Very good points, Jazzman. Your point about food choice being a class issue is especially interesting. How astute of the fast food chains to capitalize upon that.
My wife is currently working on another screenplay (her 2nd career), and whenever she is doing research via travel, we prefer to immerse ourselves in the roots of the particular culture she is researching, so we try to avoid the “Americanized” element of any particular country. Besides, it’s just very boring to see more of what we can see at home.