What would you bring home from your foriegn travels if you didn't have to worry about customs regulations or limits?

I think for me it would be English bacon, creams and cheeses.

Foie gras and unpasteurized cheese from France.

Porcini mushrooms and prosciutto from Italy.

I would ship home as much wine as I could afford (from France and Italy)

Those little Brats from Nurnberg
and
just a wee bit of that stuff they smoke in Amsterdam

Eels?

Cheese, Cheese, Cheese and some wine and champagne to wash it down. My husband would add Cuban cigars.

ira

you crack me up

English gammon, apricots from Istanbul, chili crab from Singapore, wine from anywhere, Limca from India, more wine, good quality home made sausages, several stray cats I have met on my travels (for companionship not consumption!), terracotta planters, a 2CV...okay now I am getting carried away

Gasoline from Iraq

For those of you that would bring back French cheese from your travels, you may not be aware of this website: www.fromages.com, where you can order "authentic" french cheese (meaning unpasteurized). The cheeses are shipped overnight from a company in Tours. Of course, you'll pay a small fortune...but for me it's worth the occassional splurge!

Bon Apetit!
Diane

As many different variations of marijuana and hashish that I could find in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. (Sorry, offwego, a wee bit just wouldn't do). Peace.

Robyn

Ira: Pure foie gras is not a problem, but pâté is. There is no problem is bringing back unpasteurized cheese, and good cheese stores in Paris will date them and vacuum pack them for you. On this trip, we did not even bother declaring it.

If I didn't have to worry about the agriculture restrictions (and the genuine risks of taking in plant pests) and the super-sleuth beagles, I'd take home a piece of a root of a fig tree from Sicily or southern Italy, partly for sentimental reasons, and seeds or roots or cuttings to grow wildflowers and other local plants. Unpasteurized milk cheeses from France would be good, too, and maybe a cheese from one of the towns in Italy where my grandparents were born.

cmt - I'm with you. I know we shouldn't but have tried in past to bring cuttings in damp napkins back from spain. Had success with scented geraniums. We were in Manhattan in April and took back a couple of roots of ordinary grass and behold, we now have our own little patch of Central Park in England ( OK its a 9inch terracotta pot. )

<i>&quot;There is no problem is bringing back unpasteurized cheese, and good cheese stores in Paris will date them and vacuum pack them for you.&quot;</i>

We asked a US Customs agent on our last US entry what we could bring back. He said butter was OK (love English butter) but we should &quot;steer clear of cheeses.&quot; I'm guessing he means the unpasturized ones.