In-N-Out Burger in Hong Kong

Being born and raised in Southern California means I grew up eating at In-N-Out Burger. I don't care much for fast food, but I always make an exception for them. Their burgers are fresh and tasty and best of all, cheap. Their employees are so young and beautiful and cheerful that you can't help but feel good about eating there. It's one of the things people who move out of California miss the most, and the most requested first stop for friends and family flying into California when I used to pick them up at LAX. Fortunately, there is one right outside the airport. 

A few years ago, In-N-Out Burger started creeping eastward... they opened one in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was only slightly indignant about that. Because in my mind, In-N-Out = California. You can't have California in Nevada! But then they opened one in Utah and then Texas. And I got really indignant! The icon on the In-N-Out packaging is a palm tree! There shouldn't be an In-N-Out where it snows and palm trees don't grow! California gets quite the beating in the media, shouldn't it have one thing that is special, which forces people into liking it? Can I get an amen, Cali peeps? However... having family in Utah and a godson in Texas, it was hard to begrudge them the pleasure of hand cut French fries, a Double-double, and a strawberry milkshake made with real ice cream. Fine, In-N-Out! Take your yummy goodness to the masses across America! Go ahead and be selfless, sharing your delicious root beer and fresh squeezed lemonade with people who don't live in a state bordered by the Pacific Ocean!

My parents used to live up on the Central Coast of California, and their nearest In-N-Out was a couple hours away. So whenever I'd go to one of the three that were within 10 miles of my house, I'd always text a photo of the menu to my Dad. Just to say, "Look what I'm eating and you're not!" Kinda cruel, but he loves me a lot and let me get away with it. Of course, living in Asia, the cruel joke is on me now.

Or is it? Looky here:

Yep. That's the real deal. Tomorrow, Sunday January 15th from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., the fresh-faced, eternally cheerful people from In-N-Out Burger are temporarily setting up shop inside another restaurant in Hong Kong, bringing the goodness of their burgers to a whole new continent. Am I complaining about how far east they've spread? Feeling indignant about palm trees and their natural habitats? No siree, I am not. I am trying to figure out how to wiggle in the cost of round trip ferry fare for four into our grocery budget. And I'm also hoping that the lines are exceptionally long, that they run out of food, and the demand is so great that the good people at In-N-Out have no choice but to break ground on a more permanent location.

Now if we could just get a Krispy Kreme Doughnut franchise out here...