Berlin with new US food store near Alexa mall

When I was in Poland in the '80s, I had access to the commissary at the American Embassy. Americans used to beg me to get them peanut butter and other foods. One guy I worked with always came back from visits home with a suitcase full of peanut butter.

(For the record, I went into the commissary one time only, just to see what they had. Yes, they had peanut butter, Kellogg's cereals, and lots of canned goods.)

One of the joys of travel is to get away from "US food".

We have one of those stores in a mall in Frankfurt, near the convention center. Everything is so overpriced! Expats sometimes don't mind paying 6€ for a box of pop-tarts, cake mix, can of frosting, or 3€ for a can of Dr. Pepper. These stores aren't really for tourists or travelers, they are for Americans who live there or for Germans who want to see just what the heck a pop-tart tastes like.
As for good peanut butter, this is available in every grocery store now and has been since at least 10 years if not longer.

My 13 year old has requested a hamper for Christmas of American cereals and other food that he misses from our visits to the US. I've made one up for him from the various US food sections in the supermarkets and also an online US food store however I've looked closely at the ingredients and it's shocking the stuff they put in cereals and other foods. I'm not going to disappoint him by not giving them to him but I'll make sure he can make comparisons to British cereal (not that they're much to rave about) and allow him to draw his own conclusions.

Believe it was in London where I saw one of those type stores. Seems to me it would be more of a novelty for someone wanting to try U.S. brands since the prices were outrageous.

I used to work for a company that had a UK subsidiary. Everytime the VP's went over for a visit, they would buy M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Cheetos for the staff as it was their favorite American snacks.

Having said that, homesickness is precisely why American flock to McDonalds and Starbucks in Europe and pay eye-watering prices for food there.

The converse is true as well, isn't it? There are at least two stores in my city that specialize in imported food products from the UK, one Irish, one with Russian & Ukrainian food, one French, one German, and one with Scandinavian food. All at exorbitant prices, but fun to visit even if not an ex-pat. Then there's World Market . . .

I used to work for a company that had a UK subsidiary. Everytime the VP's went over for a visit, they would buy M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Cheetos for the staff as it was their favorite American snacks.

You can buy those in almost every UK supermarket and at normal prices too so I see no reason for staff not to wait until their colleagues come over from the US. Unless they discovered real chocolate whilst they were in the UK and didn't want to offend their colleagues generosity.

I wonder how it compares in price with the US section on the 6th floor at the KaDeWe. We’ve zipped through that small section to take a look at what long shelf life food items they deem hard to get and worthy of inflated €. It always gives us a chuckle to see the jello, cake mixes, hard taco shells, etc.

Karstadt has many of those same American products that are at the American store and at a premium price. A can of Libby's pumpkin that makes one pie goes for 6€, they have muffin and cake mixes, etc.

In almost all the places we've lived in Europe, we've found an "ex-pat" food store that featured British and American foods. In Madrid, there's Taste of America. In Rome, we had Sell International - although we more often went to a nearby Castroni. In Vienna, we'd go by Booby's Food Store. Here in The Hague (and nearby Wassenaar), we have Kelly's Expat Shopping. We never did find a good option in Copenhagen.

We don't go by these stores often as prices are brutal. Yet, when you have a specific need...they do come in handy. For example, for Thanksgiving, these places are great to find products (like the above-mentioned pumpkin pie or stovetop stuffing) that are not sold at the local grocery stores. In the USA, the fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day. Here, it's just... Thursday!

And where else can you find grits! We usually travel to the USA at least two times a year for family & business trips. And yes, we have a suitcase for "supplies" (most ARE foodstuffs). Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter is my go-to.

That said, over the years we have seen more US-products in the larger chain stores in Europe. A few have USA sections that compete directly with the ex-pat food stores. More often than not, there are US-labeled products - like Heinz Ketchup - with slightly different ingredients sold at more reasonable prices (Some "additives" in US foods cannot be sold in the EU). When buying local products, you adjust to a new taste. Here in NL, I've become a huge fan of garlic-truffle-mayonnaise with my FF. This was not part of my palate a few years ago!

In the last twenty years, there has been a huge increase in fast food locations in Europe. Within 750 meters of our Den Haag apartment, we have four McDonalds, two Subways, a Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, Five Guys, three Starbucks, Dominos, and a KFC. But they're not really a part of our dining experiences (Well, Five Guys is relatively new here, so we have been a few times!). That said, all are packed with locals and very successful.

"Americans used to beg me to get them peanut butter and other foods."

Oh Jane! This made me laugh and brought back memories of my Mom. Dad was assigned to the FAA's European office in Brussels in the 1970s and they had PX privileges. They didn't go often but went a few times a year mostly for peanut butter which she would then take as hostess gifts when they were invited to other ex-pat's homes for a meal. (She knew who wanted peanut butter and who didn't!) Dad could never believe the people that would buy Budweiser instead of trying the variety of local Belgium brews, lol!!

I do admit to carrying peanut butter with me the first few trips to Europe but then realized it was usually available most places now. It's my go-to vegan back up meal....

We had fun at the holidays when we were in Poland, trying to replicate an "authentic" American Thanksgiving. We could come pretty close... Turkeys were sometimes available at the farmers' market, although one year the designated turkey provider in our group had to settle for deep fried turkey shishkabob.

I found that red currants made an impressive cranberry substitute, and once I figured out that "maize kasha" was cornmeal, we were in business! Cornbread stuffing on the menu! Pumpkins were available, also at the farmers market, so I could make pumpkin pie.

We were there in martial law, with very strict food rationing, but luckily the only thing we needed that was rationed was flour. So I scrounged and bartered. Sugar was rationed, but I always use honey instead, so that was okay, once I found the honey store. And another discovery: the herb shops where people went to fill their prescriptions had piles of thyme, sage, rosemary, anything we wanted ... Heaven.

What fun that was. In retrospect. In real time, it was frustrating and very time-consuming. Learning where and how to shop, and where to find things that were abundant at home but not there... But such a feeling of accomplishment when we pulled it off. Good times.

If you are going to the Alexa Mall do you need a Smart Speaker to get anything done?