h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

georgie pie was the best!!!! damn mcdonalads, they just had to buy it up didn't they.
mmmm pies.

GP was a critical source of nourishment for many starving tertiary students around NZ.

I had managed to all but shun McDonalds and KFC for a decade, but now I seem to turn up at BK quite frequently. Not because the food's that great, but because I like its underdog status.

And the parking at BK New Plymouth is much more convenient.

As an American, I find the concept of BK being an underdog surprising, and therefore fascinating. They're everywhere, here. They are a backyard grill alternative to the sweet, softly frangible burgers McDonalds makes, and the mustardy fresh burgers Wendy's makes.

Are there hamburger restaurants in NZ that aren't chains? Many individual independent places dot the Los Angeles landscape, and they usually make things good for eating.

Sorry, to my ears the concept of a "hamburger restaurant" still sounds like an oxymoron. Which probably indicates to you, that I can't immediately think of any NZ hamburger emporia fitting your definition. There are certainly places that make hamburgers, but they really don't qualify as restaurants (no eat-in dining) and anyway they don't make burgers exclusively. There is Burger Wisconsin which makes a very different burger, a gourmet's burger, if you will, but it is a chain. Wendy's is available outside the Taranaki province.

BK New Plymouth has something of an underdog status when compared to the trade done by McDonalds New Plymouth. BK is still only a recent addition to the city with the McDonalds being an established icon in local fast-food culture for well over a decade. And BK doesn't seem to get quite as many patrons eating-in as McD's. McD's is also closest to two large high schools and a polytechnic, which is a big advantage as I'm sure you'll agree.

Whereas in Wellington we have had BK for six years now, and there seem to be almost as many of them as McDonalds. Which is just as well, because BK burgers have at least some flavour, compared with the dry, cardboard-tasting shite McD's offers.

Hamburger restaurant is a particularly LA social convention.

Since LA is where one of the earliest McD started, and In-n-Out Burger is the first drive through, there are a number of similar hybrid restaurants which advertise burgers, and the best pastrami sandwich in town. They sprouted up and grew as rapidly as the city and its freeways. Whether or not burgers are the main sellers at any particular place, they are the 'draw'. Most were either set up to be driven through, or modified to do it later (and the one near my house undid the drive through years ago).

They might've been originally just burger places, but few today truly are. Depending on who actuallly owns the restaurant, and where in LA you are, you might find teriyaki chicken, baby-seal-sized burritos, or kim chee on the menu. Hamburger Hamlet is the local gourmet burger chain, and it's Armenian owned so that one can find shish kebab and souvlaki.

You can't get a meat pie in LA proper.

In Santa Monica, there is a large British ex-pat community and so there are pubs that sell the pommie versions of meat pies. I'm not convinced they are cooked so much as defrosted.

You can go into Beverly Hills and get a Curry Pan from the Curry House. The crust is fluffy like a doughnut and of the same flavor as tempura batter, and the curry is minced fine and boiled to death so that the meat is indistinguishable from the vegetables.

Actually, Georgie Pie approached Mc Donalds and ASKED them to buy their stores as GP was not profitable (bad management decisions). Mc D's may be crap, but it's not their fault GP went bust.

GP had a bad ratio of meat to gravy. GP Rotorua was great if you wanted to frink your pie and yet stranely enough it was a profitable GP.

I read too too many comic books, so to me 'Frink!' is a teleportation sound effect. What does frinking do to a meat pie?

it's a misstype. Should be Drink

Whilst Burger Wisconsin do make some nice burgers, even if they are the size and weight of manhole covers and therefore only edible with the aid of a knife and fork, Auckland's Burger Fuel chain is bleedin' good. Apart from having a burger called the "Bastard" (I am juvenile enough to find this funny), the food is fresh, hot, extremely tasty, relatively healthy (it ain't Jenny Craig, but it's not marinated for a week in lard) and they even give you a sweet little burger holder device (patent pending, allegedly) to hold your dinner together whilst you get your gob around it.

I myself am as gay as an Easter Sunday picnic basket, and *I* find the idea of a burger-holder to be a bit twee. I am dying to know what they look like. Are there any webimages of them?

But then, eating-delicacy, it's in the eye of the beholder. Crisps in Latin America often come with a tiny plastic fork to eat them with.