No. 24: Less Fast Food on Offer

…but sadly, a growing industry in France…

As I continue my unanticipated one-week sojourn in America, I am still overwhelmed. I am flabbergasted by the amount of fast food on offer in the land of the free.

flicker.com

I have a 15 minute drive to the YMCA where I have been working out. This morning as I drove my 10 miles, I passed 16 different fast food establishments. I am not in the part of the country where I grew up and there are certainly some interesting choices I’ve never heard of : Eggroll Hut Filipino, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Captain D’s Seafood Kitchen, Checker’s Drive in, and Churches Chicken, but so far, I haven’t been tempted. However, I seem to be the only one sticking to green smoothies at breakfast time.  Each and every one of the fast food  chains I drove by had at least three or four cars lined up at the drive-thru and more than a large handful of cars in the parking lots…and it was only 7:00 am.

According to statisticbrain.com, as of April 2013, the number of fast food restaurants in America was 160,000, with 50 million Americans served each day and an annual fast food revenue of $110 Billion. Truly, une véritable catastrophe! I know that fast food is the reality in the US and a huge industry, but I really hate to see it making headway into France.

quel dommage…the French are lovin’ it too…

Yes, it turns out my France, the country I so often associate with gastronomie and fresh ingredients, is being propped up by fast-food revenues. Fast food chains, according to NPR, now account for 54 percent of all restaurant sales in France. Bon sang! It breaks my heart. There are now more than  a 1,200 McDonald’s in France, which is only 199 shy of what the grand ol’ state of Texas (roughly the same size as France) boasts.

Quel dommage! It really bums me out.

source: aht.seriouseats.com – by j.edwards

Still, I am grateful all these other chains have not yet made it across the ocean. I hope that France grows more of a backbone, and remembers that real food and real ingredients can continue to define their country, if only they don’t give in…

Vocabulaire

Bon sang! Damn, damn it!

gastronomie: gastronomy

Quel dommage! What a shame! That’s too bad.

une véritable catastrophe: a real disaster/catastrophe