Legal food

When I checked Facebook this morning, I noticed a post from Martha’s Backyard, an Auckland store that sells American products (especially food items and snack foods, but other things, too). I’ve mentioned Martha’s on this blog several times. I’m a real fan. But, their post was odd.

The post (pictured above – click to enlarge) was actually a re-posting of an email they sent out to customers like me. It was talking about unloading the latest container of products from the USA, and then added:

“As a result of corporate bullying but hey, we'll remain positive and won't go there… we have had a complete review done of our products and unfortunately a few were identified as containing ingredients not allowed in New Zealand. It is because of our continued integrity at Martha's Backyard that months ago we discontinued these products to satisfy New Zealand's rules.”

I don’t know the context—maybe the government officials seemed “bullying”, since it’s not unusual for such government officials to be, well, gruff, for example. However, without more explanation, it comes across as a bit arrogant, as if New Zealand law shouldn’t apply equally.

The message said that officials banned products mostly because they contained the artificial food colouring, FD&C Red No. 3, which has been shown to cause cancer in humans. In addition to being used as a food colouring, it’s also used to colour teeth for showing plaque, in printing inks and other industrial uses. It’s banned in many European countries, but can be used freely in the USA.

Food standards in this part of the world are set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). This is a legal entity set up by the New Zealand and Australian governments in 1991 to ensure that food standards are the same in both countries. This essentially makes New Zealand and Australia one market for food manufacturers, something that has enormous advantages for New Zealand and Australian companies, as well as those from overseas.

Our food standards can be completely different from the USA. For example, no additives apart from salt and water are permitted in butter sold in New Zealand. If it has any other (permitted) additive, it must be called a “spread”, not butter. Our standards are definitely much better than US standards in some cases, however, whether better, worse or neutral, FSANZ standards are the law and it’s every business’ responsibility to know and obey the law.

FSANZ publishes its standards online, though I think they’re difficult to sort through. But they are available. Most products will be okay, but before importing a new product, I would’ve thought it would be a good idea to check out its ingredients and verify they’re legal for sale in New Zealand (or Australia, for that matter).

This isn’t just about Martha’s, of course. Foodmarkets that carry foreign products (Asian foodmarkets, for example) are also monitored to make sure the products they sell comply with FSANZ standards. Some products DO slip through, however, but officials act when they become aware that products with illegal ingredients are on sale.

There are also separate biosecurity rules at play (viable seeds can’t be imported, for example). This doesn’t usually affect imported processed products, however, so most retail stores shouldn’t have many run-ins over those rules.

The bottom line, as I said earlier, is that it’s the responsibility of businesses to know and obey the law. Yes, government departments would do well to get a customer service ethos into the way they work, rather than have inspectors act as if they see themselves as, basically, cops. Regardless, they’re acting to keep food products sold in this country safe, and the fact that they find products with illegal ingredients isn’t their fault.

The law is the law, after all.

This post is a revised and expanded version of something I originally posted on Facebook.

USA in my supermarket

I’ve often talked about first arriving in New Zealand and looking for American food products, or equivalent local products. Now, my local grocery store stocks American products they never have before. I honestly don’t know what to make of it.

The photo at left (click to embiggen) is of my local Countdown’s selection of strictly US food products. Other more international products are available in their normal sections (like, Coke and Pepsi, Kellogg’s cereals, those sorts of things*). The stuff in the new section isn’t normally or easily available in New Zealand.

On the one hand, I think this is great: When I want something American, it’s nice to have it a few minutes drive away. However, I have no idea what some of those products are, and I know that most of them aren’t healthy at all.

Among the “good to have” things, though, is the tinned pumpkin (photo below). A while back, someone Tweeted a photo of the tinned pumpkin at their local Countdown, and I've been on the look out for it ever since. Countdown charges $4.99 for a tin, while the only other place I could get it, American products store Martha’s Backyard, sells it for $6 (all prices subject to change, of course). Being able to get that easily will come in handy, and I may actually make pumpkin pie more often (I’ve never made it for my mother-in-law, for example).

The availability of these products means, I guess, that there are enough North Americans living in this area that the stuff will actually sell. It’s in the international foods area of the store, right next to South African products, and I know there are many South Africans living on the North Shore.

However, it won’t replace Martha’s Backyard. Part of the attraction of that store for me is the immersion it offers—kind of like going back to my homeland without enduring that long flight. A small section in my local grocery store just can't offer that kind of experience.

So, this is a good, but not great thing. Sometimes, that really is enough.

*I should note that most of those products are actually made locally, like Kellogg's cereals, for example, that are made in Australia. Coke and Pepsi products are made here, but differently: They have sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. Other products actually made in North America are available in the store and have been for a long time, things like Best Foods mayonnaise and Canadian maple syrup.

Things you miss and then find

People who’ve moved far from their home country have one thing in common: We all miss things about our homeland. There are people, of course, places and even products that are only available in our home country. For me, the products gap was closed a bit today.

Auckland has specialist supermarkets carrying goods imported from China, Japan, Korea, India and so on. In parts of Auckland, ordinary groceries have entire sections devoted to products imported from South Africa.

American expats have a bit more trouble finding some of their favourite things from home. Sure, some American brands are made locally (or in Australia), but there are many other things that aren’t available. So we often bring things back to New Zealand when we return from a trip to the US, as I memorably did the last time I was there. Others will have folks send them “care packages”. It’s all a hassle.

Many years ago, long before I had a blog, there was a store/café selling American food products in Albany on Auckland’s North Shore. It’s long gone (even the buildings are gone). The other day, however, we found out about a store in the Mt. Wellington area of Auckland that sold American-made products not otherwise available in New Zealand. Today, we went for a visit.

Martha’s Backyard (pictured above) says it has “Genuine USA brands, clothing & food”, and when I walked in, I felt like a kid in a toy store. “Ooooo! Tootsie Rolls! Ooooo, Fritos! Ooooo, A&W Root Beer!” All kinds of things I see only in the US. “Just back the car up to the door,” I told Nigel, “and I’ll fill it up.” While I didn’t want everything they sold, I wanted enough that I made a large purchase (pictured below—don’t judge).

I always feel weird in a store like that: There are all sorts of brands I remember from my regular trips to US grocery stores, even if I bought different brands. But when I see those brands, I’m transported back to my life in the US—and yet I know I’m in New Zealand; the whole thing is unsettling and disorienting.

