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Posts from the ‘International Intrigue’ Category

Jan 12

The Week In International Intrigue: Starbucks Style, Drunk and Disorderly Denny’s, Indian Tough Guys

Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine Starbucks in Japan: Starbucks via Wired

Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine Starbucks in Japan: Starbucks via Wired

Even if you hate seeing Starbucks when abroad (or on your own corner) you must concede that the beyond-ubiquitous coffee chain does design some very cool localized shops.

It’s always fascinating (yes, fascinating) to see which restaurants open in the Middle East. There’s nothing surprising about PF Chang’s, Shake Shack or Fatburger in an Abu Dhabi mall; they’re practically standards now, but a new Macaroni Grill is a little less expected since Italian-American chains are underrepresented (still no Olive Garden) and I’d never even heard of Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar, which  in NYC is just called Chocolate Bar. There is already a presence in Dubai, Qatar and Pakistan, it turns out.

First Manhattan (despite supposedly being “synonymous with a late night party atmosphere, as well as drunk, disorderly, violent and criminal conduct”) now the Middle East. Denny’s will be opening in nine countries, starting with the UAE. Despite the Dubai IHOP never looking particularly crowded, there must be some interest in American diner food with an emphasis on breakfast. Long live beef bacon and turkey ham.

India is increasingly attractive to American fast food brands; Burger King is arriving, McDonald’s is introducing its McCafe format, and Dunkin’ Donuts opened in September with a mildly bonkers range of non-doughnut food. Currently, there are twelve “burgers,” half vegetarian, which are really bagel sandwiches. The Heaven Can Wait includes both chile mayo and jalapeno cheese sauce while the new Tough Guy is said to contain a Mexican chorizo patty (confusing because that looks like chicken and is pork even allowed as a meat?) and spicy mustard sauce. I do appreciate the country’s positivity; the tagline for these sandwiches is “Tough times never last, but tough people do” and there is a chocolate on chocolate doughnut named Alive By Chocolate.

A different breed of Americana, Brooklyn Bowl, complete with Blue Ribbon fried chicken, kind of makes sense in London.

There will also be ten Johnny Rockets in Pakistan.

 

 

 

 

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Dec 16

Photos, Finished

If photos are your thing, here is my Dubai Flickr set that’s a million times more full of stuff than what I posted to Instagram. I ate some real food from all corners of the Middle East. I also ate at California Pizza Kitchen and Shake Shack. I  tweeted a lot (and lost a few followers–bye, self-serious food bros). Sorry, I can’t stop and I won’t stop with the international IHOPs and Cheesecake Factories. 2014 is going to be the least service-y year yet. Guaranteed.

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Dec 15

Pack(age) Rat: Mr. Krisps Corn Tortillas

mr. krisps corn tortillas

The United Arab Emirates do not have an innovative chip, and yes I mean that in the American sense, culture on par with , say, Thailand (seaweed, soft-shell crab, and blueberry and hazelnut Pringles) or Russia (caviar and mushroom Lay’s). The flavors are fairly tame with ketchup, a little nod to Canada, being the most oddball.

The country, does, however, have a homegrown brand called Mr. Krisps, most notable for mashing up corn tortillas and pizza flavors with a wild west flair. At first glance, one might think the mysterious broad-shouldered gent on the package is a sheriff because of the star on his vest, but then there’s that sombrero, and cheese grater? Parmesan, presumably in hand.

Mr. Krisps, himself, is a confusing colonial American corn-bodied mascot.

The two combined proved irresistible. I can’t speak to the actual contents of the packet. The chips were pulverized to a coarse grit in my suitcase.

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Dec 2

24 Hours in Dubai

costa coffee festive
People may complain about the pervasiveness of American culture, but abroad it’s Britishisms all the time.  At the airport Costa Coffee (yes, yes, a British chain) the advertisement for mince pies (also, mince for ground as in ground beef will never be right) set me off. Thankfully, the sight of the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwich tempered my Thanksgiving outrage a bit. Also, did you know that Costa Coffee recently started offering camel milk?

image

I said “takeaway” and hated myself for it when I over-ordered at the mall food court and didn’t want to leave food behind. We all know what to go means, right?

carrefour turkeys

The only mention of Thanksgiving was this frozen turkey display at Carrefour. This is also a four-day weekend in Dubai, but it’s for National Day, which means a lot of flags.

My hotel room, which is slightly larger than my Brooklyn apartment which isn’t super tiny, has a kitchen. Unfortunately, there is an electric tea kettle but no coffee maker. I’ve scoffed at foodies who travel with pour over coffee contraptions, but now I’m not laughing. I resorted to buying a jar of private label instant espresso that was imported from Poland.

so much instant coffee

This is only one-third of the instant coffees displayed at the Carrefour inside of the Mall of the Emirates. The mall is a three-minute walk from my room.

cheesecake factory mall of the emirates

I’ve wondered why American malls don’t contain grocery stores when it’s commonplace in other countries. I will concede that shopping carts in a crowded (Thursday night is Saturday night here, if you didn’t know that already) mall isn’t the wisest idea. Someone has one half-way through the entrance of the Cheesecake Factory. There was still a wait for tables at 10pm.

image

It has now taken me 96 hours to get this short post uploaded because my laptop internet won’t stay connected long enough to insert photos. At least that now gives me the chance to share a picture of a guy driving down the street with his pet monkey hanging out of car…or not–it’s taking over 20 minutes to email the photo and instagram crashes my ipad, which I resorted to because the laptop won’t work. You are really missing out. Ok, the mall has better free wifi.

