Reading Eleanor Gaccetta’s Generations of Good Food, a cookbook featuring easy baking recipes reminds us of the days before fast-food restaurants. Today, fast food has dominated the food industry. Kids and grownups alike have always preferred it over any other type, which is proven by the countless stores sprouting up every month worldwide. These establishments specialize in a certain kind of taste that they have spent numerous years and billions of dollars perfecting. And true to their slogans, they have indeed captured everybody’s hearts and taste buds, earning more and more as they continue to tempt us with ubiquitous online advertisements and humungous billboards.
One obvious reason why we love fast food is that it is too easy to get. We were already smitten by the drive-through service and the home delivery we used to call using the landline a long time ago. It has become even more accessible because of the invention of cell phones and applications through which we can order and even specify our requests. In addition to that, we are informed how much time we are supposed to wait or where the delivery guy is at that moment. Getting our meals in this manner has become the norm in these Covid times, and I doubt it will end after the pandemic.
Establishments have also done their packaging so that even when we are in the park or just in the car, rarely do we make a mess even with the generous helpings of sauces and dips they provide.
Fast food is, definitely as they promise – fast! The amount of time one is kept waiting for his order is simply the same number of minutes it takes for either a quick shower or to check and read his emails. We usually don’t feel like we are even waiting at all. It is that quick. The best thing about it, especially for the lazy people (for which fast food was most probably invented), is there is no need to do anything except press a few buttons. It is unnecessary to budge from the couch, not even to stand up.
Since we can now pay online, one doesn’t even need to answer the door. We simply choose the leave-at-the-doorstep option. We go to the door and pick it up at our convenience. Even if we opt to drive to the nearest branch, there are so many cashiers and food servers available that even though we are the 50th in line, we can still order our food within the next quarter of an hour. Driving through is the same story. Because of their efficient system, which has us going through many different windows to order, to pay, and pick up our order, it doesn’t seem a burden at all to appease our growling tummies.
Perhaps one of the most important reasons everyone loves fast food is the taste. Companies have spent quite a lot redoing and perfecting their craft, but it is all worth it. All the profit they are making is because of their meals’ tasty, consistent, unduplicatable goodness. After all the warnings the doctors have given regarding the additives, fat, and all irreparable effects of eating fast food, one just cannot resist the crunchiness of their chicken, the creaminess of their milkshakes, or the unmistakable chewiness of the pizza crust dripping with heaps and heaps of mozzarella cheese and toppings! No wonder the public doesn’t mind spending their hard-earned money on something so unhealthy, something that increases their risk of developing a range of serious health conditions.
Judging from the customers’ demand and love for it, fast food is here to stay. There is no telling when the public will wake up from their sugary dreams of honey-glazed doughnuts or their oily cravings of battered sour cream-flavored French fries. If wishes came true, we might witness a future of citizens with willpower made of iron that can resist the melting goodness of vanilla ice cream atop the fizziest of sodas. If not, then maybe it is more reasonable to hope for a fast-food chain that will serve soups, salads, the leanest meat with a side of quinoa, and kefir with chia seeds for dessert.
The Happy Hammock 