What I Order - Part 3

Whenever I go to fast food restaurants I’m often presented a difficult choice. Do I order the new or special food items that’s available or do I go with the food item I know and love.  I got to thinking about this, and it made me wonder what is my go to order at most fast food restaurants. Obviously I have different choices depending on the restaurant, but I think each and every restaurant has a go to item for me. I’m not saying it’s the best item or the most popular. I’m just saying that this is the flavour I associate with this restaurant, and maybe you might have something else.

So here’s part three of my choices. Keep in mind that I haven’t included a few fairly popular restaurants, and that’s mostly because I’ve either never eaten there, or at the very least haven’t eaten there in the last 3 years. There also might be a few restaurants that you don’t know about, it could be because I’ve been living in Asia for the last few years so there are a few that are only common in this part of the world. I’ve only done fast food restaurants, which I describe as places were you either commonly get takeout (pizza mostly) or places that require a tray.

Pizza Pizza

Pizza Pizza is a chain from Canada that has a jingle that used to get stuck in my head all of the time. When it comes to a regular order I would often go for deluxe (pepperoni, green pepper and mushrooms) or pineapple, ground beef and mushrooms (it’s weird I know, but it tastes good). The thing about Pizza Pizza is you have to luck out on the location when you order. In my youth I would often walk to a specific location for pickup, just so I could choose which location made my pizza.

Popeyes 

I don’t actually have a history with Popeyes chicken. I think it might have been around when I was a kid, but it was never a choice I would make. As an adult however I’ve developed a taste for their chicken sandwich. I don’t want it spicy or with any “extras”. Their plain chicken sandwich is probably the best chicken sandwich available anywhere. 

Shake Shack

My go to order at Shake Shack is often leads to regret. The regret is that I’ve eaten way too much rich and heavy food. I go for a Double Shack Burger with cheese, cheese fries and a milkshake. The milkshake flavour might vary, but I’ll either go for their specialty shake or a chocolate shake. I’ve actually never regretted the specialty shakes, except for the fact that I’m truly stuffed/sick at the end of the meal. The same goes for the cheese fries.

Taco Bell

Taco Bell gets a bad reputation. The key to enjoying Taco Bell is to know what you’re getting into. If you expect the finest Mexican cuisine, you’ll be very disappointed but if you expect Taco Bell you’ll be fine. My go to order used to be a couple of simple soft tacos, however I’ve since changed/upgraded to the Crunch Wrap Supreme. It’s a very complicated disk filled with just about everything Taco Bell has to offer in one blissful meal.

Wendy’s

This is a little complicated. My most common order at Wendy’s is the Dave’s double combo without onions. I often forget to ask for no onions, so you’ll often see me picking them off. This all goes out the window however if they have the bacon mushroom melt available. The fact that this very messy burger is not a staple on their menu makes me extremely sad. I would actually go to Wendy’s more often if the offered the bacon mushroom melt all of the time.

What I Order - Part 2

Whenever I go to fast food restaurants I’m often presented a difficult choice. Do I order the new or special food items that’s available or do I go with the food item I know and love.  I got to thinking about this, and it made me wonder what is my go to order at most fast food restaurants. Obviously I have different choices depending on the restaurant, but I think each and every restaurant has a go to item for me. I’m not saying it’s the best item or the most popular. I’m just saying that this is the flavour I associate with this restaurant, and maybe you might have something else.

So here’s part two of my choices. Keep in mind that I haven’t included a few fairly popular restaurants, and that’s mostly because I’ve either never eaten there, or at the very least haven’t eaten there in the last 3 years. There also might be a few restaurants that you don’t know about, it could be because I’ve been living in Asia for the last few years so there are a few that are only common in this part of the world. I’ve only done fast food restaurants, which I describe as places were you either commonly get takeout (pizza mostly) or places that require a tray.

