A friend and I discussed this a decade ago that our cultural upbringing ran opposite the fast food mentality. We made a choice to cling to that upbrining rather than adapt  LOL (She BTW is Chilean)

Food means preparation- love, tenderness, dedication... attention to details.... Why? Why all the work when it would be so easy to heat something, nuke something, stop for something....? One answer,  L-O-V-E. Love of the creator, love of the earth...love for the ingredients, the act of cooking...  love of those who will be fed, love of fellowship, conversation, sharing, silences shared...

So, the food is something else. It is how one is nourished, physically AND emotionally.  It is much more than nourishment- it is how you are nurtured.

I find that I am not a fan of ANY restaurant, whether food is served on fine plates or wrapped in paper or in boxes.  I feel rushed. My culture calls me to talk and listen over meals not just chew and swallow. It calls me to savour and sip not stuff and slurp. It calls me to linger... to laugh...to hold a cup in my hands enjoying the warmth and wishing a moment in shared company could last... Instead, I get the rush.

Hell, someone like me finds the dishes afterwards part OF the meal. I am a dish-doing volunteer, ALWAYS. The laughing and conversing that takes place then being an invaluable part of the meal...

I get it! Hurray for you, Bolivia.

Good for Bolivia!  I agree with SG too.  I would describe food as sacred.  Some of my children frequently complained about the food based rituals in our house, while others appreciated them.  We had three meals a day - at the same time - together - with no electrically powered entertainment.

It bothers me a lot that most of the time my grandchildren eat in front of the tv - as and when they feel like finding something to eat.

For a number of years my family ran a restaurant.  We didn't have fancy decor but we had one beautiful view and we served "good" food.  We encouraged our staff to talk to our patrons.  It was a "family" restaurant and everyone who came was a member.

For a "hole in the wall" we served good wines and beverages.  We worked at food pairings.  Our desserts, made with fresh ingredients, were legendary.   We made little profit but many friends.  My family literally worked for food.  It was good.

I remember one morning, the place was packed because we served "the best breakfast!"  This man comes barreling in and yells at me "Can I get breakfast in 5 minutes"  Everyone in the place looks up.  I, in the midst of pouring a cup of coffee, stop, pot in mid air, look the man in the eye and said ... No.

and resumed serving my large extended family ;-)

The "best breakfast!" takes time.  It can not be achieved in 5 minutes.

For that there is MacDonald's.

If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.
       J.R.R. Tolkien

After reading the above bit, I almost feel as if I am in that restaurant.  What a loving place, where it sounds like her family was successful in finding and catering to people's desires (wholesome food, perhaps economically priced, perhaps a regular place to eat, perhaps friendly staff), to serve their customers, part of a long, invisible interconnected web of loving service; the people who make the flour, the people who invented the machines that grind the flour, the people who bake the bread, the people who drive the trucks that transport the food, the bank(s) that handled the restaurant's financing, the realtor of the restaurant, the people who service the machines that produce the electricity, etc etc etc, bless capitalism for making this possible, for enabling all of us to serve others and for the people, like her family, who can take risks like that, the restaurant.

A-woman!  A-men!

Food IS sacred, LB & SG! And cooking and eating are appropriately "arts". Food is, especially, about sharing. As well as being the way Jesus invited us to remember him is also the way we should remember our friends and family and those in need. Eating and drinking are privileges in the World as it is. We forget all of that when we eat in ways that are simply fast, aggressive, self-absorbed calorie ingestion.

McDonalds treats food as a commodity to be corporately standardised and scoffed down in bulk and in a hurry. As well as encouraging all the food habits that result in obesity, McDonalds — "fast food" in general — has done a lot to destroy "manners" in North America, the appreciation of food, the family meal and home hospitality. You are not expected to actually taste what you eat in McDonalds: palatte-numbing salt and taste bud-cloying fats see to that.

I have seen Europeans watching North Americans, young Brits and (often) Germans in wondering horror at the way they gulp down food, push aside anything that looks unfamiliar, chug back wine, talk with food crammed in their mouths, seem to be ignorant about what utensils are for and taste so little of what they consume. It's a part of the reason they are disliked in many parts of Europe. I have been asked why North Americans seem to abhor anything that looks "different" when they seem oblivious to the flavours of the carefully prepared foods they will eat — in staggering quantities. Enjoying food is not dilittantantish affectation, snobby or anything else — it's about appreciation, respect and enjoyment. It is very much about people, mutual care, delight and joy.

And eating well can be done without all the infrastructure, Whimsey. I've enjoyed wonderful food and hospitality in villages in northwest Spain and Bulgarian minority communities, and in rural Uruguay, where there's been no running water, electricity or other "essential services": capitalism has done far more to damage the ethos of hospitality than it has to promote it. How often, for example, do we delightedly share with a neighbor  (as in GIVE away) a portion of some extra good foodstuff we've brought home from the supermarket? There are still parts of the world where the equivalent happens all the time.

Birds of a feather, flock together. 

-and the pig got up and walked away.

Another example of how serving others, capitalism, is working.  Heinlein & Bradbury must be proud :3

Food is fuel,

Everything else is a scam, like expensive wines being best, and their

being a 'lunch hour'.

You are all now or soon to be overweight.

Bah.

A bunch of effete striving, pseudo-semi-part-time gastronomicaly guillable misguided    stalwarts of the gravely misled by the food cartels devious advertising and price control, that's what you all are!

It all started decades ago when three boys decided they would start a company that sold condoms because they felt this was the coming thing. They were surprised at how much investment money they had garnered and when they searched for a name they finally came up with 'the Safe-way', and, because of the excess money they had, one of them said, hey, we could sell food, too!". 

That started the whole ugly 'food is more than fuel' campaign...*

No charge for this service and, in advance, you're welcome!   

* All talk of Roman Banquets and the like are made up. 

I like McDonald's and Big Mac Meals . . . * Beloved ducks the arrows . . . *

I don't eat it all the time . . . in fact, it is only an occasional treat.  But I love it when I have it!  For health and weight reasons, I have to limit myself.  Perhaps if I allowed myself to eat it everyday, or even once a week, I would get sick of it.  I am a "junk food" person . . . I like all kinds of fast foods . . . pizza, KFC, A&W, etc.  But for weight and health I have to restrict myself to only having something as an occasional treat.  And when I do have it, it is generally with a friend who likes it as much as I do, and we do have a long lunch, enjoying our treat, and visiting with one another.

In saying this - I agree with what others have written above . . . about fast food, and about food nutritiously, lovingly, and joyfully prepared and shared with good conversation and good people.

I also like healthy food . . . vegetables, whole grains, fruits, fish, etc. but I also love fries and burgers.  Please tell me you had home-made fries and burgers in your family restaurant LB :)
 

Beloved, we did indeed serve 100% beef burgers and hand cut potatoes fried in transfat free oil.  However our cost to do so was significantly higher than what a Big Mac cost the consumer ... fortunately for our business and patrons the taste was significantly higher as well.

We also offered half portions, a popular choice and not just of the blue rinse set ;-)

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart.
       Erma Bombeck

Mmmm . . . (I'm sure even I would prefer that to a Big Mac)