So I bought things (many things) that I can’t buy in New Zealand normally. The weird thing is, I bought some things I hadn’t had for many—maybe many, many—years before I left the US. The fact that I couldn’t buy them made me want them more than I otherwise would have.

Still, I think it’s a good thing to do this from time to time: It connects one’s past with one’s present. And, anyway, a few treats—in the moderation I was today totally lacking—are no problem.

I didn’t buy everything I saw: Reynold’s Aluminum Foil (Why? We have foil in NZ…), the largest container of ice tea mix I’ve seen in my life, and much more. I can always get them later, after all.

I signed up for the email mailing list. I also joined the Twinkie Club (the first time in decades I can claim that…). When they bring in Twinkies, they give club members first dibs, because they don’t last long in the shop.

I know some people reading this, or looking at the photo below, will roll their eyes. But before judging me or the many other shoppers too harshly, do this: Think of one product you really enjoy, something you take totally for granted. Now, imagine having no way of getting that product unless you travel thousands of miles and tens of hours to get it. Then, imagine that being the case for many years. If you imagine all that, you’ll imagine part of the life of a typical expat.

At least now I have access to little bits of my homeland, and my past: My past and present are joined, and if it takes some American junk food to do that, I can live with that.

Martha’s Backyard: 114 Lunn Av, Mt Wellington, Auckland. Open Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday 10-4. Phone: (09) 570-7976. It's well worth a visit for any American expat.

Celebrating the Fourth of July

Often one of the hardest things for expats to do is retain a sense of connection with their homeland, and national holidays are good example of that. Some expat communities have an easier time with all that than others, particularly if they have large numbers, but for me, it’s a bit different.

How much this is an issue for an expat depends on the person, how connected they feel to their homeland (or how much they want to remain connected), how they're received in their new country, and so on. I’ve been lucky: I’ve been able to make my own celebrations, something that’s become easier as the years have passed.

In my early years in New Zealand, it was difficult to celebrate American holidays in American ways. Thanksgiving is a good example, and I wrote about that way back in 2007, the second year of this blog. The biggest issue for me in New Zealand, though, has been that the seasons here are reversed, which matters for the two quintessentially American holidays, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.

Having a Fourth of July BBQ in the middle of winter isn’t very appealing, and neither is putting on a big roast dinner in the middle of spring. For Americans, it would be like celebrating Independence Day in January and Thanksgiving in May. Sound weird? Exactly.

This year, we decided to have some family and friends (well, they’re family, too, really) around for a BBQ on Friday the 3rd because it was most convenient for everyone. We had to stay inside because it was cold and a winter rainstorm was expected, but on the plus side, we had some pretty good American-style products, and actual American products, as I wrote about recently.

The photo up top is the decorations I put up for where the American snacks were served before dinner (Fritos, Crunchy Cheetos, NZ made potato chips and dip), and later, after dinner, various M&M flavours, and Reese’s Pieces). The pop-up banner thingee was made in China, as was the serving tray. The paper plates (leftovers in wrappers are in the photo) and the little flags were made in the USA.

It’s easier than ever to get American-style products in New Zealand, or ones that are close enough. For example, I bought Hellers American Style Frankfurters, and they tasted like the real deal (they were a little longer and thinner than I had in the USA). I also had Australian-made MasterFoods Mild American Mustard, something I always have on hand. I also got something totally new to me: Sun Harvest Gherkin Relish (which, oddly, doesn’t seem to have a website), the closest to American pickle relish I’ve ever found in NZ. We also had cooked onion, so the fully dressed hot dogs were a triumph.

Here’s something to remind me this is NOT the USA: The hotdogs came six to a packet—and so did the buns! The buns were also called “long bread rolls” and needed to be sliced. Typically, Kiwis slit them across the top, making vertical halves, which I like better than the US-style of slicing them to separate the top from the bottom. The Kiwi way tends to hold everything in better.

We served Al Brown & Co Prime Angus Patties (partly because it better suited Kiwi tastes). Interestingly, one of Al Brown's restaurants, Federal Deli (or The Fed) is Brown's take on a New York delicatessen, I've been there a couple times and I think it's nice, though only inspired by American delis, and not actually very American (which probably suits Kiwis better, to be honest).

I also drank Budweiser, the only American beer the supermarket had. Yes, I know that since it’s made by a London-based, Belgian-Brazilian company, it's technically no longer an American beer brand; but, then, neither was the mustard or the hotdogs, so clearly I’m not a purist.

Cold weather aside, it was a pleasant evening, and it reminded me enough of my homeland to give me the warm fuzzies (or maybe that was the beer…). And now, I’m thinking about maybe doing Thanksgiving this year, too.

We had hotdogs for lunch today, too. Tonight, we had steak done on the BBQ, and I put A1 Steak Sauce on mine (that came from Martha’s Backyard).

I love life in New Zealand, and for a lot of reasons. But I’ve also wanted to retain a sense of connection to my homeland because I think that to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been, and also that it’s important to have a connection with one’s ancestors. I think it helps ground a person.

So, when Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July roll around, I get a little reflective. And, more often than not, I manage to pay homage to my heritage, even if only in small ways. This year, it was a very good celebration. I don't know if my experiences, and the products I found, will be of any use to my fellow Americans in New Zealand, or any other expats, for that matter, but sharing our journeys makes it easier for other expats to find their own way, I think.

Happy Fourth of July to my fellow Americans, wherever you may live in the world!

Update July 5, 2015: Our niece reminded me today that she also made us all s'mores for dessert—the first time either Nigel or I'd tried them. How on earth could I have left that out of the post?! They were very nice, made with American products from Martha's Backyard. I'm not really a fan of sweets any more, but at some point I'd like to have them again.

Previously
Fourth of July (2014)
Are you proud? (2013)
Fourth of July (2011)
Time, distance and home (2009)

Saturday adventures

Today was a good day. We had food and adventures, and adventures with food. And we even had a little rain, for the first time in ages.

We went out for lunch with a couple friends, which was nice in itself, but it was also Japanese, my favourite. It was a great time.

Then, it was time for errands. There’s nothing unusual in that, but at one point we were at Pakuranga Plaza, a shopping centre I’ve never been to before. I thought it was quite nice—small, as malls go, but bigger than the local shopping centre I go to the most. I also noticed that the clientele there was far more ethnically diverse than any NZ mall or shopping centre I’ve visited. We may have stopped for an ice cream while there…

I mentioned to Nigel that I’d seen on Facebook that Martha’s Backyard had put a bunch of stuff on clearance to make room for a new container coming, and since it was on the way, we stopped in. The results are in the photo above.

