#because they call for pre-made ingredients like 'whipped topping' and various pudding/jelly/cake mixtures that just aren't sold here | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chamomileteainabuttercup · 2 years ago

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me: is writing a scene where Steve and Eddie go out and have lunch together at a little restaurant overlooking Lovers Lake and decide to splash out on dessert

me: it would be hilarious if they got pineapple upside-down cake but nah I'm going to look up cakes that were popular in the 1980s, and perhaps some from the 1970s because Hawkins restaurant menus were probably a bit out of touch

me: omfg Watergate Cake

#pineapple upside-down cake is a classic ofc #but I couldn't resist the water gate reference #(for... a scene that I've set in 1985 well before the water gate in Lovers Lake was opened)#also there's something about a cake made with box cake mix pistachio pudding mix a can of 7-Up and Cool Whip w/more pistachio pudding #that just feels appropriate for Eddie #you cannot even make such a cake in New Zealand #it is impossibly exotic to me #yes we have 7-Up and yes we have boxed cake mixes #but COOL WHIP? no #and PISTACHIO PUDDING MIX? no #honestly baffled by what the Americans call 'white cake' and 'yellow cake'#like what FLAVOURS are those? are they vanilla? are they buttery or lemony? or are they just SWEET #so many 'easy' American cake recipes are inaccessible to me #because they call for pre-made ingredients like 'whipped topping' and various pudding/jelly/cake mixtures that just aren't sold here #I make 'key lime pie' with whatever limes are available and a digestive biscuit crust #I sincerely do not care that it is not quite like an authentic key lime pie because you know what #it's nice #and as long as it's nice that's what matters #I recently ordered a big fuck-off box of their 'kosher salt'#just to try to figure out by EXAMINATION what kind of salt that is naturally sold here it most closely corresponds to #American food recipes (not necessarily baking recipes) are just fucking obsessed with kosher salt #IT'S NOT A THING HERE #we have table salt and coarse salt that you put in a grinder and flaky sea salt #THOSE ARE THE SALTS #I'm not trying to be a jerk about this so I hope it doesn't sound that way #it's just one of those things you run up against again and again if you like ‚ you know ‚ American STUFF #that they use terms in their recipes and instructions for STUFF that is absolutely bog-standard in their supermarkets #and totally opaque if you live elsewhere #we only just got one Costco in this country okay people

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