Before I begin, allow me to divulge some interests I have in this material: I've seen Supersize Me, and I thought it was pretty darn great. I've also personally worked at McDonald's (hey, it was the mid-90s and I was at school, and let me assure you that flipping burgers is even less cool in real life than it looked in Reality Bites.) And yet, every time I travel, I find myself staring down the barrel of the awful truth - I might not eat this stuff at home, but I have certainly sampled quite a bit of it on the road.

Truth be told, I have developed quite the obsession with two things:

1. Happy Meal toys from around the world; and

2. Theme meals and special add-on products that pop up in various countries' McDonald's.

Asia is evil when it comes to Happy Meal toys - they're big, they're plush, they're cheap by Western standards and they are usually some sort of Hello Kitty. Approaching the counter is a little like having a religious conversion in a Sanrio store - a sudden, all-encompassing bliss that involves way too many cute cat toys.

More important, though, are the special additions to the McDonald's staple diet of Big Mac, Fries, Apple Pie and Coke.

My current faves are the Thai pies: there's Taro Pie with a filling that looks like light-purple Perkins Paste (a kind of thick, gelatinous glue that was mandatory for Aussie primary schoolers in the 1980s ...); there's also Pineapple Pie and a special, limited edition Choco-Pie (for anyone tempted by this last option - DON'T go there. This one tastes a bit like luke-warm Perkins Paste, but apears in a delightful mahogony brown colour!)

Also on the menu is the ever-popular Samurai Pork Burger (in which pork is cunningly disguised as wet cotton-balls, with light spongy texture that's, well, odd).

But the hottest item de jour must be ... drum roll please .... The Prosperity Meal Set.

Specially designed for the upcoming lunar New Year, you get your choice of Chicken ('Chicken Prosperity') or Pork ('Pork Prosperity') burger, served with fuschia-pink fizzy drink and strange, curly fry-like things that look like piggy wigs' tails. Interestingly, Andrew reports that the meat on the burger comes coated in that special kind of gloopy sauce that you get on everything in Bad Chinese Restaurants.

For anyone tempted to email me or post some inflammatory comment about the evils of eating McDonald's whilst travelling - please don't, as I will not cease or desist from the activity :) It may not be pretty, but I do view it as a necessary evil from time to time, and for me it is inescapably part and parcel of the travel experience ...