Spanish foodies, or not

[Anemone del Camino]

The movie "Trip to Spain" will start playing next week here at home. And I will not miss it. It's about two middle aged Brits who "take a once-in-a-lifetime coast-to-coast trip down the length of Spain in search of culture, cuisine and the perfect Mick Jagger impersonation."

From this side of the pond, and a daft idea if there was ever one, Tim Hortons is expandings into ... Spain! Who is the fool who did that market research and suggest Spain needs that horrifc brown liquid this chain passes for coffee as well as those donuts. Clearly somoneone who didn't venture out of his hotel and never had a cafe con leche and churros.

Nope, not adding QSR, the parent company
http://strategyonline.ca/2017/08/02/tim-hortons-is-going-to-spain/

 

[peregrina2000]

From this side of the pond, and a daft idea if there was ever one, Tim Hortons is expandings into ... Spain! Who is the fool who did that market research and suggest Spain needs that horrifc brown liquid this chain passes for coffee as well as those donuts. Clearly somoneone who didn't venture out of his hotel and never had a cafe con leche and churros.

Nope, not adding QSR, the parent company
http://strategyonline.ca/2017/08/02/tim-hortons-is-going-to-spain/

Well, lest you think that Tim Horton's is some little Canadian business, you may already know this, but Jorge Lemann, a Brazilian billionaire and owner of Burger King and many many other things, bought Tim Horton's earlier this year, much to the dismay of many Canadian loyalists. Never underestimate the power of fast food chains to wiggle their way into the fabric of another society, though occasionally it fails.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Well, lest you think that Tim Horton's is some little Canadian business, you may already know this, but Jorge Lemann, a Brazilian billionaire and owner of Burger King and many many other things, bought Tim Horton's earlier this year, much to the dismay of many Canadian loyalists. Never underestimate the power of fast food chains to wiggle their way into the fabric of another society, though occasionally it fails.

I put this business venture in the same category as the Mercedes Benz-Chrysler merger.

 

[nycwalking]

Never heard of Tim Horton's, and I have lived on both American coasts. Maybe, chain is only in the middle.
Will they offer a menu del peregrino?

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Never heard of Tim Horton's, and I have lived on both American coasts. Maybe, chain is only in the middle.
Will they offer a menu del peregrino?

Tom Horton's is a Canada wide doughnut place that also sells now soups, wraps, and what have you, all fast food. The type of place you find with gaz stations. For some reason apparently Canadians like its coffee which is just a hot brownish, though quite translucent, drink they labble coffee. It is really awful.

It does have a few outlets in the US, and is now continuing its expansion abroad as they have, finally, saturated the Canadian market.

The Canadian army had a "Tim's" in Kandahar and there has also been a stand of some sort in the Canadian Olympic village.

How they expect that stuff to sell in the country of cafe con leche is beyond me.

 

[jsalt]

I hate to admit this, but one wintry day in Lisbon I went into McDonald’s.
I wanted a BIG mug of steaming black American coffee, not a tiny cup of two sips and it’s gone size.
They knew exactly what I was looking for.
Jill

 

[AJ]

I hate to admit this, but one wintry day in Lisbon I went into McDonald’s.
I wanted a BIG mug of steaming black American coffee, not a tiny cup of two sips and it’s gone size.
They knew exactly what I was looking for.
Jill

Burger King SdC. Mea culpa.

 

[Tigger]

I hate to admit this, but one wintry day in Lisbon I went into McDonald’s.
I wanted a BIG mug of steaming black American coffee, not a tiny cup of two sips and it’s gone size.
They knew exactly what I was looking for.
Jill

I would like to try an El Grande Maco!

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

The movie "Trip to Spain" will start playing next week here at home. And I will not miss it. It's about two middle aged Brits who "take a once-in-a-lifetime coast-to-coast trip down the length of Spain in search of culture, cuisine and the perfect Mick Jagger impersonation."

From this side of the pond, and a daft idea if there was ever one, Tim Hortons is expandings into ... Spain! Who is the fool who did that market research and suggest Spain needs that horrifc brown liquid this chain passes for coffee as well as those donuts. Clearly somoneone who didn't venture out of his hotel and never had a cafe con leche and churros.