It’s worth noting that Martha’s has a lot of non-food items, including US flags and bunting and such, but what’s always drawn me are the food products, junk food in particular. I can get substitutes for pretty much all the products I used to use in the US, sometimes better than what I liked, and increasingly I can get American products at my local grocery stores. Countdown, for example, has a section of American products, and New World sells Pop Tarts in boxes (Coundown sells packs of two, which, if I really thought about it, is a better option…).

Even so, Martha’s sells things I can’t get anywhere else, even if I can get others from the same manufacturer at my grocery store. Pop Tarts are a good example of this, actually: Martha’s has the unfrosted version, which I prefer, while the grocery stores sell only the frosted version. Sidenote: When the chocolate frosted ones came out when I was a kid, I tried one and I thought my teeth would fall out from the sugar in them. This is why I don’t like the frosted version: They’re far too sweet for me.

Most of the other stuff in the photo I’ve bought before, but some bear special mention. For example, the garlic salt is because Nigel was curious what it was like, as compared to our usual local brand (it’s small, so if we hate it we can throw it out without any real loss). The sauerkraut is because we like to make our own Reubens and sauerkraut isn’t necessarily always easy to find. The ranch dressing was on clearance (and, actually, cheaper than locally-made salad dressing, which is probably better for me, but we’ll just ignore that). The Chex Mix is the cereals aren’t easy to get here, so making it myself isn’t easy (it’s not bad, by the way).

But the special guest star this time is the German Chocolate cake mix, which I can’t buy in New Zealand (Betty Crocker cake mixes, along with Australasian brands, are on our shelves, but they’re pretty standard ones; I usually make cakes from scratch, but even there, the real ingredients aren't all that easy to find in NZ). This matters because that was may favourite cake when I was a kid, and it’s what I always got for my birthday cake—every single year. My birthday is Wednesday, so I decided I’ll make myself my favourite birthday cake that I couldn’t have otherwise. Maybe I’ll mention it again when I make it.

So, today was a day mostly about food: We had lunch with friends and had what is pretty much my favourite kind of non-European food. We had a snack at a mall I’ve never been to before, and I found that interesting. Then, for the first time in a couple years, I got some naughty American food products I can't otherwise get. But it was also about relaxed good times together for Nigel and me. What more could I ask?

Today was a good day.

Restocking the naughty

Yesterday, we went to Martha’s Backyward, the Auckland store that sells imported American products. I didn’t realise at the time that I last shopped there in May, 2010, when they were still at their old location. I wanted to go there to pick up some authentic American snacks to have while we watch the election results from the US.

The new store is in a MUCH better location, it seemed larger than the old one, and it was certainly better stocked. Also, the prices are surprisingly reasonable, especially considering they’re imported in relatively small amounts. Many of the products are super-duper sized (like enormous boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, apparently with individual ones inside; I didn’t buy any), and enormous containers of ground coffee.

The store was quite busy when we were there, early Sunday afternoon, and I noticed something fascinating. Among some of the shoppers there was an almost frenzy-like behaviour, as if they had to stock up on their favourite products quickly, before they were sold out. Most people weren’t like that, of course, and I also noticed quite a few Kiwi accents among the shoppers, as well as some I couldn’t identify. I realised the store is also popular among people who have simply spent time in the USA or Canada, not just American expats. I don’t know why I hadn’t realised that before.

The products I bought were mostly normal-sized (the A-1 was the largest size they had), and even if the packaging had changed from what I remembered, the brands were familiar. I didn’t buy everything I thought of buying, and there were some repeats from my first trip as well as my second trip. Still, it wasn’t totally the same. Photo of the latest haul is above.

Of special note (for me) were the Little Debbie Nutty Bars, something I’ve told Americans that I really did miss about the USA (and some threatened to send me some…). Yes, we have Ginger Ale in New Zealand, but it is more ginger-y and almost burns compared to Canada Dry (the brand I bought in the US). Similarly, we do have pickles (usually called “gherkins”), but they’re noting like Kosher Dills, and usually smaller. Most of the rest was, as it often is, for nostalgia’s sake.

The ice tea mix was also a variation on something I can get at our local grocery store: I can buy ready-made, bottled Lipton ice tea in several flavours. However, they don’t sell ice tea mix, and when I want just a glass, it’s far more convenient than the jar-in-the-sun method (which I used when I first moved to New Zealand). However, I didn’t see any of “the largest container of ice tea mix I’ve seen in my life” like I did the first trip, and the size I bought was respectable. This is actually almost defiantly American: I don’t know of any Kiwis who drink ice tea, though someone besides me must!

We’re pretty much all set for watching the election results: Nigel’s sister and niece bought snacks there, too, to bring with them, as well as an American flag-themed party snack tray thingy. Between us, we should have a pretty good—and pretty authentic— spread of American snacks.

Martha’s Backyard (pictured at right) is a must-visit stop for any American expat in Auckland, and also those who spent time in North America. If nothing else, it’ll be kind of like visiting home without going there.

The store is located in the Harvey Norman Plaza, 44 Mt Wellington Highway, Mt Wellington, Auckland (next to Rebel Sport, blue building at the end). They’re open seven days from 10am to 5pm. (09) 570-7976. They also have a Facebook Page, and can be found on Twitter.

A question of taste

Ever since I started going to Martha’s Backyard, the Auckland store that sells imported American products (especially junk food), I’ve been puzzled about the taste of those products, how they sometimes differ so much from what I remember. I even wrote a post about some of those differences.

Since then, I’ve thought that in some cases the formulations or manufacturing processes may have changed, or maybe I just don’t remember them correctly. Either or both may be true in some cases, but I’ve come to think that the reason for the disconnect is that I’ve changed, and New Zealand is a big part of that.

Our tastes change over time. For example, as a child we may have liked some sickly-sweet soft drink that we now find repulsive. Or, we’ve grown to love something we once thought disgusting, like coffee or dark chocolate. Okay, maybe those examples say more about me, but you get the point.

I arrived in New Zealand with my 1995 American tastes and found that I couldn’t get many of the food products I was used to. As any expat would do, I adapted, using local equivalents or just forgetting about things I once took for granted. In either case, I became used to New Zealand products and tastes that are very different from those in America.

