Steve M

I understand people that would prefer to avoid McDonald's when overseas, out of the notion that they want to try local things. And I understand people that avoid any fast food like the plague under any circumstances. What I don't understand is those that wouldn't ordinarily be adverse to eating at McDonald's when home (even if it's not their first preference) but have this absolute rule against it when traveling in another country.

I get part of it: you want to try local things. I do too. In most cases, I'd prefer the local option in most cases. But it is just a preference, and I don't force some artificial rule upon myself just to reinforce some aura of sophistication that I've built up in my own mind. The above example may be one such thing. I was once in Germany at a train station in the suburbs, off of the beaten tourist path. The only food available was a McDonald's, and one of us didn't want to eat there because they wanted only German food. If there had been a local option, I would have been fine with it. But it was time to eat, and McD's was the only option. Plus, everyone around us was German, so the notion that we didn't want to eat like Americans but wanted to act like the locals and thus needed to avoid McD's was kind of out the window.

If I were to spend a week in Italy, I'd want to eat a lot of Italian food, of varying types. But I wouldn't insist on eating only Italian food for 21 meals in a row out of some notion that I'll get a full score on the culture evaluation. I've had great Italian and Indian food in Hong Kong. I've had sushi in Germany. When I'm home, I don't eat "American" food 3 times a day, but have a variety of different foods from around the world - sometimes in an Americanized setting, and sometimes in a restaurant where most other guests are from that other country's ethnicity. Why must I have a rule that I can't eat at a McDonald's overseas as my second or third choice, if other options are not readily available? There are people that are that way, and will impose the rule on the group or make a tremendous fuss about it.

I once heard Julia Child give an interview where she was asked if she ever ate at McDonald's, almost as a joke question. She said that Yes, in fact she did. She traveled a lot, and sometimes it was the best option: she knew exactly what she liked and didn't like on the menu, and exactly how it was going to be prepared, and sometimes didn't want to experiment with the unknown when she had a place to be at a set time and no other opportunity to eat. If she can do it, I'm sure some of the sophisticated gourmet world travelers could lower themselves on occasion.