Target chit chat

TM4D or anyone else in my general vicinity:.....

TM4D or anyone else in my general vicinity:

I need vanilla and my source who occasionally goes to Mexico has dried up. (Last time she brought me clear and brown and they were a couple bucks each)

All I can find around this area are the little 4 oz bottles. Not what I want.
I want this [ebay.com] -- the large 1 liter/ 3X oz. bottles.

Do you know of any place in CR or anywhere else close (or on my way across the state) where I can find them -- short of just randomly checking stores -- which I have done in northern Iowa and Minnesota. I'm about to order the three large bottles for $25 shipped. Geesh, I don't want to spend that much.

gg- got any suggestions for what packaged foods can be brought back from italy? sil comes about 3X/yr. usually i have her bring extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmeggiano reggiano. this spring i asked for panettone since that is what milan is famous for.

last month i suggested she bring chocolate for her grandparents who started eating ghirardelli this yr and she refused b/c it's so expensive (cuz she was bringing for her co-workers ). she said it's about $50 for lindt choco. so i can't ask her for anything expensive unless i give her money for it. (i actually started asking for her to bring some food b/c i was buying stuff for her and not getting anything in return. when i found out she'd started asking me to buy stuff for her to take to the office to share w/ her coworkers is when i started asking for her to bring stuff here.) she did give me some lindt choco i think last yr b/c she didn't give them to somebody. i didn't think they were actually all that special. i didn't know that the grandparents had gotten into eating chocolate or i would have given it to them.

i asked her b4 to bring flavored pastas but i guess they aren't popular there and she said she didn't know where to buy them (i bought them at the supermarket there b4.) i like amaretti but you can get them here for not too much money.

italy is all about regional specialties. each area has its own amazing thing.

the cured meats (salumi) you can buy there are simply not available here, even in the best gourmet shop. and even for the sold-in-the-US cured meats like prosciutto, for example, the ones from specific vendors in northern italy is unrivaled.

not allowed to bring meat into US and customs is a lot more vigilant and hands out fines. friend's mom got fined something like $700 for having counterfeit handbags. they have dogs sniffing bags at the airport. one time a dog sniffed my bag but luckily i remembered there was a cat at the apt i stayed at so dog sniffed but didn't signal. good doggy!

similarly the varieties they have of sold-in-the-US italian hard cheeses -- fontina, parmagiano-reggiano, romana, asiago, hard mozzarella -- is just mindboggling. if you taste mozzarella in some parts of italy, you will never eat mozzarella or pizza in the US again. ditto parmagiano-reggiano. we call it artisan here. artisan is the way they make cheese in italy. every region has its own special cheeses, so it's just hard to match that at any big box grocery store here.

she brings me a wedge of parmiggiano-reggiano whenever i ask. the first one smelled up the whole kitchen but the ones after that didn't do that and have not really been much different from buying an imported wedge here. maybe b/c the parmiggiano is a big co-op in italy and it's all the same, but i don't tell her that i thought it might be fresher if she brought it though. we don't eat it fast enough so this last time i've had to do as she suggested, grate the whole thing and put it in the freezer.

but in addition to the above cheeses, italy has a variety of astounding traditional cheeses, that just blow your socks off if you are a cheese eater. so depending on where she is in italy she can very easily get you some astounding local cheeses.

US customs regs won't allow the fresh cheeses (for example small stores in italy make fresh ricotta every day, but you won't be allowed to bring that in) but hard cheeses that are sealed are allowed in. or atleast were the last time we checked. you might be allowed to bring sealed containers of something like mascarporne. i highly recommend getting mascarporne from italy. try not to finish eating it in one sitting.

we are not big cheese eaters and i prefer the mild flavored ones. i have a hard enough time finishing the parmiggiano she does bring. i've been pushing myself to eat more cheese for the calcium and b/c i saw a show on tv that showed something in the cheese (calcium maybe) binds w/ the fat you eat and you excrete it. in a study, they actually extracted the fat from somebody's poop ( hah! i finally got a poop story!) on a dairy rich diet and somebody not on a dairy diet to demonstrate.

hazelnut paste and chocolate hazelnut paste (gianduja pasta). think nutella on LSD minus any junk. that's best found in the piedmont area, because that's where the hazelnuts grow.

i think i'm one of the few people who don't really like hazelnuts. i don't really like hazelnut flavored coffee, don't really like nutella cuz i'm not that crazy about the nuts or the chocolate either

polenta. you can find the most amazing quality polenta in italy (i always buy bags from italian grocers here, but even then, i'm not getting anywhere near the top quality stuff).
ditto semolina flour.

not a big cornmeal fan either. i'll eat it if it's on my plate but i don't go out looking for it.

ladyfinger cookies (called Savoiardi in italian), used to make tiramisu and other desserts. you just cannot get good ones here.

i prefer amaretti cookies. i think the ones here are all imported b/c the market is so small.

dried pasta is not a good one to get from italy because people eat pasta fresh. and the flavoring comes from the fresh things you use with the pasta. freshly harvested olives, freshly grated top quality pasta, fresh chopped oregano, freshly olive oil of the season, fresh seafood and so forth.

they eat dried too. depends on the dish which one you use. but i have to ask her for small stuff that she can fit in her luggage cuz she never takes advantage of flying business and bringing an extra suitcase. i wish i could ask her to bring a whole suitcase of food but she won't do it. i've bought her clothes for the kids she wanted and she's left it behind b/c she couldn't fit it in her luggage and then she suffered a whole summer b4 cuz her son only had a couple prs of shorts.


