post off: what off-beat food craving are you dying to satisfy?
I loved this story in The New York Time yesterday: The Ultimate Cruelty: Abandoned by Ravioli by Alex Witchel. It’s all about her quest for Broccoli Rabe Ravioli from Citarella, and the angst caused when it mysteriously disappeared from the store’s shelves. I don’t know about you, but nothing causes me to break out into a cold sweat more than not finding a food item that I’m craving, especially if it used to be available and now is somehow, inexplicably, gone. Just the other day I had a hankering for Stella D’ora Anisette Toast Cookies, usually available at my local Italian market, Milano’s and alas, they were no where to be found. Other un-scratchable food itches of mine: Twiglets, that bizarre Marmite-flavored snack from London and Pastina, little star pasta that is one of my favorite comfort foods. Do you have a food craving you’ve been trying to satisfy but can’t? Share your pain!– Angela M.
P.S. I found the above Twiglets image on Flickr, in DeluxeLab’s Foodporn, and now I can’t stop thinking about them!! Help! Does anyone know where I can find these in NYC?
P.S.S. The Broccoli Rabe ravioli is back in stock, and I can’t wait to try it!
March 1st, 2007 at 9:47 am
Aah, Anisette Toast. That was a childhood thing of mine, which I rediscovered when my kids were little, and now I haven’t had them again for years. I’m going to have to look at the store…
March 1st, 2007 at 10:17 am
I have had the biggest craving for Jelly Roll Cake!
I’m going to try to bake one tonight — first attempt — but I haven’t been able to find a suitably tasty one that I didn’t have to drive an hour for.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I love Twiglets as well! They are even harder to find in Indiana, so I order them online from British Delights, a US-based source for all foods British! Here’s the snacky section: http://www.britishdelights.com/snacks.htm
Enjoy!
March 1st, 2007 at 4:25 pm
being from the south, i realized about two months ago that i haven’t had corn fritters (think corn nuggets) in forever. so i’ve taken to trolling up and down the frozen foods aisles (which i never shop in normally) in grocery stores peeking into cases, but always being disappointed with breaded chicken nuggests, fish sticks, etc. but no corn
March 1st, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Knorr Oxtail soup. Which morphed into Tomato Beef soup before it disappeared entirely. I checked with Knorr but it was gone, baby gone. So sad.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:17 am
Trader Joe’s used to carry these Soy Chorizo and Potato Taquitos that, even as a meat-eater, made me drool.
They disappeared about two years ago. Every day I want one.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:22 am
Trader Joe’s is the worst for inducing those kinds of craving. Their stock is so irregular, I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone, craving something specific, or worse, two or three specific things, only to discover that they don’t have *any* of them! Recent examples: pomagranate white tea, frozen mango chunks, canned smoked trout.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:05 am
Lemon Coolers. You know, those little cookies dusted with lemon-flavored powdered sugar. I can’t find the original nor any store-brand knockoffs.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:28 am
In Montreal, you could buy veggie pate just about anywhere in the 90s. But in NYC, I can only find strange Spinach Pate, or Veggie Terrine. All of which are lovely, but just not the same. I would eat it in a sandwich with a schmear of hummus, and sometimes a piece of cheese. Nothing in NYC has replaced it. It was just heavenly… I’ve been secretly mourning it’s loss for the past 14 years.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
My husband is crazy for Jaffa cakes (McVitties only please) which are hard to track down and I am going through little irish breakfast sausage withdrawl myself. The made in the US sausages are okay, but the real ones are better. Thank God for lil import shops!
Also craving Worcestershire Sauce flavored pretzels - those should be marketed worldwide! Can’t find those anywhere ..sad, very sad. And now I am peckish…
March 4th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
I’m on the Pacific Coast but my parents are from the East Coast. There are a number of items we just can’t get anymore or are hard to find. A few weeks back it was Pastina. We called the local Italian store downtown and they had a few boxes. But by the time we got there they were gone. They sent us down the street to another store and sure enough, snagged four boxes. I’ve got them in the freezer and am eatting a bit at a time. I boil the pastina in enough water so that by the time it’s done the water is largely boiled off. Then I add a beaten egg and stir until the egg is cooked. Salt and pepper to taste and that’s it. My mother boils the pastina and then adds butter and cheese.
What we really miss is Royal Lunch Crackers. They don’t make them anymore.
Stella D’Ora is really hard to find here too.
We also really liked the Jello key lime pie filling mix they used to make. We managed to get a friend back east to send us a dozen boxes before it was discontinued.
I really miss the carmel microwave popcorn. There was a separate bag of caramel you dropped on the hot popcorn after it was popped. Then you mixed it as it melted. It was really great. But it’s discontinued too.
I think my biggest disappointment this time of year is the Girl Scout cookies. They changed bakeries a few years back. The recipes may be the same but they taste different. The only thing that tastes the same is the thin mints. (They freeze beautifully too.)
