McDonalds are a great way to see how the locals eat. While I like to stop at local restaurants, McDonalds are always fun with different menus in other countries--beer in Paris,caramel ice cream cones in Prague. I remember being in the middle of grade schoolers in Toledo and young mothers in Peking. Don't miss how people eat in the 21st century.

I don't care whether I'm at home in Northern Virginia or in the Himalyas, I cannot stand the smell or the taste of McDonald's food.

I don't have a problem with other people eating it at home or when traveling, and I guess I've been convinced that McD's is a good place to find clean bathrooms in Europe, but eat that food? No thank you...and I'm not exactly "my body is a temple" person...I just can't see scarfing down a packet of greasy fat when the world is so full of delicious alternatives. Just makes no sense to me, whether the locals are eating there or not. The locals are also eating at establishments that serve real food made with real, live, fresh ingredients.

"The locals are also eating at establishments that serve real food made with real, live, fresh ingredients."

Uh, so, what are you saying then? That MickeyD's products are made from cardboard and plastic? That the lettuce is sitting in a warehouse in the US and then flown in to the McD's around the world? That's about the most silly and unknowledgeable thing one could say about McD's. Like I said, in Austria, as in other parts of Europe, they specifically have a McD's channel to let the folk know EXACTLY where their beef and other McD's items are coming from: fresh and local, all the way.

P.S. As for "live" ingredients, whatever that means, it sounds more than a bit scary to me.

When DD was younger, she loved collecting the Happy Meal toys in Europe. Many were connected with European movies or characters that we didn't have a clue about.

Last time I was in Italy, McD's had McCaprese Salad. I don't remember if they had McBeer like the ones in France. Does McBeer go with McCaprese or should it be McWine?

You know what, kyB, I remember seeing that same thing this past March, because, the McD's in Venice is on the Strada Nova and I would pass it and saw a sign in the window for McCaprese Salad, I'll bet it's pretty darn good!

Dor and I spent 2 weeks on the coast of Oregon this Sept. We agreed that most of the 'local' places we ate at could learn a few things.
We have a couple of food issues that should not be complex.

Two minutes after Dor requested a mushroom free meal in Seaside, she was served a salad with mushrooms in it. I happily ate her 'shrooms while she ate the croutons served on my wheat free meal.

Don't go poking at the Irish when the Yanks are so woefully unaware. If Either of us had been stupid enough to eat the food as served, lawsuits would had persued.

I don't mind the odd Macy D's BUT the thing that puts me off is that kids who eat there seem incapable of eating with their mouths closed. Why? Is it the burgers? Is it that children with no table manners eat there?

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?

OK and one little gripe - McD is NOT a restaurant. Restaurants have waiter service, table cloths and serve wine. McD is a cafe. OK moan over.

Fortunatly, my taste buds aren't that sophisticated, so I don't have to eat at McDonalds.

I'd rather find a market and make a meal of cheese, fruits and veggies and bread.

For amusement only: www.mcdonalds.fr

Wow I have to say living in Ireland that y6ou are talking about different food establishments...Mc D's is fast food and Roma that you refer to (and there are hundreds with similar names) are fish and chip and burger places. This is not restaurant food! Mediocre is cafe or pub food to me and every place has it...I had it mediocre food in cafes/small sandwich places in Paris, London, Etc. None of the places Kirby mentioned are wait service and probably they are all "fast food ish" McDonalds alwaysa has kids in every country eating in them and people on the go..personally I don't care for it and to be homnest its packed at night when people are going home from the Pubs as are the chippers and the kebab shops. Supermacs I love in the country but its kinds gross in Dublin. Its fast food (Irish Chain) but I think a little fresher and less chemicals! There are hundreds of other plaes to eat that are good and reasonable but are NOT fast food. I doubt people are chooding McDonalds all the time over these places. You can eat at a coffee shop for the same price as McDonalds but its personal preference.

Ok as well there is a connotation that Irish food is still back in the stone ages...It's not but people seem to have this thing about wanting to try pub food which most I feel is awful and the "known" omes are for the tourists and I would never eat in them. That maybe is what people think Irish food is and its not really anymore. We have thriving farmers markets, Myself and friends take turns cooking and making all kinds of different and tasty dishes..Not a spud or cabnbage in sight! As well we have some excellent restaurants in Dublin some pricey and others...you just need to move off the tourist trail. I have listed many in the past. It also depends on where you are in the country...a small town will have less choices and McD's would stand out more as there is less choice in eateries.

Overall the food is good here but try a chipper with Fish and chips meal before you go to McDonalds....Not every day but its fine.

