Vertical Available, Demo Only
Fast Food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale and with a strong priority placed on “speed of service” versus other relevant factors involved in culinary science. Fast food was originally created as a commercial strategy to accommodate the larger numbers of busy commuters, travelers and wage workers who often did not have the time to sit down at a public house or diner and wait for their meal. By making speed of service the priority, this ensured that customers with strictly limited time (a commuter stopping to procure dinner to bring home to their family, for example, or an hourly laborer on a short lunch break) were not inconvenienced by waiting for their food to be cooked on-the-spot (as is expected from a traditional “sit down” restaurant). For those with no time to spare, fast food became a multibillion-dollar industry.
The fastest form of “fast food” consists of pre-cooked meals kept in readiness for a customer’s arrival (Boston Market rotisserie chicken, Little Caesars pizza, etc.), with waiting time reduced to mere seconds. Other fast food outlets, primarily the hamburger outlets (McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.) use mass-produced pre-prepared ingredients (bagged buns & condiments, frozen beef patties, prewashed/sliced vegetables, etc.) but take great pains to point out to the customer that the “meat and potatoes” (hamburgers and french fries) are always cooked fresh (or at least relatively recently) and assembled “to order” (like at a diner).
Although a vast variety of food can be “cooked fast”, “fast food” is a commercial term limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, 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. Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating,[1] or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants).[citation needed] Franchise operations that are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations.[2]
Fast food began with the first fish and chip shops in Britain in the 1860s. Drive-through restaurants were first popularized in the 1950s in the United States. The term “fast food” was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.[citation needed]
Eating fast food has been linked to, among other things, colorectal cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, and depression.[3][4][5][6] Many fast foods tend to be high in saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories.[7]
The traditional family dinner is increasingly being replaced by the consumption of takeaway fast food. As a result, the time invested on food preparation is getting lower, with an average couple in the United States spending 47 minutes and 19 seconds per day on food preparation in 2013.[8]
Homeacre-Lyndora
Homeacre-Lyndora is a census-designated place (CDP) in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,906 at the 2010 census.[1]
Lyndora was linked to Butler, Evans City and Pittsburgh in 1908 by the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Railway, an interurban trolley line. The line closed on 15 June 1931, and the trolleys were replaced by buses.
Homeacre-Lyndora occupies a broad portion of central and northern Butler Township, north and west of the city of Butler. The U.S. Census Bureau locates the CDP at 40°52′10″N 79°55′14″W (40.869461, -79.920460),[2] but it consists of several developed areas separated by forested valleys. The Homeacre portion of the CDP is located on high ground west of Butler, while Lyndora is directly adjacent to Butler in the southeast corner of the CDP, in the valley of Connoquenessing Creek. The CDP is bordered by Meridian on the west and by Shanor-Northview in Center Township on the north.
U.S. Route 422, the Benjamin Franklin Highway, passes through the CDP, leading east 22 miles (35 km) to Kittanning and west 25 miles (40 km) to New Castle. Pennsylvania Route 356, New Castle Road, follows the old routing of US-422, leading east into downtown Butler, and joining 422 in the northwest corner of the CDP. Pennsylvania Route 68 joins PA 356 in the Homeacre part of the CDP, leading east into Butler but traveling west to Connoquenessing, Evans City, and Zelienople. Pennsylvania Route 8 passes through the eastern part of the CDP, interchanging with US 422 and leading south into downtown Butler and north to Harrisville and Franklin.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 6.6 square miles (17.2 km2), all of it land.[1]