Do You Want Chutney With That Big Mac?

Use the drive-thru at a McDonalds near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and your order is actually taken at a call center 900 miles away in Colorado Springs. According to this story in the International Herald Tribune, a Colorado Springs company was started specifically to outsource drive-thru orders for restaurants. This actually makes some sense, since they are focused only on taking orders over an intercom, and the customer has less chance of running into delays or an illiterate cashier. Can moving the service offshore be far behind?

Speaking of fast food offshore (sort of), an entrepreneur in Mumbai (nee Bombay) India has started an American style chain of fast food restaurants specializing in vada pav, a potato patty on a bun, a staple of the ordinary Mumbaikar. A vegetarian alternative to McDonald's.