Friday, May 13, 2005

Fool's Gold

For a long time my husband has been bugging me to make him pancakes. The thing is, you can't get syrup here - it isn't an item found easily, or often. When I first moved here in 2002, we found some Aunt Jemima syrup at a small grocery store in Thessaloniki, but they stopped carrying it.

Every other week or so, we've been going to the HUGE Champion store in Katerini since November. While we manage to get some things of interest (tortillas and taco sauce, Skippy peanut butter), no syrup was to be found...until recently. Suddenly, as we linger down the aisles, what do we spot but Golden Griddle syrup! It hadn't been there before, of that we are certain. But there it was, in all its sticky and promised pancakes glory. I looked at the price - 7 euros! My husband said "screw it, we're getting it" (yes, he has picked up all my American colloquialism bad habits). To our credit, it is a 24 fl. ounce bottle of syrup, so it will last us awhile. But 7 euros! Sheesh.

As if some form of serendipity had befallen us, boxes of Aunt Jemima Complete Original pancake mix were nearby. We hit the mother lode!

So now my husband has his pancakes, and his 7 euro bottle of syrup.

1 comment:

Divina said...

Dear Mel,
this is a really old post so I don't know to what extent the info I am about to give you will be helpful, but here goes:

When you visit Thessaloniki, take a look at Kosmas, the grocery store at the Louloudadika area. It has a lot of American products and also many Asian curiosities. I believe you can find everything you need such as cake mixes, pancake mixes, syrups and sauces there. Even if you already have a source for these products, a visit at Kosmas is going to be a huge pleasure I am sure. The shop is darling and a veritable treaure trove filled to the brim.