Fast food and me.

I was just a young lad when my brother cam home on leave from the army. We lived in a small village in Lincolnshire in England. And we went in to town, Lincoln City and for the first time I had a Big Mac. Mac Donald’s was not as well known then as it is now, something that you would se only in London. And it was a special, a treat to savour some thing that we could see at the moves or on the television. It was a treat and a pleasure.

And I think that that is the point with fast food, to much is not good. But a little every now and then is alright. In fact more than alright but very liberating in a way. I know that I like to take my kids of a burger and then a film or just grab a bite to eat when out shopping. The problem with that is that now you are made to feel that you are some kind of bad parent pushing them to a damned to life of obesity and bad diets.

It is slowly becoming politically incorrect to have fast food. Especially if it is from one of the big global organisation. The conception that the food that is sold is cheap, full of fat, salt, chemicals and any other number of things. Then you have the carbon foot print of a big organisation with it central purchasing. Food produced and flown half way round the world. The packaging and rubbish that this makes scattered across the streets. The symbols of globalisation, of a shrinking world and loss of cultural identity. It is part of a dream of a cultural ideal that people want to buy in too. It is the food of the American dream.

You would not be forgiven for thinking that all of this was true and that it was a bad thing. But it is not, after all people do not eat it because it is horrible tasting food. No one is force fed the stuff till they can take on more. Unless they are making a film at the time and decided to do so. It is not popular just because it is cheap. It is not just the fact that it is advertised and well marketed. It is popular because it always has been. A burger has existed for years. The only reason why it is called a hamburger is the fact that the first people to sell them in America came from Hamburg in Germany. Pizza goes back to sixteenth century, in Naples Italy. And hot dogs, well the number of sausages that have been cooked and served in this fashion are to numerous to mention.

The thing with fast food is that it has lost its roots. It was always popular and always has been. Most of what we class as fast food derives from good old fashion peasant snacks that would be eaten in the fields. And now are packaged and consumed around the world.


And maybe that is the thing because fast food has it roots in the basic peasant back grounds it is looked down on. But why should it be. If it is done well it should be fantastic and even balanced with fresh salad and bread. What we need to do is expect more from our fast food. Not just except that what you see in the picture above the counter, is not what you are going to get in the box. More effort is needed to get rid of the negative and celebrate the positive, and just remember. Only once and a while and not every day .