The Same, but Different
The last time I went to England, I spent a full day exploring Harrods, the UK version of Macy’s. It’s titanic and stuffed with miniature stores within the main department store—the basement is a sprawling food emporium, complete with a fishmonger—but the section I spent the most time in was the bookstore. Sure, many of these titles were familiar; it’s not like we don’t have the Harry Potter series or Bridget Jones’s Diary in my Barnes & Noble at home. But here they had their original covers, and their original language. (Yes, some of the overt Britishisms in these books get “translated” for the American audience, which takes the fun out of wondering what the hell “jacket potatoes” really are.) That’s why any Anglophile will find it a total delight to browse Amazon UK And, being a total BBC addict, I can also locate DVDs not for sale in the States. (Word of warning: you must have a region free DVD player to watch them.) I do have to pay for international shipping, but think of it this way: it costs less than shipping my luggage from Heathrow Airport.
How Do You Say “Yum” in Spanish?
The last time I was in Spain, I had a meal so good, my eyes rolled back in my head, and I actually said out loud, “How can I get this in my suitcase?” Except my mouth was full so it sounded more like “mow camf I gef thess in meh zuthcase.” My mother, who was my travel companion at the time, needed no subtitles to understand me because she was thinking the same thing. “Dear God! Can we put this paella in a Ziploc baggy and just take it back?” Then a very real, but very ridiculous, conversation ensued about how we’d have to check our luggage because it had liquid and how it would make our clothes smell like food (not altogether unpleasant—I think for some men it may be more fetching than Chanel No. 5). Needless to say, we only packed paella into our stomachs. So that’s why I was so thrilled when I found La Tienda. Everything that makes Spanish food so delicious—the olives, the ham, even the paella pans—are all for sale here, and the only thing missing is the threat that my favorite cardigan will smell like saffron.
