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Posts from the ‘International Intrigue’ Category

Nov 27

Chain Links: McBoda & McFoie

Mexdonalds

Chinese may have the benefit of officially sanctioned McDonald’s weddings, but Mexicans are going the DIY route—with aplomb; check out those striped socks. Carlos Munoz and Marisela Matienzo were married yesterday at a McDonald’s in Monterrey, “Mexico's most Americanized city.” Watch a video of the “McBoda.” Clowns and a manual typewriter are involved. [Reuters]

Quick, a French fast food chain, will be serving foie gras topped hamburgers for 5 euros for three days in December. Do you think French bloggers will go McRib crazy over the limited edition promotion? [Daily Mail]

Rich Sullivan, a partner in P.F. Chang’s, has opened a new restaurant, Sunshine Moon Peking Pub, in Scottsdale. He claims that it won’t be a chain and that it’s different from P.F. Chang’s because it’s "simpler, warmer and more comfortable." Let’s hope that it fares better than Taneko Japanese Tavern, Sullivan’s last Arizona foray into Asian cuisine. [azcentral]

Photo from Reuters

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Nov 24

Chain Links: Tuna Melt Banh Mi

Seafood Could Sanborns, which is kind of like a Mexican Denny’s/Duane Reade mash-up, be coming to Manhattan? [Reuters via Mex in the City]

I was just in Montreal (where peas, french fries and gravy seem to work their way into all fast food) and Mexican cuisine was at the bottom of my to-try list. However, Ontario-based Mucho Burrito thinks there is a US market for a Canadian take on stuff wrapped in a tortilla…which is suspiciously similar to American stuff wrapped in a tortilla. [via Eater]

In a cultural exchange, we get a buttload of banh mi shops and Ho Chi Minh City gets its first Domino’s. Seems fair.  Pizza Hut already pioneered Vietnam, though, and they serve tuna melts with pesto mayonnaise and crinkle-cut fries. [QSR.com]

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Nov 15

Chain Links: Knoflookmaynaise & Bar Harbor

Barharbor

Nearly 700 Red Lobsters will be remodeled to look like Bar Harbor, Maine by 2014. If you’ve never been to Bar Harbor, Maine, this is what it looks like (sort of–Bar Harbor is 97% white). You can search for the nearest Bar Harborized location to you. Bridgeport, CT is as close as it gets here. Brooklyn's waiting. [press release]

“Gaucho will be launching an Amsterdam-inspired contemporary steakhouse in the UK” is an attention-grabbing caption. So, a Dutch interpretation of an Argentine steakhouse brought to England. The menu looks fairly sane, though you’re not likely to find Grote Gamba’s Met Knoflookmaynaise in Buenos Aires. I think that’s just their way of saying prawns with aioli. [Big Hospitality]

Disneyworld’s Pollo Campero just opened and the official Disney Parks Food Writer has the scoop. For no discernable reason, they also sell vegan cupcakes from BabyCakes NYC. [Disney Parks Blog]

Miami-based Pollo Tropical, which might seem like an international chain, is expanding north and south into Latin America and Canada. Apparently, Canadians are the leading foreign visitors to Miami. Perhaps they are bringing back a taste for yellow rice and yuca. I will not be satisfied until they're eating poutine in the Florida Keys. [NRN]

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Nov 12

Orphans in the Kitchen

Justlikemom Oh no, youngsters in Europe could become “kitchen orphans” because their parents aren’t cooking anymore. Since 1937 there has been a decline in “the nurturing, bourgeois home cooking for which French women have always been admired.”

Luckily, I had just read about Super Marmite, a French website where home cooks can sell their leftovers, minutes before seeing the Wall Street Journal piece. I don’t know that I would buy food from strangers because I’m distrustful that way (not from a sanitation standpoint, but a do we share similar tastes perspective) but apparently there’s a market for such things.

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Nov 10

Bangkok: Goth & Animal-Style

Mansion7

The person behind Plearnwan, a baffling-for-foreigners (i.e. me) faux old-timey theme park with food but no rides in Hua Hin, has developed a goth mall for Bangkok called Mansion 7. I’m certain I would enjoy it even if I didn’t fully understand what was trying to be accomplished.

Casinoroyale Having just opened on Halloween, I don’t think all of the restaurants are open yet. However, I do like the sound of papaya salad catered to different blood types from Somtumized and kanom jeen at Krueng-Zen made with black rice noodles.

So far, the only food report I’ve found (in English at least) is from My "Sous-Vide Life" who ate at the international restaurant, Casino Royale. The non-surprising verdict: just so-so.

But my god, they’re serving “animal fries,” a crinkle cut mess smothered in sautéed onions, American cheese and thousand island dressing that bears more than a passing resemblance to a dish served at a little Californian chain you may have heard of.

