Fast Food Flavors You Won't Find In The US

I recently posted an article about discontinued snack foods, and many of our readers pointed out that some of the foods were still available in other countries. As it turns out, fast food companies operate in a similar manner, offering local favorites to other countries that they would never consider selling in America. Here are a few American fast food establishments and the dishes they don't offer in America.

Burger King

In Canada, poutine, fries covered in cheese curds and gravy, is offered at almost every fast food restaurant, but BK offers their own varieties that fit in with the rest of their food –most notably, the Angry Poutine with fried onions and peppers on top. In Puerto Rico, mallorcas, sweet pastry buns, are a popular breakfast treat and Burger King takes full advantage of the popularity of these buns by offering the King Mallorca, filled with ham, eggs and three different cheeses. If you want something even more filling, you might want to try their Enormous Omelet, which isn’t an omelet at all, but actually one of the restaurant’s long hamburger buns filled with a hamburger patty, two eggs, bacon and cheese. Later in the day, you can always snack on some King Wings, which are buffalo wings marinated in honey –why aren’t these sold in America yet? In many countries, including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico, you can enjoy the deliciously fatty Cheesy Whopper, which features a deep fried disc of cheese on top of a standard Whopper. Personally, I want to try the Hawaiian BK Chicken available in New Zealand, which is like all the other chicken sandwiches Burger King sells, only it features bacon and pineapple. Sign me up!

KFC

The variety of KFC’s international menus is simply astounding, as the American version exclusively limits itself to fried chicken and a few sides, while the international franchises seem to have no limits on what they serve. On the more standard side, there is the Fillet Tower Burger, which is available throughout Europe and other locations, which is essentially just a chicken sandwich topped with a hashbrown. On the other end of the spectrum is the menu from Thailand, which features stir fries, a tuna and corn salad, fish fingers (like chicken fingers, but fish) and a donut filled with shrimp meat. China offers a similarly strange menu compared to the standard KFC fare, as it includes corn salad, beef wraps, red bean porridge, shrimp burgers and an egg and vegetable soup.

Some of the desserts featured in other countries sound downright delicious, particularly those available in France. Some French KFC dessert selections include a banana and passion fruit tart, panna cotta with raspberry sauce and tiramisu. As for unique dishes, the Cali Maki Twister, available in the Philippines sounds good but weird. It is a chicken wrap with mangos, cucumber and spicy mayo. Japan’s shrimp bisque pot pie also sounds pretty tasty, although the picture looks a little strange.

Pizza Hut

Naturally, Pizza Hut’s main offering around the globe remains pizza, but what does change is their topping selection. Depending on where you go, you can top your pizza with apricot sauce, asparagus, broccoli, calamari, capers, carbonara sauce, chicken fajita meat, chicken tikka, chorizo, clams, corn, crab, cranberry sauce, cream cheese, curry sauce, eggplant, goat cheese, hot dogs, kebab meat, mashed potatoes, mayonnaise, mint, mussels, potato chips, roast beef, salsa, satay sauce, seaweed, sour cream, shrimp, spicy Thai sauce, sweet corn, tandoori spices, teriyaki chicken, thousand island dressing, tuna or yogurt. And I bet some of you still think pineapple is a weird pizza topping. As if that weren’t enough variations on your pizza, the restaurant also offers a variety of different stuffed crusts and cheesy bite fillings, including a stuffed crust with kebab meat inside and a cheesy bite crust with shrimp inside. If you really want to see some different menu items at a Pizza Hut though, head to Hong Kong, where the menu reads more like a five-star restaurant than a crummy American pizza chain. A few highlights: escargot with mashed potatoes, lobster soup with puffed pastry, paella, squid in risotto with shrimp in a lobster sauce and crème brule. It would sound great if the sign on the restaurant didn’t still read “Pizza Hut.” Image Via tangdersons [Flickr]

Taco Bell

Taco Bell’s international menus are perhaps the most similar to the American version, with a few exceptions. Most notably, in Spain you can order tater tot nachos with sour cream (yummy), and a Chocodilla, which is exactly what it sounds like –a chocolate quesadilla. Also, in India, many of the traditional Taco Bell items can be served with potato in place of meat.

McDonald’s

While McDonald’s is certainly the largest fast food restaurant in the world, I did neglect to include them in this list only because I already wrote about many of their international treats in this McFacts About McDonald’s article. Just in cast you’re feeling too lazy to click over though, here is a highlight:

Most Indian menus are largely different than those in America, as pig and cow products are not served outside of Southern India. The chicken and fish are also prepared in separate areas because or strict religious laws regarding the preparation of food for vegetarians. One of the area’s specialties is the Maharaja Mac, which was originally made with lamb meat but now is made with chicken. They also serve a dish called the McCurry pan, which consists of a bowl made from flakey dough filled with chicken in a tomato-curry sauce.

