Q: Wanting to send a parcel to let them know they're not forgotten, but basically clueless as to WHAT to send. Any ideas will be gratefully received. Many thanks, in advance!!
A: Okay... having spent four years in The States... things you CAN'T get include: Tim Tams, in fact... any chocolate-coated biscuits. Pollywaffles, Twisties, Cadbury Dairy Milk anything (they have this thing about Hershey's... yuck!). Anzac biscuits! In fact, any sort of decent biscuit. You can only get cookies over there. You don't mention their age, so this may be inappropriate, but BEER. Getting a cold VB in America is nigh on impossible! You can't find chutney either - so send chutney. Especially if they're into Indian cuisine. In fact, anything "Indian"... poppadoms, et al. I'd also suggest REAL lemonade. The stuff the Yanks pass off as lemonade is actually limon (ie a lemon/lime mix). Their Sprite tastes nothing like ours. And ginger ale! You cannot get a can of Schweppes Dry Ginger Ale. Yanks have ginger beer... and mint ginger beer to boot. Or send them some raspberry lemonade. Yanks have cranberry ginger ale... but it's not the same. And of course... it goes without saying... VEGEMITE. My mum used to send me those Vegemite cheese sticks. God I used to look forward to my "care package" from my mum. And... (this is something my dad popped in one day)... a "sealed" brown paper bag full of gum leaves. My dad wrote on the outside, "DO NOT OPEN -- throw on barbecue". Boy did I howl when I smelt those gum leaves burning. Hope this has given you some ideas.