I Never Thought: McDonalds

It's just that it's a great shock, so I feel I must report it. After so many years going with people to McDonald's and occasionally sampling their burgers, I have at last found one that was worth eating: one small step for man; one giant leap for McDonaldkind.

Its called a Drwala, which I think means woodcutter or lumberjack - maybe its meant to look like different layers of (exotic?) wood. (It actually sounded Indian to me, but the display photo didn't seem to fit.) Apart from the beefburger, it has a breadcrumb covered cheese thing - a bit like cooked Camembert, some crispy streaky bacon and just a touch of what I think was a cheese sauce on top of the lettuce. No mayonnaise or tomato sauce to eliminate all the other flavours and spurt out everywhere. It tasted like a good Burger King burger - I could even taste the meat.

I've nothing in principle against McDonald's as far as health and all that sort of campaigning is concerned. If obese, moronic slobs want to gorge themselves on burgers all the time, that's their business. For those who do feel the need to impose their views on others, however, I did find the next, the text saying something like: "Not bad for chopping up your wallet and your liver". As for the cost, about 12 zloties, this is incredibly good value compared with the currently popular, very expensive rice dishes called sushi - Misia loves it, though. The Drwala is even big enough to be a complete meal - sushi is just an appetiser.

The problem I do have with McDonald's, however, is that I associate it with filth and squalor. Apart from my hatred of mayonnaise getting on my hands and clothes, this has nothing to do with Poland. It comes from London, where eating in the 'restaurants' meant walking round squashed chips and other waste food and rubbish on the floor and then trying to get an assistant to clean a table and chairs. Often whilst I was drinking my coffee, there, sitting at other tables, mothers, aunts, etc let their young charges do what they want - kids like to have fun, fair enough - but then the adult would suddenly get fed-up with the play and scream at the kids and beat them. General chaos ensued. Maybe it has now changed in England, but it was never like this in Poland, where the restaurants have always been clean and the customers - even at kids parties - have been well behaved. I still feel reluctant to enter, however. Not liking the food and only going in for other people. doesn't help, of course.

Whilst on the theme of fast food bars, we went to Warsaw's Blue City back in January. In their food area - sadly now starting to get very smelly, we came across Hudson: New York Chicken. They do various meats, with burgers, tortilla wraps and a general range of fast food products.



When we were there, it had just been open for a week or so. Despite the name, it is a Polish company and the lady serving said that they hoped it would just be their first outlet. 'Hope springs eternal' and/but I wish them luck - Pope for 'and' and Dickens for 'but'. Sad that they have to pretend to be foreign, but it goes with the food, I guess.