Hey everyone!
Hope your week is going well so far.
I’m putting together a care package for a friend in the south of England, which so far includes Scottish made soap, homemade Scottish tablet, and some artisan-made oatcakes.
It got me thinking: what’s a food, place, or custom from your country that you love to share with others? Do you gift or share them with people you meet on your travels or while sitting?
Looking forward to reading your replies.
Jenny 
When I was in Europe teaching kids English, I brought them Sees butterscotch suckers. Sees candies is very popular in the US. Long lines out the door with each major holiday. The well known butterscotch suckers are delicious and loved by both adults and kids so also brought for the parents. Some parents would ask me if I can ship them more when I returned. They were also easy to pack in the suitcase.
Not my country but we are permanent residents. Our favourite thing was to take guests out to try the local delicacy Balut. I won’t post a picture but let enquiring minds the fun of googling it. Not sure they would be popular as gifts though.
And I had to YouTube it for goodness sakes . I will now never forgive you for that visual. I hope your guests are not vegetarians.
I’ve heard of Balut, @Oztravels - definitely not something to do an online search for!
When you take a guest out to try it, do you partake in the dish as well?
Absolutely! (Stupid male ego has no bounds 
)
If you ever visit the province of Quebec (Canada) you must try poutine. The common ingredients are French fries, cheese curds and brown gravy. There are all sorts of variants with different sauces (such as spaghetti sauce, that’s my favorite, Italian poutine). Some restaurants have 10 or 20 different varieties. There is a week at the beginning of February called “poutine week” where restaurants compete for the best poutine, even restaurants that usually don’t serve them. It is an acquired taste and it’s not a light lunch but people here love it.
When I visit other countries and exchange homes, I always bring a few items from Trader Joe’s (USA), like Everything but the Bagel Seasoning and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. When we have visitors from other countries, we love to do a big backyard BBQ in the summer with the bounty of fresh garden produce (corn, tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, beets, etc), great bread, and grilled fish, chicken, or sausages!! If you are passing through Oregon, you are welcome to join us!
I hear such good things about poutine, @gchampagne, it’s something I really hope to try one day! Canada has always felt like a place that I’d like to visit.
@PVGemini your BBQ sounds absolutely heavenly, I’d love to have such a bountiful garden one day! Do you bake your own bread or do you have a preferred brand?
You can usually get Poutine in the UK where they play ice hockey, because of the number of Canadian players on the teams. You buy it at matches in Sheffield where we have the Steelers, or at The Gravy Train food venue and various food festivals
I’ve taken visitors from abroad to U.S. national parks, which are stunning and diverse.
Depending on where we’re living in the country, I’ll also show them elements unique to the area. Like we now live near a lush scenic canyon on a huge river in the Pacific Northwest. The canyon runs for more than 80 miles and up to 4,000 feet deep, with 90+ waterfalls. There are gorgeous viewpoints along the way and we also visit the most notable waterfalls, which offer nice walks or hikes.
Across another part of the river lies another state, an easy drive from us. A city there has a great riverfront, with many outdoor restaurants and shops. We take folks there, too.
Depending on whether they like the ocean, we might take them to beach towns on day trips. Oregon is known for a beautiful coastline along the length of the state, which is protected for public use. The state is bigger than the entire U.K., so how far we explore depends on our guests’ time and inclination.
We also are within an easy drive to wine country and a charming, walkable city with tasting rooms, restaurants, shops and such.
If it’s fall, we’ll go leaf peeping. If it’s winter, we might go to a ski resort/lodge area that’s less than an hour away.
We live about 10 minutes from a historical downtown, so depending on the season, we might take them to a farmers market there, or the quaint local history museum.
Our state is known for hazelnuts and marionberries (a sweet and tart blackberry), so if the season is right, we get some of those and/or treats made from them — pies, ice cream, jam and more.
That’s the sort of thing we do for guests who aren’t comfortable driving themselves. If they are, we loan them a spare car and send them off on adventures, then we meet up for dinner.
I grew up in Lake Charles , Louisiana . I enjoy telling people about the many things that make that state unique . The food, the culture, parishes instead of counties. I’ll give them tips about how to enjoy Mardi Gras .
Love afternoon tea. During the pandemic, we had to make do at home. Sometimes, we’d buy pastries from nearby bakeries. I found making all the sandwiches time consuming enough.
We have a unique Oregon twist on afternoon tea — a steampunk tea house. The food there is terrific. I’ve taken guests there as well.
Wellll…I live in Wisconsin…were known for “drinking”! Ha, actually beer, bloody mary’s and Old Fashioneds are big here…along with cheese curds. Luckily I’m a wine drinker, so I dont fit into that Wisconsin Drinker category…AND…I’m actually from Minnesota, so that counts me out too! 
We did a sit where the host made a sourdough loaf to accompany our evening meal. It was delicious. He showed us how to do it, left us the recipe and asked us to ‘feed’ the starter during his absence.
I could have demolished the whole thing with best butter and a slab of cheese.
When we’ve road tripped through Wisconsin, we liked to stop at farms / cheese makers. In parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, we also enjoyed poutine.
Wisconsin is a major cheese producer for the U.S. In that part of the country (the U.S. Midwest), we saw signs for church blessings of livestock, which is unique.
In our state, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, we have a major cheese producer that sells nationwide — Tillamook has a big factory and tourist center near our coast. The factory shows visitors how cheese is made.
It also has a restaurant that offers dishes made with Tillamook products. And there’s a large shop that sells loads of cheeses, including varieties that aren’t widely distributed. They make lots of ice cream, too. Flavors include marionberry, which is local to Oregon.
@jenny, as dual citizens then we tend to bring gifts from the most recently visited ‘home country’. We also favour items that are relatively easy/light to carry as we often visit quite a few housesits back-to-back on a single, international adventure.
Sometimes gifts have been Scottish shortbread - often popular! We have taken shortbread blocks from Tesco, M&S and other supermarkets to many countries.
Recently we took Canadian maple syrup hard candies - in cute maple leaf shape. Cute and frankly an unusual taste.
We also leave a postcard after each housesit, with a little note. Those postcards often depict our home countries. Postcards are wonderfully light to carry too.
