Top fast food chains around the world

Best fast-food chains in the world

By Jamie Feldmar | Travel+Leisure – 21 hours ago

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Fast food may conjure up those Golden Arches, but the concept has come a long way from frozen burgers. The best fast-food chains around the world are getting serious about quality, offering up bowls of pork ramen, freshly baked baguette sandwiches, and sustainably caught fish for the masses.

For travelers, fast-food chains represent a convenient, inexpensive taste of how everyday residents in far-flung cities eat. Some menus are more traditional than others: Teremok in Russia serves cooked-to-order blini; while Goli Vada Pav No. 1 in India adds modern twists like cheddar cheese to vada pav, the fried potato patty sandwich that’s an Indian street food staple.

Granted, fast-food chains aren’t exactly hidden gems. But they have their own quirky appeal and dish out a quick fix of local culture and cuisine. Forget Mickey D’s and seek out the following fast-food chains instead.


Pret a Manger (Photo: Mandi Coleman)England: Pret a Manger

Nearly all 230 locations of this quick-service sandwich shop have an on-site kitchen where food is made fresh daily, using all-natural ingredients that change seasonally. Rather than being kept overnight or thrown out, unsold products are donated daily to homeless shelters. This winning concept is spreading; look for Pret locations in Paris, New York, D.C., Chicago, andHong Kong.

What to Order: Chicken and avocado sandwich on malted wholegrain bread with yogurt dressing and fresh basil.

pret.com

Jollibee (Photo: Scion Cho)Philippines: Jollibee

Fast food gets a Filipino twist at this quick-serve chain, which is so beloved that its mascots star in their own children’s television show. There are more than 700 locations across the country, serving everything from fried chicken and hamburgers to local favorites like palabok, rice noodles with meat sauce, shrimp, and hard-boiled egg.

What to Order: Spicy Chickenjoy, fried chicken coated with chili powder.

jollibee.com.ph

Teremok (Photo: Aries Liang)Russia: Teremok

It’s easy to spot Teremok’s 175 orange-and-red kiosks and restaurants that have sprung up in St. Petersburg and Moscow (the name is Russian for “fairy-tale cottage”). The main item is cooked-to-order blini, essentially Russian crêpes—perfect for eating on the go. Fillings run both savory (ham, cheese, smoked salmon) and sweet (chocolate, fruit, jam).

What to Order: Blini with red caviar, of course.

teremok.ru







Nando’s (Photo: Rachel Bartlett)South Africa: Nando’s

Chicken, basted in one of four consecutively spicier piri-piri chili sauces and flame-grilled to order, is the star at this casual sit-down Portuguese-Mozambique chain. Cheeky advertisements and a welcoming, woodsy aesthetic have propelled Nando’s into 30 countries worldwide.

What to Order: 1/2 grilled chicken with hot piri-piri sauce and French fries.

nandos.co.za


Ippudo (Photo: Raymond Kan)Japan: Ippudo

It’s all about ramen at this stylish chain, which features an open kitchen and bar and table-style seating. Most bowls start with the chain’s signature slow-simmered pork bone broth and thin, chewy noodles. Toppings range from the traditional (roasted pork) to the more inventive (a Spanish-inspired bouillon cube).

What to Order: Akamaru Ramen with miso paste and roasted garlic oil.

ippudo.com







St. Hubert (Photo: Adam P. Fagen)Canada (mainly Quebec): St. Hubert

With both quick-serve and slightly more upscale sit-down operations, family-friendly St. Hubert is known for its rotisserie chicken doused with a tangy brown sauce—so habit-forming that it’s sold by the jar in Canadian grocery stores.

What to Order: Quarter chicken leg with bun, coleslaw, and French fries.

st-hubert.com




Chocolateria San Churro (Photo: Jennifer Lam)Australia: Chocolateria San Churro

As the name implies, chocolate is the focus at this bohemian-chic dessert chain, and the menu has a Spanish accent. Freshly fried churros and spice-laced hot chocolates are on offer alongside organic, fair-trade coffee and milkshakes.

