So I've been wanting to post about McDonalds. I make it a point NOT to eat American fast food while in foreign lands because to me, there's nothing more ridiculous than paying for a plane ticket to escape 'Merica and then pay even more for its crappy culinary exports, but since I am married to someone who went 8 months without buying groceries and instead ate out for the whole time (and is even proud of this fact), I have found myself in McDo plenty of times. (Thrice, he corrects me with incredulous squinty eyes.)
My past experience with McDonalds
I actually hadn't eaten at a McDonald's in a long time (with the exception of their awesome breakfast menus occasionally). My true burger love is In N Out, though, a California snob thing where they make everything fresh and their fries and shakes are old-fashioned bliss. On my mission in Guatemala, we ate lots of McDonalds since they have delivery on motorbikes. And since Guatemala to someone like me is like a backwards land where what you knew is right is the opposite there. So, McDonalds is actually good. The meat is real meat! The service is excellent! The bathrooms are clean! McDonalds jobs are coveted! To Americans, it's truly the opposite of everything you think you know.
In France
McDo as they call it here is somewhere between the US and Guate in its quality, desirability and price. It's less ubiquitous than both the US and Guate but surprisingly present and always full of clientele. The music playing the restaurant is totally inappropriate usually English-language pop that, were it translated, probably wouldn't be allowed in a place where kids go after school. But then, this is France where all my high schoolers smoke and magazines with naked women on the cover are advertised on newsstands in the most public places. Alas, my "propriety" compass is wonky here. the French are prudish and old-fashioned about really random stuff to an American point of view, but that's a topic for another post.
How'd I like it then?
I ordered the ordinary cheeseburger, fries and, in a measly effort to not be ingesting something as bad for me as McDo, a fizzy water. (Yes, they have Badoit at McDonald's.) The burger wasn't bad and the fries were pretty fresh. It was like eating the US. I think that's what the French kids who love Kanye West imagine it's like to be in the US when they spend 12 euros on such a lunch, but my snobbery has been upended: I was craving McDo all week after that and we went another two times. But I haven't been back since. Stubborn pride or lack of funds? Both, actually. Basically, it was "bof" - er in English, meh. There are just a lot of things I'd rather eat in France, and if it's going to be "foreign," almost anything else will do - Indian, Thai, kebabs. If it's going to be French, tant mieux.
My past experience with McDonalds
I actually hadn't eaten at a McDonald's in a long time (with the exception of their awesome breakfast menus occasionally). My true burger love is In N Out, though, a California snob thing where they make everything fresh and their fries and shakes are old-fashioned bliss. On my mission in Guatemala, we ate lots of McDonalds since they have delivery on motorbikes. And since Guatemala to someone like me is like a backwards land where what you knew is right is the opposite there. So, McDonalds is actually good. The meat is real meat! The service is excellent! The bathrooms are clean! McDonalds jobs are coveted! To Americans, it's truly the opposite of everything you think you know.
In France
McDo as they call it here is somewhere between the US and Guate in its quality, desirability and price. It's less ubiquitous than both the US and Guate but surprisingly present and always full of clientele. The music playing the restaurant is totally inappropriate usually English-language pop that, were it translated, probably wouldn't be allowed in a place where kids go after school. But then, this is France where all my high schoolers smoke and magazines with naked women on the cover are advertised on newsstands in the most public places. Alas, my "propriety" compass is wonky here. the French are prudish and old-fashioned about really random stuff to an American point of view, but that's a topic for another post.
How'd I like it then?
I ordered the ordinary cheeseburger, fries and, in a measly effort to not be ingesting something as bad for me as McDo, a fizzy water. (Yes, they have Badoit at McDonald's.) The burger wasn't bad and the fries were pretty fresh. It was like eating the US. I think that's what the French kids who love Kanye West imagine it's like to be in the US when they spend 12 euros on such a lunch, but my snobbery has been upended: I was craving McDo all week after that and we went another two times. But I haven't been back since. Stubborn pride or lack of funds? Both, actually. Basically, it was "bof" - er in English, meh. There are just a lot of things I'd rather eat in France, and if it's going to be "foreign," almost anything else will do - Indian, Thai, kebabs. If it's going to be French, tant mieux.
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