Comfort foods for American expat

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There are some American goodies that one learns it is hopeless to expect in foreign stores. For me it's been, foodwise, milk in plastic containers, Oreo cookies, crunchy peanut butter (if there is any peanut butter at all), B-B-Q sauce, popcorn and Pepsi cola; toiletries: Crest toothpaste, Palmers body lotion and black shaving products - which I have to hunt down an ethnic store to buy because white people skin products are shit - and antibacterial bodywash; miscellany: Vanity Fair or Newsweek magazines and service with a smile.

I've encountered success with finding some items, and all by surprise. Last month in Barcelona I found Brugal rum - my favorite rum - on the shelf in Carrefore and some time after that in Berlin my eye spied a generic "American" brand of crunchy peanut butter. Yum-yum!

Two weeks ago I lucked out with a black store that was plenty stocked with Palmer products and Magic razorless creams. And then I was wandering through the Reicher supermarket one night and - lawdy be! - there was popcorn seeds. To boot, the popcorn was endorsed by the famous TV chef Nelson Müller. Never heard of him before in my life but he's a black man.

Booyah!