Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime

“Lunchtime” is this week’s theme from WordPress.

Normally, this here blog is all about Peru. However, since I already posted a picture about my new favorite pre-lunch Peruvian snack, cancha, in a previous posting, I will have to travel to another South American country to answer the challenge.

This post finds us in Brazil. Actually, it is the food court that resides inside the main international airport in Sao Paolo, but that still means we are in Brazil.

In my almost two years in Peru, I have not been all that surprised to see fast-food joints from the United States show their golden arches, finger-lickin‘ goodness, or Whopper-ishness in and around Lima. McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Burger King are all international brands and so their existence south of the Equator was not a shock.

What was a shock was, while walking around the Brazilian airport food court looking for a place to have lunch, when I laid eyes on a brand of hamburgers that I had not seen since I lived in southern half of the Golden State. Branded as Hardee’s east of the Mississippi River, I was not at all expecting to see hamburgers being offered up by Carl’s Jr, a wholly Californian eatery. But there it was…

What is “star” in Portuguese?

My apologies for only having a close-up of the menu board, but it has been my experience that cashiers (and especially managers) of fast-food places tend to frown upon people taking pictures.

Anyway,….

What I like about this picture is that almost everything about it is instantly recognizable to the devotee of the handiwork of Carl Karcher. From the font used in the text of “Star Burger” to the picture of the burger itself, I would assert (because an upstanding lad like myself never swears) that I was in San Diego, Los Angeles, or Whittier.

However, there are some tell-tale signs that one is not in Southern California while looking at this sign. The first is the price. Now while Carl’s Jr does have the $6 Burger and while we are at the airport (where prices are higher), it is not many fast-food places that would sell a sandwich for $14.90. Since we are in Brazil, they use reals (R$) and at an exchange rate of one Brazilian real to fifty US cents, this basic burger sells for  $7.45 (which is actually in line with what a burger at an airport should cost). The combo sets you back $11.45 in greenbacks.

Also notice that this burger is advertised as “com queijo”, which is Portuguese for “with cheese”.

Oddly enough, the Wikipedia entry for Carl’s Jr. says the chain is in the process of expanding into Brazil. I guess someone needs to update the article since the chain with the smiling star is in Brazil as of last February.

The same article says that there are a pair of Carl’s Jr here.

Interesting.