There are many challenges to traveling, I find. You have to figure out what coin is what. You have to decipher what it is people are saying (even if they are supposedly speaking in English). You have to try to not get run over by people who perpetually drive on the wrong side of the road. But I think my biggest challenge thus far has been attempting to cook abroad. (And not just because I have almost to experience with cooking at home. I can cook, I just choose not to if anyone else is around to do so.)
There is a candy recipe that I make every Christmas. Since it apparently was that time of year, I thought I should make it. It involves graham crackers, butter, brown sugar, and Hershey bars. Easy peasy. Except that graham crackers, normal brown sugar, and Hershey bars don't exist Down Under. Nor do measurements such as "one cup".
So I bought some biscuits that looked as plain as I could find. I thought that extra molassesy brown sugar would probably be fine. I decided that half of 500g of butter looked like two sticks.
But then there was the chocolate issue. I will be the first to admit, I am a chocolate snob. I wouldn't eat a Hershey bar if you paid me (well, maybe if you paid me in GOOD chocolate). But there is something about a Hershey bar that just makes this candy perfect (probably the fact that that is the way I've always had that candy, therefore it is the 'right' way). Not knowing what any of the chocolate here tasted like, I bought three different sorts (varying prices) to experiment with. Two of them, as my father would say, were "actively nasty". So I put those on the batches I would give away. These strangers wouldn't know that the candy wasn't right! The batch that most closely resembled the sugary goodness that I know and love (and gorge myself on annually) stayed at home with me.
It being summer here (blessed summer!), and my hosts having a lovely little vegetable patch out back, I have been eating fresh strawberries right from the garden. My mother has a wonderful Swedish Cream recipe that I have loved forever, so I thought I would make that as a treat for everyone. Again, a dead easy recipe, this one involving heavy cream, sour cream, sugar, and gelatin. My friend bought me the necessary ingredients, but got "Thickened" cream instead of heavy... like the British double cream, which I ADORE, but it just wasn't quite right. Needed more sour cream. Not bad, but not right. Oh well.
Luckily, guacamole is hard to get wrong, so at least I am happy with that.
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I'm reminded of the American comedian on a tour to Australia whose joke died about leaving a Hershey Bar in his suit when he sent it to the cleaners. He finally recovered when he changed it to leaving a Cadbury's in his suit when he sent it to the pressers.
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