Here’s a weird thing that happened: I saw a location of McDonald’s in the Brussels airport, went in, ordered, and then ate my food. Not so weird, right? Here’s the weird part: it wasn’t McDonald’s. It was a Belgian fast food chain called Quick.
It was only when I got up after my meal and started taking photos of the restaurant that I noticed the lack of the golden arches. And even then, I still hadn’t figured it out. I just assumed that McDonald’s didn’t use the golden arches in Belgium. Then I noticed the Quick logo everywhere. And the lack of McDonald’s classics like the Big Mac and the Quarter Pounder. It slowly dawned on me, and I’m not gonna lie: I felt like Chazz Palminteri at the end of The Usual Suspects.
I’d like to blame exhaustion after a long, early morning flight — but the flight wasn’t that long, and it wasn’t that early.
Looking at the photos now, I guess it doesn’t look that much like a McDonald’s, but at the time I was convinced.
It was a weird experience.
Anyway, the food. I would have ordered more straightforward stuff if I had known I wasn’t in a McDonald’s, but instead I ordered the Giant Veggie, and the Cheesy Emmental croquettes (McDonald’s in Belgium offers a very similar product, which certainly didn’t help my confusion).
And now here’s the second bizarre thing that happened to me on this particular visit: I took a couple of bites of the veggie burger, was convinced that it was fish of some sort, then went to the counter to let them know there was a mix-up.
“No,” they told me, “that’s the veggie burger. We know it tastes like chicken, but it’s definitely the veggie.”
Huh. It didn’t taste much like chicken to me, but now that they mentioned it, I could see it. It basically had the taste and texture of a cross between chicken and salmon. It certainly wasn’t great, but as a veggie burger that was trying to replicate meat, it was pretty impressive.
The Cheesy Emmental croquettes were actually quite good. They had a nice crispy exterior, and the inside had a decent, real cheese flavour. It wasn’t nearly as gooey as you’d hope, but other than that it was quite tasty.
Location: Brussels Airport, b41, 2e verdieping Arrivals, 1930 Zaventem, Belgium