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40 Foods That Used To Be Luxuries But Are Now Found In Every Grocery Store
Interview With Expert
If you’re craving a lavender-flavored oat ice cream, you can probably grab one at the store without a second thought. These days, it feels like the most unique and unexpected food combos are just a shopping trip away. But not too long ago, things like avocado or tofu were considered luxuries, hard to find and even harder to afford. Thanks to globalization, modern farming, and the magic of food trade, a lot of what used to be “exotic” is now just another item on the grocery list. Foods that were once rare and reserved for the elite are now part of everyday meals. Today, we’ve rounded up some of the most surprising ones. Keep reading to see which foods went from impossible to find to totally normal!
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#1
1976 I had hummus and falafel for the first time… had this Syrian guy teach me to make hummus. My yankee parents were so skeptical… it became a staple and I ate falafel every chance I got.
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#2
Avocados. I grew up in Michigan and we didn’t have a lot of extra money. My mother used to buy me an avocado every year for Christmas.
I miss her.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago
I love avocados. Avocado toast with scrambled egg and hot sauce is amazing! And I already own my house. So I can eat all the avocado toast I like
#3
Vienetta ice cream
ETA: location is UK.
Alice Landers 2 days ago
Years ago in US you could get Absolutely delish ! Haven't seen here in years
Kale chips, truffle seasoning, sriracha popcorn—just a few of the quirky snacks you can casually grab at the store today. Nothing feels “rare” anymore; in fact, we’ve gotten so used to variety that we hardly notice it. But imagine a time when just finding yogurt at a supermarket felt like a luxury. No fancy flavors, no dairy-free options, just plain yogurt, if you were lucky.
Before globalization, certain foods were strictly local. If you wanted something from another country, you either had to travel there or have a well-connected aunt who could sneak it in her suitcase. Take avocados, for example—now they’re practically a personality trait for brunch lovers, but there was a time when getting one outside of its native region was like winning the food lottery. Today, they’re everywhere, from sandwiches to smoothies, making us forget that they were once a rare find.
#4
Pineapple. We would get one fresh pineapple a year, in a christmas gift fruit basket from a more well-to-do relative. You could get canned pineapple, but the fruit itself seemed like from an alien world and was more expensive, if not impossible, to get parts of the year.
Panda Kicki 2 days ago
I went totally overboard when I went to asia and pineapple suddenly was everywhere in neatly cut pieces for a few cents. As pineapples eats you while you eat them (enzymes dissolving.your tissues ) I had plenty of blisters in my mouth and had to go for mango and watermelon instead
#5
When I was little we got oranges in our stocking. When I was a teenager we got pomegranates, very fancy for us at the time.
#6
General Foods International Coffees in the rectangular tins, like Orange Cappuccino or Swiss Mocha. If you had those in your house, you were high end.
Oh, and I thought Grey Poupon dijon mustard was for rich people in Bentleys.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago
There are so many amazing mustard options out there. Forget the nasty yellow stuff. Go experiment!
To get some insight into how food availability has changed, we spoke with Parth Kothari, one of the minds behind the popular Instagram page Munchymumbai. With over 165,000 followers, his page showcases intriguing food combinations, must-try dishes, and global flavors that have become a part of daily life. Given his experience exploring food trends, we had to ask—how did we go from craving imported snacks to having everything at our fingertips?
#7
Cashews. They used to be really expensive, I remember my grandmother bought a pound every year for Christmas from Fannie May, paid something like $20 around 1970(?). That was when the nuts were hand stripped from the fruits in India before automation.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago
Cashews are still hella expensive. But I will still buy them as an occasional treat because salted cashews are food of the gods
#8
Sushi. I remember watching The Breakfast Club and how all the other kids reacted to Claire having sushi, and I agreed. Sounded weird and disgusting. Fast forward 40 years and sushi is my absolute favorite/if I had to eat only one thing for the rest of my life food! I live in the USA.
#9
Authentic Thai food, no restaurants in the 50s and early 60s either in Nashville or Atlanta where we lived.
Came back North after College, all over the area...Love Thai food.
Manuel Delgado 2 days ago
Some 40 years ago I read about thai food for the 1st time, and sounded great. I couldn't find any Thai restaurant in the yellow pages. So I called the Thai embassy and asked them where did they eat, and I found a rare gem.
Parth starts off by saying, these days, you can think of literally any ingredient, and chances are, it’s already stocked in a store near you. Whether it’s cheese from Switzerland or pasta from Italy, we can get it all.
“There was a time when finding even simple imported ingredients meant waiting for a relative to bring them back from abroad. Now? You can have them delivered to your doorstep in 15 minutes while sitting in your pajamas.”
