When I was 10 years old, during my visit to New York, I was really impressed by the fast food culture in Manhattan that was quite new to me and that was reflecting of course the fast, crowded and busy lifestyle in the U.S.: McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC…etc

You just get into any of those places and get a hamburger sandwich, along with french fries and Coca-Cola, or maybe a slice or two of pizza and then leave quickly.

That American culture was quite new and different to me, bizarre maybe but I liked it…I liked maybe its difference from my own culture. I also liked those vehicles selling hotdog sandwiches, eating those hot and delicious sandwiches as I walk in the street, or maybe sit in the corner of the road was something I really enjoyed doing…

A couple of years later, I was exposed to a different fast food culture when I was in Paris . He was very famous, very popular: that Tunisian making those Tuna sandwiches in the "Quartier Latin." I used to eat that huge and delicious Tuna sandwich – that the Tunisian man used to make in less than 2 minutes - as I walk in that Latin quarter and watch those street artists drawing portraits of people and tourists for 20 or 30 Francs, I still remember its taste and I even miss it very much now.

Almost 5 years later, I was already in high-school. It was the opening of the first McDonalds in Egypt . That was an extraordinary event to me: I was so excited about it, those hamburger sandwiches that I used to eat in New York will be available to me at anytime, I can go and order a hamburger sandwich and eat it as I walk in the street like I used to do during my trip to the US, or even just order some french fries if I'm in a rush…

That fast food culture, crowded and in-rush lifestyles wasn't familiar to our societies, food or the eating process was to be respected, if you're going out for lunch or dinner then you go to a restaurant, ask for a menu, take your time to choose and then eat slowly, peacefully as to enjoy the taste of food, and enjoy the place and the company as well…

As for eating in the houses, it was more like a social tradition where all the family would gather around the dinning table which reflects the means of the familial coherence in Egypt , and in the Middle East countries in general. In Egyptian and Arabic movies, you can observe eating as being an important social habit very well interpreted as the father comes to sit first on the table and then all the family around him and they all start eating together in such a cozy atmosphere, and you can easily notice the major importance for the role of the father in the Arab culture and how he's regarded with much respect.

Apart from being an important social habit, it's just like the process of eating in restaurants and how it should take the suitable time to enjoy the taste of the healthy food, the place and the nice company. The dining table at home should consist of a salad bowl, proteins (meat or chicken), rice or maybe macaroni and no drinks during the meal.

But when the fast food and home delivery culture was being introduced to our societies the victim was our eating habits, healthy food and familial coherence. The dinning room became an abandoned and deserted place in all our apartments, we'd buy a hamburger sandwich on our way back home from school, university or work and eat it in front of TV in the living room, or even in our rooms in front of our PCs.

No salad, no healthy food, no familial coherence. We get fast food, we eat it fast, digest it fast, no time to enjoy its taste, no time to enjoy the company, nor the place.

Of course there's some fast food experiences in our cultures but they're just quite different than those examples I'm talking about, in the Egyptian culture there's those Fool and Falafel sandwiches (they're all made of beans) that most Egyptians eat for breakfast. You can find people early in the morning standing at those vehicles and eating that very Egyptian food before going to work.

When the first McDonalds opened in downtown Cairo in front of the American university, that was an extraordinary event like I previously mentioned. I went there with my two best friends; we ordered the huge and popular Big Mac (double hamburger) sandwich. Then it became a habit to go and regularly eat there on weekends.

A short while later, McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut were being spread everywhere all over Egypt . That fast food phenomenon started to be contagious to a point that you'd find 2 or 3 McDonalds in the same street. Sometimes you get this feeling that you'll wake up one day and find a McDonalds in your own home.

The American fast food culture has invaded the whole country, as well as the neighboring countries; it became a lifestyle, a daily habit. Maybe as an effect of globalization, the world being a small village this culture invaded our places, our minds, our lifestyles just like Hollywood movies, Coca-Cola, jeans and T-shirts, and all the components of the modern American identity and culture.

Maybe it's the effect of something new that is being introduced to us, to our lives, totally different than our habits; maybe it broke our routines, the monotony of our daily lives.

Just like Coke, it's new, delicious, we like it… even if its gas makes my tears roll on my face, even if it hurts my stomach.

It's just a new culture, a revolution of lifestyles that has just invaded us so quickly, so deeply to the point that you'd find KFC at the foot of the pyramids, which I find very odd, and even offending. As the zone of the pyramids is just one of the major corners of our pharaonic heritage, one of the world's seven wonders, it just cannot be polluted, deformed or disfigured by any means. As that sight (KFC at the foot of the pyramids) would give the impression that you're just standing in one of Hollywood studios where the pyramid is just a back scene decoration, while KFC is the main place where the actual scene is being performed.

And now, I' m just getting bored of fast food, I just find it tasteless, unhealthy and even monotone. A friend of mine calls it the sponge food, having no taste at all but if you're too hungry it'll do the job.

Maybe the period of admiration of the new culture has just gone down now.

I just miss healthy and tasty food…but now each and every street is full of fast food places, it would take me an enormous time to find a restaurant where I'd enjoy healthy, tasty food and a nice place.