I've been known to occasionally have some sort of American chain food while in a foreign country. I lump it into comfort food. I don't typically eat it but sometimes it is nice. Consider that much of my travel is also for business which can get lonely and boring.

Where are you now, ND?

We stayed across the street from a McDonald's in Sydney, so we grabbed a few quick breakfast there when we had to head out early. They had plain toasted English muffins with single servings of jam or Vegemite.

No one need justify eating Maccas in Australia. We have some great eating here and the quality of the fresh produce is excellent, but we don't have much of a local cuisine.

Ryan's been introduced to Vegemite, a little on toast. He loves it. Aussie boy! (I, on the other hand, think it tastes like an industrial byproduct. I also don't much like the beach, don't drink beer and think a game of cricket is a waste of a week off. It's probably just as well I have dual citizenship, as I run the very real risk of being deported as inimical to Australian values.)

When I was in New Zealand, the food was pretty lame. I ended up eating at a lot of Thai and Malaysian places.

When we were in the Frankfurt airport for seven hours, we found a McDonald's, and I recall their having some very strange sauces. It's definitely worth checking out, for kicks.

McDonald's in Germany now has cupcakes. There was an article in the NY Times a few weeks ago about how most Germans haven't eaten cupcakes before, and the only association they have with them is the ones from Magnolia on Sex and the City, so they're marketing them as a chic New York thing.

When I was in Ireland, I went to Eddie Rocket's, which is like Johnny Rocket's here. Their veggie burger used potatoes as the carb base, rather than the bread crumbs veggie burgers here usually use.

And while we're on the subject of foreign food -- my grandmother's parents owned a restaurant in Germany before the war. They lived in the apartment above the restaurant. My sister is visiting Germany now, and she found the building where the restaurant was. The outside of the building still looks exactly the same as in the pictures we have from 1910 or so. The part that used to be the restaurant is now a gelato place.

When I was in New Zealand, the food was pretty lame. I ended up eating at a lot of Thai and Malaysian places.

I think my sister did too, now that I think about it.

I encourage you all not to eat at Mickey D's in Jamaica. They went all out, litigation-wise, to shut down a McDonald's restaurant there that preceded their first franchise opening on the premise that no one anywhere should be able to have a restaurant with that name. It wasn't even a burger joint, and it was run by a guy named McDonald.

For a while, the little guy won, and US McDonald's had to have restaurants with no name, just the golden arches.

I will never forget the sleepless night I spent listening to Canadians bitch loudly about being mistaken for "obnoxious Americans." When I pointed out that it worked both ways, he denied his Canadianness. Ah, but the whole boat heard you, asshole.

Tonight we are going to the Bacchanal, as recommended by smonster!

OMG! I hope I didn't oversell! But I do love it, deeply.

Bella is on her summer hunger strike. Dammit.

smonster, I had a very similar experience when I was staying in a hotel in Kunming, in Yunnan Province. I was sitting in the business alcove using the computer, and a guy came up to the front desk and asked about a map or something. The very shy clerk, who spoke extremely limited English said something about "American" (I guess she assumed he was American) and he loudly and obnoxiously exclaimed that he was not to be confused with "embarrassing Americans - that [he] was Canadian!"

And there was absolutely no point for him to declare this - the clerk didn't care, and she was the only person in the entire room (other than myself, and I don't think he saw me).

Not foreign, but there used to be a fabulous veggie takeout in Santa Cruz called McDarma's. They had the most spectacular veggie Reuben I have ever had. Mikey D forced them to change the name...with the force of litigators taking down felons. Lame!