McDonald's: The Same, Yet Different

Since its beginnings, the McDonald's fast food chain has built its presence (and business) around the world. The first McDonald's restaurant in Taiwan opened in 1984. When my wife and I lived here in the early '90's, there were 53 McDonald's outlets on the island. Today there are around 400.

Of course the McDonald's menu varies somewhat, depending on what country you're in. In Taiwan, for example, the only "beef" burger you can get is the Big Mac, or the plain jane hamburger. No Big Xtra, no Quarter Pounder. On the other hand, you can get a "rice burger", where, instead of a bun, the meat is contained between two "paddies" of sticky rice.

The one thing that always amazes me about the McDonald's in Taiwan, however, is that, unlike in the West, patrons are not discouraged from lingering, sometimes for hours, in the restaurant, reading a book, doing their homework, making a sales pitch for life insurance, or, as I've seen in some cases, taking a nap. This would never be allowed in a McDonald's in the West. I remember being chased out of a McDonald's in Winnipeg once. We had finished our food, and I guess were considered to be loitering, when the management asked us to leave.

The other day I was at our local McDonald's with my daughter. Within spitting distance from our table were four other patrons set up at tables with their laptops. The sign on the McDonald's door says no picture taking, but I couldn't resist surreptitiously snapping off a few shots.