Why McDonalds Canada is Better!

I just posted “McDonalds is way better in Canada than the US” on my Facebook page and it caused a little bit of a stir. I got an agreement, a disagreement and a couple of “why?” posts on my wall in reply to it. I don’t really get replies to my wall posts that often. I’m not on Facebook as much as a lot of my friends are, maybe once or twice a day on days I visit a lot.

Okay, back up a little.

David and I took a weekender trip to Hamilton, Ontario, hoping to get some train photos in fall color this past weekend. I can confirm that my new passport works! I have a Sarnia, Ontario stamp to prove it. When crossing into Canada from the US, you have to ask for a passport stamp. The customs agent was less than enthusiastic when he stamped my passport, but he did it. They don’t commonly stamp credentials when you are crossing from the US to Canada by car. But they will stamp mine every time I cross!

If you have read some of The Chronicles of Nani, you know how grumbly I am about paying $100 dollars for a passport to go to a country I was born a half hour from and traveled to without a passport for 42 years. So, I’ve paid my $100 to go to Canada. Seriously, I have no plans to go anywhere else that I need to spend the $100 for. So, the passport is good for ten years. I’m going to ask for a stamp every time I cross the border. It’s sort of my receipt. In ten years, I’ll count the stamps and determine if I’ve used it enough to make it worth renewing.

Oh, it will more than likely be worth it. I’ve spent a lot of my now 43 years visiting Canada. I’ve had many birthday dinners in Windsor. Of course, now they’d be smaller dinners because of the 7 people at my last birthday at Spago Ristorante, only 2 have passports, so my plate of gnocchi would go up $500 in price!

Now I’m hungry for Spago’s gnocchi. I guess it will have to be an intimate dinner with my husband.

Fall colors in Ontario - with sun

It was a pleasant weekend and the fall colors were very vibrant, especially when the sun was hitting them. Unfortunately, that was not an often recurring theme. David had said that if it weren’t for the fall colors, the weather forecast really wasn’t optimistic enough to make the trip, but with a promise of partly sunny skies, we gave it a try. We got a few shots, but a lot of frustration as the clouds filed in both days. But the railfan cuisine was good!



See that wonderful, amazing double chocolate muffin at the top of this entry? Oh my! It was SO tasty and, unusual for muffins, no heartburn after! I love muffins, but don’t eat them often because the grease gives my heartburn for half the day after I eat it. I had that with lunch, an awesome salad, on Saturday. It was moist and very chocolatey, but NO heartburn!

It’s from McDonalds!

NOW we’re back to why Canada McDonalds is so much better! With that wonderful muffin, I had a Garden Fresh Salad. You can’t get a Garden Fresh Salad in the US; too many vegetables. I’m serious about that, although it’s said with a sarcastic air. This salad had bell peppers and red onions on it with just a little shredded cheese as a condiment. The salad I like best at home, and I do like it, just I’d order it less often if we had the choices they have in Canada too, has gobs of cheese and a mound of bacon on it.

Sunday morning I had a basic breakfast burrito. They don’t have the burritos with potatoes and meat in them, but the basic sausage, cheese and egg burrito also had onions and bell pepper in it. It’s FABULOUS and still only 300 calories. Lunch was a Mediterranean salad. OMG!! Peppers, onions, olives and feta. Canadian McDonalds is actually a restaurant, not heart attack in a bag. And the food tastes good. We had three stops at McD's this weekend and three really good meals. Amazing! At home, I don’t like the convenient railfan meals so much. They don’t taste bad, but they don’t taste good. They’re just fast. In Canada, McDonalds was a stop to look forward to at meal time!

McDonalds Canada Mediterranean Salad

The major difference between the quality of food at the fast food giant in the two countries is the veggies. Why are we Americans so deathly afraid of vegetables that they aren’t marketable at our suicide joints? The lower grease muffins can’t be found at an American McDonalds either. On Saturday morning, when we hit the drive -thru before we left town, we were told they didn’t make substitutions when I asked for apple dippers instead of hash browns. Huh? First off, that was that location's policy. I’ve substituted the fresh apples for the fried potatoes before, but why isn’t that franchise policy? Seems to me they’d sell more food if they helped keep their customers alive and healthy longer.

Anyway, McDonalds in Canada has healthier choices and their healthier choices are better tasting than McDonalds in the US. In the end, that could make the passport worth renewing all by itself!