Anyone know if you can bring those little cups of hummus with pretzels? I would like to bring some for one of my girls for a snack. Is peanut butter sold there? I know it wasn't years ago but I haven't looked for it since I had children,

nukesafe - the OP is busy being confused about train tickets.

dc2002 - you can buy hummus and pretzels in Europe.

Dc2002 you can buy little snack packages of Nutella too which our grandkids loved in Italy.

Who eats hummus with pretzels? You can buy both in France,but together? I doubt that. Yes, you can find peanut butter here and there, but it's certainly not a staple.

You can even buy peanut butter in Europe!

I have every sympathy for people with genuine food allergies and religious food requirements but importing cans of tuna from the US to europe is close to taking coals to Newcastle. [or cars to Detroit if you prefer].

What next? a thread asking if you can get Kellog's cornflakes in the US? and whether milk will go off in the hold?

<< a thread asking if you can get Kellog's cornflakes in the US >>

After eating British Kellogg's (double L, double G, ann!) no one would want to eat the US version that goes soggy in nanoseconds!

Some people like soggy cereal.

>>>If you don't rinse hardboiled eggs after boiling them, they will keep a month at room temperature. If you rinse after boiling, water (and its natural bacteria) enter through the pores of the shell (due to temperature difference, osmosis, etc) and spoil it quickly. <<<

That makes no sense. It isn't as if you put an egg into boiling water to start with. It would be cold water. By that theory, it would remove anything simply being in the cold water before it boils.

I had never heard the theory before, but considering why it might be true. Boiling would sterilize the egg. If it could be kept in that sterilized state, it wouldn't spoil so fast (though I sure would not want to eat one after a month), but then if you introduced unboiled water to the surface, it would absorb bacteria from the unboiled water, so no longer be sterile and would spoil more quickly. Is that the theory? In some crazy way, that makes sense, but many things make sense that are not true. Of no actual value to me, but now I am curious.

Never mind the eggs. I'm still trying to figure out why the OP seems determined to take contents of a mid size grocery store TO europe (as if there is no food there).

In Cork they dip the eggs in butter to preserve them or at least I saw that on tv so checked them out in the English market. They were shiny.
You all would not believe what people pack in suitcases and if you saw the mess a broken bottle of red wine makes you would place all your good clothes in gallon zip locks. Golf bags are the worst as they use them for all the left over liquor from the golf trip and never wrap them in anything.

<< if you saw the mess a broken bottle of red wine makes >>

The outside of my tan suitcase has experienced the mess from some idiot's broken red wine. I was very happy to see the state of his clothes when he opened his bag.

>>It isn't as if you put an egg into boiling water to start with. <<

It isn't?

The eggs, btw, would only be for the first day in case you were wondering and I would put it on ice. as for fruits and vegetables, it's easier to have some with us for the first few days, in case there's no supermarket or grocery nearby.

as for fruits and vegetables, it's easier to have some with us for the first few days, in case there's no supermarket or grocery nearby.>>

this is Europe you're visiting, not outer Mongolia. [who for all I know have a fruit stall on every corner]. all of the countries you are visiting have numerous shops selling fruit, and veg. and tinned tuna. [please tell us why you want to bring that with you]

yes, adrienne, of course it's Kellogg's. I'll never be able to look a cornflake in the eye again.

<< yes, adrienne, of course it's Kellogg's. I'll never be able to look a cornflake in the eye again. >>

Oh ann...you have me laughing! Once I saw your spelling of Kellogg's, the very old commercial jingle played in my head where they said "double L, double G, Kellogg's best to you." I loved that commercial (advert in British).

vincenzo - my mother taught me to slowly introduce the eggs into boiling water. Once I grew up I learned that she was nuts and you start the eggs in cold water and bring them to a boil. It's so much easier that way because there is less of a tendency for them to crack. This is for hard boiled. For poached you do plop the eggs into boiling water.

Maybe they are going into the mountains. I'd take egg substitute rather than whole eggs if I had to have eggs.

sorry, I saw you planned to cook them first. I could see hard boiled eggs if you are used to eating them.

Oh ann...you have me laughing! Once I saw your spelling of Kellogg's, the very old commercial jingle played in my head where they said "double L, double G, Kellogg's best to you." I loved that commercial (advert in British).>>

adrienne - are you saying that we had that advert in the UK? Really? it passed me by completely. Sounds fun though.

BTW, I always start eggs for boiling, hard or soft boiled, in cold water and bring to the boil. As well as stopping the shells breaking, it stops that nasty ring forming round the yolk. as for poached eggs, best made with really fresh eggs then you don't need vinegar in the water to make the whites coagulate round the yolk. but they're not much good for what the OP has in mind!