Lotteria

Lotteria is a brand that I first tried in Japan, so I assume it’s Japanese, but I could be wrong. I’ve had really mixed results when it comes to Lotteria, particularly since recently I’ve only ordered it in places (outside of Japan) that have regular beef shortages. The biggest problem I’ve found as of late is a lack of availability of many products, most notably anything with beef. So my go to at Lotteria is often their chicken sandwich, but only because it’s often the only thing available.

McDonald’s

This is a tough one since I’ve been eating at McDonald’s my entire life. When I was a kid the cheeseburger was my go to, but as soon as I was able I transferred to the Big Mac. I would say that the Big Mac remains my go to, however I occasionally will get into the Filet-O-Fish for a while. I know that it’s one of the least popular sandwich at McDonald’s, but I just love it. I also can’t eat anything at McDonald’s without getting their french fries.

MOS Burger

MOS Burger is another Japanese (I assume) chain that seems to be spreading into other parts of the world. This is also one of the most unique items on this list as I don’t really go for their regular burgers very often. My one go to item is the yakiniku rice burger. The highlight of this burger is the fact that the bun is actually made up of compressed sticky rice (and not bread). The beef filling works really well with the rice as well, it’s like eating a nice teriyaki meal in one sandwich. The one fault of this burger is that it almost always comes insanely hot (temperature wise) and so I have to wait a few minutes before taking my first bite.

Pizza Company

If you ever want to read an interesting story about the founding of a company, check out Pizza Company. When I’m in (or living in) South East Asia, it’s my pizza of choice. My go to pizza here is also unique as I’ll almost always go for whatever gimmick pizza they’re offering, and they offer some amazing choices. Some of note are the cheese volcano pizza (with a mini cheese volcano on each slice) and the cheeseburger pizza (with mini cheeseburgers baked into the crust). The gimmicks don’t always work, but they’re always fun to try.

Pizza Hut

Since this list is specific about what I love about this chain for take-away, and not eating in restaurant, I have to say that their deluxe (pepperoni, green pepper and mushrooms) is my go to pizza. I will often also include extra cheese as well. I also almost always go with the deep dish pizza as they seem to do it best when it comes to chain restaurants.

What I Order - Part 1

Whenever I go to fast food restaurants I’m often presented a difficult choice. Do I order the new or special food items that’s available or do I go with the food item I know and love.  I got to thinking about this, and it made me wonder what is my go to order at most fast food restaurants. Obviously I have different choices depending on the restaurant, but I think each and every restaurant has a go to item for me. I’m not saying it’s the best item or the most popular. I’m just saying that this is the flavour I associate with this restaurant, and maybe you might have something else.

So here’s part one of my choices. Keep in mind that I haven’t included a few fairly popular restaurants, and that’s mostly because I’ve either never eaten there, or at the very least haven’t eaten there in the last 3 years. There also might be a few restaurants that you don’t know about, it could be because I’ve been living in Asia for the last few years so there are a few that are only common in this part of the world. I’ve only done fast food restaurants, which I describe as places were you either commonly get takeout (pizza mostly) or places that require a tray.

1 A&W

My go to burger at A&W is the Mozza Burger. I have tried a few of the other burgers there, but each and every time I regret not getting the Mozza Burger. It’s a weird burger to be a favourite since it’s the only one that doesn’t seem to go with the burger family theme that they have. I’m pretty sure the mozzerella cheese is supposed to be the focus, but I think the sauce (a thousand island dressing like sauce) is my favourite part.

2 Burger King

I have a love hate relationship with Burger King. I’ve had many bad food experiences at various Burger King restaurants around the world. Burger King is also the place where I see their specialty burgers in commercials or billboards and wonder if maybe this time it’s actually going to work. Honestly it rarely does for me at Burger King. I really only go to Burger King if it’s the only option, and when I do I go for the single Whopper most of the time. That is unless I’m enticed by one of their special burgers.

3 Harvey’s

I think Harvey’s is a Canadian chain, so it’s totally possible that only a few of you reading this will know what I’m talking about. The gimmick with Harvey’s is that they let you pick the ingredients you want added to your burger and fix it up in front of you. The burgers at Harvey’s are okay, however if you get a really good burger topping person it can be greatly improved. I normally get a single burger and load it up with ingredients. I should also note that they’re deep fried pickles while expensive are really good too.