sun-dried tomatoes... anchovy fillets in olive oil... dried porcini (and other) mushrooms, capers are all unparalleled if good quality ones are bought there. a lot of the tomato products (you find some of them at WF) in tetra paks are just stunning - like plain tomato sauce, diced tomatoes etc. nothing like it here.

we obviously have different tastes. guess what. i don't really like sun-dried tomatoes, anchovies or capers. maybe i'll ask her to bring porcinis.

when they built my whole foods it was supposed to be the second largest in the country after the flagship store in texas. i think they have like one type of tetrapack tomatoes, probably pomi. i was really disappointed b/c they have so many canned tomato products and canned tomatoes have the biggest problem w/ the bpa's from the acid.

olives, of course. even at the finest stores here you won't find a fraction of the sheer variety of olives found in italy, or the quality for that matter. they taste completely different than any olive you have eaten in the US.

don't like olives either

italy is a big cultivar of nuts and (dried) fruits... pine nuts (for pesto and baking), hazelnuts, almonds (ever had a green almond? i was addicted to them as a kid), apricots, chestnuts...

hmmm, maybe pine nuts but i've only used them to make pesto and basil is only really good in the summer and she comes early feb, early sept and thanksgiving. i think i would have to wait for next sept b/c basil is still good. what's up w/ the basil being black even at the supermarket the last couple yrs? and then it turns black in a couple days in the fridge. was not like that b4. used to stay nice for awhile in the fridge. i like dried apricots but turkish are supposed to be the best in the world although i think a majority now come from california. sams club berkeley brand or whatever it's called actually are very good dried apricots. very moist and sweet instead of hard and sour.

dried beans and lentils of different kinds... for example the fava beans from italy? unparalleled. or the castelluccio lentils (they're a little like french lentils)...

not a bean fan either.

italy has several special varieties of rice... arborio, vianole, carnaroli

i like risotto but i don't like all the work. and most restaurants here don't make it correctly. it should be more porridgy and most of the time here they make it almost like regular rice. guess what happens to the turkey carcass after thanksgiving in a chinese household. gets turned into rice porridge more like oatmeal.

maybe i could have her bring some arborio and we could make it while she's here and all the nieces and nephews can help cook


italy is all about fresh food and fresh flavors. so essentially, think of any italian dish, anything that can be either made freshly or harvested will be fresh - pasta, bread, pizza dough, fruits and veggies, cheeses.

guess what sil brings home to italy? chip clips and zip lock bags!

in the beginning i would buy her chip clips every 6 months for yrs until i got her the metal kind and she hasn't asked anymore. she told me ziplocs are available in france but since i never ask her for money (cuz i get them really cheap to free) that's always on the checklist. but i think she uses them for all sorts of stuff.


so the best thing to import are things that in their ingredient state are supposed to be in a dried form, or preserved or canned. because that's the way it will be used in italian food, and so you will find high quality packaged versions of it.

p.s. Lindt... don't feel badly about it. it really isn't a special chocolate in italy. if you want real italian chocolate you'd get it from small shops in Italy that make chocolates from scratch. and no it's not crazy expensive. italy is about tiny mom and pop stores.
it's like wanting to eat barbecue in the carolinas or texas. you go to a no-frills, mom and pop joint and eat freshly barbecued meat with house made sauce. you don't buy kraft barbecue sauce and pour it over pre-cooked frozen ribs.

she said the most popular choco in italy is the perugina baci but grandparents can't eat hard stuff/nuts.

like anywhere else in the world, the small gourmet shops are going to make better stuff than the mass-produced.

i'll bet anything your artichoke egg rolls were so salty b/c they were frozen.


next time I'm in Italy, I'll get you whatever food you want from there. promise.

thanks so much for the offer but as i said, sil comes 3X/yr. i just gotta come up w/ what to ask her to bring over.

we are not big cheese eaters

don't really like hazelnuts.

don't really like hazelnut flavored coffee

don't really like nutella

not that crazy about the nuts or the chocolate

not a big cornmeal fan either

i don't really like sun-dried tomatoes, anchovies or capers

don't like olives either

not a bean fan either.

And you make fun of me because I don't like poultry, fish, or most vegetables? Ohhhh, how I've been waiting for this day!

You can make your own! I used vodka, although you can use rum, and Madagascar vanilla bean. Just google for a recipe you like!

All that food you described sounds amazing! I have never tried an olive that I liked, however I would love to try the italian ones. I just might like them. I LOVE cheese too. I don't like blue cheese but I am not afraid to try anything. I figure I only live once, life is way to short, I'll never get to travel the world like I wish I could, so if I get a chance to try something like you describe I am going for it. I may not be all that keen on trying really crazy foods like bugs or brains (my mom ate brains in her eggs in England for weeks before she realized what it was and then refused) but depending on the situation I just might try it

And you make fun of me because I don't like poultry, fish, or most vegetables? Ohhhh, how I've been waiting for this day!

Anyone an expert on state tax laws and if target can charge tax when state laws say no? I need to know how to proceed with my complaint and if it's valid.

From their fb page in reply to my post: Target charges sales tax in all U.S.states except Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon as these states don't have sales tax.

need way more detail. you aren't giving any.