The Meijer's in Stevensville, MI will never be mistaken for a Canadian outlet post. Stevensville rests along Lake Michigan and a couple hundred miles from the Canadian border. Yet on a recent trip, I once again found the Jos. Louis snack cakes and a new surprise: ketchup chips.
The Quebec import snack cakes found their way to Jewel stores in and around Chicago last fall. That turned out to be a limited run of about 3 months. I brought some May West cupcakes back from Montreal in late May, but didn't note that the Canadian version had glucose-fructose until I unpacked my suitcase in the States. The Jos. Louis snack cakes in the States do not have high-fructose corn syrup.
The ketchup potato chips come from the Herr company and have a Heinz tie-in (both companies are from Pennsylvania). Ketchup chips are more Canadian than poutine is, and even harder to find in the States so far. "Ketchup flavored" is the tricky part since we are talking salt and sugar along with the tomato taste; the chips do not contain high-fructose corn syrup.
The Kerr ketchup chips aren't that hard to find, just a surprise that a mainstream Canadian food product has crossed over into the States, and it isn't poutine.
Meijer's carries more unusual brands than most stores. I discovered the ketchup cities on accident, but I scoured the store to find the snack cake aisles on the off chance that Meijer's would carry Jos. Louis. I had no reason to think the cakes would be there, but they were.
Unlike the traditional snack cakes in the States, the freshness date comes pretty quickly for the Canadian snack cakes, a sign of goodness in themselves. I really like the Canadian versions of the Hostess products. Unfortunately, I may not get to those until November, unless Alberta stores carry them.
The good news is if you are traveling on I-94 and you get to Exit 23, the store is right near the highway. If you see them or other Canadian food products in your American supermarket, let us know in the comments section below.
Bon appetite.
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