As we find our way in the grocery store, we have discovered a few food items we LOVE and a few items that we simply cannot find. Here is a sampling:
What we LOVE:
-Tomato paste in a tube! Who doesn't love to squeeze food out of a tube? Seriously, this is a brilliant idea. Yet, on our first trip to the grocery store, that we did not think to buy tomato paste in a tube, because we are so used to buying it in a can. Shortly after arriving home we discovered we had no can-opener. 
-Alpen Muesli...delicious. There is nothing better than European muesli.
-Cafe Deli biscuits taste like Thin Mints. Yum!
-Karhu beer...or at least Charlie "likes not loves" this beer and thinks it is the best Finnish domestic brew. He says it tastes like MGD (a.k.a. Miller Genuine Draft...or nasty ass beer)...which isn't saying much for the Finnish beers. By the way, this is not the same beer in the photo.
-Buckwheat flour (Tattari jauho)--perfect for the buckwheat pancakes we love to make.
Food items we CANNOT find:
-Ground cumin. There are plenty of sweet little bags of cumin seeds and we even went so far as to attempt to grind the cumin seeds with the utensils in our kitchen...HA, that was comical! We, did, however, find some ground cumin in the ethnic markets in Helsinki (Win!)
-Coffee grinder. Really?! We have been to every possible store in Jyväskylä that would likely sell a grinder and no luck. I guess the Finns prefer ground coffee, but not ground cumin. -GOOD tortilla chips. Okay, we know we are far away from Mexico, but we still LOVE to eat (American-vegan style) Mexican food which calls for tortilla chips. But, all of the tortilla chips here contain nasty oil--either palm, vegetable, or sunflower--which leaves a gross film on the roof of your mouth. Ick!
-Almond butter or peanut butter. Unless you want to spend 6 € on a small container of organic almond butter, you will not be able to indulge in a PBJ (that is short for the all-American peanut butter and jelly sandwich...a staple in the U.S.)
-Refried beans...nope they just do not have them here. Instead we use lentils and black beans for our Mexican cravings.
-Chocolate chips...another item they just do not sell here. I guess this calls for chunky chocolate chip cookies (insert visual of me with BIG knife and BIG chocolate bar).
2 comments:
You could puree peanuts too make pb. I know you don't have a food processor. A cheap food processor could by used to make chips out of chocolate bars. Sounds like finding the foods you like is truly an experience in itself.
Chocolate Chips are found in the foreign section (or "international section") of most Prismas or City K Markets...if you can make it out to one of those stores - then you'll find them there.
They are at least 4€ a bag...and you can find crunchy or smooth peanut butter there too. Not too bad but better than the super oily stuff in the regular stores.
Another shop is Behnford's in Helsinki - their specialty is importing foods from the US and UK.
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