79 in London, got a hamburger. It was all pink! "Well, it's made of Am idn't it?" Yuk!

Happily things have changed a lot in London in the last nearly half century LOL

All (nearly) the fast food here is American. I'm thinking of our comercial centre and there's McDo (yes, with beer!), Quick burger (Belgian), Taco Bell, KFC, Holly's diner (?). Don't eat in any of them but they must be popular to stay open.

French fast food is a sandwich. A light lunch is a galette/crêpe. In Spain you can eat Tapas, in Italy they have bruschetta (had some wonderful ones in Bologna where they used thin, creamy grilled aubergine slices as "butter"). I'd rather have a Nando's than a burger in London for fast food. Best quick food in Britain is pub grub. There's amazingly good food in pubs these days. Many have Michelin stars. Bourough market in London has an array of food trucks and restaurants from all over. Too much to eat LOL

I eat street food in Mexico that is prepared by the vendors, but I've never had American style fast food in any foreign country. We saw food trucks in Rio, but I did not buy anything from them either:

I very rarely eat hamburgers and French fries - maybe once or twice a year.

We did have pizza at a gas station in Italy, somewhere between Rome and Florence, and that was the only fast food we had there.

We tend to go to off the beaten path destinations in other countries, and so we do not see American fast food restaurants there.

I am never in a hurry to get food - I am always prepared to wait a long time, probably because I am so slow at preparing food myself, and if I do not love it, I do not want to eat it.

I've never been to a chain restaurant in Canada either, and I've never had any McDonald's food of any kind. They did not exist where I grew up - but we did have Dairy Queens.

Have you visited Food Hawkers in Singapore? Now there is also one in midtown NYC.

dcarch

Have to confess to eating at McD's in France a few times since we usually rent a car when we go and we often drive long distances. In a pinch, it's fast food convenient from the Autoroute. The food is good, the frite sauce is tasty and - beer as an option with your meal.

In much of the USA, specifically “drive thru” fast food is popular with building trades because their trucks full of tools are targets for thieves. The best cup of coffee is often the deciding factor, and all they want of the food is warm and packed with energy (calories). Youngsters like the price, predictability and anonymity, of fast food chains. In some areas, there really are no other choices for prepared food. Where I went to college, they rolled the streets up after dark, and if I was getting home around 10:00 p.m., with papers to work on and reading to do, drive through chicken and plastic salad was a more appealing choice than scrounging up a meal at home.

When I was living abroad, I travelled to meet friends when I had a week's vacation. It was the dead of Winter, very North, very dark and very cold, and I got there the night before my friends and walked too far not finding my hotel. After finally checking in, it was late, and I just want food. Any food. Without getting lost again. It was so cold, I could feel it in my bone marrow. Visible, a block away, was a small, lit sign on a charming, old world building, showing the famous golden arches, which were originally big structural hoops which held up the buildings, but now are french fries. No way I'd get lost going there. Inside, it was bright and welcoming and familiar. I got a Big Mac and fries for my Friday night dinner. Nothing like it where I'd been living for half a year. It was fresh and warm and tasted great. It was actually a delightful meal on a dark, cold, lonely night.

That's my only experience of American fast food abroad. I'm not blasé enough to eat from street carts (except gelati) while travelling, but do try to find local fare. There was a stand in Greece (a step up from street food), for instance, one Summer, when I was on my way from Italy to Athens, where they made sandwiches by slicing open the point of a small, airy loaf of bread—bigger than a bun, but still one portion sized—and stuffed all kinds of filling, sauce and french fries inside. It was like a whole fast food meal in a single walking container. And delicious! Which surprised me, given the fries, but they'd perfected the balance. Or the sandwich shop on a side street in Florence where locals were going for lunch. The only seating was outside on the plaza, which was more of a wide spot in the pavement than a proper plaza. I don't remember what I ate, but it was very good, and cheap. We have similar places in the USA. I do not revile fast food—it has its place—but there's so much more interesting to try than to keep eating highly processed food where the ne plus ultra is being identical.