For example, soft drinks in New Zealand have sugar, not high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—and that includes locally-made American brands. In fact, you’d have to look hard to find products with HFCS in them. Sugar starts out cheaper, and corn isn’t subsidised here as it is in the US. In general, NZ-made food products are less sweet or fatty than American products (of course there are exceptions). But they also tend to be far less processed, with the fully- or nearly fully-prepared, packaged meals far less common here.

The difference with HFCS may be mainly one of cost, but much of the rest can be accounted for by the fact that New Zealand is a small country and it takes maybe a day for a product to get from factory to store (or distribution centre, at least). In the US, a product can take days or weeks to reach grocery store shelves. Preservatives and other additives make that practical in the US.

Kiwis, for all the media worry about the declining rate of consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, appear to me to cook more and from generally fresher ingredients than do Americans. I know that our own meals never come from a packet merely needing to be heated up (although, we do probably eat too many takeaway meals).

My point is that I’ve grown used to fresher products, and I don’t like the taste of processed food anymore. I also don’t like things as sweet as I used to. All of which explains, at least in part, why the taste of the American products is so jarring to me.

Finally on the subject of taste, a local food manufacturer is now producing Doritos here in NZ. As part of my second haul at Martha’s, I bought a little snack pack of the “Nacho Cheese” flavour of the American original. The NZ version of that flavour tastes nothing like the American but, in fact, tastes a bit like nachos with cheese—imagine that!—complete with a hint of salsa taste. The NZ flavour called “Cheese Supreme” tastes like the American “Nacho Cheese”. That’s just one small indication of how New Zealand tastes really are different.

I suppose the fact that I’m so interested in junk food probably speaks volumes about my own tastes—or lack thereof.

The second haul

Our friends Dawn and Darren, American expats, arrived from Wellington yesterday. In the afternoon, I picked them up at their hotel and took them to Martha’s Backyard, the Auckland store selling products imported from America. Some of what Dawn and Darren bought was for folks back in Wellington. Sadly, I can’t claim anything similar (my haul is pictured above—don’t judge).

The store’s selection was different than the last time I was there, which is to be expected. This time they had Twinkies in stock. Despite ignoring the email inviting me to rush in and buy some, I ended up taking home a box of 20 (what was I thinking?). Most of the rest of my haul was, like my first trip, purely because of nostalgia.

It’s good that the stuff I bought isn’t available in New Zealand or I’d end up larger than our house. Did I say not available in New Zealand? Today I saw the “Reese’s Crispy Crunchy” at our local dairy; I’d never even heard of it until I went to Martha’s and now I see it available at a local store.

Speaking of not knowing, I saw bottles of drink for sale, but I didn’t recognise the label. I thought it looked like one of those high caffeine, high sugar “energy” drinks. “That’s Gatorade”,” Darren told me. The bottle’s shape and label had changed completely in the years since I left the US.

And that’s the irony of the whole thing. Many products reminded me of years gone by, bits and pieces from my own past. But many of them don’t have the same packaging that I remember, and it turns out the realities of the contents don’t connect with my memories, so are they really a connection with my past?

In a sense, it doesn’t really matter. I see the products and have a nostalgic connection; as an expat, that’s something I can’t experience all that often. People who don’t move far from home have touchstones to keep them connected to their past. But those who move far away, especially those who move to another country, lose those connections.

Junk food can be a force for good.

Preparing for the day

Today I went with our niece and her boyfriend to Martha’s Backyard (“The American Store”) to get some authentic American goodies to help celebrate Independence Day this coming Saturday. Yes, I still do that.

When I shared the photo above on Facebook, I added, “You can take the boy out of the USA, but you can't take the USA out of the boy!” and there’s truth in that. No matter where I live, I am the sum of all I’ve experienced in my life, and all my formative years—including early adulthood—were spent in the USA. No matter what, I’ll always be American. Always.

To properly celebrate my birth country’s national day, I needed to get some supplies, things I can’t get at the local supermarket (like, most obviously, all the Coca-Cola products grocery stores stock, for example). In particular, I wanted some decorations. It was a mixed result.

I already have a US flag that I brought with me (of course I did!), but what I really wanted was some bunting. Unfortunately, they were sold out, so I got some other decorations (which I’m not sharing here at the moment, since I may make a YouTube video about the day or, at the very least, I’ll take some photos). I also got a few other bits and pieces we’ll need.

I probably “ought” to be at least somewhat embarrassed that it took our Kiwi niece to remind me that where I’m from, we always talked about a “cook out” where Kiwis would talk about a BBQ. I’m so used to the NZ way of speaking (so “Kiwified”, if you will) that “cook out” sounds bizarre to me now.

But not everything sounds strange, even as I struggle to, first, remember what was part of my own Fourth of July celebrations, and, second, work out what will translate to a winter setting. That’s not as easy as it may seem.

For example, it's cold, so ice cream is dodgy. Watermelon is almost certainly unavailable (I haven’t looked). And some guests want pumpkin pie (Hey! It IS winter here…). Still, burgers and hot dogs are relatively easy to do, so there’s that. But meshing two cultures is never easy at the best of times.

All of this is superficial, really, but it gets at a larger point: I think it’s important for expats to remain connected to the land of their birth, even decades later, and Fourth of July and Thanksgiving are the two most obvious for me. The fact that the Fourth is on a Saturday this year makes it convenient to celebrate—and remember, particularly at a time when the US Supreme Court has delivered so much to celebrate.

“You can take the boy out of the USA, but you can't take the USA out of the boy!” Exactly so.

Food, glorious food

This time of year is about food and more food. Social gatherings have food (and drink…), and also more food. It’s a terrible time of year to be on a diet, so I’ll just ignore the consequences of all that food—for this post, anyway.

We had family visiting us over the weekend and, among other things, I was telling them about some of the things Americans often have for Thanksgiving dinner. As a result of that, we decided I’d make some cornbread for our Christmas dinner (which will require a trip to Martha’s Backyard for authentic American ingredients—such a burden I have!). I’m planning on bringing some other special American food treats, but I’ll leave that as a surprise for the family (some of whom read this blog…).

But among other food things that have come up recently as that Tom, a guy I know through social media, has started a food blog, The Cooking Petrolhead (so-named because he’s also bigtime into cars). Among the things he’s done—even before the blog—is reviving forgotten/abandoned British regional recipes, baking in particular. That’s interesting in itself for me because, like a lot of Americans, I have some English ancestry, but none of the English recipes were handed down over the generations.

