Tailored-Made...Food!

When you go to a restaurant and you don’t really like an ingredient in the dish you are ordering, in most cases you can ask the chef to remove that very ingredient from your dish. 

Have you ever wondered if there is any similar option for food sold in shops? 

In many supermarkets in Sweden, you can make your own breakfast muesli. Big plastic jars in shops display a good selection of cereals, nuts and dried fruits that you can pick and mix at your own taste. Which is a good way to have muesli not only in your favorite ingredients’ combination, but also in the quantity most suitable for your needs.

In a time when one can order food online, also people living outside of Sweden can now enjoy to personalize their own food. 

So, here are some shops found on the internet which allow you to personalize your food. The shops listed have been selected  - among others - for two simple reasons:

1. Products are shipped internationally. But especially and most importantly...

2 ....their website was in English, hence accessible to the writer of this article !

After a "google" look around, it seems like food personalization is offered mainly in sweets. 

 Customized chocolate bars makers deserve a star for the variety of ingredients one can choose from.

At www.myswisschocolate.ch, for example, you can add to your favorite chocolate base (white, milk or dark chocolate) various spices and ingredients. You can find common ingredients like coconut flakes or banana chips, but also uncommon ones, like curry and blue poppy seeds. You can then decorate your bar with real lavender flowers or even edible golden flakes. If you wish to make it a gift, you can add a “Happy Birthday” writing and wrap your creation in a personalized paper.

Similar offers come from www.chocri.co.uk, which add to golden flakes also edible silver flakes and the possibility to enrich your chocolate bar with ingredients such as tiny cookies or tiny pretzels. If you feel lost in front of all the potential combinations, get inspired by the recommended creations and you won’t go wrong.

Youbars (www.youbars.com), instead, allows you to make your own energy bar. Also here, the selection is wide and as a plus, there is a Nutrition Fact Calculator to calculate the nutritional values of the bar you create. So, for a bar made of organic dates, soy protein powder, almonds, apples, agave nectar, vanilla extract and rice cereals, I got a 154-calorie bar. You can see how bars are made in this video, from the shop’s website: www.youbars.com/press/

Continuing with our list, Myowncookie (www.myowncookie.com) gives you the possibility to personalize your own fortune cookies. You can select the dipping you prefer and insert the fortune message you prefer.

Need an appropriate drink to serve your personalized cookies? 

Go visit www.adagio.com and create a tailored tea blend. You can mix up to 3 tea types and choose among blends which have detailed descriptions and reviews. Once you have made your selection, you can give your new blend a name and write a short story about it. And as final step, you can add your photo on the tea package that will contain your new creation. 

Could it be more personalized than this?

Now, if you live in US, have also a look at the following article: http://mashable.com/2011/01/24/customize-food-online/

You will find a list of interesting options which are – unfortunately - available only for shipping within US.

There surely are many other shops where you can customize food that I have not yet stumbled upon. 

Do you know any?

And there are for sure many people who have already had the experience of buying customized food. 

Are you one of those?

If your answer is Yes to one of the above, please share your experience with us!

Sofia of Nu-Nomad