Unexpected Food Flashback

While my family enjoys trying new food, or new twists on familiar food, in our travels, it’s always fun to check out the overseas extensions of McDonald’s.  What many Americans may not realize is how different international McD’s menus can be. My wife was surprised though to find this apple pie at a McDonald’s in London.

Deep fried McDonald’s apple pie

What’s that you say?  Apple pies are nothing new or surprising at the Golden Arches?  Ah, but look closely – this fine piece of junk food is deep fried!! Just the way they were always made in the States until Ronald McDonald went on a health kick with the baked apple pie.

Now don’t get me wrong, I try to generally eat healthy and my fellow citizens are losing the battle against obesity it seems.  Yet when I decide to splurge on a sweet treat, I may as well go all the way, right?  And there was something comforting about a taste from my childhood.

Yeah, I’m easily impressed sometimes!

Discount Shopping

Primark store

One day in London we wandered into a Primark store, not really knowing what it was.  When I say “we wandered in”, of course I mean that I followed helplessly while my wife and daughter charged boldly inside.  Primark is a British-owned, Irish based clothing store with locations in several countries – and soon to be in the U.S. apparently.  I don’t know if they’re meant to be primarily a discount store (the quality seemed like typical mid-range stuff that we normally would buy), but the location we visited seemed to have a store-wide sale of some sort that day.

My day as a pack mule

At any rate, even with the weak U.S. dollar, the prices on some items were still a good deal for us after calculating the exchange rate.  And I admit to purchasing a hat and two T-shirts myself while waiting for the girls to finish.  I noted that they have a counter where overseas visitors can get a VAT refund for a single purchase over a certain amount (I want to say it was > £50 but don’t quote me on that).  However the deal required presenting a passport and we didn’t happen to have ours with us at the moment.

And so ends probably one of the few “shopping” posts you can expect to find on my blog!