Recently, I was missing the flavor of home, so I figured I'd get some fast food. Surely, nothing would feel more like the US than lunch at McDonald's. Overall, I can report that McDonald's standards are holding strong, even on the other side of the world.
From the outside, McDonald's seems about the same (here are pictures of a few near me)
At least they look more familiar than the McDonald's I saw in Israel:
As you read in an earlier blog, chicken is the most popular meat here. So from a fast food standpoint, KFC is quite a bit more popular than McDonald's. McDonald's even altered their menu here to offer more chicken choices than in the US, including actual chicken portions (like legs, thighs, etc). If you look closely, you can see them on the right side of this banner ad (notice all other items in the ad are also chicken)
You may also recall that pork is rarely served here. At McDonald's, that means that instead of Bacon Cheeseburgers you get Beef and Egg burgers. Seriously - egg? You can see it in the top middle of this picture. Nothing makes my mouth water like mayo, ketchup, egg, and beef!
The food is very reasonably priced - 3 Ringgit is less than $1 and those are pretty good sized sandwiches for their equivalent of the "99cents menu." McDonald's even delivers!
Once inside, what stood out to me the most was that their "bin" was full. For those of you who haven't worked at McDonald's, the bin is where they store food that has been prepared and is ready to be served. As McDonald's has moved more to just-in-time food prep, you rarely see full bins. In this case, the store was almost empty and the bin was full. This is a big deal, because you're supposed to discard any food that stays in the bin more than 10 minutes. Who knows if anyone is checking to make sure they follow that rule...
As it turns out the entire bin was full with chicken products and I was looking for a Quarter Pounder. They had to make it from scratch which took about 5 minutes. Naturally, I got the value meal, which cost about $3USD.
Once I got the burger, it was just as I remembered. The fries were good (if a bit extra salty). The only odd part was that diet soda is not sold at most restaurants here (although they do serve Nestle Milo - mass-produced chocolate milk).
If you think about it, it's pretty impressive how well McDonald's is able to ensure consistent products, menus, and procedures world-wide. Considering that part of the reason I'm here is to help the Malaysian team copy the processes and quality of the teams in the US, I have a new found respect for any company that is able to do this around the globe.
Especially when I bought frozen burgers at the local grocery store and it looked like this after I cooked it:
Maybe that Beef and Egg burger is looking a bit tastier than I thought...
