American Way of Eating

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Americans did not invent "fast food", any more than they invented cars or television; they were just the first to refine it into an art and spread the art worldwide.

Before Ronald McDonald was even born, the British were into hot fast food, in the form of fish 'n' chips. Precursors of today's drive-thru, sit-down or carry-out burger restaurants and other fast-food outlets, British fish 'n' chip shops had for many years been offering customers a real meal to eat in the street. In the golden days, people ate fish 'n' chips wrapped in old newspapers and used their fingers to eat them.

Other forms of fast food were common all over the world too; the "packed lunch", some bread and something to eat with it, was part of the daily routine of millions of industrial and agricultural workers all over Europe and North America for over a century.

American-style "fast food" took existing models, and refined them, to create a new style of eating adapted to the high-speed mobile lifestyles of the modern age.

As its name implies, a "Hamburger'' was originally a German dish that originated in Hamburg (and has nothing to do with ham, in spite of modern derivatives such as chicken-burger and beef burger). It's repackaging as the most popular type of fast food was however an American achievement, as America was the first nation in the world to master modern methods of large-scale food production, distribution, and conservation (notably deep freezing).

Even in the 1960s, the steak was still an expensive luxury for most people in Europe; but in America, it was already an everyday dish. Furthermore, fast food outlets, offering cheap cooked meals, corresponded ideally to the needs of an increasingly mobile and increasingly busy society. Americans can no doubt be forgiven for saying such things as "It's as American as pizza". Even if this other classic dish is of Mediterranean origin, it is America that has spread its popularity around the world.