LIVING

But slowly but surely foreign food products are appearing on some shop shelves - below is our list of products that we have found so far -please feel free to add your own suggestions:

* A Taste of Home - a positive treasure trove of imported food stuffs, with branches in Barcelona and Sitges, this supermarket stocks products from Holland, Germany, UK and the USA. Including cooking sauces, sweets, baking goods, beverages and much more. Barcelona - Floridablanca 74, tel. 93 325 1797; Sitges - San José 32. See website for more information and for online shopping: www.atasteofhome.eu.com

* Deli Shop - with three shops in the city (Gràcia, Eixample and L'Illa shopping centre) you can get a good range of Japanese, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, British and US goods to cook with and eat. They have helpful recipes to make dishes and a large range of wines. http://delishop.es

* El Corte Inglés - The larger supermarkets stock a range of foreign food groups including Asian, Mexican, Indian and Thai, and the kosher section includes hummus, taramasalata and other dips. You can also find some food items from back home in the Club Gourmet section, although this can be costly. Corte Inglés also runs 'International Food' promotions where they will stock goods from particular countries or regions for a set period of time. www.elcorteingles.es

* Lidl - The German supermarket has stores around the city and stock a good range of goods. They also run promotions such as Sabores de Francia. www.lidl.es

* Aldi - Another German supermarket where you can pick up some of your favourites, they have a number of stores in the city. www.aldi.es

  * Qwiksave - If you find yourself out of town in Lloret de Mar you can also get products from the UK and Ireland at this British supermarket. (Avda. Americas 24, Fenals, Lloret de Mar - Monday to Saturday 9am-5pm)

* Ikea - It isn't just the cost effective, flat-packed furniture people head to the Swedish shops for, you can pick up all sorts of Swedish food products in the food court too. Head there for lindenberry jam, cheese and bread and don't forget the Dime bars. www.ikea.es