Take this up with Matthew Inman, not with me. 
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True; I know that at least at one point, (West) German McDonald’s served a “Happy McShake” as they could not legally call it a milkshake. However, I will guess that Zurich McD’s would not have served me a hamburger topped with a fried egg.
Yeah, I saw (but did not try) various chains when I traveled in the Gulf countries some years ago. Pizza Hut and Subway with porkless meats, for example. I did see a Pizza Inn; cannot remember the last time I’d seen one in the US. The chain I liked over there was Just Falafel, and was hoping to see it expand to the US (at least, further than Houston), although I gather it no longer lives up to its name.
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What’s the difference between Mochi and Mochi ice cream.
Cure me of my ignorance. I’m open to learning.
Mochi are small cake or dumpling shaped gummy sweets in many flavors, chewy and sticky, made from rice. Usually coated in sugar or cornstarch so they don’t stick to everything. Sometimes you see little mochi nuggets as frozen yogurt toppings.
Mochi ice cream are round bite-size nuggets of ice cream (often green tea or red bean flavored) in a chewy mochi shell. You can find them at pretty much any Trader Joe’s if you’re curious.
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I still have fond memories of the Chinese restaurant in the high lands in Malaysia were we could barelt communicate with the staff.
They used a folder with photos as a menu, I still have no idea what we ate, but it tasted great.
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Just try a kroket at a real Dutch snackbar. Way better.
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I had bitterballen at a bar (excellent) and a kroket from FEBO. Both were definitely better than a McKroket. But in the realm of unique McDonald’s items, it definitely ranks up there.
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I would add that ‘real’ mochi often have some sort of bean paste inside the glutinous rice outer shell. The Western version of this puts ice cream – albeit usually more Asian flavors, as you said – in place of the bean paste.
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Some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever eaten in my life I had in Georgetown, Malaysia.
I literally followed my nose to a place and picked almost at random.
Thinking about it, I ate a lot of Chinese food there because the Chinese menus often had English translations and the Malay restaurants/stalls often didn’t.
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One of the great things about eating street food in Malaysia is that no matter how many people are in your group, you can each eat a different nationality of cuisine. (I might be exaggerating for effect!)
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Yeah, we loved the food of Malaysia. Indian, indonesian, chinese and thai influences. Great food courts everywhere.
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My question to your traveler friend would be, "why in the heck does he eat ‘Mexican’ or ‘Tex Mex’ food in Germany?" I would think that ordering any kind of Latin-American food or something similar would not be a pleasurable experience for anyone familiar with the real thing.
Though I do understand craving comfort/home foods when on extended stays in foreign places. Still, it’s generally been my experience that I’ll be most happy when I eat the local cuisine(s) wherever I am. And while I’ll admit, I had pretty good pizza in Sweden, I would not try any kind of ‘Latin’ place even in Spain (whose cuisine is as entirely different from Latin American foods as is Greek or Turkish).
That’s what he gets frustrated about… he has to go there for business, and Bavarian-style German food is one of his favorite things in the world. But his German hosts always want to take him out to “Mexican” or “Indian” restaurants because they’re ‘exotic’ and think German food is too boring for him. He’s described tasteless Indian curries made with paprika that his hosts think are too spicy.
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But I’ve had currywurst, and you could definitely taste the spice. Is it a regional thing? Or is currywurst a pseudo-German abomination that no actual German has ever heard of?
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Currywurst is more of a Berlin thing, I think.
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Oh, that makes sense, being taken out by hosts…in that case it is hard to complain without possibly giving offense. Especially, since the Germans like the ersatz Mexican and Indian foods. LOL. That is a terrible dilemma for your friend. Well, hopefully he enjoys the company if not the food!
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Berlin is having a resurgence of traditional German comfort food being prepared in new, foodie ways (farm-to-table, all vegan, etc.) that is worth checking out. Wherever he’s going for work, maybe he can get his hosts interested in this new trend.
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I’ve made one from a Julia Child book. There were quite a few things “inauthentic” about it:
- Curry powder and turmeric, but not enough high heat. In fact, none to speak of.
- Onions and garlic, which do not go in a curry
- Made from a roux, which is so unusual in curries that this was actually conspicuous. I couldn’t stop tasting it no matter how hard I tried.
- Apples and raisins, for the whitest curry ever.
Yet I could see its appeal to Europeans who grew up with it.
Also, this book was written a good forty years before I had seen my first Indian restaurant in the US.
I would rather have weird, vaguely Indian-inspired European food than nothing resembling Indian food at all, but that’s just me.
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There was a little something there, yes. And it was served in a tomatoey sauce with a little vinegar, like ketchup but with curry powder, turmeric, cumin, and some other stuff. I would say it had flavor but no heat.
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