A Quick Trip to Suburban USA

This afternoon, I took a quick trip to suburban USA. I swore that I would never do it – there is too much great stuff going on here to warrant it. But today, for some reason, I succumbed to the idea. I had lunch at Applebees - Americas Favourite Neighbor with no 'u'. It must have been the bright lights and glitter that got me.

Newly installed in Recife ten or so months ago, it was just like the ‘burbs – club sandwich and fries, veggie wraps, burgers with melted cheese and bacon, nachos, caesar salad and Sportsnet on the plasma screen (at least it was playing the Brazilian triathlon championship currently taking place in Santos). Aside from a few oddly out of place pieces of Brazilian folk art on the walls (permission for that must have been a bureaucratic nightmare), I could have been anywhere. I was anywhere. It was like a little piece of North America plunked down in the middle of tropical Brazil; free pop refills, Heinz ketchup, suburban furnishings and all. I have to say though, weirdness and trepidation aside, my burger and fries were pretty good.

Now you’d think that if a piece of suburban North America is going to be allowed to invade the tropics, the least they could do would be open for breakfast as well. I can't believe that I am posting this!