# What common items do you miss most from back home?



## fooz (Jul 13, 2014)

Living in China, I find myself really missing certain things that were a part of daily life for me back home. For example, good cheese, chocolate, and other snacks I used to get from a grocery store back home.

What kinds of things do wish were easily available to you where you are currently living?


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## Eric in china (Jul 8, 2014)

I miss pork pies, steak and Kidney pies, meat and potato pies etc. Cheese is easy to find near me. There must be a "Metro" market in Beijing, they sell to the catering trade and business folks in general but I always manage to get in and buy goods there, their products are primarily imported.

Metro is a Chinese wholesale store but they normally allow expats to buy there, ask your chinese friends about Metro stores.


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## fooz (Jul 13, 2014)

Eric in china said:


> Metro is a Chinese wholesale store but they normally allow expats to buy there, ask your chinese friends about Metro stores.


Thanks for the advice, I'll look into that.


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## bean481 (Jun 10, 2014)

I found a good strong cheddar and Belgian Leffe beer both in our Metro in Changsha


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## Eric in china (Jul 8, 2014)

bean481 said:


> I found a good strong cheddar and Belgian Leffe beer both in our Metro in Changsha


Food from around the world and my wife always finds one of these stores for me no matter which part of China we are in.:amen:


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## sidneyfromsydney (Jul 29, 2014)

I miss sunny days, and sensible drivers


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## sidneyfromsydney (Jul 29, 2014)

the metro stores are good. They seem to be in a lot of cities, they have a large range of imported goods...not altogether cheap though, but if you want things that aren't the staple diet here, you have to pay...such is life


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## Eric in china (Jul 8, 2014)

sidneyfromsydney said:


> the metro stores are good. They seem to be in a lot of cities, they have a large range of imported goods...not altogether cheap though, but if you want things that aren't the staple diet here, you have to pay...such is life


With the number of food scares we are getting it is worth the little extra money if only for piece of mind:juggle:


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## sidneyfromsydney (Jul 29, 2014)

I went fishing the other week. I snagged a decent sized fish, amongst the 7 decent sized fish that we caught (it was a secret, secret, secret place) we gave it to one of the local Sheyang city restaurants (we gave the others to mothers, brothers and kin) and then dined on it with crab , baby squid and prawns, all with bokchoi, potato, sea greens, (seaweed) egg and tomato soup and other assorted vegetables.
Yes, some of the food can be seen as "iffy" such as pork and chicken, however I have never had any problems with either of them. I shop in the local markets and never have a problem. I just cannot get items such as good real cheesesuch as Australian/New Zealand chedder or European guoda,swiss, etc, or fresh milk, fresh bread (that isn't Shanghai sweet), australian quality beef and/or New Zealand lamb, Australian/New Zealand butter and the perrenial Australian favourite ... vegemite.
Metro will often have close facimiles of all of the above., including Australian beer. XXXX is one that I can get at Metro. The Queenslanders of Australia at the turn of the century were so dumb they couldn't spell BEER, so they called their local brew XXXX areso dumb, they cannot spell beer


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## sidneyfromsydney (Jul 29, 2014)

I am all thumbs when I type....sorry


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## Dragonchan (Aug 3, 2014)

Being a Brit there is one thing that is particularly close to my heart: Marmite! If you haven't tried it, try it! I did find peanut butter cups in China though so it's not all bad。。。


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## jamesbrown5374 (Aug 1, 2012)

cheese, bacon


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## sidneyfromsydney (Jul 29, 2014)

Dragonchan said:


> Being a Brit there is one thing that is particularly close to my heart: Marmite! If you haven't tried it, try it! I did find peanut butter cups in China though so it's not all bad。。。


yeah, had marmite, not unlike vegemite. Never been a huge fan of peanut butter though.. Along with dairy products I also find getting quality beef a problem unless I want pay to a prince's ransom


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## bean481 (Jun 10, 2014)

sidneyfromsydney said:


> yeah, had marmite, not unlike vegemite. Never been a huge fan of peanut butter though.. Along with dairy products I also find getting quality beef a problem unless I want pay to a prince's ransom


"Not unlike Vegemite" - you're likely to have half the Aussie population on your case for that quote haha


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