McDonald's was always one of the pricer places to eat. And I understand that need to eat something familiar. but not Starbucks in Italy.

ION, i planned to do very little today . I finished a book, I watched some tv , I took a nap and I've run out of internet. I might have to do something productive

Where are you now, ND?

I'm in Southampton tonight.

For me it's more comforting to have something I know I won't be able to get when I go home, but I can see that it would be different if I traveled as much as you do and for work rather than pleasure.

My typical pattern when I'm out of country is to be very adventuresome with food. I love having the local cuisine. However, once I've been gone for a few weeks and living out of hotels, and eating out all the time, I eventually will hit the point where I just want comfort food for a night, so I'll either order something vaguely American off the menu, or I will track down an American chain.

SJ thanks it's just so annoying.

Plus for one of the medicines I'm takking I'm supposed to be taking Vitamin C or drinking Cranberry juice, but those are big no nos with the IC stuff.

From what I'm reading cranberry juice is worse that maybe the vitamin C supplement.

There's an elimination diet, and of course pretty much everything I just bought at the grocery store is either on the AVOID list or the MAYBE AVOID list.

These stories are why I dislike Canadians. They are so vehemently anti being thought of as American. Yes, I understand that some of us are dicks, but then so are you.

I'm really curious what they serve in McD's in India, where cows are sacred.

The fries are vegetarian (no beef tallow), the burgers are made with lamb. The lamb Big Mac is called a Maharajah Mac. And the soda portions are a LOT smaller - a large in Delhi is what we'd call child size here in the States. Other than that, pretty much the same.

There's an awesome burger place in London that my BiL took us too when we visited a few years back, but I can't remember what neighborhood it was in or what it was called. But the burgers were really amazingly good.

Most of the best burgers I've had in NYC have been in Irish pubs. Go figure. (Though Burger Joint is still my favorite.)

The most I've ever eaten McD's in my life was during Peace Corps. Moldova is not known for its cuisine, street food was unsafe, and foreign food was too pricy on our stipend. Plus the comfort aspect. It was only in the capital, so I still didn't have it that often.

(And honestly, I can kind of understand wanting a Starbucks in Europe depending on how long they'd been there. After two weeks of fantastic espresso in Paris, I was more than ready to drink a CUP OF COFFEE again. Like, more than two ounces at a time.)

In Israel, some McDonald's locations are kosher, and some aren't. The kosher ones have blue and white signs instead of the usual red and yellow.

Which I thought was mutton-based, but that article claims it's chicken.

Huh. I've eaten one, and it was definitely not chicken. Of course, I was last in India in 1999 so maybe they changed it.

Oh, Nora! One of your blog posts made me choke and tear up with homesickness. The part about the humidity being like a hug and reveling in it. I miss that so much!