Culture Post #6: American Fast Food in Germany

     Well hello there, people, places, and things.  I know, I may or may not have mildly exaggerated about the influx in posts, but relax, you'll get them all in good time.  And now to the good stuff!

     Back home in the United States, fast food chains are an ubiquitous part of nearly every city and town, all across the country, to the point where the question isn't necessarily if a place has a fast food joint, but which it happens to have.  Through the magic of business expansion, this now applies with increasing frequency to Germany too.

Its almost like its a real restaurant.
Make them stop.

     If you enter a fast food restaurant (I'm using it in the loosest possible meaning people, you can hold your objections!), I noticed a few differences from the get-go.  First, the menu boards are often very similar (some menu items may be changed due to different tastes.  Beer is also on the menu.) or identical, though the prices are in Euros (the poor buggers are getting screwed over here).  Second, the actual place is typically better maintained than expected (McDonald's isn't quite the same without bit of grunge!).  And third, but not last, fast food restaurants don't appear to hold the same place in the public opinion here in Germany that they often do in the United States.

It says there is six.  I kinda feel like that is six
too many for some reason.

     By this I mean that the attitude that I have picked up on the most about these types of places is not necessarily positive, but people definitely don't seem to have quite the level of negative feelings about them as many in the United States can.  As best I can tell, this either comes from the Germany tendency to accept what we would term "junk food" type items as a part of daily life, just not as something "extra" on top some other view of what a normal diet should be, or simply due to a different history with these types of places.  After all, "McCafe," as the sign on the side of the building shown above proudly declares, is in a lot of cases thought of as a separate entity here (because apparently considering it nothing but a menu board where the coffee lives was too much to handle.  Or maybe they just like cafes.  Could be either.)

That graffiti though!

    The good news about all of this is that if you are in Germany, you can still do the good old fashioned American thing of rushing around and having to stop into a place which will happily make you a meal that you will find yourself suspending your understanding of what it is really made of in exchange for something to eat.  The actual good news though, is that over here, there are bakeries and such with other, less Supersize Me worthy options as well.

     See you next time!

For your Amusement:

Still magically managing to leave the little stickers on your door
saying that you missed the drop off time, even in Germany.

I see what you did there, Germany.

Don't mess with me.
I don't know who said you could lie about Dunkin'.

Proverb of the Day:

A nap is a powerful thing.

Use it wisely.

*The background music is from a personal music project in progress.