4 Jollie Bee

Jollie Bee is a chicken restaurant chain that’s only recently become fairly international. I’ve had it in two locations, once in the Middle East and a few times in the Philippines (where it started). I will say that the Philippines locations are much better than the Middle East locations. While most people go here for the chicken, I actually prefer the spaghetti (I know it’s weird, but it’s a thing). The spaghetti is done in the Filipino style with a sweet tomato sauce, and it actually pairs really well with fried chicken. I’d also highly recommend the peach and mango pie as well.

5 KFC

KFC is another fast food restaurant that I’ll rarely seek out, but every so often I get a whiff of their chicken and I’m hooked. Main dish wise I actually gravitate towards their chicken sandwich (not the spicy one) rather than the pieces of chicken. The key however is that I always get a salad either macaroni or the green coleslaw. As an additional bonus, their gravy can also be some of the best gravy out there.

What is a Big Mac?

There’s a global trend that’s changing the landscape of fast food, and it’s chicken. Sure chicken’s been a part of fast food for ages, probably for as long as fast food has existed. However, when most people think of fast food, they think of hamburgers or pizza. This is changing though, and more and more fast food restaurants are becoming chicken experts. There are many competing theories about why this is happening. Some people suggest that global food prices are making beef too expensive, others suggest that it’s a choice people are making for health, some even suggest that it’s just a trend that people prefer eating.

What that’s lead to is many fast food chains adding more chicken to their menu, and McDonald’s is no exception. They’ve not only added many new chicken options to their menu, they’ve started to offer chicken variations of their classic burgers. One such item is the Chicken Mac. I decided to give one of these a try and it really made me think about how one defines “what is a Big Mac”.

The problem I ran into is that McDonald’s made more than one change to this classic sandwich. The most obvious change is that they went with two deep fried chicken patties instead of the beef. However, the other change they made is that the Big Mac sauce was changed to just regular mayonnaise. The rest of the sandwich was pretty much the same, lettuce, cheese, re-hydrated onion, pickles and the three layer bun. I didn’t actually research any of this before getting the Chicken Mac, and was kind of shocked by the lack of the Big Mac sauce.

It made me wonder, is it still a Big Mac (or any kind of “Mac” sandwich at all)? I suggested to Allison that I don’t think that this could be considered in the same family of sandwiches, and she argued that it could because it still had that unique bun and the same toppings. She also suggested that the rest of the burger still seemed Mac like. I’m not sure if I agree, but this is actually something that comes up a lot in fast food and candy.

When a candy company makes a different variation of a candy bar, can it still be in the same family. A great example is if we compare the Kit Kat bar with the Kit Kat Chunky (or Big as some call it). While a Kit Kat Chunky kind of looks like a finger of a Kit Kat bar, it’s really only one finger. The ratio of chocolate to wafers is different, and the size of the wafers is different as well. When you think about it, most chocolate bars are really just one finger as well. So does that mean a Kit Kat chunky really isn’t a Kit Kat bar? How far can you stray and how many ingredients can you change while still keeping a snack or junk food item in the same family?

Are all fast food sandwiches that have Big Mac sauce on them, a Big Mac? Can you put Big Mac sauce on a Quarter Pounder and call it a Quarter Pounder Mac? Or do you need that unique bun too? In the last 10 or 20 years it’s become really popular to make variations on popular snack and fast food items, but how far is too far? I argue that the Chicken Mac is not a Big Mac anymore.

That Jolly Bee

This isn’t my first Jollibee experience, but it’s my first at a Jollibee in the Philippines, and I think that can be important. My first Jollibee experience was in the Middle East, and it was okay, but not great. There were two problems with that visit that were completely eliminated this time around. The first issue was my own, I didn’t know what to order. It seems like a silly problem, you should be able to order anything on a menu at a fast food restaurant and enjoy it. The reality is that it’s not the case. Fast food restaurants offer different items for different tastes, and some items are more popular than others. The popular (or better) items may not be intuitive to people unfamiliar with the restaurant or the culture where that restaurant originated. In other words, I ordered a burger at Jollibee the first time I went and it wasn’t great.

