Grocery List

On a recent trip to Singapore, I was reminded of all the things we wished we could buy at the grocery store. Just a 1 hour and 20 minute plane flight away are grocery stores which carry many of the comfort foods from home that we all living in Indonesia often long for. As I was thinking about this, I thought you all might get a kick out of knowing what we US expats living in Indonesia now consider a luxury item. These are things that we get excited about if we EVER find them at the grocery store and some of them are coveted commodities that we have to import ourselves. These are simple things that we took for granted living in the US and didn't realize how much they contributed to the comforts of home until we moved to Indonesia and couldn't find them anymore. Over the last 6 months or so, imported foods have gotten especially scarse. So, without further adieou, here is the list:

Miracle Whip/Mayo
graham crackers
imported cereal (like Golden Grahams and Honey Nut Cheerios)
salad dressing (have had to learn to make my own)
Tostitoes
Velveeta (someone told me they spotted Velveeta somewhere being sold, cut in pieces
and wrapped in individual smaller blocks, like it was some sort of gourmet cheese!)
Rotel
Dr.Pepper
shredded coconut
butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips
Cool Whip
Pepper Jack cheese
liquid vanilla extract
fine grain sugar
granola bars
fruit snacks
Old ElPaso taco seasoning
Hungry Jack biscuits
Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls
Ms Baird's bread
Blue Bell ice cream
Lil Smokies
sausage
Jello pudding mix

And my list could go on. Thankfully, I think I have forgotten a lot of what we used to have available to us. So to all our friends and family back home...Next time you go to the grocery store and peruse the shelves wondering which of the 20 brands of hot dogs you are going to buy, think of us and love America!