If you’re an American, fast food doesn’t get any more normal than McDonald’s. Although some seasonal sandwiches (the infamous McRib, for example) polarize the general public, most McDonald’s menu items are as culturally ubiquitous in the United States as baseball or apple pie. American ‘than landlords, at this point.
Yet McDonald’s has something odd up its proverbial sleeves, even if it’s primarily showing it outside of North America. No matter where in the world your journey takes you, following your hunger to McDonald’s will deliver a greater shock than you might expect. These are the strangest McDonald’s menu items in the entire world.
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Taro Feet in Thailand
Despite the menu items, an advantage of visiting the fast food chain in Thailand is that there are mini-locations in big Thai cities like Bangkok, which means you can have a dessert or a drink when exiting the BTS SkyTrain (but not when entering – Food and drink are prohibited).
However, Ronald McDonald doing the traditional Thai wai is not the strangest thing you will see at McDonald’s in Thailand. That honor goes to the bright purple taro cake, made with a taro root that is definitely not as purple in real life as it is inside the crunchy crust of the cake. The cake certainly tastes more like sugar (and, if you can imagine it, the color purple) than taro, but it’s too strange a sight to resist trying for long.
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Cheese bread in Brazil
Pao de queijo is a basic sandwich in Brazil, it originated in the state of Minas Gerais and later spread throughout the country. There’s even a chain of coffee stalls called “Pao de Queijo,” in case you’re ever confused about where to find cheese and bread.
However, McDonald’s has far more locations throughout Brazil than any individual supplier of pao de queijo , making the fast food giant a safe bet for finding the classic snack no matter where you are in the country. While the taste or texture of a McDonald’s shot is unlikely to compare to what you enjoy, freshly baked, from a grandmother in Belo Horizonte, it should get the job done, more or less.
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Ikasumi Black Burger in Japan
The ‘black burger’ has been in vogue in Japan (and therefore the rest of Asia) for quite some time, featuring black buns and cheese, usually dyed with squid ink. While Burger King launched the island nation’s first conventional black burger, McDonald’s quickly followed suit, most recently with the Halloween-themed Ikasumi Burger. Squid ink doesn’t change the flavor of anything it’s added to – that’s one of its main selling points, meaning that dining on a strange black burger from McDonald’s in Japan is mostly valuable as Instagram fodder.
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Deluxe French Burgers
Whether McEscargot will ever become something remains to be seen, but a stereotype of French cuisine that McDonald’s lives in in snail-eating land is generally high-quality food. It’s not uncommon to see hamburgers at McDonald’s in France served on fancy buns like ciabatta, for example, or topped with fancy cheeses like brie and emmental.
On the surface, this may not seem strange enough to be one of the strangest items on the McDonald’s menu in the world, but it certainly goes a long way against the fast food chain’s reputation as junk.
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Bratwurst Burger from Germany
Moving down the European express stereotype brings us to Germany, whose Das Nürnburger consists of… you guessed it: Bratwurst sausages. German food purists might take the exception with the idea of eating sausage, which is available across the country, at a place like McDonald’s, to say nothing of a bun that looks like it should contain a burger. On the other hand, McDonald’s tends to be much faster and cheaper than your local beer garden.
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Honey Butter Fries in South Korea
When you hear that McDonald’s serves up French fries covered in honey butter, you probably imagine that this exists somewhere in the Deep South … of the United States. While it is true that the strange menu item at McDonald’s Honey Butter French Fries exists in the “south,” it is South Korea, not South Carolina, that claims them as their own. Surprising, but not totally shocking, given South Korea’s love affair with sweets from around the world, like churro.
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Norwegian salmon wrap
Norway is one of the world’s leading producers of smoked salmon and, by extension, salmon in general. While McDonald’s in Norway doesn’t currently serve smoked salmon (perhaps thankfully depending on your requirements for the quality of smoked salmon you eat), you can still enjoy salmon at McDonald’s in Norway.
Specifically, the Laksewrap features fish-flavored cubes that are apparently made with salmon, although the world may never know if this is true. You know, the same idea behind the persistent rumors that chicken “McNuggets” aren’t made from chicken, but from pink sludge.
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Sticky rice burgers in the Philippines
Sticky rice is a staple throughout Southeast Asia, but it’s at McDonald’s in the Philippines that the sticky grain is brought to its most glorious form. Namely, the McRice burger, which uses “buns” made from sticky rice to house chicken or beef burgers.
McRice isn’t unique to the Philippines or McDonald’s (Japan’s MOS burger serves a similar burger throughout Asia), but McRice can provide a well-earned break from the famous Philippine heavy food, without straying too far from the culinary traditions of greater Asia. .
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Kiwiburger in New Zealand
The New Zealand Kiwiburger name is derived from the nickname of the people who come from New Zealand and not from the bright green fruit, which will either delight you or put you off, depending on how strange you like the McDonald’s menu items.
The Kiwiburger is certainly not too ordinary despite this, it features red beets and a ‘poached’ egg, this is McDonald’s, remember, not your favorite Auckland brunch spot. Now that we mentioned it, neither beets nor poached eggs are New Zealand classics, which makes the Kiwiburger seem even weirder.
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Lobster Roll in Maine and Canada
It’s hard to visit New England (or Canada’s maritime east) without partaking in a “lobster roll,” a dish of bread, mayonnaise, and grated lobster meat whose name, when pronounced by the locals, generally sounds like “Lob- stah ».
While the version of McDonald’s found in restaurants in Maine and certain Canadian provinces probably costs less than those found in more authentic stores along the coast, the word on the street is that the McLobster Roll (name not official) is not true to its inspiration, and consists more of mayonnaise than lobster (if the seafood you find in it is actually lobster).