The second problem when I visited Jollibee in the Middle East is an issue with importation. One of the balancing acts fast food places must do when expanding outside of their original country of origin is authenticity versus adaptation. Authenticity is the attempt to offer customers at their new restaurants the same thing that they had at their original restaurants. Adaptation is the barriers you have in this new country, which could include limited ingredients, staff that may not have experience cooking and serving that food and dinners who may not like all of the aspects of the food you're serving. It can be very complicated and can lead to the experience I had at the Middle Eastern Jollibee.

This time however I was not only prepared (I know the fried chicken is the thing to eat), but being in the Philippines I know I’m getting the real deal. My experience this time was totally better. First of all the chicken is amazing, juicy on the inside and a nice crunchy coating. We had 3 pieces of chicken between the two of us and there wasn’t a bad one.

The spaghetti is the one item I ordered from both the Middle East Jollibee and the one in the Philippines. The difference was pretty significant. I remember the spaghetti in the Middle East being sticky and over cooked. The cheese was also not as plentiful and I could be wrong but I don’t think it was the same kind of cheese. It could be the quality of the cooking, or just my imagination, but the sauce this time didn’t seem as sweet. Don’t get me wrong, Filipino spaghetti sauce is very sweet compared to western spaghetti sauce, but this didn’t feel like I was eating sugar glazed spaghetti.

We also decided to try out the desserts this time, since I heard the pies are amazing. We also got a cookie sundae as well. The sundae was good, but the pie was excellent. While Allison actually preferred the sundae, I thought the sundae was fairly average with the two improvements being the quality of the cookie bits and the fact that they used a hard shell chocolate sauce. The pie on the other hand was perfect. The filling tasted a bit more like peach than mango, but frankly I really enjoyed that. The crust was crunchy and deep fried (seriously why did McDonald's start baking their pies in some countries), delicious!

It was a fine meal, and as of writing this we still have a few days left here in the Philippines and another stop at Jollibee is completely possible. I’m not sure how I feel about attempting another Jollibee outside of the Philippines, because of my previous experience. This did however make me think about a few of the other fast food and restaurant chains I’ve tried outside of their country of origin, particularly the ones that I didn’t really like that much… I’m looking at you Hardee’s.

McDonalds Anime Update

 Ronald McDonald is probable one of the most famous food mascots ever created. I say this because I’ve seen depictions of Ronald all over the world, and I’m pretty sure that kids and adults all over the place associate this brightly coloured clown with burgers, nuggets and fun fast food. Thailand even has some very unique Ronald statues to greet people outside of every single restaurant.

The thing is, Ronald seems to be disappearing a bit. While there are still hints of him everywhere, he’s not commonly found at every restaurant anymore. I’ve seen many documentaries about the rise and fall of Ronald and the entire McDonald Land cast, and there are many theories about why these characters seem to be falling out of favour at the restaurants. Oddly however I am finding that these characters are starting to become more popular outside the restaurants, being used in clothes, shoes, and even some fine art and collectible toys.

It seems like the licensing of Ronald and the McDonald’s Land characters is going strong, but for marketing in restaurants they seem to be completely disappearing. Again I’m not sure why this is happening for sure, but I am noticing in Asia that these classic characters are starting to be replaced by new Anime style characters.

While there are some food related characters in the mix, the main theme seems to be characters based on the people working at McDonald’s. Maybe this is not only a way to sell food, but also a way to try and get people to apply for jobs.

What I wonder is how deep this goes. While I’ve seen a few posters, cut outs and window decorations of these characters, I haven’t seen any of the obvious marketing pieces that would make sense for Anime style characters, like comics and animation. I think it might be fun to see the adventures of some characters that work at a McDonald’s that’s regular attacked by various fast food related robots and monsters.

