Leon,
Nicaragua
Friday, December 7, 2007
So far, meliss and i have seen only 1 fast food restaurant chain in Nicaragua, with 2 stores: Tip Top. Tip Top looks like an exact replication of McDonalds only with a silly looking chicken as it´s embassador, instead of a clown. It´s fast food, with a nica style twist: The food is cooked when you order and service is amazing. As you apporoach, an armed security guard (there are armed gaurds outside many businesses) will likely open the door for you and welcome you in with a ´bienvenidos´. Then we tried to get in line, but found out that if you are eating in, they seat you first. The waitress again greets you with another ¨Buenas tardes... we´re happy that you are eating with us today¨ then takes your order. And she returns frequently to check up and collect finished dishes. It´s really trippy, cause after the ´5 star formality of the service´ you get a sad, saggy looking chicken sandwhich on a deflated sesame seed bun and fries that MUST have been ripped off from McDonalds. (Mel and i think Tip Top is secretly owned by McDs)
One word of caution when ordering food here: only order what you can eat. i can´t say this strongly enough. In 2 weeks here, eating out almost every meal, i have never, ever, ever seen any Nica leave a single morsel of food on a plate when they are done. Food is not to be taken for granted here and that is imediately evident. If you don´t eat all your food, street kids will often come up to you and ask to eat the scraps from your plate (they even drank the left over salsa at the last place), but frankly you better hope they are there because it´s pretty embarassing to leave food on the plate.