We drove up to Atascadero (via Paso Robles) yesterday, and Kevin insisted on stopping to eat in Gorman on I-5 because he had to make a pit stop. He took me to Carl's Jr (which I'd never been to before) and we had lunch, which consisted of breaded chicken sandwiches and fries - I ordered my sandwich with bacon.

The food was so salty I could barely eat any of it, and I told Kevin I would never go to CJ again. It was also expensive - $15.00 for a combo meal that included a medium drink, which I still have not finished.

We came here for the wildflowers, which we will go to see at Carrizo Plain on Sunday. This year out timing is better. In 2017 we went there and were about a week too late.

We stopped in downtown Paso Robles first, to do some shopping, and I bought a beautiful jacket that I really needed. I only have two other jackets, and I left both of them in Cathedral City, but they are both hoodies and not nearly as nice as my new one.

There is a restaurant (Kochi Korean BBQ & Shabu Shabu) across the street from our hotel, which of course we can easily walk to, but we chose to drive five blocks to Byblos Mediterranrean Grill and got takeout. I was expecting it to be Lebanese, but Kevin thinks it is more Greek. I now have a lot of leftovers in the hotel fridge, but we might go to Pho 4 U tomorrow for dinner.. It's four blocks from us, but we will still drive, since there is no shortage of parking here.

I wish we were staying long, as there is so much to do here, and I told Kevin that I want to come back, but he wants to go to Solvang or Catalina for our next mini adventure. I would like to spend a couple of days in Solvang, as we've been to Catalina many times. We've been to Lake Cachuma with our inflatable boat and got thrown off the lake because our boat did not have a hard bottom. By the time we were caught and told to leave, we were already on our way out.

When travelling, for work or pleasure, you often don't have the time sit down for a meal or you don't have the choice. In Japan, I've had McDonald's (which is different, heavily localized) though I would prefer a quick bento box to go. I think I was also taken to a Shakey's pizza (where you can get corn and tuna on pizza, ugh). I also had Pizza Hut in Egypt (with a great view of the Pyramids). I think those are the only situations where I've had American fast-food chains overseas. In Europe, I've had plenty of tasty sandwiches, kebabs, panini, crepess, bocaddillos, etc on the go. Same in Asia, with hawker stalls in Singapore and street food elsewhere. I've had fast casual local hamburgers in France, localized with comte cheese, confit onions, dijon and jambon.

The only other countries I've visited are Mexico and Canada, and Canada is just next door so much of the food is the same. I visited Chase/Sharon in Toronto, but we did not have fast food. I made it a point to track down a pea meal breakfast sandwich for Elery because I knew that was something very regional to the Toronto area. In Mexico we went to what was very clearly a tourist trap right over the border where the big draw was cabrito. I don't have anything against eating goat, but it was $25, and that was at least 10 years ago. It was more than I think a goat dinner should have cost in a small Mexican border town anyway.

I also think fast food is just too expensive for what it is. I can get a pretty good meal at a local Mom-and-Pop for the cost of a meal at McDonald's. Although our McD's is terrible, probably due to being a college town and having a constant turn over of college student employees, I've never enjoyed their food at any of their restaurants. Well, I did kind of like the Lobster Roll Value Meal I got at the McD's in Maine, so there is that exception. Now they are all going to kiosks/touchscreens and those seldom actually work. That means I go into a place to get a barely edible meal, spend too much time being aggravated by the technology and then pay what I consider too much for the food. The order will invariably be wrong, probably because of my aggravation with the technology. It does have passable coffee.

Annie

I have mostly avoided fast food when travelling abroad. However, there was one occasion when it could not be helped. DH and I pulled into a small town in northern Italy quite late. When we checked into our hotel, we learned that the only place to eat that was still open was McDonald’s. The food was pretty standard Mickey D’s fare, but the store was fantastic… all pink and white marble with a white grand piano!

We didn’t eat at the McD’s in Cairns Australia, but we did read the menu as we walked by. Beets on burgers! Apparently an Australian tradition?

When DH traveled in China for a month 20 years ago, his hosts (an NGO) took him to a KFC once a week so he could get a taste of home. It was their idea. He had no problem with the Chinese food but he did appreciate the thoughtfulness of his hosts.

And we ducked into the McD’s near the Reina Sofia in Madrid. They had pretty good patatas brava!