The Colonel

I love the image. No doubt, a bunch of MBAs (when I was at Columbia: "the most important initials after your MBA are KFC") got together and stream-lined "Kentucky Fried Chicken" to KFC and turned the Colonel into Aunt Jemima (irony?) - how can one not adore the chubby southern fellow? Or, more importantly for them, how can your kids not adore him?

KFC is the world's most popular chicken and, every day, the restaurant serves over 12 million people in 14,000 restaurants (in the US, KFC is a $5.3 billion business). Meanwhile, I can only think of one KFC in London -- located on the down-scale Harrow Road in northwest London not far from our first first flat. I went there once. This does not mean your typical Brit shuns fast food. No, sir. England invented fast-food having given the working classes 'fish and chips' in the 19th century following trawl fishing in the North Sea. In 1860, the first chip shop was opened in London by Jewish proprietor Joseph Malin, who married together 2fish fried in the Jewish fashion" with chips (you can read all about this in Jay Raynor's book, "Enduring Love," 2005).

Fish and Chips, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth offices, remains Britain's top fast-food while "burger bars" the most popular fast-food restaurant - 2.5 million Brits served by McDonald's every day. According to Market Research, the British spent $390 per head on fast food in 2005, trailing the US ($566) and Canada ($456). The UK has the world's highest proportion of fast food restaurants per person while tiny England accounted for 25% of the planet's fast food consumption.

Not surprisingly: England's male and female obesity increased from 13.2% in 1993 to 23.1% in 2005 and 16.4% to 24.8%, respectively (NHS).

Me: "The only rule is that I have to see you."

Madeleine: "Can I play in the bushes?"