Food fast

Holy crap! Is it possible that advertising actually works, and more on children than adults?

CHICAGO  --Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

I confess to being a McDonald's junkie, going back to my days on the grill during high school. Other people I've talked to who worked there ended up loving or hating the food. I'm in the former group. We could eat the food on break, and pigging out on McDonald's fries is one of my happier food memories. (The fries weren't frozen in those days; I participated in getting 100-pound sacks of potatoes off the trucks, humping them down to the basement, peeling them, blanching them and frying them; how could I not relish eating them?) I left that job before the Big Mac came along, but to this day, if I'm in a Big Mac mood, nothing else will do, not even Hardee's magnificent Thickburger.

By the way, I drove by King Gyros yesterday and picked up a chili dog and fries, one of my favorite fast-food-at-home lunches. Did that restaurant luck out, or what? A pickup place with great variety that survived the great downtown redevelopment and which will soon be just across the street from a baseball stadium.