Cheap and Filling, McDonald’s Helped My Family Adjust to Life in the US | Eater

"Located at a busy intersection in Glendale, California, this fast-food restaurant was the first place the author was allowed to visit alone and quickly became a family ritual and community hub. The Dollar Menu staples — especially McChicken sandwiches, cheeseburgers, and handfuls of ketchup packets — provided cheap, filling meals assembled with "robotic precision," with the McChicken remembered for its toasted bun, breaded chicken, shredded lettuce, and mayo. The red-and-gold neon glow and the PlayPlace in its heyday, plus scenes of old men playing chess and teens clustered around Game Boys, made the space feel more social than purely culinary; carrying the warm paper bag home and unpacking sandwiches around the coffee table are recurring, tactile memories. What began as comforting, inexpensive sustenance became a long-term dependency tied to the family’s food insecurity and later health concerns (hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes), leaving the author with a mixture of nostalgia and remorse." - An Uong