Worldcrunch
“Every French person should be able to find a McDonald’s within 20 minutes of their home.” This was the fast-food giant’s goal by early 2025. In Tessancourt-sur-Aubette, a town under 1,000 inhabitants northwest of Paris, the rural area is now under American influence. Most locals are happy.
Frozen pizza, coca-cola, chips. Delicious. And dangerous? German weekly Die Zeit asked doctors, neuroscientists, and food chemists if that’s true — and what they themselves keep on and off their plates.
Over the past decade, the number of American fast-food chains arriving in France has accelerated. After the return of Burger King in 2014, the land of gastronomy has seen Chipotle, Popeyes and Krispy Kreme arrive — now Dunkin’ and Wendy’s are eyeing the market, which has become key, but also risks saturation.
Updated Jan. 31, 2024 at 12:45 p.m. Emerging from decades of communism and the Cold War with the United States, on this day in 1990, more than 5,000 people showed up at the opening of Moscow’s first McDonald’s. Why did Moscow introduce the first McDonald’s to its people? The entry of the iconic American chain […]
From temples of gastronomy to fast-food restaurants, it’s easier than ever to find items on the menu without any meat or fish as restaurants are increasingly responding to a growing demand for vegetarian and vegan options.
Traveling the world means seeing different attempts to blend bad American culinary imperialism into local cityscapes. Here the golden arches ruin an otherwise characteristic Wilhemian facade in this old city center in western Germany.
H&M, Zara, Mango and Irish upstart Primark are flooding the market with new styles at low prices. Is this good for us? Or for the world?
Parents and health experts in had voiced outrage that the American fast-food giant was behind a program to teach German students about good nutrition.
BEIJING — McDonald’s is planning to expand franchising in China’s biggest cities, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, for the first time since its entry into the country. Since its founding in 1955, McDonald’s has relied on its franchisees to play a major role in the company’s global success. Franchisees account for 80% of the 30,000 […]
JAIPUR — India is emerging as one of the fastest-growing centers in the global market for weight loss surgery. Two-thirds of wealthy urban Indians are now overweight. Like 56-year-old Chander Kataria and 65-year-old Mohan Gulati. Chander weighs 85 kilos (187 pounds) while Mohan is over 120 kilos (264 pounds). They are both trying desperately to lose weight, and one of their efforts is a morning walk around the Bhagat Singh Garden in Jaipur. “I try to exercise, shake and vibrate every organ of my body, but it’s not working,” says Chander. Mohan has tried many ways to lose weight, including […]
If fast food is a symbol of the world’s Western domination, then their franchises are like lone scouts inspecting the area before the rest of the army arrives. To satisfy their traveling Western customers or to gain new ones, the biggest fast-food chains have, sometimes unintentionally, set up shop in some of the most remote, […]
BEIJING — For more than 100 years now, the food additive commonly known at MSG (monosodium glutamate) has been used all over the world to make dishes more savory. But the Chinese in particular are losing their taste for the ingredient, having embraced an irrational fear of what authorities around the world regard as a […]
NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – When you think of French cuisine, visions sparkle of a leisurely countryside bistro or elaborate meals conjured up by the likes of super chef Alain Ducasse. On a rainy Monday in the capital, the reality looks much more like a study just released by the consulting firm Gira Conseil […]
OUEST FRANCE, DIRECT MATIN (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Some might say that McDonald’s in France is getting just a wee bit too, well, French. A year after introducing various “McBaguette” offerings using the famous French bread, the American fast food chain has just introduced its version of France’s national sandwich: jambon-fromage. If that sounds chic, […]