Neatorama » Taco Bell

Fast Food Flavors You Won’t Find In The US

Jill Harness — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:16:35 +0000

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

Taco Bell’s Doritos Chip Taco Shell

Alex — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:55:36 +0000

Taco shell made from Dorito chips? What can be more awesome? According to reports by Slashfood and Food Beast, Taco Bell is experimenting with Nacho Cheese Doritos Taco Shell.

What do you think? Will you eat it? Link

Taco Bell Sued over Beef Taco

Alex — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:33:13 +0000

Someone has got a beef with Taco Bell. A woman recently filed a lawsuit claiming that the fast food chain’s beef taco contain so little meat that it can’t be legally called "beef."

Attorney Dee Miles said attorneys had Taco Bell’s "meat mixture" tested and found it contained less that 35 percent beef.

The lawsuit on behalf of Taco Bell customer and California resident Amanda Obney does not seek monetary damages, but asks the court to order Taco Bell to be honest in its advertising.

"We are asking that they stop saying that they are selling beef," Miles said. [...]

The lawsuit says that Taco Bell’s "seasoned beef" contains other ingredients, including water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch.

Link – via The Daily Dish | Taco Bell defends its beef and plans a counterbeef suit.

Batman Robs a Taco Bell

Alex — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:23:50 +0000

Poor Batman. The horrible economy must’ve depleted Bruce Wayne’s fortunes, and the Caped Crusader is forced to make ends meet by … robbing Taco Bell!

Where once Batman ruled Taco Bell with promotional movie cups and kid’s meals, it seems the Caped Crusader (or an impersonator) has now turned to crime, taking food from an unsuspecting drive-thru customers like a thief in the night. It’s sort of like the old drive-thru football grab from MTV’s "Jackass," only the gosh-darn Batman leaps from an untold height onto the top of an SUV before grabbing an order and fleeing into the shadows.

Comic Alliance has the video clip (A prank? A viral vid attempt? Can’t be a coincidence though the driver seems genuinely pissed off): Link

Greatest Possible Food: A Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burrito Stuffed Sausage Log Wrapped in Bacon

John Farrier — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:18:17 +0000

Today is a sad day for enterprising cooks, for the greatest possible food has now been invented. What could possibly surpass this invention by Smoking Meat Forums user Fire it up?

Link via Geekologie

Go Directly to Jail: 4 Brilliantly Bungled Crimes

Alex — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:45:30 +0000

They Should Have Stolen a Watch First

Long before he was an outlaw country crooner, Merle Haggard was a real outlaw - albeit a bad one. At the rebellious age of 20, Haggard and a few friends planned to rob a restaurant.

They got drunk and waited until 3 o'clock in the morning, when they knew it would be empty. But when they broke in, they were surprised to find the restaurant full of people. Turns out, in their drunken haze, they accidentally wandered in at 10:30 pm. The attempted burglary landed Haggard in notorious San Quentin State Prison, where he saw Johnny Cash perform three times, inspiring him to pick guitars instead of locks.

Always Case the Joint

[YouTube Clip]

In the olden days, crooks used to "case" joints, staking out a place and detailing all the intricacies before attempting to rob the business. But on March 12, 2008, two young criminals in Port St. Lucie, Florida, proved that tradition is dead. The would-be robbers confidently entered the lobby of a business, hid their hands in their jackets like guns, and demanded money from the woman at the front desk. Unfortunately, there was one flaw in the plan - the "business" was actually a police station.

When God Closes a Window ...

Never come between a defensive lineman and his chalupa. Employees at a Lawrence, Kansas, Taco Bell learned this lesson the hard way in 1999 when they forgot to include one of the deluxe tacos in the order of Dion Rayford, a former member of the Kansas Jayhawks.

Enraged, Rayford lunged through the store's drive-thru window, going after the employees like they were chalupas themselves. But drive-thru windows aren't meant to accommodate a 6'3", 270-lb. lineman, and Rayford got stuck. There he remained, half inside and half outside the Taco Bell, until the police arrived to dislodge him, and then arrest him.

Pier Review

Despite being a former child star, late actor Brad Renfro (The Client, Sleepers) could never afford a $175,000 yacht. So, in 2000, the 18-year-old actor decided to steal one from a Ft. Lauderdale marina.

Unfortunately for him, the 45-ft. vessel was still tied to the dock. When Renfro fired up the engine for a joy ride, the yacht inched forward and was quickly yanked back into the dock, damaging the stern and alerting everyone that something fishy was afoot. Nearby boaters held the beardless pirate until police arrived. (Photo: Brad Renfro's mugshot at The Smoking Gun)

Go Directly to Jail: 4 Brilliantly Bungled Crimes is written by Adam K. Raymond. It is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the May/June 2009 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Be sure to visit mental_floss' entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!

Taco Bell Drive-Thru Folk Song

Queuebot — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:58:02 +0000

[YouTube - Link]

A variation on the rap drive-thru. Done for viral advertising purposes but still enjoyable. I think Neatorama ran a less-slick version of this long ago, but I can’t find it.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Taco Bell Wedding

Miss Cellania — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:48:42 +0000

Paul and Caragh Brooks spent a total of about $200 on their wedding, in front of family and friends at a Taco Bell restaurant in Normal, Illinois.

With several dozen invited guests in the room, the couple sat in a decorated booth with Ryan Green of Normal, a friend of theirs who became an ordained minister online. As Green, dressed in a T-shirt, officiated, they said the same vows.

“I promise to honor your life’s choices, comfort you in sorrow, celebrate in your joy and support your endeavors…,” they said. “Whatever the world brings, I take you as my partner.”

Business went on as usual in the front area of Taco Bell, and some customers in the Friday night supper rush stopped to watch.

Shortly before the ceremony, Kathy Brooks, the groom’s mother, said, “This is the way to go — there’s no stress.”

Link -via Gorilla Mask

(image credit: The Pantagraph/B MOSHER)