“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
– Matt
Strange Substitutes
Have you tried a strange substitute for an ingredient in a favorite dish? I think foodies call it “fusion” when you combine different styles of ingredients in common dishes. I know the Dairy Sweet in Grabill, Indiana has the “Elvis Sundae” containing bacon, which you should try.
Living overseas has forced us to use strange substitutes when trying to make Hoosier favorite dishes. Much is available overseas now than twenty years ago, but common ingredients like Crisco, canned pumpkin and cranberries, to name a few, still cannot be found. Sometimes we can get American style ingredients, but the prices are too expensive for regular use.
Our Sunday evening overseas meal of popcorn, apples, and peanuts served from metal mixing bowls takes on a strange twist. Indiana or Ohio may have the best popcorn, but it does not make it over to us, normally coming from Argentina instead. I stock up on popcorn before traveling back overseas. However, we eventually run out and end up eating the Argentinian popcorn. The Granny Smith apples we eat usually come from South America. And lastly, the peanuts we crunch on are not from Georgia or Alabama, but China, where they mainly eat them for breakfast (peanut rice porridge). We strongly believe in pot popped popcorn and use the most readily available oil here – olive oil. I strangely find the olive oil flavored popcorn as normal now.
I have a feeling many people might turn up their noses to my mishap of a Sunday substitute dinner, but I do not imagine it changing anytime soon.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