Naturally, there are plenty more international fast food menu options, but we’d be here for weeks if I actually described them all. If you do happen to live outside the U.S. and know of a local offering from a major chain restaurant, feel free to talk about them in the comments. Similarly, if you’ve tried any of the snacks included here, tell us what you thought about them. Sources: BK.com, KFC.com, PizzaHut.com, Taco Bell Spain, Taco Bell India


Mc Donalds in Brazil have a sandwich called cheddar mc melt, with cheddar cheese, soy sauce, grilled onions; Netherlands have Mc kroket... a kroket hamburger and sauce!
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Not to mention egg tarts in KFC Singapore! :) Also, McD's in Singapore offers seasonal menus. With Lunar New Year around the corner, we've got the Prosperity Burger - beef patty with delicious black pepper and onion sauce!
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Also, fast food in countries such as Thailand and India are not 'cheap' as is considered in the US. On the streets of Bangkok you can get a heaping plate of fried rice or noodles for about $1 whereas going to McDonalds would cost $5 or more. Not exactly the choice for those who are not as affluent.
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Columbia is in the United States. COLOMBIA is a country in South America that borders two oceans.
I've been to Burger King in Columbia, they didn't have the product you pointed out. Odd.
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Just to comment on the Canadian poutine from BK, it is wretched, don't bother with it. The gravy tastes like ketchup and the cheese is flavorless.

Signed, a concerned Canadian for the health and well being of poutine.
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Don't know about the rest of the world but here in the UK KFC have achieved a really impressive feat. A blend of 11 herbs and spices which tastes of nothing more than cardboard coating chicken pieces that taste of nothing at all.

How do they do that? Have they hit on a blend of herbs and spices that cancel out each other's flavours and indeed the flavour of the chicken?

It's said of many exotic meats that they taste just like chicken. So how have KFC managed to find chicken that doesn't taste like chicken?
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Ah yes, poutine. I remember the first time I was asked if I wanted gravy on my fries and I exclaimed "What!?", though it was meant to be in a more inquisitive tone than it sounded. The waitress kind of jumped back and asked again a bit quieter (I don't think she expected my reaction).

Right after that I was given the lowdown on poutine.

I really miss Canada.
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I love poutine; but I've lived in Vancouver for more than 30 years and have never seen poutine at any fast-food chain. Poutine at "almost every fast food restaurant" in Canada is a touch inaccurate. Based on what? Maybe in Quebec... That's like me saying "you can get Creole food at almost every diner in America" ...
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It's not too hard to find fast-food poutine; Harvey's isn't too bad in a pinch, and I had a suprisingly good version at a Dairy Queen in southern BC. Best to avoid it at Costco - they over-chill the cheese curds, which then don't melt properly. Feh.
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Not technically fast food, but junkfood... In Japan a few years ago we found many different flavoured KitKat bars including Mango, Green Tea, Strawberry, Soy Sauce and more. The Soy Sauce flavour wasn't as hideous as it sounds, the Green Tea was and the Mango was hardcore sweetness.
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Here in the middle east Mcdonalds has the McArabia which is grilled kofta (beef with spices) served with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and garlic mayonnaise all wrapped in an Arabic style pita bread.

They are delicous.

I travel alot and love to try fast food in other countries. There is a sweet and sour Big Mac in Thailand I highly reccommend.
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In the Maritimes (Eastern Canada) McDonald's serves us McLobster Sandwiches http://cdn.mediaincanada.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mcdonaldsmclobster.body_lead.jpg
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In the late 90's I was setting up some systems in a fullfilment warehouse in Hong Kong. My local contact was ordering from Pizza Hut - asked me what I liked on pizza. I said "anything". One of the pizzas was covered with baby octopus and kernel corn - it was really good and what a picture it made....
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the poutine at burger king is atrocious and should never be called poutine. If done right, the poutine at kfc is so tasty you don't care what its made of. mcdonalds doesnt look like they'll ever do a mcpoutine, and many of the poutine shops that do it specifically often are worth the time spent trying to find them.
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While in Korea, they had this menu in kfc that i have yet to see here in the states: Grilled max burger or something like that. It was basically kinda like the european fillet tower burger except it had grilled piece of chicken meat instead of the fried version (which kinda tasted like hickory +cajun seasoning) with has brown, cheese, tomato, and lettuce. It was deliicious. I wish they sold those here.
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@mcdonalds in parts of the middle east they offer the chicken big Mac. Just substitute the burger patties with oversized chicken nuggets. Would probably sell well back in the states.
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