Blog
Menu Prices, Calories & Restaurant Stories
How fast-food pricing, portions and nutrition numbers actually work, plus the food-culture stories behind the restaurants serving them.
Which Secret Menus Are Real, and Which Ones the Internet Invented
In-N-Out publishes its "Not So Secret Menu" on its own website. Monkey Style has fooled people since 2013 and the company's owner has personally debunked it. Here's the line between an off-menu order and a myth.
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Hawaii's McDonald's Sells Saimin. Japan's Sells a Rice-Bun Sandwich
McAloo Tikki in India, Ebi Filet-O with fried rice buns in Japan, saimin and Portuguese sausage in Hawaii, green chile in New Mexico. The world's most standardized restaurant is far less standardized than its reputation.
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How to Spot a Fake "Authentic" Restaurant, a Practical Guide
Authentic" is the most overused word on a restaurant menu. Here's how government certification marks actually work, which ones are worth trusting, and what to check when a restaurant doesn't have one.
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What Is Thai SELECT? Inside Thailand's Restaurant Certification Program
Thai SELECT is the Thai government's official quality mark for authentic Thai restaurants abroad, now covering 1,419 restaurants in 70 countries. Here's how it works and what the mark actually guarantees.
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Gastrodiplomacy 101: How Governments Turn Restaurants Into Soft Power
From Thailand's Global Thai program to South Korea's Kimchi Diplomacy and Taiwan's night-market campaigns, a growing list of governments treat restaurants abroad as instruments of foreign policy. Here's how the idea actually works.
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Kimchi Diplomacy: Inside South Korea's $77 Million Bet on Its Own Food
In 2009 South Korea committed $77 million to make Korean food globally popular. Fifteen-plus years later, kimchi exports hit record highs and hansik went mainstream, but the campaign also drew real criticism.
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Washoku Goes Global: Japan's Quiet, Institutional Approach to Food Diplomacy
Japan never ran a splashy gastrodiplomacy ad campaign. Instead it built working groups, a nonprofit restaurant-growth organization, and a museum-piece approach to promoting washoku abroad, one embassy dinner at a time.
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How Taiwan Uses Night Markets and Bubble Tea as Diplomacy
Taiwan's £20 million "All in Good Taste" campaign turned bubble tea, oyster omelette, and night-market culture into a diplomatic tool for a country with limited formal international recognition.
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How Peru Turned Ceviche Into a National Diplomatic Strategy
Peru's "Cocina Peruana Para El Mundo" campaign, backed by celebrity chef Gaston Acurio, tried to get Peruvian food onto UNESCO's cultural heritage list. It got rejected once, and kept going anyway.
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The American Chef Corps: When the State Department Recruits Chefs Instead of Diplomats
In 2012 the US State Department recruited more than 80 chefs, including the White House Executive Chef and José Andrés, into an official diplomatic corps. Here's how a country with no single national cuisine runs culinary diplomacy.
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