Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Now that is dedication. I live about an hour and a half away from chicago right now. A while back, when in culinary school, I would kill time in the city while waiting for fellow car-pooling students to finish class by going to a Whole Foods Market....i was flabberghasted and totally smitten by all of the beautifully arranged, brightly colored produce, the gleaming fish counter filled with exotic fishes i'd never seen before, the intoxicating cheese counter, at which i gobbled up several samples, the ruby red beef at the meat counter that looked so perfectly fresh, the wildly eclectic pastry counter...i could go on and on...It was the beginning of a long, long love affair. I save my change, i try to snip a certain portion out of each of my measly weekly budget alottments i give myself, and i dream of going back there. When i have enough cash, finally, I pack my trusty igloo cooler in my car and stuff it full of ice and make the drive to one of three whole foods stores, which has taken nearly 3 hours at times due to expressway construction. i go nuts in there! I buy exactly what i want, what looks good, things i've never seen or tried before, without any regrets. Returning home with all the goodies i'd never find in boring northern indiana is like foodie christmas! Then, i dread going to the crappy mega marts and chain grocery stores at home, feeling punished for having to shop at them when the whole foods loot is gone! Peaks and valleys...sigh

I learn how to make it myself. After moving away from Chicago, there were all sorts of things that were easy to buy. Now I make all that, and more. Because you just can't get it here.

Learned to make it myself. Lived in Albany, NY a 5 minute walk from 5 different excellent Chinese take-outs. Where I live now I haven't found any Chinese restaurants that satisfy my craving for fried rice and pot stickers. So I make them myself. I'd probably still prefer some really good take-out, but my tastes have also changed somewhat since I've been making these myself. I use 1%ground turkey for the pot stickers, for example.

What a ritual but well worth it to you yeah? They do not sell Campell's chicken a dumpling soup in the NW for decades and used to have it all the time as a little kid and I never forgot the dumplings, I love them. So I found a place via internet that ships hard to find candy, soups, ect. and ordered about 10 cans and yes they still have that wonderful yummy dumps. lol. Another thing that they no longer have in Seattle at least is a Brugger's Bagel joint, every frikin place in the country has Bruegger's but Seattle and they have this chicken salad that I used to get when they were around that is to die for. But they don't ship things so I am trying to find someone that lives by a Brueggers that would be willing to overnight the chicken salad to me or at least try the chicken salad and tell me what they think is in the recipe, it's been so long I forgot the taste but I sure liked it a lot. Another thing that I will do is drive 200 miles round rrip to this small town because I love this place there that make devine cheesecake.

I make my own Quark cause I miss it so (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(cheese)
and I buy German bread at high prices in a store that is 40 minutes away, up yucky Rt 1 in Saugus, MA (http://www.karlssausage.com/) and store the extra loaves in the freezer so that I never run out.

Between travel for work and travel for fun, I don't have to go too far out of my way to *just* get good food or ingredients, even though I live in a little town with a very limited foodie scene. I try to eat what's good where I am so that I don't fall prey to whining about what I can't get here. However, I do bring home fresh flour tortillas from El Paso when I'm there and have been known to recruit others to throw a bag or two in the car for the 8 hour drive home on my behalf. I'm not that dedicated though, for a lot of things. My bf tried to get me to go to Scottsdale to bring him fresh chopped chicken liver a while back when I was on my way home from a work trip on the other end of the valley ... but even though I love him, there was no way in hell I was going to drive an extra 2-3 hours in that traffic for liver.

I'm an Upstate NYer who lived in Phoenix for several years. On visits "back east" I'd plan my vacation around places and events based almost entirely on food.

In those days, I loved Aunt Millie's Shroom Sauce. I'd buy several jars, wrap them in dish towels and pack in my suitcase. I'd also bring bagels back to the desert, and once I drove to Tucson because I heard a decent bagel shop opened up there.

When my brother lived in Hawaii and was unable to buy Dunkin Donuts coffee, I packed my carry-on backpack with pounds of the stuff to bring when I visited him. Oh, and I brought him some bagels, too.

@Chew on That - I'm originally from Sarnia, Ontario, which is right across from Port Huron, Michigan. I have never had pizza in NYC or Chicago, and am in no way an expert on pizza, but there are a few places there that have been around for decades, and are just far better than any of the chains.

Sorry for the "Canadianisms"... I have tonnes of them, and they may not be the favourite of everyone or much to their humour, but it's just the way I write...

@orangemiles: I second that. Sometimes you just can't make it yourself. I know of other people from home who have their particular favourite, and the live in Vancouver. A few times a year, they order a couple up cooked only half way, then frozen, and shipped packed in dry-ice to Vancouver. They finish cooking it off at home. Now that is dedication. And I'm sure they can get some pretty decent pizza somewhere closer to home.. but they just really like the pizza from home.

Black licorice cats paws (Katjes Katzenpfo:tchen) from Germany. I bring back about 10 bags each time. There is no US substitute!

Maid-Rites and Dutch Letters by Fed-Ex! Thanks, Mom! And when my daughter attended Barnard I regularly returned to Florida with a carry-on full of Zabar's goodies.

My little brother once carried a 5 pound block of provel cheese on a flight from St. Louis to Rochester, NY for me. We made homemade, St. Louis style pizza that night for all of our friends. They all said they liked it, although they were probably just being polite. I've discovered since I moved back to St. Louis that non-St. Louisans loathe the stuff.

I've never gone anywhere for anything, but when my b-i-l lived in Alaska in the 1960's, everyone would pack an extra bag of Campbell's soup because it was so expensive up there. It was hilarious watching seven family members go to seven different markets and buy up all the Campbell's soup they could find. I guess I am lucky I live somewhere where they have almost everything I want. Do miss good Jewish deli food.
But I can make my own chopped liver and I know of a place I can get knishes.

I lived in London for a couple of years. Having grown up in the Southwest in a Hispanic family, it wasn't long before I was scouring the city for some decent Mexican food. I found exquisite Tapas bars and marveled at the Pummelo sized Jamaican Avocados available at my local street market, but wherever I went, when I asked to see their chilies, all I got were the miniscule, hot peppers used in Asian cooking and small, waxy yellow chilies but nary an Anaheim, or New Mexican, or Ancho chili was to be seen. There were no flour tortillas (though, hot, fresh Naan was a decent substitute for a gordita) and no corn tortillas, nor even the Masa to make them. Christmas was fast approaching and I desperately wanted to make some comforting tamales. My Mom was so sweet that she sent me a package with yellow and white Masa, dry pinto beans, husks, and a glorious bag full of Ancho and Pasilla chilies. I had to beat the Masa by hand, but it was worth every ache and pain (and sure has made me appreciate the mixer I now have!). I must have made over 100 tamales which, between my friends and myself, lasted about a week.