Extending yesterday’s Food for Thought theme (aka, Not in My Kitchen), Hindu tradition is noted for its embrace and protection of “sacred cows,” matriarchal symbols of both the sanctity and abundance of life, as well as providers of milk and cheese, the latter of which has been known to cause a gag reflex in China.
This point was not lost on McDonald’s in India, where they have radically modified the ever-popular childhood obesity menu to include a wide variety of vegetarian items, including the McVeggie (McClever, don’t you think?), as well as McAloo Tikkis and Pizza McPuffs (basically HotPockets, but without the chunks of Kryptonite).
All this in a restaurant that once jingled us to the point of “uncle!” about its “all-beef patties.” Our favorite Wendy’s grandma would seriously wonder “Where’s the beef.” According to the McDonald’s website (www.mcdonaldsindia.com), “We do not offer any beef or pork items in India. Only the freshest chicken and fish products find their way into our Indian restaurants.”
What really catches my eye here is the phrasing “find their way into our … restaurants.” Curious choice of words. Maybe something lost in translation, only without the allure of Bill Murray singing Elvis Costello? I mean, don’t they order the stuff? Procure it? Or does it just find its way to the doorstep and the deep fryer … some lucky chicken falls out of a cage bungeed to the back of scooter speeding by … or Darwin’s fish crawls onto land and flops toward the Golden Arches. Who can know. And who cares, really … as long as my fries are “cut, blanched and processed on state of the art processing lines to ensure maximum retention of nutrients” and I can dredge them through a paper cup of catsup, I’m golden.
Posted by: Colin Mangham