What to Order: Churros with an individual pot of melted couverture chocolate.

sanchurro.com




El Meson Sandwiches (Photo: El Meson)Puerto Rico: El Meson Sandwiches

The combinations are nearly endless at this Caribbean sandwich spot. Most sandwiches start with a base of mayo, margarine, cabbage, and tomato, then get piled high with juicy fillings and griddled on both sides.

What to Order: The Midnight sandwich: roasted pork, Virginia ham, pickles, mayo, and margarine on sweet, eggy bread.

elmesonsandwiches.com








Din Tai Fung (Photo: Robyn Lee)Taiwan: Din Tai Fung

Yes, there will be a line at this well-known dim sum destination, whose dumplings are so popular the chain has spread across 10 countries. But you’ll be glad you waited, and once you’re inside, you can take your time in the comfortable, if crowded, dining room.

What to Order: Xiao long bao, steamed soup-filled pork dumplings with a thin, delicate skin.

dintaifung.com.tw


Giraffas (Photo: Giraffas)Brazil: Giraffas

The Brazilian steakhouse concept goes casual at this meat-centric chain that turns out both burgers and grilled steaks with that national staple, a side of rice and beans.

What to Order: Flame-grilled picanha (top sirloin), a juicy and tender cut that’s one of Brazil's most beloved steaks.

giraffas.com


See more of the Best Fast-Food Chains in the World

Study shows how to change people's minds in business

Stop Trying to Change People's Minds

Trying to make your team come around to your way of thinking is often a waste of time. Here's what you can do instead.

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Most people hate to be told what to do. We're not generally keen on being told we're wrong, either.

Both tendencies, taken together, can add up to usually reasonable folks digging in their heels to hold on to positions that are pretty clearly wrong-headed, just to avoid giving in to the hectoring of others—you've undoubtedly experienced the phenomenon in your own life.

Still, as a business owner, you regularly need to convince skeptical colleagues of your ideas or approach and bring around clients or vendors to your way of seeing things. How can you get people to alter their thinking without putting them on the defensive? Get them to persuade themselves, suggests a fascinating recent post on PsyBlog.

The post cites research that asked people both to sit and passively listen to a persuasive speech arguing for a particular point of view and to give a speech themselves defending a position. The scientists compared how persuaded those that sat and listened were to those who were asked to actively argue for a position they initially didn't believe in.

PsyBlog summarizes the results: "What emerged was that, on average, people were more convinced by the talk when they gave it themselves than when they merely heard it passively. This suggests that we really are persuaded more strongly when we make the argument ourselves, even if it isn't in line with our own viewpoint." Research into smokers confirms these findings, showing that smokers are more persuaded to quit when asked to deliver an anti-smoking message than when they are subjected to a similar message delivered by others.

So how can entrepreneurs put this insight to use? PsyBlog offers an explanation of the phenomenon, as well as a suggestion:

The explanation seems to be that we are very good at convincing ourselves because we know just what sorts of arguments will sway us. So if you want someone to persuade themselves, you can try asking them to put aside their own attitude for a moment and try getting them to generate their own arguments for the point you want to make.
Whatever the cover story, as long as the person is encouraged to generate their own arguments, it has a chance of changing their mind.

Could exercises that ask your team to generate arguments for the course of action you want to take be a better use of your time than simply lecturing them on your point of view?

Daily trick to kill stress and improve health

Daily Trick to Kill Stress, Improve Health

Forget two weeks on a tropical island: Try to just shut off this one program on your computer, for a remarkable change of heart rate and stress hormones.

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Pretty much all of us would love to pack our bags and jet off to beach or a cabin somewhere for a couple of weeks this summer to shut out the pressures of owning a business. If that's not on the cards for scheduling or budgetary reasons, don't despair. A new study says you can make a measurable dent in your stress levels with a much less time-consuming and costly intervention.

What is it? Simply switching off your access to email. Researchers from the University of California-Irvine and the U.S. Army recently wired up suburban office workers to gadgets that monitored both how often they switched between windows on their computers and their heart rates. For part of the study the workers were monitored as they went about their routines, checking and sending email normally. Then the researchers asked the participants to take an "email vacation" and quit their inboxes.

