Archive for the ‘McDonald’s of the World’ Category

PVX: McDonald’s in Bulgaria

Posted by Arlo on Oct 25, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

Who would have thought Bulgaristan would have had one of the most interesting McDonald’s menus we’ve encountered so far?  Not me!

We only had two days in Sofia, the capital, so we made sure to hit McDonald’s for dinner the night we arrived.  We saw so many things on the menu we wanted to try that we went back again the next day.  Because this is a double-shot of food sampling, it’s a slightly longer-than-normal video.

Also, this is where we learn that Oksana has been lying to us!  After I turned off the camera, she made a face and said she really didn’t like the Zorba.

“What?!” I asked.  “Why  didn’t you say that on camera?”

“I don’t know…” she replied.

We ended up swapping burgers, so I didn’t even get to eat my McMenu Shrimp Lemon Burger!  I have to admit, too, that the Zorba does whatever the opposite of “grows on you” is.  By the end, I had to force myself to eat the last bite.  Oksana was right on one point: That cheese was really salty!

And don’t worry.  Oksana has since vowed to be more honest on camera.  Let’s hope she doesn’t start doing spit-takes!

PVX: McDonald’s in Turkey

Posted by Arlo on Oct 18, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

Guess what?  We ate at McDonald’s in Turkey, too.

Not much to say about this one except that we used the trip to McDonald’s as an excuse to go a little farther from our hotel in Sultanahmet.  We rode the metro to the Kanyon Mall and planned to take in a movie, too, but the ticket prices were pretty high and nothing was starting soon, so we just did our McDonald’s thing instead.  The restaurant was so crowded (and obviously trendy) that we weren’t sure we’d even get a table at first.

And dang it!  This is the third week in a row I’ve posted a McDonald’s video with audio problems.  It’s a really good thing this sort of stuff doesn’t bother me.  This time, it wasn’t the fault of the video camera; what you’re hearing is what it picked up in a very noisy restaurant.  No, the fault lies in that little microphone you can see on the table with the red record light.  The red record light that lets us know it’s recording.  The red record light that has nothing to do with whether or not the recording will eventually be saved to the micro-SD card inside.  It’s only happened once or twice so far, but sometimes the mic (a Zoom H1) “crashes” (for lack of a better word.)  Oh, well.  At least I don’t have to type up subtitles this time.

PVX: McDonald’s in Israel

Posted by Arlo on Oct 11, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

We really only had one day in Israel, so of course visiting a McDonald’s was high on our list of things to do!  My goal was to go to one of the few kosher restaurants, but they were all closed for Shabbat; we checked.  We lucked out because there was one in the airport and we hit it on the way out, but it didn’t have the infamous “blue arches,” one of the only logo changes McDonald’s has ever approved (supposedly.)

Anyway, we dragged our friend, Michal, to McDonald’s in Tel Aviv with us.  Turned out to be a good thing, as most of the menu was in Hebrew…

Oh, and I think the mic on Oksana’s point-and-shoot is toast.  No idea what happened (raindrop, perhaps?), but this is the second recording where the audio is just horrible.  Good thing we have friends bringing us a brand new Sony TX10 in a few weeks!

PVX: McDonald’s in The Kingdom of Jordan

Posted by Arlo on Oct 5, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

I have to admit that recording this video — even asking to stop at a McDonald’s on the way — felt a little awkward.  I’m self-conscious enough recording videos in a restaurant; doing the same thing with two strangers in the car?  A little odd.  After it was over, though, Tina said I sounded very natural, so maybe it doesn’t come across that bad.

Exercise for the viewer: See if you can spot the continuity error!

PVX: McDonald’s in Egypt

Posted by Arlo on Sep 27, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

After a long Big Mac dry spell, we finally made it across Africa and found another country with Golden Arches: Egypt!  We ended up eating at McDonald’s again and again before we left the country if only because we kept stopping in for the AC and vanilla cones!  Egypt is hot in August!

