- published: 21 Jan 2011
- views: 6192834
A food court is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining. Food courts may be found in shopping malls ,airports and parks and in various regions (such as Asia, America and Africa) may be a standalone development. In some places of learning such as high schools and universities, food courts have also come to replace or complement traditional cafeterias.
The average cost of a meal per person in an American food court in 2004 was $6.
Food courts consist of a number of vendors at food stalls or service counters. Meals are ordered at one of the vendors and then carried to a common dining area. Food is usually eaten with plastic cutlery, and sporks are sometimes used to avoid the necessity of providing both forks and spoons. Typical North American and European food courts have mostly fast food chains such as McDonald's and Sbarro, with perhaps a few smaller private vendors. Cuisines and choices are varied, with larger food courts offering more global choices. Asian and African food courts are mostly private vendors that offer local cuisine. In Singapore, food courts and hawker centers are the people's main eating choice when dining out. Many food courts have several shops which sell prepared meals for shoppers to take home and reheat, making the food court a daily stop for some shoppers.
Dear fair maidens of the Mall of America
It is time to enter the fabulous food court
Here you will find the finest fast dining of the world
Chinese and Japanese, Middle Eastern too
Mexican and Indian, Italian just for you
And for those who are not as adventurous
American will do
But look at all the candy!
They got taffy stores where we can pull the taffy for ourselves
They got fudge shops where we create our favorite kind of fudge
They got the biggest store the world has seen for every flavor jelly bean
Don't forget, you can't forget the wide array of ice cream!
Listen my friends, no offense to my sister
If you eat all that candy, you'll never be sicker
The thing to do you must realize
Is eat a good meal, that's what I advise.
I object!
Overruled!
Can't we compromise?
Here we can eat any meal we choose from all over the world
Stir fry, or sushi, falafel just for you
Enchiladas, curry chicken, fries and burgers too
And for those who are still hungry afterwards
Candy for dessert
All right Judge of the food court, I accept your ruling
But how will we decide what kind of food to eat?
There are so many choices, let's see what sounds good
A pizza pie sounds way too dull for what we have in mind
And though a burger's fun with lots of fries
We can get them anytime
So let us eat exotically, try some food with curry
You get the shwarma, and sushi
And I'll get the chicken tandoori
I bought some fries for good measure.
Got enough room for dessert?