Crabby Onion Ring

 I have never been so mesmerized, intrigued and grossed out watching any creature eat something more than this crab eating an onion ring.

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UAE Highlights

 

I'm trying to think if there's any other country that I've visited more than the United Arab Emirates. I've mentioned many times in the blog that I have reasons for visiting places that have a lot of western stuff. I have, and currently live in countries that are a little off the beaten path. In fact, I've lived in at least two countries that have never had a McDonalds. Depending on your opinion of McDonalds, you might think that's a good thing, but what it means is that I've lived in countries that are often short on western comforts. While that gives me a great opportunity to sample what many would consider to be exotic goods, it also makes me miss some of the regular things I can normally get at home.  You might be wondering why I wouldn't just go back home regularly then, that's a simple answer, price and time. It's both expensive and very time consuming to get back home from where I am. Fortunately there are many countries and cities dotted around the world that offer some of the comforts that I'm used to in Canada, and when I have the chance I like to get my fill of comfort food.

United Arab Emirates is probably one of the best countries in the world to get wester comfort foods. I haven't been in a while, but I've found that's become even more true. It used to be a place that had all the regular places, with a few more obscure western restaurants. Now it's chock full of all the regular places, and plenty of very specific and obscure western treats too. Allison and I decided to take advantage of these, while still managing to make regular stops at one of our favourite places, Cheesecake Factory.

One of the stops we managed to make was at Dickey's Barbeque, which was fine. I believe Dickey's is a chain of BBQ restaurants in the US, but I'm not sure if it's made its way to Canada yet. It wasn't the best barbeque either of us had ever had, but filled the gap.

The strange thing about Dickey's is their obsession with their yellow cup. They really seemed keen that I not only get my soda in this yellow cup, but that I take the cup home. I'm presently using it as a cup to hold my paintbrushes, so I guess that's something.

We also managed to stop at 5 guys, which was a first for us. This is a weird one because this is a place that's actually fairly common in Canada, but we just never go. It's not that we have anything against the place, it's just that all of the 5 Guys locations near my house in Canada are in places where I have other restaurants that I love. If we're in those areas, it means we're going to those restaurants, and we never really try anything new.

That might change after this visit as the burgers and fries were pretty good. I also like the idea of getting peanuts before a meal.

We didn't just eat western food on this excursion, we also managed to sample a really famous and very tasty Pakistani restaurant. It was nice to go to a Pakistani restaurant since there really aren't that many around. Having lived in Pakistan for a few years it was some wonderful and familiar flavours.

While the food was great, the real highlight was the fact that they also sold custom Adidas... sort of. Apparently they may or may not be authentic, but I have my suspicions.

While we did eat a lot of foreign foods, we also managed to enjoy a few iftar dinners as well (since it was Ramadan). Iftar dinners are one of my favourite meals since they're often buffets and they also often have foods I've never tried before. The format allows for a great sampling of new and fun foods including amazing desserts.

You also can't go wrong when you start a meal with a delicious date.

The candy scene in the UAE hasn't changed much over the years. Plenty of over the top candy stores, lots of imports, but only a few treats that you could really call local. I can't say that I completely hate the fact that most of the treats in the UAE are imports as it's a great place to take a look at the popular treats from all over the world. It also lets you really see how exotic western treats actually are.

The candy and desserts you could call local are also always presented in a big way, with lots of pageantry. 

I do however admire their very modern candy machines found all over the place. Video screens make for a much flashier and fun place to buy snacks.

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McDonald’s Options Gone Wrong

 

As technology moves forward, the fast food experience is evolving. In the future I'm pretty sure we'll have restaurants operating with no human intervention, and using fancy algorithms they'll be able to predict what you're going to order. For now we still have people working the front counters and behind in the kitchens (I'm thankful for that), but we are starting to see some interesting automation. McDonalds is probably one of the places leading the way right now with their automatic order stations. While other fast food places do offer these order stations, I find that many McDonalds locations are starting to make it hard to order any other way. 

