Fast Food Culture

Ehehehe... Well, I usually eat out (fast food) a few times a week, for dinner mostly. My family doesn't cook very often (we're very lazy..) so fast food is just convenient. I'd love to eat home-made meals but no one's willing to cook them (I tried once.. let's just say it didn't work out very well).

Although I crave the occassional french fries, I really try to stay away from them. As a college student, we have all of them in campus: Domino's, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Sonic. Sometimes I'm very tempted to go and buy myself something, but that's why I always bring cooked-meals from home.

I haven't had fast food in a while actually. Since I recovered from my eating disorder, and decided to try intuitive eating (protip: it's fabulous), I've been indulging quite regularly. It was an important step for me actually, eating junk again, and I probably went a little over the top but I settled down and now I have it when I want it, and when I can get to it (I live in a village).

I'm too broke. When I wasn't, hell yeah. I love fast food. At work, I sometimes get chicken strips from the deli at Target for lunch or I sometimes get a Starbucks drink. However, the Starbucks has less to do with it being fast and more to do with it being delicious.

I virtually never eat fastfood in British or American style restaurants because I'm a vegetarian so there's hardly anything I can eat, but I really love street food and when I go back home (in Romania), I'm constantly stuffing my face with various kinds of pretzels and bagels, pastries (hmm especially strudels and croissants), lángos, kürtőskalács, chocolate filled / covered anything, falafel, roasted chestnuts (in autumn / winter), berliners and just about anything else you can buy from a tiny kiosk. I love the variety and the way the different foods reflect the history of Transylvania and the different peoples who live in it now, it's a shame there isn't really anything like it in Scotland (I mean, yes, there are restaurants and small bakeries, but that's not street food).

@ kafka.
Street food > fast food. I freaking love street food.

My sister is a vegetarian though and she still eats a ton of fast food. Breadsticks from Little Ceasars, curly fries from Arby's, certain Chinese food dishes without meat, a lot off the breakfast menu. More for snacks than meals generally, but she was always that way so I guess nothing really changed. You're right that there is a lack of vegetarian options. I do get happy when I see a veggie burger on a menu and I always hope it was better than the dried out one I had at the Hard Rock Cafe.

I'm also vegetarian & I wouldn't say that I eat fast food at all minus Subway & Chinese, if that counts. I feel like my eating habits are very cost-effective & that I don't have much reason to eat fast food. Besides, as @ kafka said, there aren't many options. At the Duchess County Fair in (I believe) Rhinebeck, NY, there was so many veggie foods. I went to this stand of wraps & paninis & there was a veggie option for each category. Grilled zucchini, eggplant, peppers & American cheese panini...

@ kafka.
Street food was the best part of Europe. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but I was definitely never hungry.

@ dru can fly!
I had an awful veggie burger at the Hard Rock Cafe in San Diego. I was so angry because it was expensive, and gross. Burger King actually has a veggie burger that's not half bad. It's a lot like a boca burger. Definitely better than whatever the hard rock cafe is serving.

I love Starbucks and I love Frosty's from Wendy's even though I used to work there. I think when you work in a fast food place you start to hate it. I did. I do.

Hell no, i like it but if i eat it more than once a month , illpuke cannot handle too much.

It's really hard to avoid fast food in an American society for many reason. One, it's every damn where. The higher the concentration of people in an area, the more you'll see. Two, we live in a very fast pace life where cooking can sometimes become a job that takes up too much time in the day. Three, fattening foods send off good signals in the brain. Four, this is America, dammit.

I just wish that the fast food was healthier. My Korean friend told me that fast food in Korea is sushi and rolls. Why can't it be like that here? I guess it will only be possible in places where there is good fish supply. It wouldn't be as likely in landlocked states. But I still think there are a lot more healthier and tastier alternatives.

@ Isadora Pierce
Depends on the person. I worked at Sonic for a year, loved it, never got sick of the food, and it's still my favorite fast food place.

I personally try not to eat out at fast food places like McDonalds and Burger King while I'm out of the house, though sometimes there's not much of an option and I'll either break down and eat there or just not eat at all while I'm out. But it's usually very rarely that I can't find a better option. I much prefer stopping at Starbucks for a drink and parfait or picking up some fruit or a sandwich at Walgreens to eat. I usually have enough time to go find a park or plaza to sit in for a while, so it makes it easy to find food at Walgreens and then find a place to actually sit down and eat. There's a lot of Starbuck's and Walgreens' where I live so finding one is not hard at all. Though if I'm in an area where I know there's an organic store/bakery of some sort, I'm much more likely to go find a quick snack there than at Starbucks or Walgreens. But overall, I try to avoid most fast food places when I'm out.

I do eat fast food though because the people in my household rarely cook. My sister is never home, I can't cook without burning things, my mom's husband is adamant that "men don't cook", and my mom is just tired of cooking so she rarely does it anymore. This family doesn't have good eating habits because none of us really care enough, we're all pretty disconnected from one another. We're either eating out, not eating at all for the day, or just snacking throughout the day. That's a major reason I don't eat fast food when I go out. I've learned to expect coming home to seeing my mom and her husband had fast food again and saved some for me. Another main reason I try not to eat fast food is because I have a bad habit of feeling bad about myself after I eat it. I don't even know why but it's a habit that developed a few months ago.

In Mexico, the fast food restaurants are taking over the street food McDonald's everywhere, Wendy's, Burger King and a ton more of these things are replacing the awesome street food puestitos Honestly, I agree with Dru: street food > fast food.

I always feel nauseous when I eat at a fast food restaurant, but isn't the case with the establishments that sell street food; they don't upset my stomach.

Tacos, churros, barbacoa, bañuelos ( season is approaching. YEEEEES), tamales, caldo de res, pozole, vasos de elote con chile, chilindrinas, papitas con valentina, dogos al estilo borunda, burritos, and when season hits atole all good things.

sobre mi cadaver:

Tacos, churros, barbacoa, bañuelos ( season is approaching. YEEEEES), tamales, caldo de res, pozole, vasos de elote con chile, chilindrinas, papitas con valentina, dogos al estilo borunda, burritos, and when season hits atole all good things.

Stop making me hungry and I love Valentina hot sauce. Which reminds me that we're running out.

@ Ayana Sioux
Chinese takeout? Korean takeout? You can always order something healthier off pretty much any menu. It just doesn't taste as good.

@ dru will wait.
Perhaps, but it doesn't taste as good, like you said. But in other country's cuisine, their healthy food actually isn't so bad. American's version of healthy food and bland, boring, and not so good.

I don't eat fast food at all, including Subway and all that. I've sworn off fast food since I was fifteen, with a few dips in-between, and haven't taken even a bite for almost a year. It's exceedingly rare that I even go out to eat at all unless I have to. When I do, I usually go to one of the numerous hole-in-the-wall restaurants up and down Colfax or Federal.

idk, I just don't like it, any of it. Some of it tastes okay, but I can make something ten times more delicious at home with fresh ingredients. For me, it's a colossal waste of money and calories, and makes me really glad I know how to cook, and cook well.

I used to eat a lot, but now I stay away from fast food joints with the exception of McDonalds - even that is very rare. If anything, I eat Subway when I go out or I go to a cafe and get a sandwich from there. Fast food used to be a staple in my life but now that our family have cut down so much on junk we are on the fast-track to being super duper healthy.

Fast food is really expensive. I love it, I know it's bad for me, and I would probably eat it everyday if I could. But it's expensive.