Monday, December 03, 2007

Amer? I Can!

Ok, after that sap of a post I just did, here is a fun one I have been meaning to post for a while.

There's not much that Switzerland doesn't have that America does. There's not many things that I miss. After my first 6 months, I would say that the things I missed the most (food wise) were: buffalo wings (still stings this one), Miller Lite, Gatorade, egg and bagel sandwiches, saltines. I think some of you probably noticed a theme there...anyway, you also start missing things that you didn't obsess about, but now that you can't have them, you do. Like Doritos. Or books in English. Take out thai food for less than 10 bucks. You get the picture.

And THEN you find some of these things here in Switzerland. Not only do you find them but they are branded differently. I can't really explain it. First, you are happy to find something that is like home. And second, you laugh because it's an American thing dressed it up in a really stupid Eurotrash Halloween costume.


So last week randomly, I found peanut butter. I do kind of miss it, but not that much. But it was exciting. When I got it home, I took a closer look at the label:





So they have "Nick's" peanut butter here, at least in the local market. And I'm not sure if you can tell, probably not, but apparently as you can see on the center label, tough guys riding motorcycles are the demographic most commonly associated with peanut butter. You will see that it is also called "the Easy Rider."


And in exhibit 2, we learn that peanut butter is an integral part of "The American Way of Life." Not just for school age children. For easy riders like Nick too.



I doubled checked the back label and this peanut butter was legitimately imported from the U.S. So Switzerland can power their country without using fossil fuels, but they don't know how to make peanut butter. Interesting....


Ok, well you may like that, but the best one so far I have found was when Abby was here. I won't even introduce it because the picture is enough. Those of you familiar with this blue bag will know my little buddies below by a different name. But I will say that we were hysterically laughing at the store and of course had to buy them. Interestingly enough we found these at the train station grocery which I would assume had worse selection than the actual grocery. Apparently not. A-MAZING! I think that we should start calling them this too!!




I will keep you all posted on more of these fun "Amer-I-can" objects that I encounter in my travels. I will say that I have found "The Laughing Cow" cheese, better known here as La Vache Qui Rit, in Portugal, France and Norway, and that little laughing cow speaks a LOT of languages!

1 comment:

Abby said...

Those "Cool American" chips were some of the best i've ever had. good find. now you just have to go to the train station anytime you want a little taste of home :)