Belgian Fast Food

This trip to Belgium wasn't all about chocolate and candy, although that was the focus.  I did have to eat meals as well, and although I tried, Allison insisted that chocolate cake is not a meal.  When I travel I tend to visit fast food locations for lunches and quick dinners.  I find I'm on the run a lot and I rarely want to sit down, except for a few dinners here and there.  I also get a kick trying out many of the different fast food choices all over the world.

Belgium has one obvious fast food choice, the french fry.  After all french fries are said to have been invented in Belgium, and boy do they do them right.  First of all you get a huge selection of sauces to choose from.  Mayonnaise is the popular choice, but the tastiest choice is the pickle sauce that I think they call Americana.  I'm not sure why they call it that since I've never actually seen this sauce in the United States.

The popular way to do the fries seems to be a double fry method that makes them super crispy.  They also like to dish them out in waxed paper cones that can be tricky to eat, just make sure you carry plenty of napkins.  You can always tell a good french fry place by how deranged their french fry statue mascot is.  The fries from the place pictured above were fantastic.

I also made a stop at a McDonald's on the road.  Every country I visit the McDonald's always has some kind of unique hamburger that I'm fairly certain the locals believe can be found in the United States.  For the most  part they're amazed if I tell them I've never heard of it.

The name of this burger confuses me a little.  You'd assume that 1955 was the date that McDonald's was founded, but according to my research it was founded in 1940.  1955 is the year Ray Crock bought the chain and turned it into the monolith that it is today.  Seems a little strange to celebrate the day your fast food chain went corporate.  On a side note the burger patty was huge and it was pretty tasty.

McDonald's in Belgium also makes sure you're not without your french fry sauces either.  They offer ketchup, mayonnaise and "Frites".

The "Frites" is actually the pickle sauce I mentioned earlier.  It's pretty good and I encourage other branches to try offering this stuff too, particularly the ones near my house.  However I would like it more if they didn't charge 50 cents for each sauce, that's a bit of a bummer.  They also don't serve breakfasts at McDonald's in Belgium, they just open at 9 and start selling burgers.

One of our last stops was to pick up a Quick Burger.  I fell in love with these guys when Allison and I did a cross France road trip a few years back.  In some European countries they're more prolific than McDonald's.

CC