Fast food does not make me angry. I don’t get furious over shows like Super Size Me because I think we can all agree that we know the health risks of fast food and that we can either choose to shun it altogether, find a happy level of moderation for ourselves or just gorge until our blood stops pumping. In the end, the choice is our to make.
However, I caught about half of a show last night that made me absolutely furious at the fast food industry. Fast Foods Gone Global 2011 on the Travel Channel showed how restaurants like McDonald’s, KFC and Subway alter their menus around the globe to cater to cultural preferences and religious restrictions. The food that they showed being served around the world made our fast food offerings look exactly like what they are… garbage.
Let’s take India for example. Obviously, Hinduism dictates that McDonald’s would not serve any beef items on the menu. However, I would absolutely love to see the entire McDonald’s India menu ported over to the USA because, damn it, everything on the menu looked and sounded amazing. They have a McSpicy Chicken Sandwich that they say is so spicy that most Americans won’t eat it. Challenge accepted, McDonald’s. Sounds delicious. And, I’m pretty sure that the McSpicy Paneer would be nirvana in my belly.
In Japan, they have a delicious looking ebi burger and a tamago burger with so much wasabi that it’d singe your nose hairs.
And that’s just McDonalds. The offerings that KFC and Subway have are just as appealing. I had to turn the show off because a) it was way past my bed time, b) I was so incensed and c) I was jonesing for palak paneer so badly I couldn’t even stand it.
I’m mad because fast food can do it, you guys. They can make delicious, fresh food for the rest of the world but they can’t do it for us. Robin is right in saying that America is so used to the current state of fast food that it would roundly rebel against any overtures toward bringing our offerings to the level of quality that the rest of the world demands.
I told Joe and Jacob, the other pieces of the Triple-J Triumvirate, what I had seen, and Jacob has a simple solution: Select metro locations become McDonald’s World Cafés. Americans can sample the best of the world menu. Are you listening McDonald’s? You need to test this.
