Fast Food

When most people hear the words “fast food” they probably think of hot, cheap food sold in a place where they don’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes between (1)___ and taking their first bite, and where they can either take away or eat in. They probably also (2)__ food they can eat with their fingers, without any (3)___.

In Britain, as in many other countries, hamburgers are among the most popular kinds of fast food, and the biggest chain of burger restaurants is McDonald’s. The first McDonald’s (4)_____ in Britain in 1974, and now you can find them in many British cities. The restaurants in Britain recently added salads, fruit and sandwiches to their traditional (5)______of burgers, fries and soft drinks. Kebabs, which usually consist of pieces of hot chicken or lamb in pitta bread with salad and chilli sauce, are also very popular. They are a part of Middle Eastern (6)_______, and provide a god example of how “foreign” (7)______has become very popular in Britain in the last 40 years or so.

Perhaps, the best example of traditional British fast food is fish and chips, which means deep-fried white fish with chips that are much (8)______than the American-style fries you find in most burger restaurants. The country has more than 11,000 fish and chip shops, and the British (9)_______eats fish and chips more than 250 million times a year, which means almost five times a year for (10)_____man, woman and child.

Many foreigners could find some things a bit strange in a fish and chip shop, for example the fact that many customers put a lot of salt and vinegar on their fish and chips, or the “mushy peas” some people eat as an accompaniment. You could (11)_____mushy peas as a hot, thick, light green, pea-flavoured paste, which perhaps doesn’t sound very nice. In fact, they are one of those kinds of food that generate strong opinions – most people either love them or (12)______them.