In an increasingly competitive world, where there are individual demands to meet, where every consumer has got into his mind that he will be treated with respect, and his demand honored, fast food franchisees are rustling up increasingly stranger and weirder menus to satisfy the taste buds of consumers.
It is an age, where in spite of globalization, there is always a huge cloud of localization looming at the backdrop. It is for this precise reason that the fast food franchisee, McDonalds, has introduced different types of menus in different parts of the world in order to satisfy the altogether diverse demand patterns of different countries. This has inevitably led to the innovation and creation of more and more odd, if not grotesque food items.
One of the first and foremost that comes to our mind is something that is found in McDonalds Australia. In places virtually all over the world, people like to spread a something, a topping over their toast. Some like jelly, some jam, some peanut butter, others just plain and simple butter. However, Australians have got a little weird secret up their sleeves, something that makes their tongues waggle so much, it is featured on McDonalds’ menu. Introducing the Vegemite, a piece of toast spread over with the leftover yeast after the manufacture of beer. It’s recycling all the way, and with a price tag stamped on it.
Go to Japan, and you get to sink your teeth into an even stranger dish. We have all heard of cheese burger, chicken burger, even veg burger, but, wait for it, Shrimp Burger?? Whoever hears it goes like, “What the??” Nobody knows why even McDonalds got the idea in the first place to combine the diverse dualities of shrimp and burger in a singularity. However, it is done and is named EBI Filet-O in Japan. It is of course a way to bring the tastes of the Occident and the Orient together, but nevertheless, does sound odd.
However, the oddest of the odds is still to go. Take the next flight to Kuala Lumpur, go to a McDonalds there, and you can get to offer a something called, Chicken Singa Porridge. In what may be one of the weirdest combinations anywhere in the world, this is a bowl of porridge with bits of chicken, ginger, carrots and other veggies added to it.
McDonalds is doing a great job of satisfying the hungry bellies everywhere, at the same time redefining the limitations of cooking, but nevertheless, restraint, anyone??