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Nov 3

The Week in International Intrigue: Ping Pong, Pizza Hat, Philly Steaks

mash donald's

Remember when Susan Sarandon got all into ping pong and opened SPiN with her super-young boyfriend? Now Dubai is having that experience, but with gold-plated tables, naturally.

Those ping-pongers will soon be able to brunch at Clinton Street Baking Company too.

Iranians are master fast food appropriators.

Johnny Rockets has been in Kuwait for 18 years and is continuing its Mideast expansion.

What does anyone know about Belgian food beyond fries and waffles? Soon enough New Yorkers will find out when healthy fast-casual EKKi  shows up in Manhattan. Based on the Facebook page, there will be farro, bowtie pasta and couscous.

Charleys Philly Steaks wants to fill “a void in the Russian market for quality, grilled sandwiches.”

Americans love Costa Rica so it’s not really surprising that the country would get a few Dairy Queens.

Photo: niacinsight.com via Buzzfeed

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Oct 10

Chain Links: BoCoCa, Panini in Doha

bococa

The world’s love affair with what it thinks to be Brooklyn continues to blossom. We’ve come to expect this treatment from Paris and Tokyo, and now the
Russians (fresh off their taste of Shake Shack) and Slavs are getting into the act. Personally, my favorite is the Kraków restaurant named Bococa, p0ssibly the city’s grossest neighborhood portmanteau. The only words I can make out on the menu are French and Italian (croissant, penne, spaghetti, tagliatelle).

I didn’t even know what Spicy Pickle was, so it may as well open in Doha. It turns out not to be any sort of on-trend lacto-fermentation,
Sriracha-slathered type of affair, but a Colorado-based panini chain. The meat is be halal at the company’s first international location.

ShakeAway, another mystery chain, will be coming to NYC. Yes, it involves milkshakes (one named Jennifer?) and is from the UK, a region I don’t trust whatsoever to do a creamy dessert beverage properly. They probably call shakes puddings.

Russians get burgers and Brooklyn, and we will be getting Ariana, an offshoot of Gallery Cafe in Moscow. Perhaps it will fare better than Brasserie Pushkin. 

Michael White has expanded his empire to Istanbul.

 

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Aug 4

The Week in International Intrigue: Quiznos Borscht, Pie Donuts, McDonald-less Living

Quiznos russia

Cronuts, the NYC baked good anomaly that just won't quit,
reproduced by an American chain abroad? Now everyone's obsessed with Dunkin' Donuts in South Korea's New York Pie Donuts. The world has reached the pinnacle of
International Intrigue meets Chains of Love. Good night, my work is done here.

No really. I'm packing it in for the rest of the month to focus on…I'm not
sure yet, just not food blogging.

Nonetheless, it's still been quite a week for foreign
relations:

There are now two Quiznos in Russia. No word on the sandwiches, but there is borscht and cream of mushroom soup.

KFC is the leading international brand in China. McDonald's
ranks seventh.

Though it may be hard to believe, there are 105 countries
that are McDonald's-free.

Tossed will open 30 branches in the Middle East.

At the other end of the spectrum, Hakkasan, home of the $295 peking duck with kaluga caviar (at least in NYC) will soon be appearing in the not totally inappropriate location of Beverly Hills.

Photo: Quiznos Russia Facebook page.

 

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Jul 25

Two Things

So, I wrote a few things elsewhere recently.

Oddfellows ice cream

Read about OddFellows Ice Cream on Real Cheap Eats. I love the miso cherry butterscotch. I also need to go back for a sundae.

20130714-wok-to-wok-facade

And Wok to Walk, a Dutch stir-fry chain just appeared in Times Square (and used to be near NYU). It's no great shakes, but office workers mobbed it opening week just the same.

 

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Jul 24

The Week in International Intrigue: Man Salads, Standing Restaurants, Turkey Burgers

Man salad

The founders of Australian SumoSalad must not read The New York Times because they think Americans lack healthy lunch options like
salads. If the chain wants to get with it, it should really consider chopping these
piles of lettuce, chicken, egg and avocado up instead of giving them names like
Man Salad.

I would say that standing-only restaurants must be a Japanese thing, but then that wouldn't explain tapas bars as actually experienced in Spain. No matter, by year's end NYC will likely have an Oreno Kappo, just one of many in a chain of standing restaurants from the Tokyo-based Ore no Corporation.

London wouldn't be the first international location for
Fatty Crab (that would be Hong Kong) though it seems to be the first non-US
branch under the new partnership with restaurateur Stephen Starr. I'm most
interested in what the "city-specific menus" might entail. Banh mi on baps, I hope.

As soon as Manhattan receives a Fatburger, so does Istanbul.

Pollo Tropical opening in the Dominican Republic  doesn't seem so odd considering it's a
Caribbean-themed chain anyway.

 

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Jul 16

Week in International Intrigue: Whoppers, Wine Bars, Wing Zones

Chicken_poutine

New York Fries, which doesn't exist in New York–or anywhere in the US–will be opening two shops in Istanbul shortly. The Candian chain is no stranger to cross-cultural items;  butter chicken poutine is already a menu standard.

There is a 10-seat French-ish restaurant in Tokyo called Fort Greene.

Next year Pakistan will likely get its first Burger King.

The Maldives already got their first taste of Whoppers.

2014 will also see McDonald's arriving in Vietnam.

Japanese robata grill, Inakaya, is expanding to India. Apparently, I work one block from NYC's Inakaya and had no idea. I've always been anti-restaurant week, but maybe?

Parisian wine bar and bistro, Racines, hopes to be in Tribeca by year's end.

There was recently a franchise expo in NYC and there was Bolivian interest in WingZone and Bangladeshis wanting to transport Subway to the Indian subcontinent.

 

 

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