Jaunted

Fast Food Travel / Landmarks / The Great Wall / China Travel / Videos / Subway / → All Tags

Going to The Great Wall of China and Resisting the Urge to Get a Subway Footlong

There may no longer be a Starbucks at The Forbidden City in China but there is a Subway sandwich shop at The Great Wall. Seriously.

You can find the footlong mecca at the entrance to the impressive 2.5-kilometer stretch of the Great Wall in Mutianyu. From here you can walk in, out and around several of the 22 watchtowers that were built during the early Ming dynasty.

Some of the steps are steep and tiny and, as to be expected, you need to watch where you're going.There are no handrails and very few informational signs. It's just you, the wall and silence (well, when the other tourists aren't chattering that is. We managed to grab a quick little video on our iPhone of the Mutianyu section. Enjoy!

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Fast Food Travel / McDonalds / Singapore Travel / Chinese New Year / New Year's Travel / → All Tags

McDonald's Contribution to Chinese New Year: The 'Prosperity Burger'

Singapore may be like 22 hours of travel away from the US, but that doesn't mean they haven't got 24-hour McDonalds here and there. One we passed today—just off the Esplanade near the Fullerton Bay Hotel—was sporting some flashy banners for limited-time-only eats. Curious, we got closer. Holy shnickeys, they're trying to make a buck off of Chinese New Year with the introduction of four special items: Beef Prosperity Burger, Chicken Prosperity Burger, Twister fries and a Prosperity McFizz.

According to the banners, these babies are only around until January 31. According to the internet, this isn't the first McDs has been cooking "Prosperity Burgers." And just exactly how prosperous are these sammies? Well, the patties are dipped in black pepper sauce, topped with onions and finished with a sesame seed bun. Sounds okay, but none of those ingredients were in the traditional Prosperity Salad. The only thing we can tell is that the twister fries can resemble 8, an auspicious number.

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Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / Ice Cream Travel / New Mexico Travel / Fast Food Travel / Dessert Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The Fried Ice Cream of Taos, New Mexico

Fried ice cream was something we’d never considered until two weeks ago. In fact, it wasn’t something we were even aware of existing, what with being British. And then we were in the supercheap-but-superfabulous Guadalajara Grill in Taos, New Mexico, when we saw this huge thing looking like a deep fried brain, saying Fried Ice Cream $5.50. And we had to have it.

It didn’t look as brainy as it did in the display case, when it came. It was still huge, though – in a sweet taco shell, covered with a layer of cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry which we promptly scraped off. It looked a bit more brain-lumpy underneath.

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Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / South Korea Travel / Seoul Travel / Fast Food Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The French Fry-Encrusted Corn Dogs of Seoul, South Korea

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

American amusement parks and state fairs could learn a thing or two from the way South Korea has mastered hot dogs. They're available in every way, including spiral cut, wrapped in bacon, stewed in a curryish chili paste, and nearly tempura-ed with vegetables. Even some rice cakes, like Ddeokbooki, imitate hot dogs. Still, our personal favorite remains the infamous french fry-coated corn dog.

These deep-fried snacks usually figure into visitor's breathless descriptions of Seoul, a little like this: "The palaces! The shopping! And the ice cream cones...they were this tall. And and and the corn dogs were covered in french fries!!"

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Fast Food Travel / Burger King / Costa Rica Travel / Food Travel / → All Tags

Mindblowing: Costa Rica's Burger Kings Have a Queso Fundido Whopper

We probably don't need to tell you that Costa Rica has a crazy long list of things going for it. Among them: surf spots, hot springs, eco tourism, canyoneering/ziplining, beaches, and now even a new $40 million airport. But what we bet you didn't expect us to say is that Costa Rica also hits home on the fast food front, as evidenced by our discovery of the Burger King Queso Fundido Whopper.

Drive through the town of Liberia, CR and, at the single stoplight, you'll hit upon a few options: McDonald's, Papa John's, Subway...and a brand new Burger King with this banner out front.

Sadly we didn't stop to try it (hindsight is always 20/20), because we figured we were surrounded with enough better, more local food options than Burger King. But then...when will ever get to try a Whopper that features a deep-fried patty of melty cheese? Guess we'll just have to go back.

Disclosure: We zipped down to Costa Rica as guests of JetBlue and the Costa Rica Tourism Board, but rest assured that all opinions and all photos are completely our own.

[Photo: Jaunted]

Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / Australia Travel / Fast Food Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: The Vegemite-Flavor Potato Chips of Australia

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

If you have ever been lucky enough to visit the "Lucky Country," you know how Aussies love their Vegemite. We have talked about it before, but allow us to explain it again: Vegemite is a yeast extract spread fortified with vitamins and designed to put on toast for breakfast. Now, however, the salty deliciousness isn't limited to breakfast.

