what do you miss

I've bought Far East brand before. Maybe at Marina Market on STT.

i too miss the county and state fairs. fall and spring even snow but not freezing weather. i love sweater weather. honeysuckle blue crabs, did i say that already? family, being able to drive to the mall

Island Hops-- Gourmet Gallery carries Far East brand products. I've bought various cous cous mixes there and I think they also have tabouli.

As for the original post, I also miss the megastores like Whole Foods and Central Market. However, I was delighted to find that Gourmet Gallery carries most of the exotic items I crave! Love that store-- both locations.

I just looked in the pantry, and actually the brand I have is Near East, not Far East. (??) Is that what you are looking for? What is currently in the pantry definitely came from Plaza.

Gourmet Gallery is really nice, but sooooooooo expensive!!

speee1dy, Yup, Aurthor Treachers!!!!!!
Yes, and Blue claw crabs!
Now, you gave yourself away, your from the east coast!
Love those things, & what fight they have!
I once had one fall on the floor, my old cat went after it, the crab grabbed it`s tail!
I was laughing my a$$ off (& feeling sorry for that cat at the same time).
I love animals, the cat was ok, but, those things can really hurt!

DUN, yep im from md and when we were little dad used to have all his cop budies over in the summer for crab parties or we would go to robertsons near la plata md. never been pinched by one though one time i spent all evening picking crabs and stuffed it into a paper cup to save for later, on the way home from robertsons i fell asleep holding my cup of crab, when i woke up at home it was gone. my brother ate it.
last time i ate there we had the biggest best juiciest crabs ever. thats all right, im going up in june. i will get some then.
animal lover here too. 3 indoor cats and we have a soup kitchen going for the outdoor boys.

Yes - The brand of tabouli is Near East (my mistake). In Plaza they have every version of their rice mixes and couscous but I've not found their tabouli. I think I have a secret nemesis that monitors the shipments and buys up all their tabouli before I can score some ;~}

Seriously though, there are far more things that I don't miss, i.e. cold weather, heavy traffic commutes, win at all costs attitudes, mass consumerism culture etc... There are so many good things about island life and culture that far outweigh the few items we can learn to do without. Sure it's an adjustment and the way some things function makes even the Missouri state DMV look well run, but that's no reflection on the incredibly open and friendly people who help create a wonderful sense of community. Problems and all this is still "America's Paradise".

At home mail delivery & trash pick-up.

Islandhops... if you are on STX... food town has a decent fresh tabouli. I still miss the Lebanese restaurant that used to be in Sion farm... excellent tabouli.

I miss bookstores you can spend hours in (although Undercover is cute... you can't hang there), I miss classes (craft, skills, cooking, etc.) you can enroll in, I miss stores like Kohls, TJMax and Target, I miss nice movie theaters, great grocery stores, and ethnic restaurants (Indian Please!). And super salad bars... like Fresh Tomatoes!

But... the missing makes them all the sweeter when I get to visit and enjoy them ,,, and I love living here more than I've loved anywhere else I've ever lived.

"But... the missing makes them all the sweeter when I get to visit and enjoy them ,,, and I love living here more than I've loved anywhere else I've ever lived."
True!
Going to Florida next month, can`t wait(though I`m sure i`ll be homesick & ready to come back)!
I`ll be sending a pallet from there as usual with items I can`t either get here, or (mostly) ones I can MUCH, MUCH cheaper!
I usually will buy & support local merchants if the mark up only includes our local extra costs here(VERY few).
I feel good about the savings as I don`t think our local food merchants have us in thier best interests!

Plaza and Food Town both have deli made tabouli, but do check the dates, particularly at Plaza. It is often old. That goes for all the pre-packaged deli food. Not so much at Food Town, but definitely Plaza.

A few things I miss:
Foreign and Indie films (at the movie theatre!)
Green tea ice cream at Japanese restaurants, and Shumai!
Indian food
Tastykakes and (fresh) Entenmann's
Coffee lounges
Affordable coffee beans
Seeing crocuses and daffodils pushing up thru the snow 🙂
Blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches (but we have bananaquits and lizards!)

Just curious but has anyone who has come back to the States tried shipping anything down in dry ice? Did it make it? I have daughters that live on St Croix and they love avocados so I bought them each a bag of very unripe ones and shipped them down..of course they weren't notified with a slip in their mailboxes until they had begun to ripen and rot...so much for St Croix postal service. If anyone has had any success please let me know how?

My mantra is if it's important or expensive, don't use the post office. I guess you can add perishable. Ship to a private mail service, like MailBoxes, Etc. next to Sunny Isle. They charge $5.00 per package you pick up. You can let them know you are expecting something, and they will call you when it arrives.

Just curious but has anyone who has come back to the States tried shipping anything down in dry ice? Did it make it? I have daughters that live on St Croix and they love avocados so I bought them each a bag of very unripe ones and shipped them down..of course they weren't notified with a slip in their mailboxes until they had begun to ripen and rot...so much for St Croix postal service. If anyone has had any success please let me know how?

Can't they just get local avocados, or is there something different about the stateside ones?

I have to say that I actually like our local avocados WAY more than I liked our stateside avocados. I can't even make guacamole anymore, the avocados are too good to mix up.

One thing we do have here is wonderful Mangos and Avacados.

One of my daughters has her PO Box at MailBoxes, etc. since their weren't any available at the post office she was close to. I have no issue with the avocados on St Croix it was just something I mailed because I knew they liked them and they are much less expensive here but again that has to be offset with the mailing fees.

I have had numerous issues with the post office since they have been on island and the hold up seems to stem mostly from Puerto Rico.

As I said in my first post was really wondering if the dry ice lasted long enough to make it to the island?

Black Raspberry ice cream
Peach trees and Apples trees
Growing GREAT tomatoes and cucumbers

Flat roads - long Sundays drives in the country
Lakes !!!

Mail delivery.
Trash, and recycle pick-up
Christmas Tree Shoppe, Target, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Big Lots, and Dollar Stores (where things really DO cost a dollar)

All food shopping

and most of all, I miss DRY CRISP sheets to sleep on !

I wouldn't move back for anything, but those are the things I miss. As someone else said though, it makes it all the sweeter when going back for a visit !

spring flowers from the north, lots of thunderstorms.family

Oh yeah, getting in my car and driving a few hours... in one direction, I can hit snow, in another, rolling hills and creeks, in another the ocean and sun. (Although not anywhere near as clean and pretty as our water and beaches)

And I agree with Suzette... crisp, dry sheets. I never realized what a luxury that was. 🙂

I wouldn't live anywhere else, though. At least, not at this time in my life.

bethburnett70, where did you move from? It sounds pretty perfect to me, I would love the variety.

sabrina, sounds like she from california??

Actually Phoenix, Arizona... and it's best asset was it's location relative to Mexico, California and the mountains of Nortern AZ.

beth have only been to the airport in phoenix i visit havasu. i didnt realize you were that close to the ocean in phoenix. i love az but it is way too dry