Fast food

Fast food is a type of food that is prepared and served very quickly, first popularized in the 1950s in the United States. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out/take-away. Fast food restaurants are traditionally distinguished by their ability to serve food via a drive-through. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.

Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating, or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchise operations that are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations.

History

The concept of ready-cooked food for sale is closely connected with urban development. In Ancient Rome, cities had street stands that sold bread, sausages and wine.

Fast food (disambiguation)

Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly.

Fast food may also refer to:

Fast Food (1987 video game)

Fast Food (sometimes referred to as Fast Food Dizzy) is an arcade-style maze video game in the vein of Pac-Man featuring the video game character, Dizzy the anthropomorphic egg designed by the British-born Oliver Twins. The game was originally released in December, 1987 and published by Codemasters. It was the third game to feature Dizzy.

Dizzy's aim in each maze is to gather all of the food (burgers, pizzas, etc.): some of the food also moves around the maze, either evading Dizzy or trying to meet him. Dizzy is pursued by four mushroom-like monsters: Bonzo, Wizza, Pippa, and Fido. Power-ups and breakable walls add to the complexity of the game.

Because of the simplicity of designing arcade-style video games, the game was playable within three days of work; the developers only took two more weeks to finalize the graphics, interface and music.

The game was originally to be a marketing tool for the Happy Eater chain of restaurants, but this idea was dropped during development and Dizzy was added to the game.