Every year, Smith's potato chips asks customers to create four new limited edition flavors , and this year Australia voted for Happy Little Vegemite. It only makes sense to extend Vegemite's salty and sweet goodness to chips, but yes—the Smith's flavor will stay limited to Aussie shores.

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Fast Food Travel / Celeb Travel / John Travolta / → All Tags

KFC Won't Even Let John Travolta Book a Private Table

Apparently even A-Listers can have trouble getting good service at fast food restaurants.

Despite the fact that there were a number of 4-star London restaurants, like The Ledbury, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, and Hix just an hour away, John Travolta decided KFC was the way to go while visiting West Sussex last weekend.

Travolta was in the area to attend an annual Scientology event in East Grinstead Friday when one of his reps called a local KFC and asked if they could book a table for the star and his guests.

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Fast Food Travel / McDonalds / Phuket Travel / Thailand Field Trip / Photo Gallery / Food Travel / Most Shocking McDonalds / Thailand Travel / → All Tags

Munching McDonald's Exotic 'Samurai Pork Burger' in Phuket

As dedicated as we are to trying out the most local and unique foods for our Foreign Grocery Friday series, we also have a definite thing for investigating the fast food preferences of destinations. This usually involves stalking the pastry cases of Starbucks in Switzerland or snacking as the world's fanciest Taco Bell, but more likely we're around the corner squinting up at the menu boards of a McDonald's.

Hoping for some rice patties or other exotic offerings, we wandered into the Golden Arches in the Central Festival Mall in Phuket Town, Thailand. Instead we came face-to-face with the Samurai Pork Burger, a standard item on Thai McD's menus, and something that sounded safe to try.

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Fast Food Travel / Travel Snapshots / Airports / BKK / Bangkok Travel / McDonalds / Airport Restaurants / → All Tags

McDonald's Has a Monopoly on Airport Food in the BKK Domestic Terminal

Flying domestic in Thailand through Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport? You've got one choice for grabbing some food in the terminal, and we're not kidding. It's McDonald's.

We spotted this airport food nook after stepping off a Bangkok Airways flight into BKK from HKT (Phuket) last week, and were shocked by their less than appetizing catchphrase: "The Only Restaurant in Domestic." Well, that may be right but the threat of it doesn't mean that we're going to give into a burger and McDs sundae when we're supposedly in the capital of awesome food. Where's the Pad Thai to go, at the very least?!

[Photo: Jaunted]

Paris Travel / Food Travel / France Travel / Vending Machines / Fast Food Travel / → All Tags

The World's Best Vending Machine is Now Available in France

Those arriving in Paris for the very first time might immediately search out the Eiffel Tower or The Louvre, but if you’d prefer a tastier first impression of course there’s always the baguette. Finding a freshly baked loaf of bread as soon as you land might soon be a reality, as Jean-Louis Hecht has created one of the greatest inventions of our time—the fresh baked baguette vending machine.

Alright, we might be slightly exaggerating, but still this is pretty clever and fairly awesome. Especially for times when running to the local boulangerie isn’t an option, like during long stretches over the summer when it seems like the whole country heads out on vacation.

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Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / Fast Food Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: From Italy's 'Fonzies' to the Borscht Chips of Asia

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

This week's feature foreign treat is not a single item but rather a grab bag of oddly-named deliciousness. Jaunted reader Chris Schenk from Vancouver writes that not only has he also become obsessed with with skimming the shelves at unfamiliar grocery stores, but that he's started snapping them too:

I've taken to photographing snack foods, like some of the other Jaunted souls.

This was from the Roma Termini train station, next to a coffee bar: Fonzies Cheesmania

OMG—Fonzies! We know Fonzies...

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Coffee Travel / Starbucks / Fast Food Travel / Airports / Sweden Travel / Finland Travel / Norway Travel / → All Tags

Watch Out Finland! Starbucks is Set to Invade Your Country, Beginning at the Airport

Those Nordic countries better watch out, as Starbucks is about to invade. Residents of Sweden have already started to add Mocha Frappuccinos to the cup holders of their Volvos, and now it looks like Norway and Finland are next on the list. Awesome local coffeeshops need not be too threatened; for now the expansion seems to be limited to just the airports.

It all goes down in 2012, so if you have a plan to visit next summer to take advantage of the warmer temperatures and long, long days you’ll be able to do so with an overpriced latte. Starbucks officials have already announced their plan to add a location at the Gardermoen Airport in Oslo, Norway. Their most recent announcement reveals that they have plans for two locations at the airport in Helsinki, as there will be one place to grab a coffee after security and one welcoming passengers in the arrivals hall.

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