Say CHEESE! Blue, that is!

One of the most curious things about being an expat is the total change in your relationship to food. I swear, if I never lived here, if I never called two places home, I would never be this size.
When you move abroad, you find that not all American food exists all over the globe. Sure, a semester abroad meant goodbye to Oreos, and peanut butter, unless you wanted to spend then $7.00 for a jar. But it was easy to give up these foods when I knew that my time away from them was finite. I could even give up my beloved Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for a few months, knowing full well that within my first week of returning home, I would devour a box of that wonderful chemically golden delight.
It is totally different living abroad though. It starts when the honeymoon period is over. After you have eaten your height in pretzels, mustard, pork neck and sausages, you start to say, "Hey where can I buy a great burger? or some great chicken wings, or insert your favorite food." Then you realize that you simply cannot get those items in your new home country. Sure, you find new foods you like, but every now and then, you find your mind and tastebuds wandering back to "home food."
It isn't only that the food tastes good, "home food" has much deeper meaning. "Home food" is a little piece of home, while being so far from home. The unfortunate effect of this is that you find yourself eating foods that you would not normally eat, or would only eat in small quantities.
Like, blue cheese dressing. While Joern and I were shopping in France, we found Heinz Blue Cheese dressing. No cause for alarm, except for the fact that it is impossible to find a good blue cheese dressing here. At home, I would only eat blue cheese dressing with buffalo wings, which before moving, was once a year. Now, to hold a bottle of blue cheese dressing in my hand feels like holding so much of my pre-Germany life in my hands. Tonight, we cracked open the bottle. It truly served its purpose, to momentarily ease the part of me that has permanent homesickness. Aaahh, true comfort food!