Beloved McDonald’s

McDonald’s-Russia

McDonald’s- Japan

McDonald’s-Thailand

If you ever find yourself homesick, or unable to find identifiable meals in a foreign country, don’t worry…there is likely a McDonald’s not too far away. The McDonald’s website even offers a listing of every McDonald’s in the world, by country, state, or address.

In an article called, “In Bed with McDonald’s,” in the UK Times, Sarah Turner writes, “A new branch of McDonald’s opens every five hours. At the last count, the golden arches have spread from the US to l19 countries, from Canada (the first) to American Samoa (last year). Travel the world today and you invariably find that McDonald’s has got there first.

Go into a McDonald’s abroad and you’ll find it full of backpackers sucking thoughtfully on their extra thick milkshakes. Britons under the age of 35 are part of the McDonald’s generation. Our teens are excited when we learn that German branches serve beer. Few of us will have needed John Travolta in Pulp Fiction to tell us that the French call a Quarter Pounder a Cheeseburger Royale. I can order a Big Mac in a variety of languages (in France, for example, avec un shake) – even the most hopeless linguist will not starve in a McDonald’s.

Eating at one isn’t adventurous, but it’s highly unlikely to give you food poisoning either. Flying back from Washington DC in January, I had the choice of a cheerful-looking local Chinese or a Burger King at the airport. In a rare moment of anti-globalisation fervour I chose the former and spent the next two days in a bathroom, contemplating my folly…”