Fast food restaurant advertising signs in Bowling Green, Kentucky:
In THE BATTLE OF THE CHEESE, cow milk hard cheese comfortably won, with cow milk soft cheese, sheep milk cheese and smoked cheese coming next in the poll. Thanks to @CuriousHer, it seems I've been fooled with Woo Pig Brie, a pig milk cheese. Woo Pig Brie cheese doesn't exist; news of its making was an April Fools' Day hoax and I fell for it in November!
It's now the turn of fast food to do battle. Fast food is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "easily prepared processed food served in snack bars and restaurants as a quick meal or to be taken away." It is mass-produced food with speed of service as its essence whether eaten on the premises, taken away or delivered. For fast food, think McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Taco Bell, Dunkin' Donuts, Subway and Greggs.
Fast food, a little unfairly, gets equated with junk food. Junk food is food, often served fast, that's high in calories, fat, salt and sugar and low in fibre, minerals, protein and vitamins. Junk food is unhealthy food if eaten as a main diet. Fruit and salad are fast food but are far from junk food. But a lot of fast food is junk food.
To make the poll more manageable, it's only concerned with hot savoury fast foods. The post isn't concerned with cold fast foods like sandwiches, kimbap and sushi nor with sweet fast foods like candy floss (aka cotton candy), churros, doughnuts (donuts to my American friends), funnel cake, muffins, sticks of rock, toffee apples and waffles.
Also there are no fast food combinations like burger and fries, chips with curry sauce, gravy or mushy peas, curry and rice, fish and chips, and pie and chips in the poll. The poll is only concerned about single fast food items.
My favourite kinds of fast foods are a bacon butty (bacon has to be crispy though), Bitterballen (a Dutch treat), burrito, chip butty, chips, Cornish pasty, crêpe/galette, jacket potato (with baked beans, cheese or tuna mayonnaise as a filling), halloumi fries, mushy peas with vinegar (a Nottingham delicacy), nachos, pizza, ramen, samosa and toasted sandwiches (a cheese and onion toastie for me), with a cheeseburger being my most favourite kind of fast food to eat. I do like a McDonald's cheeseburger - it's the gherkin that does it for me!
McDonald's Spicy Double Cheeseburger:
My least favourite kinds of fast foods are kebabs (too greasy) and particularly fried chicken. KFC fried chicken is the worst fast food I've ever eaten.
What are your most and least favourite kinds of fast foods?
How often do you eat fast food?
What is your favourite fast food restaurant chain?
Generally I'm not keen on fast food, though I'll eat it if in a hurry or there's no alternative like at a fairground or a sporting event. I much prefer slower and even slow food.
Despite the shock after seeing Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me documentary film, I still like a sneaky visit to McDonald's for a breakfast. I love a sausage and egg McMuffin and a cheesy bacon flatbread with a double portion of hash browns. And McDonald's coffee isn't too bad!
But my favourite fast food restaurant chains are Subway and Greggs. Greggs is very British and I suspect it hasn't made its presence felt beyond these shores. But Greggs, headquartered in Newcastle in the North East of England, serves up decent and relatively cheap fast food, far from junk food - its sausage rolls are legendary here.
Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite kind of fast food. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll.
Given that almost any food can be served fast, it was quite difficult to decide the maximum of 20 poll options but unfortunately there was no room in the poll for: aloo tikki, bacon butty (bacon sandwich), baked beans, bao/baozi buns, batter bits, Bitterballen, bocadillo de calamares, chaat, cheese bites, cheese fritter, chip butty (chip sandwich), chole bhature, Cornish pasty, crêpe/galette, curry, curry sauce, dak-kkochi, dhokla, dim sum, dumplings (eg gyoza/jiaozi, momos, wontons), enchiladas, fajitas, falafel, fish cake, gravy, halloumi fries, hog roast roll, hot roast beef sandwich, Jamaican patty, kushikatsu, loaded fries, masala dosa, mushy peas, Pad Thai, pav bhaji, pie, potato fritter, potato wedges, rib meat rolls, rice, samosa, sausage rolls, sausage sarnie (sausage sandwich), sotteok sotteok, steak slices, takoyaki, tempura, toasted sandwiches (aka toasties), tteokbokki, twigim, vada pav and yakitori.