P.S> Go to Gruel in Dublin (dame Street beside Mermaid Cafe)and see good reasonable food in a cafe that is a bit quirky like your grannys crappy kitchen and taste excellent food at a great price!

I really do not know any Irish person in my crowd that lives for McD's....my partner eats a BK Burger after a night on the pints and that is like most people!

According to McD's German website, the chain operates in Germany alone almost 1,300 restaurants serving 2.4 million people per day.
BK is #2 with some 500 restaurants

So both chains hardly qualify as "exotic" where only tourists would eat.
Actually, when I travel and I don't see any "real" restaurant or eatery I like, I go to McD or BK to get the food I want. Also Europeans don't always make a big issue about every time they get hungry.

McD's does provide a predictable experience. Sort of like stepping in front of a fast bus. Not pleasant, but predictable.

I'm fairly sure that McD's are buying and destroying their produce locally.

However, I'm not sure why "locals eat there" means more if the McD's is in Europe than here. I mean, you're right, that's been true whereever I've been. But are *all* the locals supposed to be so much more insightful in Europe than here or is it the "meet the locals" thing (having a seat and introducing ourselves are we or is it more a zoo exhibit sort of arrangement?)

Actually, I'm just kidding. I can't say I've ever *enjoyed* a McDonalds experience, but I do kind of like their fries and especially their drinks. I don't see any reason to stick my nose up over it, and especially not someone else having a stop in. The only negative objection is psychological and deeply buried really. Sure, I'd like to think I was just standing up for the corporate glot on the world's cultures... but I think really it's that I spent all this money to get sort of off the track and here I am in Timosoara, Romania. Wander into the main square, where the 89 revolt started... and there, glowing in the night on the opposite side of this rather atmospheric piata are... those damn glowing yellow arches. lol. How *dare* they snap me back home at a time like this?

You know I had to go see if they had something with cabbage on the menu.

girlspy- i think that what st cirq meant by live fresh ingredients has something to do with the extent of McD's toying around with the food that they produce, so that they can keep it and sell it around the world for longer, with the same "fresh" taste they created with they chemicals.
did no-one see supersize me? the part with the french fries they left in a sealed container at room temperature for a month, which didnt change in form whatsoever?
mcdonalds is creepy.

They are actually trying to upgrade themselves in Europe
See http://tinyurl.com/2q7ret

I actually saw one of the upgraded branches in London last week.
The furnishings looked rather tasteful but I don't know about the food.

I got food poisoning from a McDonalds in France once.

Also, I have not found McD's toilets always to be clean and accessible - the toilets in some of the McDonalds in Paris are filthy, mainly due to the huge numbers of people using them.

Anyway, I used to go to McDonalds or Quick every now and then, but these days I just can't bear that stuff any more - the food is always disappointing and I always feel hungry an hour or two later. And I hate those ice-cream sundaes - I don't know what they put in them but you can feel them coating your insides as they go down! Blurg.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1759910,00.html

ingredients in a "strawberry thickshake" include:

amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl- 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.

yummy

Hi P,

The number of McDs per capita by country is at http://tinyurl.com/28kl87

Even France is only about 1/3 that of the US.

OK, it's not "exotic". Mildly unusual?

No Ira

Give it up

not even mildly unique - folks go there in droves in France and Europe for the same reason they do in the U.S. Cheap fast if not necessarily the healthiest food - and the mainly younger clientel is not the broccoli crowd anyway

McDs so entrenched that it risks becoming passe perhaps much like in U.S. where McDonalds has lost any cool cache they had with younger folk

and working 'flipping hamburgers' just doesn't fly with young folk anymore

Hey, TravelB-"Supersize me" was quite a while ago, and I prefer to take MickeyD's at its word, particularly since they've upgraded their menu selections with lots of healthy fresh salad and wraps choices -there is nothing artificial or "chemicaled" about that food-if you wish to believe that, because of your inherent food snobbery, fine, but such silliness has nothing to do with the reality of the situation, nor with propaganda that spews forth from a Guardian article-which of course has an inherent and immediate bias against all things American-that would be THE LAST place I'd go for information on McD's food.

And like I said, the milkshake in Cairo was like few I had had before, and lobster rolls? Who would have thunk that McD's would be serving that? You think they put a host of chemicals in a lobster roll in Maine, flown in from some central McD's processing center for lobster rolls? That's a bit inane, isn't it, since Maine is apparently the ONLY McD's serving same?

All McD's are NOT equal-which is sort of the point I was making, they adapt to regional and cultural food choices, and they do it, better than any food franchise in the world.