SueDonim
. Blondiescot!
You’ve reminded me that I also once took Christmas pudding to the US. That was rather bomb-like, too. I got hauled out of line to explain what exactly a Christmas pudding was to a ten-foot tall & broad security guard who had a rusty knife poised ready to plunge into my lovingly homemade pudding! 😱 After a grilling, I was finally allowed in.
I used to take Marmite to a sister in the US, and once had trouble explaining it what it was to the immigration chap. ‘Something you spread on toast.’
But he still looked bemused. ‘Like jam?’ (Not their usual word - AFAIK American jam is ‘jelly’.
‘Yes, a bit like jam,’ I said, thinking ‘Does it matter?’
He waved us through.
A different matter when ages ago, same sister and her bloke had a small, summer-season gift shop in Provincetown, a very touristy town in Cape Cod. At the time we were living in Oman, so she asked whether there was anything typically Omani we could bring for them to sell.
So I took a biggish bag of frankincense, which comes from a tree in the S of Oman, and which they sold by the kilo in the souk.
I declared it at immigration - wouldn’t have dared not to - the poor chap had no idea what to make of it. Despite the Wise Men associations, I don’t think he’d ever heard of frankincense. It looks a bit like large crystals of the brown coffee sugar you used to see sometimes.
I did explain as well as poss, but I swear he was wondering whether it was freeze-dried crack or something, but his eyes glazed over and eventually he waved us through - presumably for the sake of a quiet life!