#10
My grandad would say ‘oranges’ - he was gifted one every Christmas when he was a child :).
#11
I remember when a Mexican restaurant opened in our town in the early 70s maybe? That was exotic!
Sarah 2 days ago (edited)
I remember when a rural Irish town got its first Chinese restaurant! It was the talk of the town.. very agricultural town- farming and dinner was meat and two veg. Noodles and things like pasta didn’t exist. I also remember when they got their first roundabout .. late 1980s and the town drove out to ‘see ‘ it’ .. the adventure!
#12
Mangos. I live in the Midwest, and we never had real mangoes in the 70s. We called green bell peppers mangoes for some inexplicable reason.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago
I assure you, green bell peppers are not mangoes. But a properly ripe mango is a thing of beauty
“Take blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries,” Parth recalls. “Back then, getting your hands on them in India was almost impossible. I remember how we’d beg family members traveling from Europe to bring some back. The excitement of finally eating them was unmatched—we’d savor every single berry because we had no idea when we’d get them again. Now, they’re available on grocery apps, ready to be delivered faster than a pizza. Crazy, right?”
#13
I was in mid 20s before I ever heard of Pesto sauce.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago
Pesto with gnocchi and a grilled chicken breast is one of my favourite summer meals. Especially when tomatoes are in season as a side
#14
Craft beer. Correct that, good beer is what I meant to say. When I was young, it was Bud, Miller, or PBR. That was it. Literally.
Southern US.
#15
Grew up in rural Ireland in the 60s/70s. I remember having pasta for the first time.. it was the wild exotic food that my father got from friends who came home from Italy. I remember neighbours coming in to taste it.
Never had an avocado, a kiwi fruit etc... we just had basic foods in the local supermarket/shop.
I do remember when dried potatoes came..in the late 70s...not having to cook a pot of potatoes and have lump free potatoes was amazing.
K Barnes 2 days ago
I might sound spoiled, my apologies if so, but I have never understood why so many people find peeling and boiling potatoes so hard that they buy instant ones! I like skin-in and it takes less than 2 mins to dice them and 10-15 to boil, then you can mash in the same pot and get lump-free with a handheld masher. Unless you have a giant family it's 5 minutes of effort for the whole dish. Instant you still have to boil water and mix so it saves like 2-3 minutes. I just don't get it.
And it’s not just about groceries, he adds. “The availability of new ingredients has completely changed restaurant menus too. From authentic sushi to avocado toast, the kinds of dishes you can find today are incredible."
"Chefs have access to flavors that were once impossible to get, which means food lovers get to experience cuisines from all over the world without even leaving their city. It’s like having a passport for your taste buds.”
#16
Fresh fruit and vegetables. I come from an isolated northern 🇨🇦 town and growing up we got the last of the produce on the truck. What we got was old and battered and cost a small fortune. Now I live in the south and sometimes it still surprises me at the variety.
Ellinor 2 days ago (edited)
I am really, really lucky about that because my mother is an organic farmer, she works in a shop that only sells organic and local food and she and her colleagues often trade their products, so beside school lunch I never really ate anything non-organic (and I have fresh eggs as often as I want and for free)
#17
Any lettuce other than iceberg. Grew up in the south and remember living in California for a month. Not just lettuces but the array of fresh vegetables was awe inspiring to my little mind.
Eta: which is funny because a lot of my family had vegetable gardens. But it was peas, okra, tomatoes, and maybe corn. Kale was still just a decorative plant.
#18
Olive oil. When I was a kid, that was something in a tiny bottle you stuck in your ear for earache.
Scott Rackley 2 days ago
We called the stuff you warmed up and put in your ear "sweet oil", which was, in fact, olive oil.
“Another cool thing is how food brings cultures closer,” Parth says. “Years ago, if you wanted to make Mexican food at home, you’d have to hunt for tortillas or make a desperate request for someone to bring back authentic ingredients. Now, you can just walk into a store and grab everything you need for tacos, burritos, or even enchiladas. It’s never been this easy to experiment with food and try things that once seemed so out of reach.”
#19
La Choy and Chun King canned Chinese food back in the day. Peak exotica. And TV dinners weren't exotic, but pretty novel to us kids. Plus they were in little trays similar to the food trays in 2001: A Space Odyssey, so it was kind of like eating astronaut food in our minds.
Hippopotamuses 2 days ago
Canned Chinese food. I'm not sure how appealing this sounds. Mind you, the 2001 experience would definitely have appealed.
#20
I didn't have the opportunity to eat Indian food until I was in graduate school; now it is my favorite international cuisine. Luckily, it has greatly increased in popularity over the years, so now it seems like you can find Indian restaurants in even fairly small cities.
