"but why would anyone take as a gift to someone in another country a very unusual-tasting syrupy sugar product that isn't good for much of anything"


Because some ask for it to use in baking.
Re: cheese
There are alot of very good American goat cheeses.

I'm very confused.

Maybe the problem is lumping everyone together.

I love maple syrup, and since it's made in my state, it's pretty cheap. I love cheese, and since it's made in my state, it comes in dozens, nay hundreds of varieties and is still relatively inexpensive.

I refuse to give Wal Mart any business.

Lesson for the day:

There's only one thing in the world worse than Velveeta. Velveeta in a can.

NeoPatrick
Another lesson for the day - MAC users and PC users love to squabble

In the movie 'Infamous,' which I saw yesterday, it was implied that Velveeta was the one and only cheese available in Kansas in 1959.

I haven't seen Infamous, but obviously it's either a very silly movie or just one that cares nothing about facts.

As a Canadian, and proud of my maple syrup, I'll mention that there are some high end restaurants here that include maple syrup as a flavouring in their dishes (and I don't mean pancakes).

Velveeta...good university memories...

"Good morning, Mr. Phelps, your mission is to set up an OSX server cluster." Sounds like fun, lol :D "You must only use the graphical user interface provided. You must not use a real operating system."
>Velveeta
There still is Vegamite, as long as this is sold, Velveeta still is acceptable. Isn't Vegamite a cheese, btw?

Kerouac,

We live in Kansas. One time in grade school my daughter was supposed to bring an ethnic dish that reflected her heritage to school for a potluck. I asked her if she wanted to take Velveeta on Wonder Bread with Miracle Whip.

"there are some high end restaurants here that include maple syrup as a flavouring in their dishes"

There are self-styled "high end" restaurants in Paris that use commercial curry powder (as opposed to garam masala) as a flavouring in their dishes.

Doesn't make it acceptable. Just goes to show you can't trust the French.

kerouac, I'm not sure about that as Pizza Hut started in Wichita in 1958. Surely they didn't substitute the mozzarella with Velveeta? Then again...

Vegemite, a cheese? Good heavens no. It's a fermented yeast spread, very similar to Marmite. Thick, almost hard, black-brown paste you spread on buttered toast. Not for the faint-hearted.

I'm sure that in Kansas in 1959 you could find, in addition to Velveeta, Kraft singles, probably the orange bricks of American-style cheddar, the cardboard cylinders of grated "Parmesan" cheese, also from Kraft, and probably some sliced Swiss.

Things have changed. America does produce some of the finest cheese in the world now. I don't think Sally Jackson would agree there's "no such thing" as American cheese. Neither would the microproducers of unbelievable aged gouda and chevre that I get at my local farmers market.

I would not be at all surprised to hear that Pizza Hut wasn't using mozzarella in 1958; the stuff they use NOW barely qualifies.

My wife reminds me in the early days of the US entry to WW2, troopships would arrive in her Scottish town on the Clyde and embsrk on the train to other parts of the UK. Little children, she among them, would ask "Any gum, chum?" of the troops whenever the trains stopped.

Kerouac: Okay, walkinaround, I'm sure that with your supreme maple syrup knowledge, you can name at least 5 movies of (sic) television programs (not to mention books) in which maple syrup was prominently used AND named."

Walkinaround, sorry to step in, but here are 5 that came immediately to mind. All are movies or TV shows that have played in Europe (sometimes over and over and over).

1. Pulp Fiction
2. The Wedding Crashers
3. The Simpsons
4. CSI (Las Vegas, Miami AND New York, take your pick!)
5. Scrubs

<<America does produce some of the finest cheese in the world now.>>
Whenever we return to the States from Canada, the things that our American neighbors here ask us to bring are:
Canadian cheese
Tea bags
Maple Sugar candy
HP sauce

What do we return to Canada with?
electronic goods
anything from Trader Joes
Stuff from Bath & Body Works
Under Armour clothing (for the price)

Kerouac: Okay, walkinaround, I'm sure that with your supreme maple syrup knowledge, you can name at least 5 movies of (sic) television programs (not to mention books) in which maple syrup was prominently used AND named."

Surely maple syrup was mentioned in Sergeant Preston of the Mounted Police
Dudley Doright cartoons(with Snidley Whiplash)
Due South
Anne of Green Gables (for our Japanese friends)

I'm sure, I learned about maple syrup from my friends in Frostbite Falls!!
Those were the days. :-)

My local Sainsbury's has been selling maple syrup for years. So please don't bring any.....

Now the Porsche is another matter - just make sure you make it a manual....8-)

So, who said the words "maple syrup" in Pulp Fiction? I remember a coffee shop scene, of course. If there was a bottle of something brownish on the table, it might be mistaken for soy sauce or nuoc mam by more than half the population of the world, as those products are also used at breakfast.

kerouac's patronising lesson of the day---not all of the world uses maple syrup at breakfast.

a european thinking that the 'brown stuff' on the breakfast table of an american coffee shop is nuoc mam is about as ignorant as an american thinking that the 'brown stuff' on the table in a vietnamese cafe is maple syrup.

but thank you for yet another peak into your bizarre world. we will await the next lesson from the bizarre world of expat-gone-native-land. a misfit on either side of the atlantic.