The experimental Panda Express guy

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Just in case you needed another reason to judge the poor choices of the caller who drove out to Panda Express for an orange chicken burrito -- Altadena, where the place is located, is in the San Gabriel Valley, home to some of the best and most authentic Chinese food in literally all of America.

[buffcoat]

I can't judge, because when I was 19 a friend of mine and I took a driving tour of the Southeast. We hit New Orleans for one night, crashed on a dude my friend barely knew's couch at Tulane (complete with a dated copy of the Patti Davis edition of Playboy on the improvised coffee table).

We had one night to eat in New Orleans and I - *I* - decided we should eat $7 Chinese food. There were advertisements on the trolley for all kinds of seafood and French restaurants.

[scribbled name]

We had one night to eat in New Orleans and I - *I* - decided we should eat $7 Chinese food. There were advertisements on the trolley for all kinds of seafood and French restaurants.

I was in almost the exact same boat. Friends and I were in our early 20's and had one night to spend in New Orleans and ended up going to Hooters.

[buffcoat]

Preach on, Brother scribbled name!

[mnstrfrc]

Had only one evening to spend in NYC when I was 19 and I ate at Sbarro in Times Square

[buffcoat]

This is a good thread. I ate at a McDonald's in Paris when I was 19.

[peter falk]

When I lived in Germany I drove to Denmark to go to 7/11 to get a slurpee and taquitos.  Unfortunately the 7/11s there had neither.

Panda Express is also my favorite fast-ish food and pretty great as far as Americanized trash Chinese goes.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Hey, I like what you've done with the place.

I've eaten plenty of fast food in various places around the world, but never exclusively fast food. However, I have a couple dumb/regrettable food travel anecdotes.

I was just in Russia and repeatedly tried to get fast food, but they don't seem to get the concept. It was always slow and disorganized, and never clear how to queue up. I'd usually give up and go to the grocery store or a Russian restaurant, where I'd get faster service from a waiter. Ironically, the local Russian fast food chains had it figured out, but not McDonald's or KFC.

I'd also successfully gone years of my kids having no idea what McDonald's was until we were in Prague last summer. I was working so we hired a local part-time sitter to get my wife some relief, and she's the one that brought them to their first McDonald's. Of course we live in the birthplace of McDonald's, so now that we're home, they ask for it all the time and claim nostalgia for the Czech Republic.

Finally, when I was in Austria in the 1990s, I somehow accidentally ordered a totally disgusting dish three times, under various names: basically unrendered, grisly pork fat mixed with raw garlic and spread on bread. I think this was usually because I was ordering the cheapest item on the menu. And because I was broke and timid, I never sent it back and got something else, but forced as much or it down as I could until I was no longer hungry.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Also, among the New York foods I generally miss is Roy Rogers.

[buffcoat]

The first Starbucks I ever went into was in Edinburgh, Scotland. I had just climbed Castle Rock and come down the other side and there it was.

Beautiful day, actually, and my weird love affair with Starbucks continues to this day. Albeit it was probably, what, nine years before I went in another one.

[Carver]

When I was in college in the 90s I went to a summer program in Galway, Ireland.  My cohort always went to this fast food place called Supermac's.
I remember that the veggie/soy burger was actually above the regular burger on the menu. 
Just googled em and now they serve Papa Johns for whatever reason.

[marsdentrainfan]

Hey, I like what you've done with the place.

I've eaten plenty of fast food in various places around the world, but never exclusively fast food. However, I have a couple dumb/regrettable food travel anecdotes.

I was just in Russia and repeatedly tried to get fast food, but they don't seem to get the concept. It was always slow and disorganized, and never clear how to queue up. I'd usually give up and go to the grocery store or a Russian restaurant, where I'd get faster service from a waiter. Ironically, the local Russian fast food chains had it figured out, but not McDonald's or KFC.

I'd also successfully gone years of my kids having no idea what McDonald's was until we were in Prague last summer. I was working so we hired a local part-time sitter to get my wife some relief, and she's the one that brought them to their first McDonald's. Of course we live in the birthplace of McDonald's, so now that we're home, they ask for it all the time and claim nostalgia for the Czech Republic.

Finally, when I was in Austria in the 1990s, I somehow accidentally ordered a totally disgusting dish three times, under various names: basically unrendered, grisly pork fat mixed with raw garlic and spread on bread. I think this was usually because I was ordering the cheapest item on the menu. And because I was broke and timid, I never sent it back and got something else, but forced as much or it down as I could until I was no longer hungry.

I'm surprised by your experience at a Russian McDonald's! I was reading through the thread, thinking I might share about my own (positive) encounter with Russian fast food—especially McDonald's—when I saw your comment.

In any case, it's too bad you didn't get a good impression of Russian fast food. I was in Russia for the first time in November, and I really enjoyed the McDonald's there. The service was, for me, comparable to USA/Canada but there was a lot of more interesting items on the menu.

Anyhow, I bring it up because a lot of people in the thread (perhaps not unfairly) seem to bring up their food choices while abroad with some measure of shame or regret implied. I find a lot of people assume I'd also be embarrassed when I bring up eating McDonald's in Russia, but to me—even before getting to there—I had very much planned to visit some fast food spots. Not only am I always intrigued to see the local variations, but more importantly I kind of figure eating American fast food is a strangely iconic aspect of the post-Soviet experience. Visiting McDonald's in Red Square felt as much a part of the Moscow must-do list as the Kremlin and St. Basil's.

(In my defence, I of course also ate a lot of actual Russian food during my time there haha)