Simone Smith visited a gourmet supermarket in Berlin and found an American section among the ethnic foods! Now stop and guess what she found there before you see it. I imagine they stock it with "comfort foods" requested by Americans living in Germany. -via Buzzfeed
Doritos and soft drinks are no longer "American Ethnics", you found them everywhere.
Anyway, there is nothing surprising. In some key areas in France, you found "English ethnic" food section where british immigration is important. You found HP brown sauce, mint sauce, creamed horseradish, Marmite and so on.
Come on, these "ethnic food" sections are not there to represent one nation gastronomy. They are either for the "exotic" feeling or to provide some nostalgia-products for expatriates. In this case, American people in Berlin. Most of the time, in generic supermarket, you only find processed canned or dried product: long shelf life needed because of the low turn over.
If you want BBQ, burgers or hot dogs, they are pretty ubiquitous in Europe. And speaking of Germany, remember, hot dog sausages are not called Frankfurter or Weiner for random reasons...
That's probably the reason why KaDeWe has only such a limited choice of "American Food". They mostly sell labels or brands that are exquisite or just plainly expensive - or seen as a classical item from U.S. culture.
Peanuts not found. Peanut Butter not found.
That's American.
The Europeans already beat us chocolates, cakes, hotdogs (although they look at you sideways if you stick the sausage into the bread.) Pretty much everything.
But a decent PB&J? Pringles on the side?
Wish I'd known. I bought a kilo of young gouda, a kilo of butter and some bread and it saved my life for 2 months in Skandinavia over winter where a sandwich was more than a night's stay in a youth hostel.
When I climb mountains here in Colorado, I find simple foods are appetizing: PB&J. Sometimes Mufaletta. But at 14,000 feet (4,267 meters) simple things from youth taste the best.
If you can figure out to smuggle/import things like that to Germany you'll be a millionaire from the ex-pats and servicemen over there. The BBQ sauce is a given and the Hershey's syrup is too.
Don't be embarrassed by what we Americans think is good. Your palate is trained. Americans are trained. Everyone is trained. Think about what you miss from the states and what you'd put on those shelves. You might just get rich doing it....
I guess bigger companies probably bought most of these little brands out at some point or another, and are taking their cut behind the scenes, but to me they're still quaint old time Americana. Sad to see "Hershey" as the go-to for the USA section.
Also Kool-aid and Root beer were what my cousins in the UK wanted me to bring them when I visited.
The Kool-aid they liked (but had something similar, i forget what) and the root beer tasted like medicine to them and they found it completely disgusting. LOL
As for what they say above, hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza are all European in origin, so I wouldn't expect them to be on an ethnic section.
they have Pain Is Good there?
Pain Is Good is a local hot sauce from KC, it's the bottles with the screaming faces on them, it's really good hot sauce but i didn't know it was sold outside of the KC area even...
Word. That's all I need.
Saw someone mention peanut butter earlier. That's a regular grocery store item in Germany nowadays, so you wouldn't have to go anywhere special for it. There's a European precedent for PB - it's an old Dutch food, but it's savory. Germans typically eat the American-style sweetened PB.