Matcha, ranch dressing or a chocolate fix: The world’s best food souvenirs

From the viral Viking row to controversial hydration breaks and questionable refs, this FIFA World Cup has not been short on entertainment. What nobody saw coming was unprecedented demand for a herby salad dressing created by a Californian rancher in the 1950s.

Ranch dressing has impressed so many visitors to the States in recent weeks that the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has stepped in, urging travellers not to pack souvenir bottles of the sauce in their hand luggage.

So, what other culinary creations deserve to be snapped up by Australian tourists on their travels this northern hemisphere summer? Here’s my ultimate round-the-world food shopping list. Please share your favourite finds in the comments below. (Oh an be sure to check the Australian Border Force website to make sure you’re actually allowed to bring something into Australia before you pack it!)

United States

Step away from the ranch dressing, because unless you want fancy flavours like Nashville Hot and Cilantro Lime, you can buy it online and have it in your fridge by tomorrow. Fill that extra luggage space with Old Bay Seasoning, Hawaiian-grown macadamia nuts, boxed mac and cheese (whip it up during a hydration break), key-lime fudge and Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Cheetos (21 ingredients in every bag).

Japan

On a recent visit to Japan, I popped into a Lawson store for a caffeine-infused Gaming Cup Noodle – good for jet-lag, marathon gaming sessions and penalty shoot-outs – and left 90 minutes later with Soy Sauce KitKats, microwavable Mount Fuji-shaped rice, Melonpan (a sweet bread wrapped in cookie dough) and a mountain of matcha snacks.

Be sensible: buy premium ceremonial matcha powder, green and roasted teas, soy sauce and Japanese single-malt whisky. If you are going to a Lawson or 7-Eleven, allow 45 minutes for KitKat perusing.

Turkey

Those canny Ottomans were on to a Viagra-type elixir long before Pfizer filed for its patent. Legend has it that an Ottoman physician created mesir macunu, a blend of honey and 41 spices, to cure Hafsa Sultan, the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. At the annual festivities near Izmir, the paste is wrapped in paper, blessed by 28 imams and scattered from the dome of the Sultan Mosque. A good night is had by all. Don’t forget lokum (fresh Turkish delight), saffron, shawarma paste and sumac, either.

Dubai

Until a TikTok video went viral in 2024, few outside Dubai had heard of the chocolate bar with a crunchy (shredded Kataifi pastry) green (pistachio cream) filling. The original Fix Dubai chocolate bar created by a British-Egyptian Dubai expat has spawned a million copycats and may have contributed to a worldwide shortage of pistachio kernels. Eight Fix flavours are offered at the equivalent of $27 a bar. Buy it at the Fix stand at Dubai Airport’s Terminal Three or order it to your hotel room via the Careem app.

South Korea

From Jolly Pong cereal and canned silkworm pupae (beondegai) to tinned grass jelly, served cubed in desserts and bubble tea, South Korea favours braver palates. Among the country’s staple spices is gochugaru, a flaky sun-dried red pepper that gives kimchi, soups and barbecued food a sweet, smoky kick. If you’re in Korea on November 11, you’ll find Pepero Day in full swing, which sees popular chocolate-coated biscuit sticks being gifted to friends, family and colleagues.

Germany

Visit the Christmas-market cities of Cologne, Dresden, Nurenburg with an empty suitcase and you’ll have Christmas wrapped up. Tuck into juicy regional bratwurst and potato pancakes (kartoffelpuffer) while shopping for bags of cinnamon stars, marzipan sweets, spiced biscuits and crunchy printen gingerbread, from Aachener. Dresden is the home of Christmas stollen, baked according to a 15th-century recipe, while Nuremberg is the place to buy decorative tins of lebkuchen, a citrus-infused gingerbread invented by Franconian monks.

France

Cheese and salted butter may be barred from entry to Britain, but there’s no need to cross the Channel empty handed. Invented in Brittany, salted-butter caramel can be brought back in jars or in sweet form, and the calorific Breton cake kouign-amann is a must. Supermarkets devote entire aisles to premium jarred paté and tinned fish, while Amora mustard, spicier than Dijon, is found in most kitchen cupboards. Meanwhile, naturally carbonated and less sweet, apple-rich Cidre Breton is sold in champagne-style bottles.

Peru

Peru gifted the world ceviche, but sadly none of its delicious ingredients are coming home. On the plus side, Peruvian cacao and low-sodium, mineral-packed pink salt, hand-harvested from the ancient pans of Maras in the Sacred Valley, is easily transported. So is pisco, the South American grape brandy that fires up a frothy pisco sour. Add fresh lime juice, egg white, sugar syrup and a splash of Angostura for a post-holiday pick me up.

Portugal

Synonymous with port wine, Portugal offers world-class olive oil, moreish custard tarts (I’ve successfully frozen these) and the crowd-pleasing hot sauce piri-piri. Artisanal salt production is also part of Portuguese heritage. Flor de Sal is hand-harvested from traditional salt pans, where visitors can also enjoy salt baths, scrubs, massages and even birdwatching. In the Algarve, visitors can combine salt production with a visit to Portugal’s first nature reserve, the Castro Marim and Vila Real de Santo Antonio marshlands, on the banks of the Guadiana River.

Mexico

Cacao nibs, vanilla, chocolate-chilli mole, coffee and dried chillies are all worth buying. For tequila fans, a visit to Tequila Valley, a World Heritage Site tucked between the foothills of the Tequila Volcano and the Rio Grande River valley, is a must. In a league of its own, pure tequila can only be made from the piña, or heart, of the blue weber agave, so check the label. If it doesn’t say “100 per cent blue weber agave”, it’s a mixto. Looking for a very special gift? The Dos Lunas Grand Reserve, sold in a hand-blown, numbered Baccarat crystal decanter, will set you back about $3623.

Poland

Perogies (Polish dumplings) won’t survive the journey, and Polish sausage – even the vacuum-packed version – is off the menu until foot-and-mouth restrictions are lifted. That leaves pickled cucumbers, suska (plums slow-smoked in fire-heated kilns) and Zubrowka, an award-winning vodka infused with bison grass. It grows in Bialowieza, a UNESCO-listed primaeval forest straddling the Poland-Belarus border, home to around 800 free-roaming bison. There’s a blade of grass in every bottle.