Oh, nice view though :)
]]>Oh c'mon, I wasn't the only one who thought this was the song playing in the background, was I?
]]>I think what's most saddening is that one of the world's great wonders is located in what now looks like one of my failed SimCities.
]]>Unfortunately, tight schedules, bone-wearying jetlag and sometimes even the language barrier hinder this process. At the end of a day of traveling and bureaucracy and meetings and keeping one's guard up and being hyper-aware of local culture and business norms and making sure you don't step over them, one's mind isn't about finding that little gem of a place the guys on Chowhound were talking about.
Now, it's a bit different when you're on vacation, of course, but there are exceptions. After four weeks of traveling and hiking through remote parts of Asia and sampling some amazing culture and local food which will never be part of some American PF Theme restaurant, by the time we got back to civilization in Hong Kong, there was something about the golden arches of McDonald's that was very, very comforting.
]]>@nstonep: And I do. By gosh, I do....
]]>@333 (only half evil): Clever name, and I like your post. A red heart to you.
]]>@catastrophegirl: Wow. I wonder how he made it so far in life...
]]>GOD I hate being sick. :P It makes me stupid!
]]>I wouldn't travel halfway around the world to eat at McBarfBags. I'd probably view it as a welcome respite!
Although little pepperoni pyramids would be cool.
]]>Can I get some ham on that pie?
]]>Huh. And I always thought Pizza Hut looked nice and those horrible 5-star restaurants with their ridiculously dressed customers lining up outside for reserved tables and the horridly over-the-top decor were garish.
]]>@Enduro: They're just buildings, too, right? Plus they don't look anything like they did when they were brand new so I'm more worried about pollution wrecking the pyramids than pizza grease.
]]>@Donathius: You beat me to it, I was going to nominate this one, too.
]]>I ate at the classiest Pizza Hut I've ever seen in Malmo. We thought it was a nice little Swedish cafe until we looked a bit closer and spotted the logo; it was perfectly adapted to that Scandinavian cafe culture.
]]>Coffee and cigarettes (or a nice CUBAN cigar) will never be the same in the U.S. "What about the children!?!?!?" Smokes em if you gots em.
]]>If they deliver I've got one hell of a prank up my sleeve. "No sir we don't deliver to Giza!"
]]>I too sat in that very spot. I remember watching the kids knock chunks of the Sphynx and the pyramids off and attempt to sell them to tourists.
]]>McDonald's in Stockholm advertised their Chicken sandwich as a Birdie Nam-Nam. I didn't eat there but passed by the sign every day for a week. Burger King in London put catsup on their breakfast sandwiches automatically. Couldn't eat it. Wendy's in Yokohama, Japan was pretty much like ones here. Rome has a pretty swanky McDonald's.
]]>@lannister80: Really? I had one right on the Mall. I even noticed a sandwich that was bigger than the DQPC (the Le 280=280g=.617#).
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: Is it Pizza the Hut that is garish or is it the building/display that is garish? If X company caters to the tastes of those who visit a given location, and they don't detract from the aura of the location, is it a bad thing it they happen to be part of a big chain? For a local example, come up to Gaithersburg and check out the Kentlands area. Every building in the neighborhood has to fit in with the community development requirements.
Sure, a WM 100 yards from Gettysburg is going to be a problem, there's no disguising it. But, smaller services are essential to sustaining and/or managing tourism in these places and keeping them affordable. Not everybody can afford the overpriced on-site concessions. Are we going to be upset because their is a Starbucks next to whatever-they-are-calling-the-WTC-site?
]]>@MostlyHarmless: Papa Johns FTW. At least in Pune.
]]>McDonald's, Burger King and even the lone Wendy's could have been picked up from Chicago and dropped in Budapest with only a change in prices (much cheaper, at least in 1995) and menu language.
]]>@Smashville_Flippin the Bird Before Bud Adams:
Classic.. that's the best laugh I've had today. Yep, I like cheesy humor. Ha..."cheesy"...pizza...
I had to click instantrimshot.com after reading it.
]]>I ate the staple burger at a Moroccan McDonald's and it was awesome. The fries were great too. McDonald's ships their key ingredients to a lot of these places, if not all of them. Continuity of service is what McDonald's is all about.
]]>Wouldn't the most touristy thing ever be eating at every little sketchy hole in the wall so you could have the "full experience." I'm sure that many Egyptians in that area eat at the hut...well maybe not because ew. But my point stands.
]]>@rpm773:
I had Burger King in Jamaica once and it was the best burger King burger I have ever had. The sandwich also very closely resembled the ones in the ads.
]]>(I realize it's really more of a win for globalization, but it's too depressing for me to call it that)
]]>@shepd: That's the thing, though. Notre Dame in Paris is historic, but I didn't notice any audacious and glaringly ridiculous fast food places nearby. A few cafes, perhaps, but definitely not anything that can be so garish as a Pizza Hut in the dessert.
]]>@rpm773: Restaraunts in foreign countries are usually pretty similar, and in some cases even better. (I would rather eat German Mcdonalds than American, however Korean was pretty bland). The main difference between pizza restaraunts in Germany and the US is that they use salami instead of pepperoni, but it's pretty similar aside from that.
@lannister80: I stopped at a Mcdonalds on the way to Paris from Normandy and they had Royale with cheese. They were out, so I had to get a royale with bacon, but it was a menu item.
]]>I score this as a win.
]]>Yay! We should just ban all development near anything historic. That way nobody ever visits anything historic and learns about it because it's too far away and not very fun.
]]>Ding ding ding ding!!!! This comment wins. LOL for realz.
]]>Needz moar Steve Martin to write the jingle...
]]>@diasdiem:
Pizza Hut is definitely the equivalent of Al-Jibblah's sausage-inna-bun.
]]>Color me disappointed.
]]>@Enduro: I'm almost with you .. it was kinda funny to watch, but I'm more depressed now.
]]>"After all, there was probably always a food stall of some sort nearby over the years."
-- and maybe deep within the pyramid's chambers we'll discover a sarcastic hieroglyph describing how they are offering one schwarma for 2 silver coins but 2 schwarmas for 5 silver coins.
]]>Whenever I see American fast food places in foreign lands, I've thought the local interpretation of American fast food would be far more foul and less satisfying than the local cuisine, and therefore I'd have no interest in dining at them.
Alas, my global travels have only taken me as far afield as Montreal and Vancouver, so I've never had the chance to put the above into practice.
]]>@Smashville_Flippin the Bird Before Bud Adams: Good one.
]]>@The Porkchop Express: Don't forget desert pizzas...er...dessert pizzas.
]]>At night there is a light show that splashes on the pyramids. It costs money to attend. But, is visible from the roof of the pizza hut.
So thats where we saw the light show. The only downside is that the light show people have giant spotlights facing the roof(presumably to entice us to go pay money and watch from the official area)
VERY SAD
]]>@MostlyHarmless: Camel meatballs? and over course SANDwiches.
]]>More like Pizza Tut!
C'mon! Who's with me?
]]>I've eaten there, it's pretty nice. Well-maintained and it's right on the ocean. You actually walk through the sand to get inside.
]]>