Jaunted - Tag: Most Shocking McDonalds

Phuket: Munching McDonald's Exotic 'Samurai Pork Burger' in Phuket

JetSetCD — 2011-10-18T13:52:14-05:00

As dedicated as we are to trying out the most local and unique foods for our Foreign Grocery Friday series, we also have a definite thing for investigating the fast food preferences of destinations. This usually involves stalking the pastry cases of Starbucks in Switzerland or snacking as the world's fanciest Taco Bell, but more likely we're around the corner squinting up at the menu boards of a McDonald's.

Hoping for some rice patties or other exotic offerings, we wandered into the Golden Arches in the Central Festival Mall in Phuket Town, Thailand. Instead we came face-to-face with the Samurai Pork Burger, a standard item on Thai McD's menus, and something that sounded safe to try.

Stratford: Will You Eat at the World's Biggest and Busiest McDonald's Next Year?

JetSetCD — 2011-07-21T12:08:55-05:00

An integral part of a balanced Brit breakfast: the McBacon Roll

We will fully admit to having a favorite McDonald's location in London. It's a little one nearby the Marble Arch tube stop, and it sits on the historic location of infamous gallows used for 500 years...until the world decided to kill people with carbs instead of nooses.

As intriguing as this one is, London is about to get an even more controversial McDs in one year, for the occasion of the 2012 Olympic Games. According to the Guardian, the Olympics McDonald's will be appropriately Olympics-sized:

Bergen: A $17 Value Meal and 'Sennep Sauce' at a Norwegian McDonalds

JetSetCD — 2011-07-14T18:36:59-05:00

It's a beautiful day in Norway's second-largest city of Bergen, and a stroll down cobblestone lanes seems like a great idea. There's the fish market, and street vendors selling reindeer pelts and long, knit winter hats. And then—making itself at home in a historic building on a corner—you're faced with the dreaded Golden Arches.

Yep, McDonalds has invaded the fresh northern air with its smell of french fries and...hot wings? As usual with foreign McD's, the menu varies:

On the Menu at McDonalds in Japan: German Sausage and 'Shaka Shaka Chicken'

JetSetCD — 2011-02-24T15:03:02-05:00

"That doesn't look like 'German Sausage,' we said to ourselves, while standing in front of the brightly backlit menu boards at a McDonalds in the equally bright Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo." And what the hell is 'Shaka Shaka Chicken?' Is that pronounced 'Shacka Shacka,' 'Shake-a Shake-a' or "Shock-a Shock-a?'"

We didn't dare even attempt to order anything, but not because of any hesitance on the language front—c'mon, this is McDonalds—but because a cheap stand-up sushi counter was around the corner and a good meal there costs just about the same as a set meal from McD's.

In the end, we concluded that Shaka Shake Chicken was just a fancy name for large chicken tenders, and that the German Sausage actually lies partially hidden underneath a fried chicken patty on the sandwich above, but we also concluded that foreign McDonalds menus are perfect travel anecdotes.

Dusseldorf: In the Land of Sausages, McDonald's Sells a Veggieburger

JetSetCD — 2010-05-28T09:29:39-05:00

If there's one thing that's inescapable in Germany, it's sausage. You don't have to be eating it, but you will find a thousand variations of sausage specialties offered up everywhere from fancy restaurants to kiosks on train platforms. Because of the ubiquity of meat, we were delightfully surprised to find that McDonald's, usually the bringer of sandwiches covered in bacon and mystery sauce, is considering the rest of the population by offering a Veggieburger in German McDs.

Originally introduced in February, the Veggieburger is still touted as "Neu" (new), and is made with potatoes, peppers and carrots. In the ad above, the sauce looks suspiciously like mayonnaise when they could have chosen a healthier option, but Europeans love their mayo.

Versailles: More Shocking McDonalds Locations: McNuggets at Versailles

JetSetCD — 2010-05-06T13:15:33-05:00

If there's one thing we've learned from our time plotting the Most Shocking McDonald's Locations in the World, it's that where there are tourists, there will also be the Golden Arches. From Krabi, Thailand to a rest stop in the Israeli desert, you simply can't escape Ronald (unless you're in Iraq).

Our next stop on our world tour of weird McDonald's locations takes us back into Europe, to the palatial grounds of Versailles, a French royal palace just outside of Paris. Although the palace is named Versailles, so is the town around it, and it's a town that boasts not one, but two McDonald's.

Krabi: Ronald McDonald Goes Native in Thailand

JetSetCD — 2010-04-22T16:07:29-05:00

In our travels, we've seen fast food chains spreading faster than Avian Flu, and of course McDonald's leads the pack with locations as diverse as the Israeli desert, an ancient Roman site, and even the Museum of Communism in Prague. Earlier this month, we discovered that one golden arches sits among pagodas and mountains in a scenic area of southern China, and now continue on the exotic Asian streak with a McDonald's in Thailand.

Shauna Watson, the nomadic soul behind the site GypsyChickTravels.com reports of a McDonald's in Krabi, Thailand. On Shauna's bucket list as she travels around the world are curious things, like "eat a sheep eyeball" and "drink vodka in a yurt (before said eyeball)," so a little McDonald's shock in Thailand shouldn't be too bad, right?

Got another shocking McDonald's location we should know about? This is a running series, so email us your suggestions!

Related Stories:
· Have a Happy Meal in a Pagoda [Jaunted]
· Is There Really a McDonald's in Iraq? [Jaunted]
· The Most Shocking McDonald's Locations in the World [Jaunted]
· More McDonalds Locations That Make You Go 'Hmm' [Jaunted]

[Photo: Shauna Watson]