McDonald's Around the World

China

McDonald's has come a long way since it opened its first store in Des Plaines, Ill. With restaurants now in 119 countries, McDonald’s is omnipresent and, well, unavoidable. As a traveler, you can sniff at the spread of Americanized fast food, or you can embrace it. How many of us have wandered into a McDonald’s overseas just to find a taste of home? What we find is sometimes surprising: Stop by a restaurant in Germany and order a beer. In Canada you may find a lobster roll. In Hawaii, order a deluxe breakfast that has rice with a side of spam. Burgers, fries and shakes are almost always on the menu, but if you look, you’ll see differences in the menu, the architecture and even good ol' Ronald the clown.

 In China, it’s Ronald McDonald versus Colonel Sanders as McDonald’s and KFC fight it out for fast-food dominance. (KFC is so ubiquitous here you’ll see it on the corner of Tiananmen Square.) McDonald’s reportedly plans to expand to 2,000 restaurants in the country by 2013. There’s definitely an appetite for Western-style food in Beijing, Shanghai and beyond, as the menu features many of the most familiar items, such as Big Macs and fries. There’s a strong focus on chicken and fish as well, and you can order a McFlurry at the Express window.

Americans are used to seeing a waving Ronald McDonald, but in Thailand the clown mascot offers a more traditional greeting. Stop in for breakfast and you can order Bubur Ayam, hearty breakfast porridge with chicken, chilies and onions. Lunch could be a samurai pork burger, a double Big Mac (think four patties, super tall) or a McSalad Shaker — put all the ingredients in a cup with a lid, add dressing and shake. Voila! If you’re in Bangkok and don’t feel like fighting the traffic from your hotel, you’re in luck: Thailand is one of the handful of countries where McDonald’s delivers.

Namaste in Thailand

Why order a regular McChicken when you can get a towering Chicken Maharaja-Mac? Or perhaps a McVeggie, a fried patty of peas, carrots, potatoes and savory Indian spices? Or the potato-based McAloo Tikka? All are standard menu items at McDonald’s in India, where the entire menu is beef-free. In the next few years, the company hopes to have as many as 250 restaurants throughout India, where there are 700 million hungry potential customers under 30 — many of whom take advantage of the online ordering and delivery service.

McDonald’s has been a longtime supporter of the Olympic Games since 1968, when the company first flew food to American athletes homesick for burgers in Grenoble, France. These days, as a sponsor of the London Olympics, McDonald’s is celebrating by rolling out Happy Meal toys of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots, and is opening what will be the biggest and busiest McDonald's restaurant in the world — a two-story building that seats 1,500 customers, ten times the average McDonald's. If you're lucky enough to visit there during the Games (this temporary restaurant is for the Olympics only), try a Cadbury Crème Egg McFlurry or that most classic of English breakfasts: porridge.

Pull into any of the prevalent McDonald’s in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and try the localized version of a burger: The McArabia sandwich, grilled chicken on pita bread with black seeds, covered in traditional mayonnaise garlic sauce. The Chicken Big Mac is also popular. Dubai McDonald's also deliver, with a "green" twist: The vegetable oil from area's restaurants are converted into biodiesel that fuels their delivery vehicles.

When Russia’s first McDonald’s opened in 1990 on Pushkin Square in Moscow, it made international headlines. It served 30,000 customers that day — a record — and it remains one of the 10 busiest McDonald’s in the world. (The Pushkin McDonald’s is also huge, with 28 registers and seating for 700.) McDonald's has since expanded to other cities in Russia, and customers flock for hamburgers, shakes, the McTasty and of course, cabbage pies.

Looking for the nearest McDonald’s in Tokyo? Ask for directions to Ma-ku-do. They’re easy to find: After the United States, Japan has the most Ma-ku-dos of any country in the world. (America still dominates with 14,000-plus.) Along with your green tea, you can order an Ebi Burger (a panko-crumb encrusted shrimp deep fried into a burger patty), or the Mega Tamago, a promotional burger that has a fried egg on it. The McHotDog Chili is — you guessed it — a chili dog. One blogger in Japan reported on a new item that (hint, hint!) would also be a hit in the U.S.: a bacon and mashed potato pie.

 

Japan

Passers-by have to look closely to see the golden arches on this unassuming white building on a street near Fish Square in Bergen, Norway. Many of the menu items inside are familiar, but one popular item some years ago was the Lakse fish wrap with your choice of wasabi or honey sauce. While the food is modern, the building dates to the 1800s, and the company made sure the exterior was preserved to blend in with the surrounding historic buildings.

Norway

Italy, famous for its Slow Food movement that promotes home cooking with organic, regional ingredients, opened its first McDonald’s in Rome in 1986 near the legendary Spanish Steps. It was the opening of that restaurant, in fact, that launched the whole movement — but it didn’t stop hungry tourists and locals from visiting McDonald’s restaurants as they grew across the country. Some, like this one in Sicily, sport the chain’s familiar red and yellow colors, but others are decidedly sleeker — appropriate, say, for fashionable Milan. Also appropriate? The Parmigiano Reggiano burger made with ciabatta bread and a slide of the famous Italian cheese.

The arrival of McDonald's at Berlin's famous Checkpoint Charlie in 2010 caused some to nickname it Snackpoint Charlie. (There's also a Starbucks, pizzeria, sushi bar and more in the area.) Regardless, it seems the perfect bookend to a story of a divided city, where American and Russian tanks once squared off, and where a large stone wall was a dark daily reminder of the Cold War.

by Heidi Schuessler

Checkpoint Charlie