Friday, January 18, 2008

McDonalds in Israel

Yesterday, in an attempt to find a bathroom, we stopped at a McDonalds just outside Tiberius. Technically, it's on a corner of Tzomet Golani, or the Golani Junction. When I was on Volunteers for Israel 20 years ago, my base was right down the road. There was most definitely no McDonalds on the corner back in 1985.

But that's not so important (is any of this, really?). The bathrooms there were the cleanest of any McDonald's I've ever been in. And that's also not so relevant. It was clearly not a kosher store (and no, before you even ask, I am not convinced that has anything to do with how clean the bathrooms were). As we walked out, a woman walking in reached up her hand to kiss the mezuzah on the door.

Yes, a mezuzah on the door of a treif restaurant. Only in Israel.

Later in the day I was actually at another McDonalds. This time a kosher one. Given that I never go to McDonald's in the US, walking into two in a day seems almost worthy of a shehechiyanu. Given that the only vegetarian option is a salad, the kashrut status is largely irrelevant to me. And here's the great thing about McDonalds, the french fries taste the same everywhere. I am convinced tat is why they are so successful. You can walk in and know exactly what the food you will be ordering will taste like. I did notice that the hamburgers are really huge there (surface area, not thickness) and I'm pretty sure they aren't in the US. But I bet they taste the same.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you read and/or seen Fast Food Nation? The fries taste the same everywhere because of the chemicals they use to make them taste that way! (read the book last year, saw the movie last night, so it's fresh in my mind)

Anonymous said...

So here's the question: How do you think they get that beefy flavor into the fries at the kosher McDonalds? It makes my stomach hurt just to think about it.