The thing that makes these kiosks interesting to me is the ability to custom order your meal, without having to face the disappointed gaze of a human being. The kiosks will not judge me if I order so many extra pickles that it seems like an unhealthy addiction. The thing I'm finding about these modifications available at the McDonald's kiosks is they seem to differ from country to country, and sometimes even restaurant to restaurant. Because of this, and because of my unhealthy addition to pickles, I always check what my options are every time I place my order. As it turns out, in Qatar at least, they have some really strange options to choose from.

On this particular day, Allison and I ordered our regular choices. I got a Big Mac.

Allison got the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. While there were a few options that seemed pretty standard, we also noticed a few that seemed a little bit odd, or at the very least new to us. I was super happy that extra pickles was an option.

We'll start with Allison's Quarter Pounder. While there are a few regular items she added on, like the extra pickles (although extra pickles are not available everywhere). Two of the addons were pretty interesting. In particular the mayonnaise and shredded lettuce. In fact both of these options were available for every burger (as you'll see later). The really fascinating thing here was the fact that Allison could not only add lettuce to her Quarter Pounder, but she could add a double serving of lettuce.

I'm not sure if this photo does it justice, but Allison actually got a small salad wedged into her Quarter Pounder. They did not skimp on the lettuce at all. It's a strange addition available, and one that they really delivered on, but I don't think it's the strangest.

I too went for the extra lettuce and extra pickles (I'm only human after all). I was not offered the choice of adding two extra helpings of lettuce, I assume that's because the Big Mac already comes with lettuce and two extra servings would just be silly. The very peculiar option is the one word found under the shredded lettuce on my order, "cut". When I ordered my burger, under the options it only said "cut", with no explanation at all. I simply couldn't pass up this opportunity so...

I too received a ridiculously large amount of lettuce. My container was pretty much filled to the top and overflowing. But as you can see, my burger was in fact cut in half, right down the middle. It's not that I find cutting your burger in half to be problematic. Maybe you have kids that are going to share one burger, or maybe (as is the case) you find it less messy to eat one half of a burger at a time (particularly if you have a ridiculous amount of lettuce and pickles). The part I found odd is that there was no explanation as to what "cut" meant on the options, and they never asked how I wanted it cut. While I didn't mind it being simply cut in half, I would have preferred a pizza style of cutting into four or maybe even six wedges.

When I picked up my order, I did hear some conversation (in a foreign language) and some giggles. I'm not certain that this order is very common, or if they knew we were being a little silly, so they added a ridiculous amount of lettuce. Lucky for them ridiculous is one of our favourite ways to have our burgers.

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It's A New Episode of Junk Fud and You All About Fast Food

In this episode of Junk Fud and You I talk about some international fast food places you may have never tried before. Sure it's a little hard to travel now, but when things clear up you'll want to check some of these places out.

Tell me your favourite fast food place on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Also be sure to check out my micro comic called Snack Facts.

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We Eat Taco Bell In Thailand, And It's Not Bad... Then It's A Little Bad

Just before our recent trip to Thailand I heard that their first Taco Bell was opening up in that country. I didn't remember much from the article I read on the subject, only that they had to "adjust" the recipe for Thai tastes. I wasn't really sure what that meant, but I wanted to find out. It turns out the new Taco Bell was only a few minutes walk from the place I was staying, so a lunch there was totally in order.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see some of the other stuff we found on this trip.

Also be sure to follow us on YouTube to keep up with all our videos.

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It's A New Episode Of Junk Fud On The Road - Turkey

This episode brought back some great memories of a country that has a really great food culture, Turkey. This is one place that has the potential for a follow up episode in the future.

Make sure to follow us on YouTube and SoundCloud to keep up with all the new episodes of Junk Fud.

You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook as well.

And Don't forget about our Patreon page.

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My Candy/Junk Food Chrsitmas Wishlist - Big Mac Sauce

I'll tell you why I'm obsessed with the idea of a bottle of Big Mac sauce. It's not because I want to make Big Macs at home, it's because I want to see if the sauce works in other experimental cooking ideas.

