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Ho Chi Minh City gets first taste of the Big Mac
Four decades after the US/Vietnam war ended, fast-food giant McDonaldâs opened its first restaurant in the communist country on Saturday
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our decades after the US/Vietnam war ended, fast-food giant McDonald's opened its first restaurant in the communist country on Saturday.
The arrival of one of the most potent symbols of US capitalism in southern Ho Chi Minh City -- known as Saigon when American troops dramatically withdrew in 1975 -- is the result of a partnership with the son-in-law of Vietnam's powerful Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Signs of the country's rising affluence were on display as hundreds -- mostly young students or families with children -- queued at the McDonald's store on Dien Bien Phu street, named after the battle that ended French colonial rule in Indochina.
A Big Mac costs about US$2.85 at the Vietnamese outlet, while a bowl of traditional pho noodle soup can be bought on most street corners for around $1.50. The relatively high price of a burger positions McDonald's as an aspirational dining option accessible only to the middle class, prominent economist Le Dang Doanh told AFP.
