very good when made fresh, most people find the Itallian version to be a completely different cheese, and much more applicable to the dishes it is served with in Italy.

          In the US, American-Italian food has made shifts to items like chicken parm, etc, partly because of historic American tastes, but also because of what pairs better with the cheese.

          All this to say, moz is good, in Italy and in the US. But they are very different cheeses.

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
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      53 months ago

      it’s nothing like the shit labeled mozzarella sold in supermarkets around the world

      That’s called mot-zer-eller, if I remember right.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      3 months ago

      You mean those watery packets of cheese I sometimes buy aren’t supposed to taste like watered down kangaroo testicles?

  • edric
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    83 months ago

    Avocado shake, at least in the western world. Unless you come across one at an asian shake/milktea shop, and even then, that menu item is rare.

  • @[email protected]
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    43 months ago

    Brother, we have all of those ingredients everywhere. We have a little British store run by expats who could get whatever packaged crumpet you use. Shit, I can make a batch of crumpets in about 15 minutes.

    It’s not like a crazy recipe that needs balanced flavors to be done right. Like I’ve never had a good poutine outside of Quebec. It’s always sad beige gravy with the wrong seasonings or mozzarella or frozen fries or all of the above. It is never right.

    What we can also talk about is local places making local dishes but they do it wrong and cheap or “good enough” and people come from abroad and try the dishes and think they’re mid because they went to the wrong place.

    TL;DR: I love poutine.

    /Rant

    • @[email protected]
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      13 months ago

      I had poutine at random place in Edinburgh which a Canadian friend said was the best poutine he’d had outside of Quebec. “Still shit though”, in comparison to in Quebec

    • @[email protected]
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      53 months ago

      It’s not like a crazy recipe that needs balanced flavors to be done right.

      We’re talking British cuisine here

  • Riskable
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    203 months ago

    Marmite crumpets shouldn’t exist!

    What other cosmic horrors are you creating in your kitchen‽

  • fmstrat
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    73 months ago

    This question is very regional, so I could list a ton of things. For instance since I’m not in the UK, crumpets would be on my list (send me some please).

  • @[email protected]
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    83 months ago

    Coffee. I used to be a coffee fiend, I drank up to 12-13 cups a day, and only stopped because it was worsening my anxiety. I live in a coffee producing country and learnt how to make a good cup in an espresso machine, even got all the doodads to make the process standardized and get the exact same cup every time.

    I can only drink coffee made by select hands now. Everything else tastes like jet fuel, and it’s worse when travelling.

    • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
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      33 months ago

      Don’t ever, under any circumstances, drink motorway service station coffee in France. It tastes like battery acid even if you’re used to shitty coffee.

      • @[email protected]
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        13 months ago

        Or america. Non specialty shops sell the worst cups I’ve ever had, and I’ve been to bottom of the barrel shops where I live.

    • @[email protected]
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      33 months ago

      I make sure to never get attached to one brew so I can drink it anywhere, anytime. I’ll drink instant without hot water if I need to (and not just frappe.)

    • @[email protected]
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      23 months ago

      The sad thing is that it is buyable but not in places below like 200k population. In Europe idk how far third wave type coffe got everywhere else but I’d imagine in international cities it’s largely available all over the world.

      It’s frankly insane how different a specialty coffe place is from a Caffe. And how many specialty coffe places there are in big cities/ university towns.

      The provinces seem to not be able to sustain good coffe unfortunately. Unless there is someone who doesn’t care about the balance sheet.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      103 months ago

      That sounds like an intense relationship you have with coffee. I have to admit, 2-3 a day and I get palpatations and am unable to sleep. I rarely drink it for the flavour

      • @[email protected]
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        23 months ago

        Oh I needed it for college. I was impatient and pushed myself too hard during my last 2 years, some weeks I slept fewer than 10 hours collectively.

        I’ve since cut it almost entirely, and because of that my usual cup gives me the jitters. I still love coffee and would like nothing more than having one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but my body can’t take it anymore (nor can my mental health honestly). Aging sucks, lol.