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Sweden second priciest for home comforts

It's the question on everyone's lips: Which country in The Local's network offers the best value for wistful expats craving comfort food and drink from home? Well, wonder no more!

Published: 14 October 2014 10:00 CEST

Sweden second priciest for home comforts

Photo credit: Shopping photo: Shutterstock

Our mission was this: hit the streets of Vienna, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Berlin, Rome, Lausanne and Oslo and fill a basket with 14 items that fill the hearts and clog the arteries of Anglophone foreigners everywhere.

When in Rome, why not sample some stracciatella soup, a plate of succulent osso buco, all topped off with tiramisù?

Forget about it! Where's my Jell-O!

THE SHOPPING LIST IN PICTURES:

14 Shades of Brown: Food and booze expats miss

Photo: Mikey Jones

What then will it cost to get hold of these delicacies in cities across Europe? Scroll over the heat map below to count the cost of foodie homesickness.

How we tracked down the goodies

Expats in the Swedish capital may not be able to get all the items they miss from home by visiting a single shop, but all the items in our expat shopping basket are findable – somewhere.

Many large grocery stores have a "world food" section that carries a smattering of foodstuffs from around the world. Often the items on our list can be found there, although at the Hemköp store we visited in central Stockholm, the items were generally tucked into shelves with similar items.

Rolf, the store's friendly head of purchasing, tells The Local that demand for typically American and British foodstuffs has been on the rise in recent years.

"We find expats and tourists often come in looking for certain items," he explains.

"But often they are also Swedes who've developed a taste for something while living abroad."

While many items (or their approximate) could be found at Hemköp, it took a visit to the English Shop on Södermalm to tick all the items off our list.

Nicole, a US-born clerk who's been working at the shop for six months has no trouble rattling off the items the sell the best.

"Marmite and Vegemite. I don't know why, but we can pretty much guarantee that the stuff will sell out and we'll have to order more," she says. "Skittles sell well too."

Asked what she misses most from home, Nicole mentions southern-style US grits, and caramel-pecan 'turtle' sweets.

"There's just nothing like them here," she says.Use the scroll bar on the chart below to see all the prices.

Incidentally, we're aware that we've navel-gazed somewhat and overlooked a lot of nationalities. Please let us know what you miss from your country in the comments or on social media. Can you give us the ingredients we need for another article?

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