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By Evan Pellegrino, Arizona Daily Wildcat, U. Arizona (U-Wire)
Posted: 6/11/08 Section: Opinion Columns
I swore I would never eat American fast food during my stay in Italy, but two weeks into my European summer abroad, I caved and buckled to the greasy, salty sight of Ronald McDonald at a Venice train station.
"I could really go for a Big Mac," I said jokingly on the train, to my American friends, speaking of it as if it were a pot of gold at the end of some rainbow I would never find.
We had been in Italy for just a week, but I was already sick of Italian food. It was pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta and more pizza, day in and day out, in Orvieto, the small Italian city where we are studying.
But as the train screeched to a stop, there he was, arm raised welcoming me with a big red grin.
It was like running into an old friend on the other side of the world.
I walked over to the counter with a pace as if I hadn't eaten in days.
"Big Mac!" I practically shouted at the poor woman working there.
"Do I want a meal?! Hell yes I want the meal," I told her, demanding that she supersize it as well.
"Big?" she said, holding her hands as if we were playing a game of European McDonald's charades.
"Oh yeah," I said, holding my hands three feet apart. "Grande! The Americano way."
With the current value of the dollar, a Big Mac meal deal, with two ketchups, cost roughly 10 American dollars. In America, the meal would have cost me about $6, so it really put the exchange rate into perspective.
In minutes, there it was sitting in front of me. I opened the Big Mac box with an eager carefulness, like a boy unwrapping a valuable and delicate gift on Christmas.
Twenty seconds later the box was empty, besides a piece of melted cheese and lettuce, which was reunited with the rest of its sandwich after a few sips of Coke.
It was out of a scene from "Requiem for a Dream." Big Mac. Flash, half Big Mac. Flash, no Big Mac. My eyes dilate.
Ketchup costs 10 cents here, or roughly 16 cents American. I practically licked those little containers clean when I was done with my fries.
"I could really go for a Big Mac," I said jokingly on the train, to my American friends, speaking of it as if it were a pot of gold at the end of some rainbow I would never find.
We had been in Italy for just a week, but I was already sick of Italian food. It was pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta and more pizza, day in and day out, in Orvieto, the small Italian city where we are studying.
But as the train screeched to a stop, there he was, arm raised welcoming me with a big red grin.
It was like running into an old friend on the other side of the world.
I walked over to the counter with a pace as if I hadn't eaten in days.
"Big Mac!" I practically shouted at the poor woman working there.
"Do I want a meal?! Hell yes I want the meal," I told her, demanding that she supersize it as well.
"Big?" she said, holding her hands as if we were playing a game of European McDonald's charades.
"Oh yeah," I said, holding my hands three feet apart. "Grande! The Americano way."
With the current value of the dollar, a Big Mac meal deal, with two ketchups, cost roughly 10 American dollars. In America, the meal would have cost me about $6, so it really put the exchange rate into perspective.
In minutes, there it was sitting in front of me. I opened the Big Mac box with an eager carefulness, like a boy unwrapping a valuable and delicate gift on Christmas.
Twenty seconds later the box was empty, besides a piece of melted cheese and lettuce, which was reunited with the rest of its sandwich after a few sips of Coke.
It was out of a scene from "Requiem for a Dream." Big Mac. Flash, half Big Mac. Flash, no Big Mac. My eyes dilate.
Ketchup costs 10 cents here, or roughly 16 cents American. I practically licked those little containers clean when I was done with my fries.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Antonio Del Mastro
posted 9/18/08 @ 10:22 AM CST
Disgusting. That's about all the commentary this "article" merits.
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