Animalfries

Along with the chicken caesar salad, duck confit and pork chop also advertised on a blackboard menu, I see black cod miso. That specialties from In-N-Out and Nobu could comingle at the same eatery, is one reason why Thailand is so great.

Interior photo from the Mansion 7 Facebook page

Dining pics from My "Sous-Vide" Life


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Nov 6

Chain Links: Turkey Ham Subs

Kuwaitsubay

Ad from the Kuwait Subway Facebook page

In Asia-to-Asia expansion, South Korean burger chain, Lotteria (which sounds totally Mexican) will be bringing their “signature bulgogi and shrimp burgers served on compressed rice buns” to Indonesia. Seems a little MOS Burger to me.  [Jakarta Globe]

Not to be outdone by Yo! Sushi, England’s Wagamama will also be spreading through the US (they already have Boston locations) and like gangbusters. 650 sites? [Big Hospitality via Eater]

Tasti D-Lite seems like one of the most dreary purveyors in the city. I don’t really consider frozen yogurt food even though it’s a popular office lady lunch. Australia can have it. Good luck with your “fastest-growing overweight and obesity rates.” [QSR.com]

Shouldn’t Kuwait already have a Quiznos? They definitely have Subway, and with home delivery. We don’t even have that in NYC.  [FastCasual.com]


 

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Nov 4

Chipotle, but Asian

Panda-Express Chipotle's  founder, chairman, and co-CEO, Steve Ells, will be debuting an Asian restaurant next year.

What, Baorrito wasn't enough?

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Nov 4

Eataly, but Asian

Penang Hawker Food Makansutra’s KF Seetoh has been getting around. He was in NYC schooling Julia Mokin on bbq stingray, talking coffee with Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (hey, they used my Ya Kun Kaya Toast photo to illustrate this post), eating pizza (and I’m not sure what else because I don’t have the Gourmet Live app) with Erin Zimmer and who knows what else.

I loved Makansutra’s Gluttons Bay in Singapore (not pictured–that’s Gurney Drive in Penang) so if anyone could reproduce a hawker center here it would be Seetoh. In The New York Times he speculated: “Like Eataly, but with hawkers.” Yes, please.

Opening a hawker center with imported chefs, produce, whatever it takes, has always been my if I were a crazy rich person fantasy. But because I’m not extroverted I imagined it being more like Neverland, a culinary theme park for myself, select guests and a few child stars, not so much as a line-out-the-door Eataly. I’m not saying that a massive Malaysian food hall wouldn’t be the coolest thing in NYC (though I see that bombastic retail format being more mainland Chinese than Malaysian), it’s just that I wouldn’t want to share it with like eight million people.

Not that that could happen any time soon (plus, I can’t think of any good food puns involving Malaysia or Singapore off the top of my head). Yes, we may have banh mi at Pret a Manger now, but Americans are still eating Thai food with chopsticks and ordering neon-sauced, battered-and-fried sweet and sour pork nuggets (in fact, I ate some Halloween night at P.F. Chang’s). The closest most are coming to anything Singaporean are those yellow curry-powdered noodles that are to Singapore what English muffins are to the British Isles.

It’s going to take some time before char kway teow becomes the new pad thai.

Gurney hawkers photo from A Story to Be Told

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Oct 26

Bullish On KFC China

Beefpentagon

Periodically, someone will post a nice round-up of fast food items sold in American chains abroad. I appreciate their efforts because my time is in low supply lately.

Buzzfeed has fourteen “Fast Food Items Not Available In The U.S. That Should Be” for your perusal. I particularly like the Tender Beef Pentagon from a Chinese KFC. It really looks more like a Taco Bell item to me.

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Oct 23

Chain Links: Christmas Sushi

Yosushi Dallas-based gelato chain, Paciugo, is heading to South Korea. Run by an Italian family in Texas, they have been wise enough to stay out of Europe—Taco Bell has failed twice in Mexico, the second time as recently as this past January—and will be focusing on an Asian expansion. [QSR.com]

I'm not sure if NYC currently has a kaiten, a.k.a. conveyor belt sushi bar. Singaporean Sakae Sushi didn't last (I did eat at one in Penang) and same for Itsu, semi-famous for its London location being the scene of that Russian spy poisoning a few years ago. Old Britannia will be trying again soon when YO!Sushi opens on the East Coast. I hope that East Coast means NYC. [Fast Casual]

zpizza is going to Ha Noi. Maybe the time is right for gluten-free crusts and vegan cheese in Vietnam. [press release]

I'm kind of sick of hearing about Cold Stone Creamery, but apparently they are loved in Dubai where they were named Franchise Operator of the Year by Retail City Awards.  [press release]

Turkey katsu, stuffing, red current jelly wrapped in savoy cabbage, i.e. Christmas dinner sushi from YO! Sushi.

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