I’m not talking about the “typical” junk food (like KFC or McDonalds), instead it’s more on certain aspects of Japanese cuisine being carb heavy or features fried items such as: ramen, agepan, karage, tempura, gyudon, tonkatsu, yakitori, etc. I mean, can ramen or gyudon bowls still be deemed “fast food” even though they appear ‘healthier’ than American fast food.
Fast food is inexpensive food that is prepared and served quickly. Nothing else is relevant.
Personally, when I talk about “fast food” I’m almost always talking about those industrial corporate types, not like a regular sandwich, pizza, or even “fast casual” burger shop.
I’m not sure if that’s the only thing for me? I would feel strange saying I got “fast food” if I got a falafel from the halal food truck, or papusas from the stall at the farmers’ market, even though they are inexpensive and served quickly? I could imagine a fast food karage or tempura place, but a noodle soup can’t easily be carried out and eats slow enough that it would be strange in my dialect to refer to as “fast food.”
That’s “street food,” which is just fast food without a permanent location.
I think this is probably true, though I’ll have to poke at my dialect a bit to make sure, but when someone says we’re getting fast food, I assume they mean fast food with a permanent location, and probably a drive thru. If you say this at an event we drove to with food trucks, I’ll start walking to our car, not the food trucks.
I think McDonald’s kicked off term “fast food”. Street vendors selling hotdogs and other stuff predated them, so your definition is also what I’ve gone by.
Yeah that tracks.