Lee451 Henderson 2 days ago
I worked at a Greek sandwich shop at age 16. Discovered Greek food
#21
Tofu seemed exotic (to non-Asians) when we first started having it in the 1970s.
Anna Drever 1 day ago
I hadn’t, to the best of my knowledge/memory had tofu until about 15 years ago when I became a veggie. Now it’s a regular thing in our diet. Tempeh is good too.
It’s also fun to see how global foods blend into local culture, he adds. “Ramen, for example, once a Japanese staple, now every city has a new take on it. Whether it’s a spicy Indian twist or a creamy fusion broth, people are making these dishes their own. That’s the beauty of food. It evolves, adapts, and makes everyday eating a little more exciting.”
#22
Blackberries. I used to have to pick them wild when I was a kid for a few weeks in the spring. My understanding is they weren’t really made into a viable crop until the USDA came up with a hybrid variety in the 1990s. Now you can get nice fine ones in the store whenever you want.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago
I remember my great grandmother having a ginormous blackberry patch behind the house when I was little
#23
When I was growing up in Indiana in the 70s stuff like sushi and pho soup were mostly unheard of.
#24
Shrimp and really any seafood. I buy bags of frozen shrimp as a regular thing now. We have a shrimp dish once or twice a month. I remember shrimp was a once-a-year maybe thing and only at a restaurant.
FlamingoPanda 2 days ago
I had shellfish for the first and only time in my early 20's. Immediate trip to the emergency room.
The way food has changed over the years is honestly wild. What was once a rare, special treat is now just another Tuesday’s grocery run. Thanks to globalization, technology, and changing tastes, we can experience so many different cultures through food without ever stepping on a plane.
So next time you casually toss a once-exotic ingredient into your cart, take a second to appreciate just how far we’ve come in the world of food!
#25
Toblerone. I grew up in the 80s and only got one when someone I knew traveled by airplane, so they must have been very fancy and exotic. Now you can get one anywhere.
#26
I remember my mom (born 1948) told me the first time she had yogurt was when she was 18. Hummus was also a very exciting discovery for her.
#27
When I was maybe 6 years old (approx 1956) a brand new restaurant chain came to my Midwestern factory town.
McDonald's!
I attended a friend's birthday party, and the new and exciting birthday excursion was...a trip to McDonald's!
My hamburger had *mustard* and *pickles* on it, which to me meant poison. I cried because I couldn't (wouldn't) eat the exotic new food.
Which of these posts did you find the most intriguing? Is there a food you remember being impossible to find, but now it’s everywhere? Maybe something you once had to wait for a relative to bring back from a trip? Share your thoughts. We’d love to know what once felt like a luxury but is now just another everyday item!
#28
Eggs Benedict - You would have to go to the fancy breakfast restaurants to get that mammy jammy. Now I think you can even get them at IHOP.
#29
In a tiny town in northern BC Canada ca 1970, an uncle visited from Vancouver and introduced the family to pizza. It must’ve been from the local Safeway frozen foods section but it seemed very exotic - hmmmm, what is this strange food peet-za? I recall my parents marveling and feeling very cosmopolitan.
Binny Tutera 2 days ago (edited)
When Pizza Hut came to our town my dad couldn’t believe my friends and I would pay money for “leftovers“! When he was young my grandma would make bread almost every day (this was in Italy) and take leftover dough, meat and tomatoes and make “pizza” for my grandpa to have for lunch at work. My dad was eventually won over, but his pizzas were amazing!
#30
I remember when nachos became a national fad, in about ‘77 after Monday Night Football went to Dallas and had them as a bar appetizer. My mother took 3x5 cards to a friend's house to copy the recipe for nachos.
Damned_Cat 2 days ago
I remember when chips and salsa or cheese sauce was something you got from the snack bar at the beach.
#31
Edamame.
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 2 days ago
I'm half-Japanese, we always had edamame in our house. Love them steamed lightly salted or roasted with wasabi. It is way easier to get now though.
#32
Hummus. I made it in my middle school "Teen Living" [Home Ec] class and my mom thought it was the weirdest thing ever. It was not available in grocery stores. This would have been 1992-93.
#33
Kiwi in the Northeast.
persephone134 2 days ago (edited)
From the novel "The Salesman" by Irish writer Joseph O'Connor (1998). In this scene, the main character (middle aged and grumpy in the mid-90s) visits a Dublin séx shop. “They have kiwi-flavoured condoms nowadays, for Jesus’ sake; when I was a kid they did not even have kiwi-fruit-flavoured fúcking kiwi fruits.“
#34
Star fruit.
Colleen Glim 2 days ago (edited)
Star fruit taste like somebody crossed an apple with a green bean
#35
A slab of ham with a pineapple slice promoted as ‘Polynesian’.
