Things I Miss

• Friendly's. I grew up near the home of Friendly's ice cream. It was a way of life! "Where ice cream makes the meal" - yeah, for some of us, literally! Sure, the ice cream quality and scoop sizes got smaller through time. (You're hard pressed to find a respectable number of chunks of cookie dough in their cookie dough ice cream. Their cookies and cream? A joke. Graced with maybe a dusting of chocolate cookie crumbs, if you're lucky... And I've seen on their receipts that a "scoop" of ice cream is 2oz. 2 oz!? a "scoop" should be at least a "serving size" of ice cream, and a "serving size" of ice cream is definitely 1/2C, which is 4 fluid ounces). And I remember when the Brownie Sundae crossed the $5 threshold... changing times... But still. A restaurant based on ice cream. I'd always meet up with friends there. And they have really great pickles. And I had grown completely immune to all the weird looks I'd get (as whatever ice cream companion I was with would knowingly chuckle) when I would order ice cream and pickles. They're the ones who do both well and have it all on hand for me at one place at one time. Don't be looking at me all suspecting and bemused when I request ice cream and pickles. It's just what I do. And on that note...
• Pickles! Pickles from Friendly's, or from wherever else would be serving sandwiches and have the perfect, beautiful, crisp, light green dill pickle spear. Or Claussen refrigerated pickles. One of my non-sweet indulgences that I'd often have on hand at home. Not to mention the lovely pickles in high school, and the Pickle Cult I helped to form. Haven't encountered notable pickles over here that I can find on a regular basis. Haven't really looked much, but I don't have high hopes in this place of depressing produce and slimy foods.
• A wide variety of ice cream, especially Ben and Jerry's. Yes, back on the ice cream. Well, I've often regularly spent on average maybe $20 a week on ice cream. There aren't many ice cream for ice cream sake places around here. Though there is this ice cream and pancake place here (pancakes to them here are almost more of a dessert. Which kind of both makes sense and is really weird.) in town that I have yet to check out. And I know I've spotted a Baskin Robbins in London, somewhere we drive past often, though I don't exactly remember where. But the selection of Ben and Jerry's flavoUrs here is kind of disappointing (though I should be grateful they have Ben and Jerry's at all!). There is this yummy amaretto with little amaretti cookies ice cream here by Carte D'Or, who I still suspect might be some soft frozen dairy dessert pseudo-ice cream product, though the package does say "ice cream". But I still have yet to acquaint myself with ice cream regulations here as well as I knew them for ice cream in the US, so who knows what they can legally consider "ice cream" here. The one saving grace in the UK ice cream world is Chin Chin Labs in Camden Town in London. An amazing liquid nitrogen ice cream parlour. A lucky few of you may have even heard my rants on liquid nitrogen ice cream and scientifically why it's tastier than regular old ice cream. And on that note, I should really go visit them again.
• Luna Bars and Zone Bars. Regular breakfast staples of mine back home. Nothing comparable here, really. Except for Slim Fast bars. But those are pretty gross. 
• Marshmallow Peeps and Russell Stover eggs. Yes, I know both candies come in "other holidays than Easter" forms, these days. Pumpkins, ghosts, Christmas trees, hearts, etc. But still. For some reason, nothing beats Easter candy in the US. (Plus the Russell Stover heart shaped box of chocolates for Valentines Day...) I don't even eat candy all too much. But come Easter time I stockpile the Marshmallow Peeps (*only* the yellow ones. Because, you know, it's just more natural and chickeny. And Peeps, specifically Peeps. Not the Bunnies.) and Russell Stover eggs. Especially the raspberry whip eggs, which I've managed to even recreate in my kitchen, but still, it's not the same. Easter candy has been another thing that I've tracked as a measure of society and the economy. Peeps just get more and more expensive, was a pack of 3 trays for $1, now maybe a pack of 2 trays for $1? Or if you find a 3-pack, it's well over $1. And Russell Stover eggs seem to get smaller and smaller, despite typically being 2/$1 at peak Easter candy season. And yes, ignoring the obvious, I *am* in the land of Cadbury Creme Eggs (and I still *must* visit Cadbury world, right in town here. I'm kind of ashamed I haven't yet), and for that I am grateful. But, see, I kind of OD'd on the Cadbury Creme Eggs years ago and got to the point where I'd buy them out of impulsive habit faster than I could consume them. Not to mention I have this crazy ritual of eating them with the utmost respect where it can take a half hour just to eat one. That all started my first time in London, when I ate a Cadbury creme egg every day for just about the whole seven weeks I stayed here. (I... think... I finally parted ways with my Cadbury Creme Egg wrapper chain when I sorted through stuff in moving over here...) There *is* also the wonderful Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry at McDonalds here around Easter time. So painfully disgusting and bad for you sounding, but it is the one thing that McDonalds has ever produced that made me alert and excited and take notice of where there might be a McDonalds in the area. 
• Brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts. Silly, stupid, worthless indulgences, they are. But something about it just tastes so right, and it's certainly a unique product. I see Pop Tarts here, but the prices are just ridiculous. Same with the novelty boxes of Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops and other junky cheap artificially flavoUred American foods. One of my friends here explained to me that they kind of try to get away from the artificial flavoUring and coloUring here. They just don't have as exciting flavoUrs of stuff here. (No matter how old I get, "blue" is still a pretty good flavor in my book). Though they do have an abundance of black currant flavoUred things here, which is pretty yummy and exciting. 
• Going to the gym for free, after work, at work's facilities. (You know, after all this food obsessing). Boy did I have it easy and convenient and cheap there. I did finally join a gym here and happily go on the way back from work, most days. But it's not *as* convenient. And I actually have to pay for it. 
• Rollerblading. I've got my skates, but it's too cold, and I'm not sure if there's a good path around here like the bike path I used to rollerblade along all the time. There are some lovely canals around here that could be nice to go for a skate or run along... but I'm just afraid of falling in the water!

Oh, right, and I miss friends and family, too... of course... yeah, that...