March 4th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Carr’s Sweetmeal Biscuits have disappeared off the shelfs in NYC. They were a bit like McVitties Digestivies, but less oily. I am crusched I used to use them to make toaster oven s’mores along with mini marshmallows and Sharfen Berger choclate. Yum. But it’s been more than a year since I’ve seen any. I’ve tried every organic graham cracker, McVitie’s everything and they just don’t work. I am heartbroken.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Julie,
Lemon coolers! I was introduced to those by a college roommate and have been desultorily looking for them for years. They are marvelous.
http://www.bigoven.com/recipe160333
The above link seems to be a recipe trying to imitate the cookies. I may just have to try it out sometime.
Thanks for reminding me of them.
j
March 5th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I like McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes (”with the smashing orangey bit!” - or is that Jacobs?), but I’m not so particular that I won’t accept an Orange Pim’s as a substitute, or even the Polish version (which is called something like Delicje). You can *definitely* order real Jaffa Cakes from almost any online British grocer.
I don’t notice any difference in the Girl Scout cookies Samoas, either. But Grasshoppers are NOT an acceptable year-round substitute for Thin Mints, IMO.
I miss Stella D’Oro Breakfast Treats, which I haven’t seen in a while, but then, I haven’t looked for them.
It is very difficult to find Yamamoto Yama jasmine green tea around here. It’s distributed by Stash, and lots of places carry the other flavors, but not that one. They can be ordered, and you can order the version that comes straight from the company itself. But I’d rather just buy it at the store. Numi’s Monkey King is an OK substitute; Foojoy even better, but none is Yamamoto Yama….
I used to buy a fruity chicken salad (mango, curry, some other ingredients) at a store in Florida called Green Turtle Market, a gourmet grocery and deli, sort of like a miniature Whole Foods. I haven’t had it in about 4 years and crave it.
Finally, in the late 80s I used to go to a gourmet shop that has long since closed, where they sold a sort of nonspicy salsa called Cowboy Caviar. It was all-vegetable and tasted really great on large-sized oyster crackers. I haven’t seen it in perhaps 15 years, and every so often, I crave it so badly it hurts.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:20 am
My craving isn’t as specific and might not even count as food (?) but I have really wanted a chocolate martini for a little while now — I can’t even think of a time I’ve actually ordered one while out just made them at home!
March 7th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Moritz Chocolate Ice Cubes!
Thick but small foil wrapped chocolates with horseshoes on them. I could eat them till I’m sick!
March 7th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
All Dressed Ruffle potato chips, I love them but they’re only available in Canada and are pricey to ship.
March 11th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
for those of you that can’t find lemon coolers…this site will tell you what happened to them, and where you can find two substitutions….
http://www.spatch.net/frontpage.cgi?entry=072903
March 13th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
This is not a refined craving, it was the ultimate junk food craving of Planters Cheese Balls, Only to find after looking at every possible store that they had been discontinued. Cheetos just isn’t the same.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hey I took that picture during a trip to Leeds in the UK
I love twiglets!
October 9th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I share your PAIN (emphasis on PAIN) about the anisette toast. I was WEANED on Stella’s anisette toast! I fired off a HYSTERICAL (as in frantic) email to Stella d’Oro DEMANDING to know where to find the anisette toast. I’m in California! It seems LUDICROUS that you can’t find them in NY. It is a SACRILEGE and an OUTRAGE to have to buy them from AMAZON!!!!!!!!
Now that I’ve vented…. here’s some stuff about those Twiglets…. if only someone would go the extra mile for the anisette toast…. sniff….
http://flickr.com/groups/68022721@N00/pool/ (a twiglet appreciation site) (graphics, too)
and
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/rholland/entry/worcester_sauce_tangy/ (someone who claims to be able to “score” twiglets.)
I had some success finding ALL CHOCOLATE Neccos and SEN SEN and, whew!, LOOK BARS but no anisette…. i’m so forlorn.
About the YAMAMOTO YAMA: I found an obscure little health food store today (So. California) that I’m almost POSITIVE had it; I noticed because they had STASH tea and I got twitterpated!
Hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllppppppppppppppppppp.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:42 am
Two bits:
As a life-long Girl Scout, I have learned there are two major bakeries and each GS council orders from one or the other. Little Brownie Bakers are the ones who make “real” GS cookies. It is hit-or-miss in Chicago, the city council orders from the other (ABC Bakers) bakery and the suburb council orders from Little Brownie. If a ‘burb mom doesn’t bring in an order sheet to work, I have to get my mom in Virginia to order my cookies!
When you’re ordering, you can tell if you’re getting the real deal if you see Samoas, Tagalongs and DoSiDo’s on the sheet. If they are called Carmel Delites, Peanut Butter Sandwiches or Peanut Butter Patties they’re the not-as-good versions.
Second bit: I love love love Mrs. Duke’s mayonnaise, which is impossible to find in Chicago. I make sure to stock up at Christmas when I’m in Virginia!
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Pam, if you are in LA, Sorrentos italian market in Culver City is the only place I have ever seen Stella Doro in California, or even on the west coast. My mother used to clip and send me coupons (she is in NY) and I finally had to tell her that she was being inadvertantly cruel
They were some of my faves as a kid.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am
to person looking for royal lunch milk crackers- we have them here in conn.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 am
[...] know from this post — What Off Beat Food Craving Are You Dying to Satisfy? — that you have some pretty far-flung tastes, being the world travelers that you are! Now [...]