However, Tom recently decided to make an American fruitcake, thereby doubling the number of them in the world (and he mentions that joke in the post). I don’t like fruitcake, but he does (and I found out though all this that an American friend of mine actually likes it, too, so I know two people who like it…). Even though I don’t like fruitcake, I found Tom’s enthusiasm infectious.

American fruitcake is not what people in Britain or New Zealand would have at Christmas. Since New Zealand has British heritage, Christmas cake is common here (and Tom shared a recipe for that, too).

But in New Zealand, one of the most common Christmas treats is Christmas mince pies (here’s a good recipe). Many people do make them, but—maybe unusually—most commercial ones in the supermarket are actually quite nice. I’m sure we’ll have some of them at Christmas.

Next month, I’ll probably do some food-related posts of my own, as I make things for our Christmas feast. Or, as I just have things in this season of food. Well, both, actually. In the meantime, if you’re into food, check out Tom’s blog.

Bon Apetit!

Fourth sale

The USA's Independence Day has always featured picnics and BBQs, fireworks and maybe parades—all the good, wholesome stuff seen in movies and TV shows. The chart above from Statista shows Americans' spending for Independence Day in 2016, and 2017 will probably be similar. It's a lot of money.

The chart says the average spending in 2017 will be US$73.42 (today, about NZ$100.88) per person. To put that into perspective, Gallup just reported that in June, the average American reported spending US$103 per day (NZ$141.52). Maybe Americans will spend less because it's a holiday?

But spending is always a part of Independence Day—what better way to celebrate a national day than with retail sales, right? Just I did like last year, I thought I'd share a few promotional emails I got for sales today.

First up, like last year, is the Chicago Tribune (at left), but unlike last year they managed to find a way to make it sort of thematically related to the day. More or less. This is a similar promotion to last year, but with more relevant messaging. Points for effort.

Next up, as it was last year, the email promotion from the publishing company whose digital magazine I used to subsribe to (below). Just as they did last year, this ad has no real connection to the holiday, except for the name. Interestingly, just as with the Tribune, this year's deal is better than last year's.

And finally, another message from New Zealand computer/tech retailer PB Tech (below). I said that last year's was “far more USSR than USA”, and this year's they ignore all that to reference a science fiction movie. I'm not sure if evoking aliens who destroyed the White House was really the best way to tag a sale to Independence Day, though. This year they mentioned Cyber Monday, a made-up day that some New Zealand retailers are trying to leverage, since “Black Friday”, which they referenced last year, hasn't exactly caught on in New Zealand.

The other store I mentioned last year, Martha's Backyard, now does a lot of their marketing through their Facebook Page, and the email I got from them was June 19, and not as graphically related to the holiday as these other examples.

Finally, an important point: The USA's Independence Day isn't alone in being leveraged for retail sales events. Every year New Zealanders are bombarded with ads and letterbox flyers for “Waitangi Day Sales”. Those are always even less relevent to the holiday than these July 4th examples are. I suppose that could be some comfort to Americans who hate commercialisation.

As for me, today was just an ordinary day. As I've told many friends over the years, in New Zealand we have July fourth: It;s the day between July third and July fifth. Oh, well.

Happy Independence Day, America!

Previously
Selling Independence Day (2016)
Celebrating the Fourth of July (2015)
Fourth of July (2014)
Are you proud? (2013)
Fourth of July (2011)
Time, distance and home (2009)

Selling Independence Day

New Zealand is not the United States, or vice versa. You’d think this would be obvious, but it’s surprising how much the lines get blurred. One of the blurring forces is retail advertising in New Zealand, even though it sometimes doesn’t quite work. Still, as an American loving overseas, it is a sort of connection to my homeland.

Even when I lived in the USA, Independence Day (Fourth of July) was first and foremost, a day off work. That may seem trivial, but we had so few of them that each one was special. After that was time with family and/or friends, and sales at various retailers. Hooking such sales onto an irrelevant public holiday is as American as a Pavlova—wait, what? Yep, NZ retailers try and appropriate Independence Day for sales, too, which seems fair since some Americans are now trying to claim they created New Zealand’s national dessert.

I don’t pay any attention to advertising flyers delivered to our letterbox—they go directly to the recycling bin unread—but I do pay attention to ads in emails (even though I don’t act on them). So, I thought I’d share a few of those emailed ads.

The first ad, up top, is form the Chicago Tribune, still promoting digital subscriptions. The paper has been sending me solicitations for their digital subscriptions several days a week, every week, and sometimes, like this one, they’re irrelevantly tied to a holiday. Still, points for persistence, I suppose.

Next up (at right) is a straightforward Fourth of July sale from a publisher whose digital magazine I used to subscribe to. They, too, are persistent in these messages, and promotion of their various other online offerings. In this case, though, I redacted the name of the publisher, because it’s funny to me to do so.

Now, ads here in New Zealand, and the first of those is for technology retailer PB Tech. I recently landed on their email list when a company I ordered from in the past was bought by PB Tech. That’s fine with me, though, because I’ve bought a LOT of stuff from PB Tech physical stores over the years, and now I have an online account. Even so, quite frankly, this was just bizarre—far more USSR than USA, I thought. Points for mentioning the other American import, Black Friday, which also has no relevance to New Zealand.

And finally, the one NZ email ad I saw that was totally relevant, Martha’s Backyard, “The American Store” here in Auckland. This particular email arrived this morning, and acknowledges that while it’s the fourth here, it’s not the fourth in the USA until tomorrow. An expat’s life, eh?

So, those are typical Fourth of July/Independence Day sale promotions I received over the past week.

As for me, I had lunch at Denny’s today, which is pretty American, really. Other than that, it was an ordinary day. After all, New Zealand is not the United States, or vice versa.

Previously
Celebrating the Fourth of July (2015)
Fourth of July (2014)
Are you proud? (2013)
Fourth of July (2011)
Time, distance and home (2009)

Politics, it seems

Between work and some projects around the house, I’ve been pretty busy lately—too busy to blog. Because of it, I’ve noticed something interesting: Politics, it seems, is what people read the most on this blog.

Now, I can’t say I’m totally surprised about that—it’s what I’m most passionate about, after all. But I didn’t expect to see such a huge difference between page views of my political posts as compared to my non-political posts.