Nope, not adding QSR, the parent company
http://strategyonline.ca/2017/08/02/tim-hortons-is-going-to-spain/

Tim Hortons!!! It's the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin Donuts. And I hope it never displaces the cafe con leche.

 

[Felipe]

Well, talking about Canadian contributions to world culture...do you know that cattle grills are known in Spain as "pasos (or barreras) canadienses"?
It could be a contentious issue, bcs in the States they are known as "Texan gates".
You can see many between Burguete and Zubirí.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Well, talking about Canadian contributions to world culture...do you know that cattle grills are known in Spain as "pasos (or barreras) canadienses"?
It could be a contentious issue, bcs in the States they are known as "Texan gates".
You can see many between Burguete and Zubirí.

That's true, I forgot. I do have to say they are difficult to manage for those of us with shorter feet. There was one on VDLP that forced me to wait for a fellow walker to help me cross.

 

[tjb1013]

Tim Horton's has all but abandoned Maine, where Dunkin' Donuts owns the cheap coffee and donut market.

Canada still has Tilley Hats.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

Well, talking about Canadian contributions to world culture...do you know that cattle grills are known in Spain as "pasos (or barreras) canadienses"?
It could be a contentious issue, bcs in the States they are known as "Texan gates".
You can see many between Burguete and Zubirí.

Isn't the border between France and Spain on the Napoleon route one of these cattle grills?

 

[Anemone del Camino]

So.... Imwent to see the movie "Trip to Spain" and was very disapointed. And I clearly was not the only one as people left the theater during the movie.

It basically is 90% of the time two men imitating actors as they eat in various restaurants in Spain thinking they are being so clever. It was rather quite annoying. Yes, there is some sort of underlying story, but it is weak.

This being said, the images of the Spanish landscape are gorgeous. But they are so quickly over one hardly has the time to enjoy them, let alone the few camera shots of the food being cooked and served.

Movie starts in Getaria, then they are off to Santander, then into Rioja, then the Mancha and finally Extremadura.

 

[peregrina2000]

I know, this is not related to the Camino, but there are so few movies that come to my town with anything to do with Spain.... Got a pretty good review in NYT (and you can see the trailer there as well)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/movies/trip-to-spain-review.html?referrer=google_kp

I'll probably see it this weekend and report back. The trailer has an Alhambra shot, so I guess I could post this in the Mozarabe section.

 

[notion900]

That is not a fairly good review!

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I saw it two weeks ago or so and posted about it. The images of the counteyside views are stunning, but the on and on and on dialogue between the two main characters is incredibly annoying, and the underlying story beneath all that noise does not make up for it.

From the poster advertising the film and what was being promoted I expected more about Spanish gastronomy, but that also falls flat.

But it was fun recognising Guetaria.

 

[peregrina2000]

Sorry I missed your post Anemone. I will now perfect my moderator skills by trying to merge the threads!

 

[mcopeland]

I hate to admit this, but one wintry day in Lisbon I went into McDonald’s.
Jill

Ditto. Although we seldom go to a McDonald's in the US, we make a habit of checking out the McDonald's in foreign cities. The variations are always interesting (no salt on the fries in Lisbon). Even the McDonald's in San Francisco's Chinatown has some Chinese inspired differences. In Paris it was the only place you could get ice in a drink on an unseasonably hot day in May. I seem to recall a Croque-McDo.

 

[notion900]

I believe the 'film' is actually a TV series cobbled together to feature length. A British newspaper described it as 'like Hemingway if he’d been obsessed with daytime TV instead of bullfighting'.

 

[peregrina2000]

Anemone, I have to agree with your review of the movie. I stayed for the scenery, and the food looked delicious (many notches above standard pilgrim fare!). But the plot and the conversations mainly fell flat, IMO.

I had to do some hunting to find out the identity of one parador -- It was Siguenza. Gorgeous. This movie actually could be a promo for paradores, all of which are listed in this article: https://www.ft.com/content/77f5405e-1e97-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c