Oh, America

Today I went to David Jones, an upscale Australian department store, in my quest to find comfortable pillows. I walked in and felt like I was back in Bloomingdales at home, in the beautiful home department with brand name china and other decorative household goods. I had to fight an impulse not to buy picture frames, bowls, candlesticks etc. for our fully furnished apartment when we have endless rooms full of boxes of wedding gifts sitting in their original wrappings at my parents’ house in the U.S. (Is this a familiar expat story or are we the only people who attempt to live out of suitcases over four years into an international mobile contract?) While looking for the bedding, or Manchester department as it is known here, I came across the Food Hall à la Harrods (ok, micro scale Harrods) or Galeries Lafayette which houses a handful of rows of gourmet food from all over the world. I walked through the English section (including tea and biscuits from Harrods), high-end sauces and chutneys, an end of an aisle dedicated to foods from Asia, and stopped short in my tracks at an aisle labeled U.S. Goods. I kid you not when I tell you that this full aisle was full of Baconnaise (a bacon mayonnaise spread), Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Batter, Mrs. Butterworth’s artificial “maple syrup,” Duncan Hines cookie mix, Hershey’s Syrup, Welsh’s Grape Jam, Smucker’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Mix, Tabasco Sauce, Campbell’s Soup, corn syrup, and canned pumpkin. Glad to see what’s considered to be gourmet from America…