I think burgers will win the poll, with fried chicken, nachos, pizza and tacos tailing behind.
I want to thank @EnigmaInitiative for her advice in compiling this poll. Obviously, any mistakes with the poll are my mistakes unless 'other' wins!
Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far.
KFC Fried Chicken:
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46 comments
Japanese fast food would be beef bowls (牛丼/gyudon). It's quick and convenient. There are a couple of burger chains founded by in Japan, Mos Burger and Freshness Burger. Since the price of fast food chain burgers are getting much more expensive than they used to be, I prefer to go to a decent restaurant and order a wagyu burger and support a mom and pop shop over chains and franchises.
Fast food is increasingly no longer cheap food.
Chick -fil -a, chicken sandwich , Popeyes chicken sandwich
You like your chicken!
Tacos always. I like to search out food trucks for a variety. We have a great culture in that here.
Tacos, for some reason, aren't too popular here.
@spunkycumfun location location location.
I should specify.
Lunch time( dinner) tacos. Although I do search out both lunch tacos and breakfast tacos, which the rest of the world insists on calling breakfast burritos.
No tacos in Nottingham?
What handheld local treats are there there?
@russellfireside There are a a couple of Mexican restaurants in Nottingham but they are sit-down only. Taco Bell have two outlets in the city centre.
Popular hand-held fast foods here are burger and fries, kebab, and fish and chips.
I'll have a burger on the scale of a couple per year. It will be from a diner or local bar and grill. It's been years since I stopped in one of the big chains
I try to avoid the big chains but McDonald's is everywhere here!
@sexstarvedme1966 I miss Wimpy!
@spunkycumfun The Grimace was a key factor in the NY Mets' run to the playoffs this year.
@njfitguy1 New York Mets are my baseball team, not least because my first and only baseball game involved the Mets against the Atlanta Braves. I hadn't got a clue what was going on in the game.
@njfitguy1 The only thing I learnt from that baseball game is that if I put my hand up, I'd get served with food or drink. That doesn't happen with sports games here. It's queue!
I used to love McDonalds burgers. Then I got covid a few years ago and couldn't taste anything for months. Eating one of those burgers without the flavor was horrible! I still get a craving now and then, but it is pretty easy to resist. BurgerKing has some tomatoes and onions, with a grill flavor. I like that, but in the end, if I'm getting a burger for lunch, I'm making it or getting it from a pub or restaurant.
I prefer Burger King over McDonald's but I do like the gherkin in a McDonald's cheeseburger!
What are your most and least favourite kinds of fast foods? - I voted for pizza as my most, but largely that's due to one particular place around the corner from where S lives. After visiting her I frequently famished and stop there, so their pizza has very positive associations for me. 😁 FOR SURE a vegan burger would be my least favorite.
How often do you eat fast food? - Not often enough (see above)! But dismissing that once every few months maybe. I'm not a big fan.
What is your favourite fast food restaurant chain? - Other than that one particular pizza place (Casey's BTW), I guess Wendy's.
We have a few Wendy's restaurants here. They do the best burgers, at least better than the ubiquitous McDonald's and Burger King.
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Fast food is not my thing. Last time I ate, or rather was, at one was still the 20th century (without the Fox) 😀
That's a long time ago!
The version of me that exists today, while taking wegovy, will always pick the baked potato over all other “fast food” because I simply can’t handle all that grease anymore. But, boy do I love potatoes!
The version of me that existed prior to Wegovy was a burger girl, particularly from Culver’s or Shake Shack.
I very rarely eat fast food today….like maybe once every other month and even then, it’s mostly a salad of some kind because most fast food doesn’t have baked potato here.
Culver’s and Shake Shack are my favs, they have the freshest meat
We don't have Culver's and Shake Shack here. For burgers, it's McDonald's or Burger King.