July 2, 2007

WHICH IS WHY THEY HATE THE MARKET SO MUCH:

McDonald's Takes Paris: Le Big Mac Booms in the Land of Haute Cuisine (JACOB GERSHMAN, July 2, 2007, NY Sun)

After devouring a Big Mac, a royal cheese, and paprika-flavored potato wedges dipped in mayonnaise, Romain Bertucca, a shaggy-haired 22-year-old drama student wearing a beret and ripped jeans, explained why he eats McDonald's.

"It's quick. The food is hot. It's not like a sandwich. It's McDonald's," he said, sitting on a stool with a friend on Thursday afternoon, overlooking Avenue de Wagram, two blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.

Mr. Bertucca is not alone in his endorsement of McDonald's, or MAKdoeNAHLDS, as it's pronounced here. In this land of haute cuisine where American tourists are customarily greeted with Gallic scorn, the world's largest fast food company is more popular than ever.


All things being equal, no one prefers French food.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 2, 2007 7:27 AM
Comments

Then I must be the exception. But of course.

Posted by: Genecis at July 2, 2007 7:51 AM

Vincent: And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the bleep a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules: Then what do they call it?
Vincent: They call it a Royale with cheese.
Jules: A Royale with cheese.. What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: Well, a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it le Big Mac.
Jules: Ha. What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.

Posted by: Gideon at July 2, 2007 8:43 AM

My son, the physicist and his docteur wife, looked into a Krispy Kreme franchise in Montpellier (the one in la belle). Nothing came of it, but even the concept floored us.

Posted by: erp at July 2, 2007 9:18 AM

French _haute cuisine_ comes from the vermin and trash they were forced to eat while being besieged by Germans. They refuse to admit they were forced to survive on snails and tree root fungus. So to this day, they pretend that those things are delicacies. "They didn't force us to eat anything! We love the taste of snails! Look, I am eating one now! Yum!"

Posted by: Bob Hawkins at July 2, 2007 10:55 AM

--paprika-flavored potato wedges dipped in mayonnaise,---

?????

Don't we wish we could get that here.

I still think they should give the franchises' the option of putting in another fryer w/the original fry oil.

I've got my Lipitor, bring it on.

That would be the only reason to go there.

Posted by: Sandy P at July 2, 2007 1:18 PM

I understand the leading French bistro has an actual rat as its head chef.

Posted by: Bob at July 2, 2007 2:16 PM
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