Food fantasies and fetishes - what are you craving?

I have a block of 5yr old cheddar cheese in my fridge that I brought over from Canada.   

Ah darn you, this craving isn't going away.

To add:

Cheddar (or decent cheese board)

Crackers

Nice bottle of Rioja


I need something refined, all the piss poor lager here is making me feel less than civilised!

I'm craving something youse guys is awash in: grilled lamb sticks and nang bread.

a nice cheap chicken dhansak with chutney, puppadums and a good cucumber raita, but CHEAP

I'm craving something youse guys is awash in: grilled lamb sticks and nang bread.

same... A bottle of Yanjing to wash it all down with too.

Cheese dip. This stuff. http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/fritos-chili-cheese-dip.html You can't even buy it in Shanghai. The only place in China I know where to get it is in Hong Kong.

Sweet Pickles is something else I loved that just cannot be found here. There are some upmarket shops that sell pickle relish, but I want the large Delmonte brand. Funny thing is that I lived in Korea before China and they love sweet pickles and it was easy to find.

Krystal Hamburgers. Not f'ing White Castle (I dislike the brand because they call their hamburgers SLYDERS, which reminds me of what happens to the food after ingestion.) Many a drinking night, I wish I was near a Krystals and get 6 of them, with nothing bun bun, meat, grilled onions, a dill pickle and a squirt of mustard.

http://krystal.com/

Memphis bbq pork sandwich with cole slaw.

CORNBREAD

I miss Mexican food too. There is an independent Mexican restaurant that has been around a few years, but the food is not good. Expensive and small portions.

I'm still hoping to find a place that serves real civet.

I was in a shop in Zhaoqing looking for a packet/tube of potato chips/crisps/do not know what Americans call them, when I came across a packet of mustard flavoured steamed potato biscuits.
My mind cranked slowly through a logical path that went something like:
- you love potato chips
- the best ones in China are Pringles but they are really mashed potato shaped to look like chips
- Pringles cost up to RMB13 and you get about 120g
- these House of Steamed Potato Biscuits cost RMB8.50 and weighed out at 238g
- you also like mustard so maybe the tube of mustard illustrated on the packet could be eked out to provide flavouring for meals in the future
- surely a potato by any other name is going to have a similar taste
- there is only one way to find out ... buy a packet

When I opened the packet at home the first thing I noticed was a total absence of tubes of mustard. As I live in China that came as a disappointment rather than a total surprise.
The second feature was that the biscuits were sealed in 20 sachets - I looked at that as a plus as given a packet of chips I will eat the lot in one sitting.

Then came the taste test. I do not know if you have tasted pure wasabi that has been distilled to intensify the flavour but that is somewhere near to the taste of these steamed biscuits. I nearly died.

After assuming the recovery position I nibbled my way through the first sachet. Within minutes my blocked nose had unblocked, a pounding headache had disappeared and I could turn off the heater for the first time since the beginning of winter.

The packet lasted for 10 days so I give Mustard Flavoured Potato Biscuits a +++ for value. The only reservation I have is that I could not taste any potato.       

I'd really like to know exactly WHERE in Hong Kong all this cool food is! I went to City Super at Harbour Plaza on Monday gone, but was quite disappointed- seemed to only be Japanese stuff. Their cheese selection was almost orgasmic though  . I know Western food is widely (and cheaply) available in HK, but where?

For me, nearly everything mentioned in this thread is sold in the small shops or little local supermarket here in my community. I'm going shopping later and trying to decide for dessert between making an apple pie or some brownies, while others are just hoping to have seen cheese or butter (which i eat both of every day). Talk about your "two China's".  The big city is where it's at if you want western style food guys!

Carrot cake.   

Actually you can buy it in a couple of places here in Dalian.  One place is way too heavy for my liking, the other is perfect but expensive.

I am baking one now in my oven.  I cheated, brought a box of mix from Canada.  However, it is almost baked and smelling heavenly   

Pancakes from scratch with proper maple syrup. 

Proper queso (cheese) dip from a Mexican joint, preferably made from Mexican Asadero cheese. You can get queso here, the jarred kind made by Pace or Old El Paso or something, but it just isn't the same at all. My husband and I went out for Mexican last night and while they had queso on the menu, it was pretty vile and didn't at all resemble proper queso (the rest of the meal was great though). I know I shouldn't be complaining since a lot of you can't get any Mexican food at all, but real queso is a serious vice of mine back home and I miss it!

Might sound strange but I miss kangaroo sausages   
I used to make the best curried sausages out of kangaroo meat sausages, some good mash and a beer and I'm in heaven 

I gotta admit that I just about have everything beat now. I make my own sausages (bratwurst, chicken bacon and blue cheese (with smokey sauce) and english style sage being the favourite of the moment) and breads of all kinds, do all my own cooking. Foreign visitors to my kung fu school bring in stuff I can't get like real aged salamis kalamata olives etc (a project for later in the year - a chef freind is going to bring the cultures and stuff for fermented meats like salami, and maybe later get into cheeses) I mail order cheese and other ingredients, even fresh vanilla beans and real mozarella and tomato paste etc. Blue mountain (fake) coffee from Yunnan, and stuff like that.

However, can't quite get pies to work. I would have to get a real oven, and there is no room for it. My little oven can't quite do it properly. And flaky pastry is just too hard.

I miss pies. But my waistline doesn't.

I've had Hakka Dofu before.  I've had Hakka Dofu made my a very dear friend's mother, and it absolutely rocked.

I never had Hakka Dofu made by her mother using dofu and pork from her hometown - until a couple of days ago.

Mere words cannot describe how good it was.