With the Canadian dollar well over 84 cents US, thoughts turn to 1970s drives to Bangor, Maine. The Globe and Mail this weekend even had a column about the return of cross-border shopping on Saturday so its got to be true. I'll be making my bi-monthly hike in early December for some Santa work and with a little luck the dollar will be closer to 90 cents than 80 by then.
Apart from the obvious zymurgistical opportunities, book stores are the main thing I hit as there is a real distinction with the Canadian shelf-life and that of the southern neighbour. You can actually find books reviewed in the New Yorker. Same with record stores and the music publication of your choice. Plain butter beans, that product shunned by the Canadian grocer, will be bought by the case as would cream of shrimp Campbells soup if it had not the salt lick delivery been misdirected to the plant somewhere between my memory and now. I will probably pick up some peppers and other tex-mex condiments as well - a litre of mole sauce would help me through the long dark winter. Canned stuff is a best buy as it enters Canada duty and tax free.
What else should I be looking for? What other delights of Syracuse can I bring home for Yule?
Comments
Nils Ling - November 22, 2004 7:52 PM
I always buy the only-in-America LARGE Wheat Thins. OK, doesn't sound like much, but I find I can't fit everything I need on top of one of their postage-stamp-sized Canadian cousins. And also (be prepared to be grossed out) ... I adore E-Z Cheese ... cheddar (not cheese-like products, but real cheese) in a spray can. Yummmm.
Alan - November 22, 2004 8:10 PM
What often bugs me when I get back is realizing there are things like roast garlic flavoured Tricuits that somehow would corrupt Canadian society as we know it if they were able to be obtained in Gananoque and not just Clayton, its neighbour a few miles to the south.
I recall cheese in an aerosol spray can being a punchline on an early 70s National Lampoon lp track.
Nils Ling - November 23, 2004 9:00 AM
E-Z Cheese is the kind of product that makes women go "Ewwww" and men go "Dude, that's gotta be nasty. Here, let me try some on this cracker. Whoa ... niiiiice. And you say I can just sit this, the box of crackers, and a beer beside me while I watch the football game and I'll never have to move? I'm in."