I live in Hong Kong and it feels like most American fast food here involves oil and deep fried food. Then I remembered at one point HK local fast food were full of MSGs.
It led me to this question. What is your local fast food obsessed with? It can be an ingredient, spice, sauce, cooking method, etc.
In Lebanon, it’s getting extra garlic (toum) on your chicken shawarma.
That sounds amazing
I live in Hong Kong and it feels like most American fast food here involves oil and deep fried food.
That’s pretty much universal regarding American fast food.
Then I remembered at one point HK local fast food were full of MSGs.
That’s convinient. I always carry a small can on me for emergencies.
MSG was so prevalent until people said it was bad. One of our local fast food chain restaurants still has a “No MSG” poster in some of their branches.
That’s terrible slander. At least you know which restaurants to avoid!
MSG is just a kind of salt. It’s absolutely fine and one guy basically said “I always get a headache after eating Chinese food, it must be those darn Chinese people’s fault” and created a completely bullshit study out of nowhere and the health food nuts jumped on it and now here we are and even in China MSG has become a dirty word.
https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/body/food/msg-isnt-unhealthy
https://www.foodrepublic.com/1429861/msg-food-safety-myth-origin-racism/
tldr: food tastes better with a little MSG and there’s no link between it and any known health issue.
I live in France. For a time we had loads of poke places, still do. Insane that people pay €14 for a bowl of rice…
The biggest up-and-comer now is smash burgers (€15 burger prepared in 5 minutes anyone?), but might be tied with fried chicken which is also everywhere.
Prior to this we had a wave of French Taco joints (which are not tacos at all!).
I don’t live in a very large city though, so perhaps Paris, Marseille, and Toulouse have trends I haven’t seen yet.
Oregon / Washington - Deep fried sweet walla walla onion rings:
nasi goreng (fried rice) everywhere
Interesting. Fried rice is more commonly found in traditional restaurants for us. Not much in fast food.
Germany: Döner Kebap ist still the most common fast food.
Sadly…Too much Döner joints per km^2
In Canada, our fast food obsession is making fast food as expensive as sit-down restaurants.
But it’s still cheaper because you aren’t expected to tip.
But the people at fast food restaurants and at sit-down restaurants are paid the same amount hourly, so it doesn’t really make sense. But we tip like Americans because culture and habit are hard to change.
But the fast food payment terminal still “gives you the opportunity” to tip
Not exactly fast food but Japan’s version of Chinese food is to dump this starchy sauce on everything on the plate.