It’s not just any politics, either, but US politics, particularly posts about the rightwing and especially about anti-gay rightwing politics. However, the even larger lesson is the importance of daily—or, at least, regular—blogging. Folks may still view a post they’re not interested in because they’re used to stopping by regularly, but if there’s no post for several days, they get out of the habit.

There are a couple qualifiers: First, this is a couple weeks, and they may not be typical. Second, my previous weeks could also have been atypical, and this recent past may actually be more typical. This is why it’s always a bad idea to draw too many conclusions from a limited data set: There’s not enough information.

If I look at long-term data, politics actually may not be the thing readers are most interested in. Consider my top five most-viewed posts of all-time according to Blogger):

1. Spammers stumped me – 22 November 2012. With nearly 43,000 pageviews, I bet that the title drew hits from spambots, which were the subject of that post. Completely non-political.
2. Rhetoric matters – 11 January 2012 About anti-gay bigots complaints about the use of the word gay.
3. Things you miss and then find – 1 April 2010. This was my first post about Martha’s Backyard, an Auckland store that carries American food products. I’ve published more posts about it since. Completely non-political.
4. I cannot say more – 11 May 2012. A post of a video by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell demolishing an anti-gay bigot’s rhetoric.
5. The version before – December 8, 2010. A post of a video that inspired another video I’d posted earlier. Completely non-political.

Four of the top five NZ blogs that choose to be ranked on Open Parachute are expressly political blogs that sometimes post other things. Mine’s about whatever I find interesting at the moment, and very often that’s something political.

All of which is basically a “huh!” kind of thing for me; I don’t pay much attention to website stats, and even when I do, I don’t let it influence what I post. Part of the reason is that long-term stats tell me that popular topics change over time, so there’s no point second-guessing myself. Besides, I’m clearly not that organised.

Even so, I’ll be posting more about politics in the weeks ahead: The USA and New Zealand both have elections this year, so I’m sure to have things to say and, anyway, it interests me. Politics, it seems, is what keep me coming back to this blog, too.

The day before Thanksgiving

You can take the boy out of the USA, but... It's Thursday here in New Zealand, so time for my annual turkey sandwich. 😊 I'm actually doing a mini Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow, something I don't often do. Otherwise, I'd probably have had my sandwich tomorrow. #expatlife #AmeriNZ #thanksgiving 🇺🇸🇳🇿🇺🇸🇳🇿 🦃

A photo posted by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Nov 23, 2016 at 3:35pm PST

This is a first: A post in which I’m sharing not one, but TWO Instagram photos! That’s because they’re both from today, and both about Thanksgiving. Well, the day before Thanksgiving.

Today is the fourth Thursday in November, which, of course, means absolutely nothing in this part of the world. In my American homeland, that Thursday is Thanksgiving, but that’s also tomorrow their time. It gets confusing even for me: Which day should I celebrate? I’ve often had a turkey sandwich on this particular Thursday, as I did today (the packaging has changed since I last did this back in 2014). As it happens, I will be making a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, and that’s why both of these photos are relevant.

After my turkey sandwich lunch, I headed out to the store to get a few supplies, including tinned pumpkin. Only one grocery chain, Countdown, carries it, saving me a special trip to Martha’s Backyard. And that’s where the problems began.

Countdown has a smartphone App I wanted to check to see which area store carried the pumpkin. I had to update the App first. Then, I checked and the area stores did have them.

So, I went to my usual Countdown, and couldn’t find them. They’ve always been in the “International” section, in the part where imported American products are stocked in small quantities. So, I asked at the service desk and the kind lady checked, and their computer did, indeed, show they had some. She went with me to where they were supposed to be, and there was nothing. Then I noticed the price was on the shelf, but there was no stock—they’d spread out marshmallow spread to fill the shelf. She checked in back, but they couldn’t find any there, either.

So, off I went to another Countdown in a local mall (that has two—which is long story). I wandered around, couldn’t find and it was just about to give up, when—Boom!—there they were, and many cans, too (also in that store’s American area of their International section).

So, I grabbed a couple cans (and checked the expiry date…), and as I was putting them in the trolley, I noticed what was on the top of one. The photo of that is below.

I said on Instagram that I was briefly homesick, and that’s actually true: Seeing that on the top of the can of pumpkin I was buying so I could make pies for Thanksgiving was enough to give me “the feels”. And then I went and finished my shopping.

So, I now have all my supplies, and tomorrow will be a busy day. But at least I finally have my tinned pumpkin, and I had my traditional turkey sandwich. Jeez, all that AND beautiful weather, this was a great day, this day before Thanksgiving.

So, I found tinned pumpkin at the second Countdown I went to (the only chain that stocks it), I grab one, and what do I see on the top? Sniff. Briefly homesick. #expatlife #thanksgivingnz

A photo posted by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Nov 23, 2016 at 7:17pm PST

Awesome response

Honey Maid launched an ad campaign called “This Is Wholesome”. One commercial in the series included two gay dads. Wingnuts’ heads exploded—and now Honey Maid has responded with the video above.

The original commercial (below) was pretty good as a positive, feel-good ad, treating gay families as another form of family, so I could easily guess what Nabisco, the maker of Honey Maid, would be in for. The radical right didn’t disappoint me: They demanded that their fellow bigots bombard Nabisco with messages, and the bigots obliged. But in the video response from Honey Maid, they say the supportive and positive messages they received outnumbered the bad ones ten times over. THAT is awesome.

I’ve said repeatedly that love always defeats hate, but sometimes it takes a long time to do so. In this case, at least, we’ve seen it happen much faster. Which is why the response above appeals to me so much: Symbolically turning hate into love.

The fact that some people still become enraged at depictions of gay families shows how far we still have to go. I bet they also got hate mail because of their interracial couple, too, though I suspect not nearly as many as about the current obsession of the far right, LGBT people. This may be the 21st century, but that doesn’t mean that hatred and bigotry have gone away—YET. The positive outcome this time helps rekindle my fires of hope for a while longer.

The ad that started all this:



New Zealand readers can buy Honey Maid Graham Crackers from Martha’s Backyard in Auckland.

A welcome diversion

This week I’ve been flat out working, with little time for much of anything—other than work, of course. That obviously included blogging, apart from a few quick posts. Today was a welcome diversion from all that.