This is the first video we didn’t shoot in the restaurant itself.  I find it ironic that we chose not to because the environment wasn’t conducive to good video, but look at the problems this video has!  The florescent lights in our room wreaked havoc with the image; sorry about that.  We weren’t planning to shoot another review, but when we saw the sandwiches on display in Aswan, I had to try one.  We only had Oksana’s point-and-shoot camera with us, however, and it did a horrible job with the audio.  (Not sure why, either, because we shot practically the whole Ecuadorian Jungle video with that little camera!)  These issues bother me, but I’m trying to remind myself that these McDonald’s videos were never intended to be perfect.  That comforts me somewhat.  It also helps when I think about the mayo that both Oksana and I had stuck to our faces in the first segment…

Speaking of awkward food review moments.  Boy, when you’re on camera, the time between taking a bite and swallowing it so you can talk again seems like an eternity.  I should watch the the Food Network and take notes on how they do it.

PVX: McDonald’s in South Africa

Posted by Arlo on Aug 16, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

The audio isn’t great in this one — we found ourselves in a McDonald’s that was packed full of screaming kids — but I think you can still understand what we’re saying. I suppose we could have recorded another McDonald’s session; we were in South Africa for over a month, after all. But honestly it takes a lot of effort (and a sort of public performance bravado we have to psych ourselves up for) to whip out a video camera and talk about what you’re eating with people all around you. Once we’ve got it “in the can,” we’re much less likely to go for “take 2!”

A couple mistakes I noticed in editing:

1) The McRoyale isn’t a renamed DOUBLE Quarter Pounder, it’s a renamed DELUXE Quarter Pounder. (Big diff, I know.)

2) I say that the BBQ sauce on the McFeast is the same that’s on the McRib in the States. That may or may not be true, but I wish I hadn’t referred to it as “BBQ sauce,” but rather “Braai sauce.” I didn’t see the burger box copy until later:

BRING ON THE BRAAI
The summer’s always here with the two quarter pounds of pure beef and the unique taste combination of smokey South African Braai sauce and tangy mayo.
Let the good times roll.

PVX: McDonald’s in Uruguay

Posted by Arlo on May 26, 2011 under McDonald's of the World, Postcard Valet, PV-Podcast, Travel, Videos

Alright, I finally get to remove the “‡” next to Uruguay!

We had fun eating at McDonald’s in Uruguay, but to tell the truth, I was more excited to continue eating the Angus Premium burgers we’d discovered in Argentina.  McUruguay had a great name for a burger, however. The “McBacon” sounded like mana from heaven, but it was nothing to write home about (still worth making a podcast about, however!)  I didn’t realize this after the first bite (so it isn’t on camera), but there are actually two hamburger patties in the McBacon which means it’s just a Bacon Double Cheeseburger.

You may notice some audio problems with this clip.  That’s because we were eating outside and the microphone picked up some wind noise.  Strange thing was, every time the wind buffeted the mic, the auto leveler would drop the audio gain for a long time thereafter.  I tried to bring the levels back in line a bit, but it’s still noticeable.  Always use the mic muff outdoors; lesson learned.

Finally, at another Uruguayan McDonald’s in Montevideo, we discovered a small twist on the soft serve vanilla cones.  The ice cream was the same, but the cone was made of Oreos!  Wasn’t worth breaking out the camera and trying to edit it in, but it was worth eating!

Oreo cone

(The “‡” meaning: “Countries I have visited and have NOT eaten at a McDonald’s, but ones which I plan to revisit within the next WEEK(!!) and remedy that situation.”)

US
Canada
Mexico
Costa rica
Venezuela
Ecuador
Peru
Bolivia
Argentina
Chile
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico, US Territory
Russia
Australia
Uruguay
Netherlands *
England *
Cuba –
Colombia †

* Just in the airport
– Countries I have visited in which there are no McDonald’s
† Countries I have visited and have NOT eaten at a McDonald’s