Attention all Canadians

Before we left Australia on our last packing day Melody sent me up the street for a very simple yet impossible shopping list. I bought my vegemite and some cream of tartar powder to make play dough for Abigail. There was just one ingredient that Melody wanted- Maple Essence. When we were in Russia last time somebody gave Melody a small bottle of maple essence. Melody made imitation maple syrup with it, and the bottle lasted a whole year. But alas, there was no maple essence to be found in either the IGA or Safeway.

We actually had a better chance of finding maple essence in Singapore. Singapore has a population of 5 million, but 1/4 of these are expats. The supermarket sells vegemite and maple syrup. I felt that five tubes of vegemite wasn't quite enough to take, so I wanted some extras. The price here was twice as much as in Australia. There was a jar of marmite, so I thought I might just give it a try. We'll see how it compares when we are living in Russia.

The supermarket here did not have any maple essence- but it did have sage and popcorn salt, two items Melody will really appreciate in Russia. Kim thought of a specialty shop that would likely have it. We went on our search, and this is what we found:


Dozens of various flavour essences. Some of them quite strange. I mean, what the heck is Kirschwasser flavour anyway?


But no maple essence! Needless to say, Melody would really like her maple essence. So dear Canadians, run down to the shop and see if you can find some. If you do, then buy it and let us know. When we have an address in Russia you can mail it. That would be really special, thank you.

As you can see, I am well stocked for now.