Lady Eowyn 2 days ago
I love ham steak with pineapple. I poke holes in the steak and pour in the pineapple juice, on both sides, let it sit for a bit before putting it in to broil, and serve with pineapple on top.
#36
Believe it or not, yogurt. I remember when they first started advertising it. We all thought it was very odd.
#37
Artichokes, in 1960's US.
Also, cilantro was really hard to find, until the late 80's.
Hippopotamuses 2 days ago (edited)
Cilantro still can be, in countries where it's called coriander. (Edited: To correct spelling of cilantro)
#38
Iced coffee. I learned to drink it in Boston in the late 80s in college, but when I was home in Colorado and tried to order it people thought I was crazy.
And in the early/mid 90s in Los Angeles, coffee shops were like nightclubs. There were lines to get at night, and you’d go in to order drinks, talk with friends and meet people. Very different from the Starbucks of today!
persephone134 2 days ago
Iced coffee. You let a cup of coffee go cold, then put in a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Brilliant.
#39
Anything you could cook in a microwave.
David 1 day ago
HAVING a microwave. The early ones in the later 70s were huge beasts. But about 1970 I'd never heard of a microwave (older tech, but not for the average home). My mom got me a Presto Hot Dogger and I would make after school snacks with that. Basically you electrocuted hot dogs to make them hot quickly. Video in link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ZZbuOeNmw
#40
I grew up in NYC, sushi was barely on the radar until the mid to late 1980s -- longer in the outer boroughs. Same can be said for most Asian food aside from Chinese. Not necessary exotic but Mexican food, aside from a few neighborhoods, was also not popular back then. My wife grew up on the west coast and was disappointed in our lack of options when she moved to Queens in the 1980s.
Poll Question
How has globalization affected your food choices?
Increased variety
More affordable options
Easier access to diverse foods
No significant change
What do you think ?
Sky Render 2 days ago (edited)
I remember a time when Chinese five spice was considered very exotic. Nowadays it's on every supermarket spice rack (or rather, a version of it that uses more local ingredients). It sure does make pork sing!
BrunoVI 2 days ago
When I was a kid, salmon and shrimp were much more expensive than beef. Especially since coronavirus, that's no longer true at all. I remember specifically marveling how, about a month after coronavirus, salmon had dropped to $8/lbs, but a decent cut of steak was $15/lb and even london broil (once a very cheap cut) was $9/lb. Even hamburger was near $8/lb.
Pheebs 1 day ago
Fish was a treat when I was a kid. We didn’t live close to fishing water, so everything had to be shipped in to our town. Made it pricy. I absolutely hated fish, but ate it until I was 8-9 years old because I knew it was something my mom struggled to afford. Still don’t like any form of seafood.
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Apatheist Account2 2 days ago
Staying at small hotels in the 60s and 70s, the choice of starter for evening meal was prawn cocktail or orange juice. That was posh for us, we never had starters - just sugar-filled desserts with custard.
Roxy222uk 2 days ago
Didn't you get a slice of melon sitting on its rind, with the flesh in cubes pushed alternately left and right, and then a cocktail stick holding a Maraschino cherry in the middle? Trying telling my kids that a piece of melon, with nothing else, was worth paying for as a starter.
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Sky Render 2 days ago (edited)
I remember a time when Chinese five spice was considered very exotic. Nowadays it's on every supermarket spice rack (or rather, a version of it that uses more local ingredients). It sure does make pork sing!
BrunoVI 2 days ago
When I was a kid, salmon and shrimp were much more expensive than beef. Especially since coronavirus, that's no longer true at all. I remember specifically marveling how, about a month after coronavirus, salmon had dropped to $8/lbs, but a decent cut of steak was $15/lb and even london broil (once a very cheap cut) was $9/lb. Even hamburger was near $8/lb.
Pheebs 1 day ago
Fish was a treat when I was a kid. We didn’t live close to fishing water, so everything had to be shipped in to our town. Made it pricy. I absolutely hated fish, but ate it until I was 8-9 years old because I knew it was something my mom struggled to afford. Still don’t like any form of seafood.
Load More Replies... Apatheist Account2 2 days ago
Staying at small hotels in the 60s and 70s, the choice of starter for evening meal was prawn cocktail or orange juice. That was posh for us, we never had starters - just sugar-filled desserts with custard.
Roxy222uk 2 days ago
Didn't you get a slice of melon sitting on its rind, with the flesh in cubes pushed alternately left and right, and then a cocktail stick holding a Maraschino cherry in the middle? Trying telling my kids that a piece of melon, with nothing else, was worth paying for as a starter.
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