Old Favorites with a Twist

One of the things Beth and I have initially enjoyed, but ended up slightly disappointed is in some of our old favorites, with slightly new twists. For example, McDonalds is all over the world. But it is really hard not be able to order a bacon cheeseburger or a quarter-pounder with cheese. And they don't even have a Big Mac. However, there has been many a time when the desperately homesick need a quiet respite into the comforts of familiarity, or the almost familiar. One of those disappointments for us is that mickey-Dees isn't the ultra-cheap dollar menu Friday night date that it used to be for us. A basic combo meal is about twice the cost here. Truth be told, we didn't even go to McDonalds that often, we preferred Taco Bell, unfortunately the rest of the world hasn't yet discovered the joys of tortillas and refried beans. But if you look at this wonderful picture to the left you can see the first word I ever learned how to spell. When my oldest sister came back from school one day, she was showing my parents all the words she could write. And my parents were dutifully impressed as all good parents are. My other sister didn't want to be left out so she showed them the couple words that she knew. I on the other hand, being a wee lad of 3 or so, had to best them all, and proudly declared that I could write too. My parents were a little befuddled that I could write, but they said okay and passed the paper. I grabbed my yellow crayon, and drew two arches, and said "McDonalds". Yep. Me and the golden arches go way back.

Perhaps the biggest disappointments is corn tortilla chips. You may recognize this label:
If you can't read the Hebrew Alphabet (or for that matter don't have enough exposure to the modern script!) the label says "Doritos". But don't get your hopes up. This colored label is the only one that it is half way edible. The last word on this picture is טבעי and that means "natural" and these are only about a third natural. And there ain't nothin' natural about the other flavors! No cool ranch, no extra cheese, no spicy ranch... There is however one that is vaguely reminiscent of stale dollar store barbaque sauce, but only vaguely reminiscent.

The one stand by that you can go to everywhere is in a big red can. I read somewhere that it is the worlds most recognizable label:

And we often see it in this script too:



But why pass for any of these when you can get one of the local favorites:


And to read all about how wonderful Ugarit is, you should look at the Wikipaedia article, until I have time to write my own post. Here is the link.