Once in a while we get too busy doing our own things in our day to day lives which makes cooking and preparing a meal is more of hassle than a necessary part of our routine. To cater to this problem the brilliant minds in the past thought of a way where we, the ever intelligent humans, could consume food without having to go through all the troublesome steps involved in preparing food. They thought of a way to serve food as fast as they are ordered : Fast Food.
Fast Food today is a huge part of the economy as it is a part of our diets. When you are too tired to cook for yourself, fast food. When you are too spent to even think about eating, fast food. Almost everywhere we go, there will always be a fast food we can go to to stuff our bodies with needed fuel to go on.
I will not be uncovering the dark sides of the fast food industry. I will not also be discussing how huge the impact of fast food chains is in the global financial standing. I will just share some facts about fast food that I find noteworthy.
Delivery in Outer Space
Today, almost every fast food restaurant is capable of delivering meals to houses and offices. Especially at this time of pandemic, when dining out puts as to a much riskier situation we almost always opt out to have our food delivered to our door steps. A sudden boom in food delivery has been observable over the last few years. Here in the Philippines, there is no shortage of food delivery services to avail. Foodpanda, Grab, UberEats and etc, these are all in addition to the organic delivery services from the respective fast food chains. But back in 2001, an amazing feat in terms of delivery has been achieved.
Pizza Hut was the first company to deliver its food to outer space. It took Pizza Hut and Russian food scientists to finalize and perfect the plan for the pizza delivery. The pizza was delivered to the pioneers living at the International Space Station at the time.
That's just simply mind blowing. Although I can't think of a situation that will put me in space and craving for some pizza, it's nice to know that I can dial the number and have a pizza ready.
Hash Brown Worse Than Cheeseburgers or Big Mac
As it stands proportionally, a single hash brown has more fat and calorie content than that of a cheeseburger or a big mac. Wow, I did not know that, and I will keep that in mind next time I am ordering an extra add on of hash brown.
The Most Popular Fast Food : French Fries
I guessed this one because french fries is one of my comfort food. I could eat french fries all day, but of course I would not. I'd like to live a bit longer of course. It's perfect with sour tomato ketchup or if we only have banana ketchup at home I like to mix it with some mayonnaise. Yum. I also tried to dip it in sundae. Some of you might see it as weird but the saltiness and the cold sweetness of the sundae really blend well together.
McDonalds as Real Estate Tycoon
If you have seen the movie The Founder, I guess this one is not new to you. McDonalds profits more from the locations and equipment rather than the food itself. If you haven't seen the movie, you should try and see it. Who knew? There's a rather dark side to the happy face of Ronald McDonald.
Largest Serving of Fries
If like me, you love to eat french fries you will surely dig this next bit. The world record for the largest serving of fries is a whopping 659kg. The record is set by Chandresh Bayad from India. I wonder how many bottles of ketchup they consumed to finish all those fries, and also how many hearts clogged by all those fats. Whoooo.
Most Number of Big Macs Eaten
Do you like hamburgers? Okay. But this guy probably is the proof that a man could love something so much. Donald Gorske holds the record for the most Big Macs eaten in a life time. Folks, let me say that again, In A Lifetime. The official record has been set on 2016, and for 44 years prior to that, he has been consuming 14 big macs in a week. According to the report, there has only been 8 days which he has not eaten a big mac. Ronald could not even joke about this he's undoubtedly the burger king. Uhm, wait, let me rephrase that, he is the Big Mac king. Okay that's better.
First Ever Fast Food Restaurant
As historians agreed, the first fast food to open its doors to consumers is White Castle. It opened in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas and was founded by Walter Anderson who was a short order cook and Edgar Ingram who was a reporter.
The original McDonalds started in the 1940s, Burger King and Taco Bell in the 1950s, Wendy's had a late start in 1969.
Largest Fast Food Chain
The largest fast food chain in terms of owned locations is... Subway. I would have guessed that it's McDonalds but apparently it is just 2nd to Subway. Hmmm.
Fast Food Toys
Can you still remember the first toy you collected from a happy meal? As far as I can remember I did not have any toy from a meal from a fast food chain. But I had a set of toys from Jollibee. They were like hot cars collectible but the drivers were Jollibee, Popo, Twirlie and Hetty. Percival Lugue holds the world record for the most number of collectible toys from fast food chains in the world. He holds the record with a total of 10,000 toys. Well, I guess he really is a happy lad from those meals.
All these things about fast food made me a bit hungrier and had me salivating for a burger and fries combo. Hmmm.
Let's dig in.
Lead Image : https://hcldr.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/fast-food-nation/
Sources:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=4921
https://www.factretriever.com/fast-food-facts
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-serving-of-chips-(fries)
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-big-macs-consumed
https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-invented-the-first-fast-food-restaurant
Most of the delicious foods are unhealthy and it makes me sad because I really want to eat it. Sadly, some of them has a dark sides especially French fries😆