Specialties stores can be a godsend
I currently live in the Philippines, but I'm from Norway. I can find a lot of similar products in the grocery store, but there will always be that one product you just can't find and this is were specialties stores come in handy
Most of you are probably more familiar with Asian specialty stores and we do have them as well in the Philippines. Most commonly here are the ones from Korea and China, with wide variety of goods from those countries
Crispbread with liverspread
I'm a big fan of liver spread on crispbread (rye bread), both impossible to find at regular grocery stores in this country
You can find "liver spread", but it's not the same. Liver spread from where I'm from, is commonly used as a spread on bread. While liver spread in this country is more designed to be part of a cooked meal
That's where specialty stores that import goods from Europe come in, a place where I can find liver spread, crispbread and more
Mashed potatoes, pies, dumplings and more
One common thing I go for, is frozen food. So much food I can't easily find at the local groceries stores or if I can find it, not the same level of quality I'm expecting
I just had some lovely beef pies from New Zealand and kids loved the corndogs from USA
Specialty stores regions
There's specialty stores for all different countries / regions. Some focus on foreign food in general (foreign for the country you're currently in) and other will more specialize in a specific country or regionYou can also find specialty stores focusing more on USA, which is an awesome place to find Mash potato, corndogs, pizzas, American sodas, candies and more
Snacks from around the world
A reason why many might visits a specialty store to a country / region they have no connection to, might be to try out snacks from other parts of the world
Just from my last trip to a specialty store, I found among other: Nutella Go with Pretzel Sticks from North America, M&M from USA, Seaweed snack from Korea, assorted candies from Spain and Czech Republic, croissant with chocolate filling from Italia and more
You'll be surprised how different some items can taste between countries. Take Fanta as an example, the taste of Fanta in Norway and France is night and day difference in taste. I thought the soda machine was broken the first time I tried Fanta in France and later found out that's how it taste
