to not understand why people consider McDonalds to be a "treat"

[TalkinPeace]

if I want a family "treat" meal I go somewhere with fresh, favoursome food made especially for us.

Why do people take their kids somewhere that sells the lowest common denominator of food and call it a "treat" ?

metro.co.uk/2013/03/05/ikea-withdraws-poo-cake-from-sale-after-bacteria-discovered-in-china-3527827/

the proof that the Gangbang exists ....
www.secretmenuholic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/mcgangbang-mcdonalds-secret-menu.jpg

( still does not appeal though! )

OK we'll ask C4

Also, we should do a sequel studying the McFlurry

Are Happy Meals £2.25 now? I'm sure ours are still £1.99.

I only ever go to MaccyDs to buy Caramel Sundaes. I don't like the burgers or fries. I normally just pay someone else the price of a Big Mac to take the kids and bring me back a Sundae

It's horses for courses, isn't it? My idea of the most perfect, heavenly treat is a fresh bagel with lox and cream cheese, in the East End, at 3 am on Sunday, washed down by a huge mug of builders' tea. It's the only thing that makes me nostalgic for my old London life. If McDs does it for you, why should I care? I think most fast food is Yank crap, but why should you care? It's called free choice.

look!

But but but Ikea poo cake!!

I have been craving a quarter pounder with cheese for months and haven't found a convenient excuse to nip in yet.

Sometimes, in our house, pan fried Salmon with new potatoes and salad is a treat. It's delicious food that we can't afford to eat often.

Sometimes a McDonalds is a treat, because it's unhealthy food that tastes good, so we only have it once in a while.

It's about balance, isn't it? It's about allowing yourself, occasionally, to do something that's not in your usual diet/schedule. Whatever your personal taste is, it's a treat, because it's an indulgence and not usual.

As it happens, the idea of going to an Ikea, even just for food, brings me out in a cold sweat. I hate the places. I feel disoriented and panicky pretty much the whole way round, though I'll admit, I haven't been in one for about 15 years or so (because of feeling disoriented and panicky).

gordy Middle Eastern McDs sounds delish!

I consider it a treat as in it's not very healthy so we have it as a treat, not as a part of our daily diet.

Of course a nice meal out somewhere is a different kind of treat. Methinks someone is being deliberately obtuse.

i've never really liked macdonalds - as a child i often avoided going to parties being held there because i didn't like the food (unless they were best friends)

it's not a particularly health-conscious thing (i certainly crave my fair share of chipshop fish and chips, cake, chocolate brownies etc), it just wasn't the kind of food that appealed to me, i don't think it tastes nice

so now i'm an adult i wouldn't ever consider it a treat, it would be a last resort when i couldn't find anything else

Various regional McDonalds foods from around the world

A few examples of international differences:

1. Portions are generally smaller outside the U.S. Even "standard" burgers such as the Big Mac are smaller. As a general rule of thumb, the U.S. small sizes are comparable to medium sizes elsewhere. You won't be able to find special upsized meals such as the Mighty Kids Meal outside the U.S.

2. French fries and burgers taste different from country to country because of changes in the way they are cooked and differences in spices and the amount of salt. The amount and type of salt may be doubled or halved. Unusual seasonings, such as seaweed, may be available to shake over the fries.

More examples here

Its actually quite interesting about how McDonalds has adapted so much to local tastes.

I'd spend more driving to an Ikea. Though I will give that a shot next time I'm there. Massive queues though from what I've seen. (Though I could leave ds1 in the creche bit and eat on my own!)

He does wholesome fresh food cooked just for you equate to a meal in Ikea?
Last time I went in an Ikea cafe it was canteen style with the food precooked and in the heaters waiting to be dished up as per request. It didn't look very wholesome either.

Arf at OP who doesn't like high fat food, but will tuck into a scotch egg followed by a doughnut

I'm sure both are fresh and made especially for her though

Have you slightly lost track or your argument OP?

Were you just winding everyone up by any chance?
Are you, in fact, the Marketing Director of MacDonalds?

This might come as quite the revelation, but different people like different things.

Some people like McDonalds. Some people don't. It's the way of the world. You no more need to understand their like of it, than they need to understand your like for something else.

We took the kids there for lunch on Sunday. I think it's the second time they've been their in their lives. And yes, it was a treat for them. A treat for us would be something, quite, quite different, but our palates are also able to tolerate McDonalds once in a blue moon, along with the type of restaurants we would prefer to go to unaccompanied by children.

Threads like this are just deliberately obtuse. No grown adult is dense enough not to know that people like different things.

I speak as someone who ate an abundance of McDonalds in the past BUT I have seen way to many recent articles about parasites being found in their burgers and nuggets. Not hugely life threatening ones but horrible looking ones none the less. That was enough to make me feel physically sick when I think about how I used to devour a Big Mac.

Each to their own and all that and some of you may think I am buying into scaremongering but sometimes it's really had to un-see things.

Are you, in fact, the Marketing Director of MacDonalds?

Whispers The big McDonalds annual promotion starts soon... Monopoly.

Oh my Christ red you're right it does! Get me some of them bad boys screw slimming world

Because it is for most kids, yabvvvvu!

Cracked, do you think that McDonalds has more or less 'nasties' in their burgers than other places?

Or is it possible that it is more highly monitored and tested than pretty much any other food in the UK because of its reputation?

I don't doubt that Maccas is guilty of things being in the food that shouldn't, but I don't like to think about that anymore than anywhere else.

I honestly think that most places are at least as bad.

Hasn't the Fat Duck closed twice over problems with Norovirus??

Ah balls - I'm proper craving a big mac, large fries, chocolate milkshake and apple pie now.

I live in the Caribbean on a tiny island that doesn't have a McDonalds (but far too many Burger Kings!) so no trip back to the UK is complete without a hungover saunter to Maccy D's. And a trip to Gregg's.

pink slime

Not for me thanks !

When I found out about cod being ocean-floor bottom-feeders, and what that actually meant, I stopped eating it for a long while.

But, meh, enough time has elapsed since the discovery that the appallingness of it has dulled, and I eat it again now if the occassion rears itself.

A lot of food, or the preparation of it, is grim if you look into it properly. Ignorance is bliss.

OP - I also don't get why McDonald's is seen as a treat, and for those who say their children like it, why did you take them there in the first place?

I ate McDonald's sometimes as a student and hungover. Wouldn't occur for me to take my children there - and they don't ask to be taken there as they have never been.

There are so many things that are nice and a "treat", but why introduce the concept that good food is boring and shit convenience food is a "treat" - weird! People in this country have been so successfully indoctrinated in the convenience food culture that even chopping onions is seen as too much of a chore by many!

But then OP, you should know that you are not allowed to criticise poor quality food here, people get incredibly defensive when you dare say anything against fast food, frozen food, ready meals, crisps in lunch boxes, battery eggs, non-free range meat, ready pancake mix (!) and so on...