Our friends Dawn and Darren, who are American expats who live in Wellington, were up in Auckland for the weekend. So, we met them for lunch, going to Federal Delicatessen, which is an Kiwi chef’s interpretation of a New York Jewish deli. The name, by the way, is because it’s on Federal Street.

After lunch, we were going to take them to the airport, but we had some extra time and decided to stop by Martha’s Backyard. Nigel took the scenic route (literally, actually) through Mission Bay and Kohimarama.

The photo above is of our latest haul—pretty subdued by our standards (actually, the shelves were rather empty, and I heard a worker telling a customer that a new container was expected soon. Dawn and I were talking about how over the years we’ve been here we’ve found Kiwi substitutes for the things we used to buy in the USA, or started making things from scratch (like, for example, cakes, without using cake mixes).

Here’s a little confession: A lot of the things I used to like—either when I lived in the USA or that I used to seek out at American products stores—are things I don’t like any more. US soft drinks, for example, taste weird to me because they have high fructose corn syrup in them (the ones we have in New Zealand, even Coke and Pepsi, don’t—they have sugar). Other products I now find too salty, or too sweet, or whatever. Apart from Little Debbie Nutty Bars, which still taste exactly as I remember them, thankfully—I don’t know what else I’d get to feel nostalgic about otherwise.

A further example of this change is buying the Ziplock sandwhich bags, but that’s about being a thrifty shopper. Ziplock bags aren’t sold here, but similar ones from Glad are. The Glad sandwich size bags are just under 12 cents each, while the Ziplock bags worked out to less than 7 cents each. Ironically, I don’t actually use them for sandwiches, but for storage. Still, for something that doesn’t spoil, this was a good buy (unlike, say, the cases of those little cans of Vienna Sausages—does anyone actually eat those things?!—or the cases of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or the giant bags of buttermilk pancake mix, or the super-tanker size powdered drink canisters…).

The fact that I was more excited about a bargain in sandwich bags than in junk food probably says a lot about how my food tastes have changed. That, and the fact we bought so little junk food. I guess times really do change.

We dropped Dawn and Darren off at the airport—too soon!—and came home so I could finish up work, which I did. Regular blog service now resumes.

Hold the mayo

Roger Green recently wrote about “Mayonnaise and other important topics”. Mayonnaise isn't really important, of course, but it reminded me of one of the finer points of adjustment to expat life: Food choices. And mayonnaise choices.

When I arrived in New Zealand, the brand of mayonnaise used by most people that I knew was from Eta (a brand of Heinz-Wattie’s). I thought it was too sweet and too runny, so I didn't use it. Awhile later, Hellmann’s mayonnaise suddenly showed up in our grocery store, replaced soon after by Best Foods Mayonnaise (it’s the same product with different names). This was probably after Unilever bought Best Foods in 2000. It was the sort of mayonnaise that I liked.

We eventually settled on the Light version because it had half the fat of the regular version. One day, I happened to see a jar of it and a jar of Eta side by side and I compared the labels. It turns out that the Light version of Best Foods had about the same fat and sugar content as the regular version of Eta. That reminded me how different countries can have very different tastes.

Time passed, and we drifted away from mayonnaise. I later tried—and liked—Heinz’s “Seriously Good Mayonnaise”—in fact, there’s a jar in the fridge at the moment, though it may be a bit elderly by now. Mayonnaise, it’s fair to say, isn’t much of a "thing" for me anymore.

When I was growing up, my mother used Kraft’s “Miracle Whip” (though I have no idea why), and it was all I knew. Because of that, I don’t dislike it as Roger does, but, then, I haven’t had it in many, many years, so who knows? Things may have changed. I could get it from Martha’s Backyard, though I never have. I could also get Velveeta there, but haven’t done that, either. Some things are perhaps best left in the past.

As I’ve said previously, when I first arrived in New Zealand I had to find substitutes for products I knew and liked, though many of the ones I liked in the USA later showed up here, thanks to the brands’ multinational owners. Best Foods Mayonnaise was one such product.

I’ve also said that my tastes have changed over time, and I don’t necessarily still like the products I did when I lived in the USA. That’s probably inevitable as we adapt to our surroundings, and as our tastes change over time, which happens to most people.

I think that the globalisation of food product brands can make things easier for expats trying to adjust, but I wonder if it really serves us to have the same things in nearly every country. If variety is the spice of life, then the world is becoming a pretty bland place.

Obviously mayonnaise isn’t an important topic (for me or Roger), but it IS an example of how things have changed over time. When Best Foods Mayonnaise arrived in New Zealand, I was thrilled to have something I'd liked in my homeland. Now, I wonder if maybe it’s emblematic of the slow “banalisation” of the planet.

Whatever, mayo like all other condiments is a matter of personal taste. I couldn’t possibly care less about what someone else likes or doesn’t—just as long as I can say “hold the mayo” if I want to.

Arthur answers: Māori, Gays and Expat Longing

Today I begin a series of “Arthur Answers” posts, each answering questions posed to me after my latest “Ask Arthur” post. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d get any questions, but I got quite a few—so many, in fact, that I’ll be separating them into different posts so they each get the space they deserve.

The first question today comes from Facebook, where Scott asked:

“What is the status of LGBT people in the Māori Community? [Were] they more accepting to LGBT people before the British invaded?”

As you might suspect, the answer to the second question is yes, but that doesn’t mean the answer to the first is negative, because it isn’t.

Most Māori, like most Pākehā New Zealanders, are accepting of LGBT people, especially their relatives. There are, of course, conservative Māori, mostly older and invariably religious, who are not as accepting. Some of them, in fact, cling to a myth that homosexuality didn’t exist among Māori until the arrival of Europeans.

However, the evidence is clear that homosexual activity and relationships existed in pre-European times. Māori had a term for such relationships, Takatāpui, which roughly translates into English as "intimate companion of the same sex" or as "devoted companion of the same sex". This is not to suggest the presence of homosexuality as we now use the term, however, and sexuality and relationships may have been more fluid than they are now.

The European missionaries who came to New Zealand brought with them their concepts of “sin”, and when New Zealand became a British Colony in 1840, British laws against sex between men also came into force (there was never a law against two women have sex). The laws against men having sex were overturned in 1986 in when Homosexual Law Reform was passed by Parliament.

