American Comparison Day

Familiarity breeds contempt, so says the idiom. But familiarity can also breed comfort. So says I. And I hope that I am neither an idiom nor an idiot.

Today, Alrica and I decided on an American comparison day. We wanted to see how certain Ecuadorian experiences of American-y things compared or contrasted to the American-y experiences of the American-y things. (I do recognize that American-y is not a word. Not only that, I am taking an adjective and adding the letter y to the end to make it more adjective-y. I make no apologies. Because I am not apology-y.)

They don't have our Thanksgiving, but they have our Black Friday? Capitalism rules!

 

We visited the Multicentro Shopping Center, also known as a mall. It was laid out in three floors with a central atrium you could look through, very much like some American malls. However, this one was much smaller than the malls at home. It also included kinds of businesses we don’t see in our malls, like an orthodontist’s office or a barber shop.

Shopping and teeth, what convenience!

 

These are the sorts of things we have seen in other places in the world. In fact in December of 2016, my whole family got haircuts at a shopping center barbershop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here’s a blog post about that.

A big difference between malls at home and malls here are the anchors. In the states, the anchor stores of malls tend to be big department stores like Macy’s or big sporting goods stores like Dick’s. But they don’t tend to be grocery stores. In fact, grocery stores in malls is almost unheard of in the USA. But that’s not the case in many other countries. And in Ecuador, the big anchor store was SuperMaxi, a grocery store.

We went into the SuperMaxi to buy a few things. The grocery store is much like the ones we have at home, aside from everything being labeled, as you might expect, in Spanish. But one thing that was new to me was hanging fishnet bags of vegetables. Mm, I want a sexy stocking full of potatoes! Oh papa! (Papa is Spanish for potato.)

Admit it, those are some sexy potatoes. Well, each has appeal.

 

We also visited two American classics: McDonald’s and KFC. Here is something very interesting, both of them had a separate counter for postres, desserts. In fact at the McDonalds, the postres counter was outside so drive by traffic could stop for ice cream.

Drive up convenience

 

We didn’t eat at the McDonalds but did check it out. They have kiosks for ordering and you could change the language to English. That was fantastic. However, we were surprised by how expensive the various burgers were. There were a couple of combos you could get for $3.50 which is more in line with the prices of Ecuadorian meals. But several of the items would cost you over $8 for the sandwich alone. That might not be so surprising in America, but in Ecuador that is sticker shock, baby!

The KFC had an upstairs seating area which stretched over its KFC only parking lot. KFC also had kiosks for ordering, but unlike McDonald’s the only language choice was Spanish.

Parking below, eating above

 

Surprisingly, of the two restaurants, the KFC had the bigger play area for children. I wanted to eat at KFC. You may know, KFC is in more countries than any other fast-food chain. I don’t think it has the most locations; I think that is McDonald’s. But it is in more countries than McDonald’s or anyone else. I wanted to know if the chicken tastes the same. Do they really use the Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices? It says on the wall that they do. But is it true?

Would a wall lie to me?

 

I will leave you in suspense on that for a moment. Let me tell you about some of the combos you could buy. You could of course get chicken, but with what? French fries were a choice, not so out there. But several of the combos offered menestra and rice. Menestra is a savory dish made of either lentils or beans. It is usually served with plain white rice, so you can mix the two if you want. I have tried menestra here in Ecuador and it is tasty. But not at KFC. Well, it may be tasty at KFC, but I didn't try it at KFC. I was going for American Comparison Day.

I got a drumstick and thigh with French fries and a 12 ounce Pepsi. (It was in ounces!) My friends, I bring you the news of the Andes. Yes, the chicken at Ecuadorian KFC tastes exactly like the chicken at American KFC. Independent of elevation or latitude, those eleven herbs and spices hit the palate in precisely the same way. It was a little taste of Kentucky in Pichincha. (Pichincha is the province of Ecuador in which Quito is situated.)

Alrica got a sandwich. Also very true to the KFC flavor spectrum.

 

I am not suggesting that Americans abroad should try to eat only American foods. Part of the joy of travel is to try new dishes, like menestra. But let’s not be completely contemptuous of familiarity. Sometimes it helps make being away feel right at home.