The results didn't simply show up in the company's server logs as a decline in the number of emails sent. They were also clearly visible in the bodies of the study participants. When given constant access to email the workers exhibited a steady, high heart rate as if they were always on alert. Such elevated heart rates have been linked tohigher levels of the hormone cortisol and a number of health problems. When the participants quit using email, their heart rates returned to a more natural and variable pattern, going up when confronted with something stressful but returning to a more relaxed pace when the situation had passed. They also switched windows much less—from 37 times per hour with email to 18 times without.

After five days off email the research team asked the participants for their subjective feelings following their break from their inboxes. The workers reported feeling more in control and more productive, though also a bit more isolated. "Participants loved being without email, especially if their manager said it was OK. In general, they were much happier to interact in person," said Gloria Mack, the UCI informatics professor who led the study.

With earlier research showing that 70 percent of emails to knowledge workers are attended to within a mere six seconds or their arrival, it's no surprise that getting off the email treadmill has such a marked impact on workers' state of mind and physical well being. So while getting rid of email entirely may be unfeasible for most entrepreneurs, this research suggests an occasional break may be achievable and have significant benefits. "Most discovered just how unnecessary email was," Mack told theLos Angeles Times of the participants in her study, though she conceded that sometimes email is essential.

So if you can't manage a week away anytime soon, could you at least consider giving yourself a day off email now and again?

3 Things That Could Kill Facebook

Facebook's success as a public company is anything but guaranteed.

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Let the Facebook road show—and the dissection of its future as a public company—begin.

In The Age of the Platform, I write extensively about how platforms by themselves guarantee nothing. Think about how companies like AOL, MySpace, and Yahoo! have fallen from grace in recent years. And I'm hardly the only one who feels this way. Eric Jackson on Forbes makes the case that Google and Facebook might suffer similar fates within five years. Is it possible? Sure. Though I suspect it won't happen, primarily because these companies understand Clayton's Christensen's innovator's dilemma: in a nutshell, the very things that make a company successful ultimately cause its demise.

Even so, let's examine Facebook and the forces that could derail this 900-million-member social network. At a high level, there are three: Facebook itself, the competition, and the unknown.

What Facebook Does

Facebook 2.0 has already launched. Its access to capital means that it can buy patents and photo-sharing apps for more than $1.5 billion in less than a month. Bigger deals come with greater rewards, but also with greater risks. Instagram represents a significant amount of the company's cash stash and, at a minimum, may impede its ability to do other deals.

Next, while going public means that it will have greater funds at Facebook's disposal, there's a flip side to that coin as well. Many of the company's financial practices will be revealed. Note that "many" isn't the same as "all." Amazon.com has proven that no company has to break out earnings by every product, service, or category.

The IPO invites the following questions:

• What if fickle investors don't like what Facebook is doing–or how the company is doing it?
• What if governments start investigations its into privacy and security practices?
• What if Facebook drops the ball and a massive security or privacy breach ensues?
• What if more and more users just don't like how their data is being used?

And let's not forget potential overreaching (read: organ donation) and whether the company can monetize for mobile devices.

What Its Competition Does

No company exists in a bubble or vacuum—and that's never been more true than today. Books like The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers demonstrate the danger when companies only look inward.

More than ever, flawless strategy and execution (if there were such things) by themselves guarantee nothing. Perhaps Amazon, Apple, Twitter, Google, or another heavyweight will crush Facebook. Maybe a new social network, one not based upon personal connections, will supplant Facebook as the 800-lb. gorilla. The Experience Project is one of a slew of networks organized around a fundamentally different concept.

And I could write a book about the impacts of luck and timing on the success of any company.

The Unknown

As I write this, I have no doubt that somewhere around the globe someone is working on an idea that will cause major disruption. Never has it been easier and less expensive to start a company. The barriers to entry have all but evaporated and, given how quickly things change these days, I can certainly see a day in which Facebook is no longer "hip."

Will Facebook be relevant in five years? Probably, but the company isn't aiming to be just relevant. It wants to be dominant and, on that, I'm much less certain