Since 1986, Māori LGBT people have been reclaiming the term Takatāpui as an identity that is both Māori and LGBT. In some senses, the current common term “queer” is most analogous to the modern usage because it is meant to embrace a fluidity of identity, but it doesn’t entirely fit because Takatāpui is meant to celebrate Māori identity, too.

In 2004, the New Zealand Parliament considered the Civil Union Act, and the leading opponent of the bill was a Māori fundamentalist protestant TV preacher, who led marches through Auckland and Wellington. Parliament passed the law. However, by 2013, the opposition to the marriage equality bill earlier this year was mainly from white fundamentalist protestants and Catholics. They were no more successful than the TV preacher had been, and Parliament enacted marriage equality. In both cases, then, opposition is more accurately described as being based on religion, not race.

Still bagging change

Back in August, I wrote a few times about New Zealand’s move away from single use plastic bags. It’s been a story that hasn’t been a straight line—is anything?—and progress is being made. We’ve probably all learned a lot along the way.

On August 23, I wrote about Countdown supermarkets switching from reusable bags to paper bags for deliveries. It didn’t happen quite as quickly as they implied it would. Last week, I received an email from them saying, “Over the coming weeks, online orders at your store will be packed into paper bags”. Back in August, I’d received an email from them declaring, “Shopping online? Your online order will now be packed into paper bags.” I have no idea what the delay was.

On the other hand, progress has been made. As their email last week put it:

With your help, we’ve stopped using single-use plastic carrier bags at checkouts and in our online shopping service, which means that 350 million of these plastic bags will no longer find their way to landfill, or worse, to our waterways and oceans.

An email from them in September said:

With your help, Countdown Pukekohe South alone has prevented on average 6,000 of these bags from entering New Zealand's waste stream – every single day.

Apparently, their copywriters struggle to phrase things in new ways so they—ahem—recycle phrasing. But another part of the September email caught my attention:

We're continuing to reduce and remove plastic from other parts of our store. Already this year, we've removed 70 tonnes of plastic from our produce section. And we'll be giving single-use plastic straws the flick from all our stores by 1 October 2018.

That last part certainly came true—they only sell paper straws now (though maybe they’ll eventually sell the reusable stainless steel straw sets that come with little cleaning brushes, like Storage Box is now selling).

They were talking about the single-use plastic bags that customers use to pack their produce, something my usual store was still using at that point, though apparently some stores had switched to paper. But that September email underscored a problem I’d already found.

I’d bought reusable mesh bags for produce and took them to Countdown when I did my grocery shopping. I needed some onions, so I put them in the bag, and then looked at the unit price: The price of the loose onions was actually higher than the unit price of a pre-packed bag. What this means is that it was costing me more money to avoid the plastic bag of the pre-packed onions.

Having said that, there were some advantages: I could choose onions so they were all the appropriate size for anything we might make, rather than the—literal—mixed bag of the pre-pack. And, once I got them home, I put them into an onion storage bag I’d also bought: It’s breathable, but it also blocks out light to discourage the onions going bad. It works really well. And, I had no plastic bag to get rid of. Still, I think that if I’m going to go to the trouble of packing my own onions, I ought to save a little over the pre-packed options.

Last week, I visited a grocery store I hadn’t been to before, New World in Papakura, and was very surprised: They weren’t pushing reusable bags. I brought my bags into the store, as I now always do, and I was pretty much the only shopper doing that. As I understand it, the Foodstuffs’ New World and Four Square stores will be single-use plastic bag free on January 1. Countdown already is, and I’d have thought that the New World, at least, would be, too, by now. The Australian-owned company that owns Countdown, Progressive, has a chain of smaller stores called Fresh Choice (which I gather is similar to Foodstuffs’ Four Square) that are advertising they're phasing out single-use plastic bags.

Today I stopped in our local Four Square, and they had a bunch of options for bags available—still single use plastic, but also some for purchase, from cheap heavy-duty plastic ones to large paper bags that looked similar to what I grew up with. The paper bags are what caught my attention.

The end of August, I talked about other bag problems, and part of what I needed was a solution for dealing with the cat box. I found that Countdown carried small paper bags they called “lunch bags”, but they were very small, the type used in any Kiwi dairy for packing pies, sausage rolls, and other yummy things—but single serving only. They were suitable for a small clean, but two days’ worth would overwhelm it.

I said in that late August post that most paper bags were expensive because I’d have to order them from a specialty supplier. Well, a few days ago I felt inspired: If anyone in New Zealand carried American-style flat bottom lunch bags, I had a hunch who would, and I was right. It turns out I can get the bags from Martha’s Backyard, the American products store I’ve mentioned frequently. They sell a 50-pack bag for $3.50 (today, about US$2.36). Those large bags I saw today at Four Square, sold for around 20 cents each (today about 13 US cents), would be perfect for major clean outs.

There are bags designed for dog poop, and I have some somewhere I can use up. But compostable versions are very expensive, so paper is a much cheaper alternative. This search is getting somewhere, though.

Which still leaves the problem of the kitchen bin. I said in that late August post that the home compostable bags I bought for our kitchen rubbish bin were too small and the sides could slide down. I found out that this meant the sides could easily stick to the plastic bin, and, being short, they left nothing to grab onto to pull the bags out. Worst, the last one I used ripped open when I tried to pull it out, and the rubbish went all over the floor (fortunately, since we compost, the rubbish wasn’t yucky).

When I was at New World, I found they sold the 60-litre “Extra Large” version of the compostable bin liner bags (apparently, there are even large ones…). The extra large ones are slightly wider—650mm rather than 600mm—but the important part is that they’re significantly deeper: 950mm rather than 710mm. This is large enough, but there are only five bags in a pack, rather than 15 in a pack of the smaller ones, which also means that the larger bags are $1.12 each (76 US cents) while the smaller ones are only 46 cents each (31 US cents). Theoretically, these should last up to two weeks per bag, since we don’t generate that much rubbish, but the price per bag is significantly higher. These larger ones have handles, like plastic ones often do, which so far seems to make them easier to remove.

So, this story that hasn’t been a straight line, but progress is being made all around. That’s the important point. I wouldn’t say it’s in the bag, though.

The products/companies listed and their names are all registered trademarks, and are used here for purposes of description and clarity. No company or entity provided any support or payment for this blog post, and all products used were purchased by me at normal retail prices. So, the opinions I expressed are my own genuinely held opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the manufacturers, any retailer, or any known human being, alive or dead, real or corporate. Just so we’re clear.