I actually read that as "Eee-Zed Cheeze" before I realized. So Canadian. Bread... in a can? Bread?

It is like Demsters malt bread. In a can. Goes with baked beans and is made in my favorite US town, Portland Maine, so is a great treat for this Maritimer at sea sometimes this far inland.

I know it's a little off topic, but did you come across any Marmite or Vegemite in your travels? My kid keeps pestering me for more (found it in Freeport, Maine a couple years ago) and Danny doesn't sell it at our local Wegmans.

I know no one in their right mind would probably want it (that's how I can tell he's really my kid). Is it easy to come by in Canada?

Easy-peasy. How many do you want?

PS - I will trade for white hot credits.

You're the best! Just one will do, unless they're super small, then maybe two.

I will definitely pony up some white hot credits, no problem. I'll try to figure out how to pack them. Or I could send you a gift card for your next trip to Weggies, whenever that may be.

Alas, I think that the white hot, rumoured to be a meat-like product, is not a border crossing food. I will have to take a rain cheque.

Ah, Hannafords. The chain that gets Wegmans' leavings (the areas Wegmans won't or can't go).

Wegmans - the only "W" we worship around here...

There was a time, oh, like twenty years ago, when I never let little things like laws and borders slow me down. But, sadly, those days are long gone.

I'll find something else representative of white trash cookin' here in Rochester to send your way.

Linda: send you address to the gmail account and the Marmite will wing its way. A couple of rounds on toast and your family will be swearing an oath to the Crown. Very English / empire stuff. There was a version I had once called "Gentleman's Relish" which had anchovies added. An honourary lieutenantship in the Dragoons came with it I think.

NYCO: on Hannafords, I think it is a New England chain which means there are a few Maine things to be found there. Pickled fiddleheads. The Watertown one is pretty nice. That Wegmans in Liverpool seems to have just undergone a refit on the inside. The exterior is a tad dowdy but I am guessing that is the brand. Why is Wegmans's king of the grocerys?

NYCO: I have to out Linda here. She is (literally) the poor relation of Danny Wegman.. They're something like second cousins twice or three times removed, or something like that. It doesn't count for much. We don't get invited to Christmas parties and such, and our Shoppers Club card only works as well as anyone elses.

Alan: Around here, that means Linda has the closest thing to royal blood. But don't ask her about Bob Wegman (Danny's father). That's a sore subject. On second thought..., go ahead.

I understand Marmite cures all such social ills. We had a clan in Nova Scotia called the Sobeys that ran the big grocery chain so I am a little familiar to the claims to fame of the dimly related to egg merchants of scale. I think it was a Sobey who was all lined up for the naming of a wing of the local hospital when it turned out the biggest benefactor was in fact a former employee, a bachalor of extreme prudence who gave all in the end to the community medical centre. I may have that story all wrong but I like it so much I am sticking with it.

Hey, I'm the fifth or sixth cousin of Jim Walsh, the congressman. Or so family legend has it. (Back in a simpler time, the 1950s, or so my mom tells it, you could get pulled over for a traffic violation, show your license and the cop would go, "Say, are you related to Mayor Walsh?" and the proper response was "Why, yes, Officer, I am" and he would let you go.)

OK... what about Bob?

Alan- which Weggies did you say you went to? Liverpool? You should have gone to the one in Dewitt.

That is what <i>everyone</i> is telling us now...Dewitt. Where the heck is Dewitt. I am just getting over my wild-west gun-toting classic-Canuck-paranoia about getting off I-81 at all. Making small talk at the Galeville Grocery is a break through. Am I ready for the Dewitt Wegmans?

I haven't been to the Liverpool Wegmans in some time, but there is actually a Wegmans on the North Side of Syracuse (in the city) that is known as the Wegmans That Time Forgot. It's like being back in the 1970s.

Try Dewitt next time, which will get you properly conditioned for the Pittsford Wegmans near Rochester.

Bob Wegman is a bastard. That's all you need to know. But Danny's OK. He looks just like his mother, Mary, who is the one I'm related to. She was Bob's conveniently forgotten first wife. Mr. Holy Roman Catholic. Feh! Never mind that she lays in a neglected grave about two miles from our house. It's shocking. Pay someone to plant a few bulbs or something, people. I'd do it myself, except I'm still trying to get around to beautifying my own grandparents' graves. Don't like gettin' my hands dirty, don't cha know.

Anyway, Alan, I have tried unsuccessfully twice (once sober, once not so sober) to find an email address for you, so I can send you my address and start the countdown to Marmite. Can you email me or something so I can start the ball rolling? Thanks.

P.S. I picked out something nice for you at Danny's today, which doesn't involve putative meat products.

Just for clarity, the preceding rant did not specifically state Bob divorced Mary for his secretary or some such person. Although judging from the bitterness, still fresh after two generations, I'm sure it was apparent.

Ahhh..., I love this stuff. NYCO: thanks for asking.

I am just going to just leave out tea and cookies and let you guys do your emotional dumping as you see fit.

It is an curious problem, you know, having an emotional personal or family event associated with a large brand-name that you have to deal with weekly.

OH MY GOD... I must go visit this old time Wegman's in Syracuse. Can anyone supply directions from the Thruway (coming from Rochester)? I seriously have dreams about the old-style Wegman's and it bugs the hell out of me that most of the Wegman's look like the remodeled 80's version or the super-large version of the late 90's to today.

I went to college in Ohio for 2 years before transferring back to WNY. Not having Wegman's was like living in my own personal hell. I don't suggest it to anyone who currently enjoys the comforts of this wonderful supermarket.

French's mustard is from the Rochester area, but I don't know if that's white trash enough for you. I'd suggest seeing what you can find on the Internet. Can they do cross-border shipping on meat products or stuff of that sort?

Hey, Julia. I think meat is out. I am not talking about trash [a term I am not big on having grown up near, in and with the exact location of <i>Trailer Park Boys</i>] but rather the garbage plate and its pals. On thing that I am discovering about NY state is the local fast food. Growing up in Maritime Canada we had our fast food based in part on the Lebanese community. Ontario really does not have that local expression, at least outside of centers with immigrant communties. The speidie, the white hot, the garbage plate, weck and the fish fry are all fascinating to me. Cornel chicken, too, not to mention the micro-brews and local apple varieties. None of this is around up here. One thing we brought back that used to exist in Canada is Campbell's Green Pea soup, a real taste of childhood. <p>So, I am very happy to engage in any swap shop of food. But it is all good. Maybe not a ring-a-ding junior, though. I can pass up our Joe Louie's rather than having those shipped up. We have French's but maybe not all the types, by the way. I bought a Jack Daniel's mustard that made the border guard do a double take.

Julia, I just looked it up on the Wegmans site and it seems it's had an upgrade since I was last there:

http://www.wegmans.com/about/storeLocator/display.asp?store_nbr=29

I suspect it's probably still relatively prehistoric, though.

Julia: There is/was a ye olde fashioned style Wegmans out Fairport-way. Last I saw, it still had the white-arch architecture and white lettering on the front. But being a west-sider, I haven't been by it in 2-3 years and couldn't vouch for its continued old-time purity.

Alan: does this pre-occupation about a grocery store make you think:
(a) That must be one hell of a place, or
(b) I can't believe these gun-toting country hicks get so excited about a freaking grocery store!

I am just impressed that you all can type so much while performing the necessary and constant handgun maintenance that we all up here figure you all down there are doing pretty much non-stop.

I finally broke out the State Fair brand lemon garlic sauce. Amazing stuff. A bottle of Greece.