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Candy In the Media

Robots are making our hamburgers, it's either the end of the world, or a bright new tomorrow.

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Candy In the Media

When you think of a McDonald's smoothy, this is likely not what you imagine.

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India Trip Round Up

India's a pretty fascinating place when it comes to food, there's a certain expectation about what to expect when you eat there, however there's also some realities that get in the way. We all know Indian food from eating at our local Indian restaurant (found in many Western countries). While the food is similar, it's a little bit different.  The main difference comes from the fact that when you're in India, you're sitting in a developing country.  While I did eat at many fine establishments in India, I also ate in more places that would probably be shut down in a matter of minutes in Western countries.  That's not to say that the food wasn't good, or that they didn't try to make the meal pleasant, it's just a different environment, and different ingredients than many of us are used to finding in Indian restaurants.

There's also a diversity in India that you just don't find in average Indian restaurants.  We only traveled in the northern part of India, a small fraction of the country, yet we tasted so much variety in the food.  In some cases it was drastic, like the Tibetan influence in McLeod Ganj, or subtle differences, like the variations of butter chicken we sampled.

Speaking of butter chicken, this is easily my favourite classic Indian food, and because of this I made sure to sample as many different versions as I could.  To my biggest surprise, apparently in the north of India it's more common to eat butter chicken with the bone in.  It took a bit of getting used to, but eventually I was OK.  We also did a little research, and planned a visit to Moti Mahal in Delhi.  This restaurant is known to be the place where butter chicken got its start, and famous chefs (including Gordon Ramsay) have visited this place to learn how it's done.  The butter chicken at Moti Mahal was fantastic, and what I appreciated most was the fact that the chicken is shredded (like pulled pork) and then mixed in the sauce.  It creates a great texture and really gets the creamy sauce all around.

Probably my second favourite meal on the trip happened in McLeod Ganj, a city famous for the fact that it's where the Dalai Lama, and the Tibetan government in exile are now located.  I don't know if I've ever tasted Tibetan cooking before, but I'm now hooked.  Tibetan food is simple, hearty, and full of flavour.  I fell in love with two dishes in particular, Momos, and Thentuk.  Momos are small dumplings that are either steamed or fried, and can be filled with just about anything.  Thentuk is a chicken soup with all kind of vegetables, and fantastic flat noodles.  Why Tibetan food is not more popular in North America I do not know, not only is it tasty, but it's simple enough that many picky eaters wouldn't be afraid of it.

Sweets and candy wise I pretty much got what I expected, lots of small treats, similar to what you might find in Indian restaurants in North America.  There were a few new ones to try, but not too many big surprises.  Salty snacks are also very popular in India; I imagine that the spicy options (of which there are many) make salty snacks popular in this country.  The big surprise for me when it came to candy was the amount of chocolate all over the place.  Most of it seemed to be Cadbury, or Cadburyesq chocolate bars.  I imagine that this comes from the British influence of the past.

Although not a sweet, one thing that you must try in India if you get the opportunity are the mangoes.  Not only is the quality fantastic, but the variety is amazing.  I've been told that there are hundreds of variety to choose from, and you can pretty much find them everywhere.  Better still you can also try many different sweet treats flavoured with mango as well.  From ice cream to candies, mango is a really popular flavour and a really popular fruit in India, and for good reason.

The big disappointment on this trip came from the western food. I often enjoy sampling chain restaurants in foreign countries to see how they change up things for their own taste.  We tried 4 different fast food places, and all but one was pretty gross.  KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut, all didn't agree with my North American sensibilities at all.  Maybe the changes were too much, but I didn't like them.  The only chain that worked for me was Subway, and when we ordered we avoided any fresh vegetables (because it's a developing country).  If you're going to get fast food in India, go local.  Visit a Dahba or any street food vendor for some great local flavour.  As I said above, you do have to make sure that everything's cooked, and even then you're taking a bit of a risk.  But when the risk pays off in India, it pays off so well that's it's worth a few bad nights on the porcelain throne.

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