Last Call: International Snacks You Can't Get At Home

We at The Takeout are big fans of snacks. All of us have our favorites, and we're always learning about new ones. Yesterday, Ilana Gordon wrote for The Takeout about Bamba, peanut-butter-dusted puffs that are beloved throughout Israel among children and adults alike. But now that we're really cherishing memories of travel (it's a nonstop fantasy, probably for all of you too), our latest staff conversation about snacks wandered toward all the foods we love abroad that we just can't our hands on stateside.

Right now, probably because of our recent conversation about ketchup on eggs, I'm really wishing I had a bag of ketchup chips right now. For whatever reason, they just haven't ever been a thing in the U.S. Apparently Americans aren't really into the idea of ketchup-flavored anything (besides ketchup). The thing is, these chips don't really taste like ketchup. They have the components of ketchup, like a tart tomato flavor and some acidity and sweetness, but it's hard to explain. They don't taste like dehydrated Heinz ketchup powder just haphazardly sprinkled on potato chips. They're so much more than that. I'm sure I can hop onto a website and try to get some, but paying $13-$15 for a bag of chips seems like a weird way to spend my stimulus check.

A casual poll of my coworkers revealed that we each have a very specific idea of which international delights we'd love to have access to more regularly. We want chicken salad sandwiches from Marks & Spencer in the UK, strawberry marshmallow gummies from France, and of course, Japanese Kit Kats of all kinds, which we're slowly getting here, they're just still pricey. When I visit London, I think I ate a Cadbury Crunchie (a chocolate-covered sponge toffee candy bar) every single day. What international snack do you crave that you just can't get where you live?

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