When living abroad, sometimes you become very creative trying to partake in something that reminds you of home. This is my story of trying to recreate s'mores with less than ideal ingredients.
One summer while living in China I had an extreme craving for s'mores. Considering there are only 3 ingredients, I figured I could make it happen. I scoured all the "foreign food" sections of the local supermarkets for graham crackers and marshmallows with no luck. I couldn't shake the craving, though... so I decided to adapt and overcome by using ingredients that I COULD find. It doesn't seem that difficult, does it? That's what I thought...
My first task was to find something to replace the graham crackers. I thought this would be easier than it actually was... come to find out, the only cookie that didn't have any additional flavors to it were some butter cookies from a Chinese brand - so that's what I got.
As I continued my search, I figured marshmallows shouldn't be THAT hard to find.. . Only to realize that ALL Chinese marshmallows have fruit flavors. I honestly don't remember what brand or flavor marshmallow I bought. It quite possibly could have been peach flavored.
My last, but easiest, ingredient to get was chocolate. At that time Hershey's was not readily available in Yantai - so I went with a better brand (which was preferable to any other options available to me). I bought Dove milk chocolate.
My next hurdle was actually making the S'mores. My stove top did not work properly (the last time someone attempted to turn it on they singed their arm hairs off) so I had to be creative. I DID have a toaster oven. So that's how I created my s'mores like concoction. I put the s'mores together and threw it in the toaster oven on toast for a while. Although the chocolate was extremely runny (as you probably know, Dove is quite creamy) and the cookie wasn't anything similar to a graham cracker this concoction was quite delicious. I might recreate them one day... Maybe.
If you've lived abroad and had to be creative to meet a craving, let me know your story in the comments section.
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