Alienaid - sweets and snacks - London, UK to San Francisco CA, USA

Matt observes his small cognitive disconnects visiting SF:
Realising that all the tiny things about America that I've seen in films, comic strips and so on aren't enormous cultural symbols or meaningful things at all. People skateboarding down the street, wearing baggy trousers, Twinkies et al: they're normal, like Hula Hoops (the crisps).

Sweets and snack foods are very local, and obviously emotionally important in a Proust's madeleines kind of way.
There are several shops in the Bay Area that make a tidy living by importing English/Australian etc packaged junk food and selling it to ex-pats at a huge mark-up. Similarly, there are specialists selling Indian condensed-milk sweets and nibbles (though these are genreally made fresh) and lots of Chinese/Japanese supermarkets full of endless variations on pot noodles.
I remember Dan pining for Oreos in London too...