Why The McDonald's HQ International Menu Might Be Disappointing

McDonald's may be known for good old fashioned burgers and fries, but those are far from the only things on its menu. Its decades-long expansion into international territories has meant there's a whole host of interesting menu items you can only get at McDonald's locations in other countries, from the McBaguette in France to the samurai pork burger in Thailand. Americans have long pined for the taste of a strawberry oreo McFlurry, but have sadly been unable to experience it for themselves. Good news, though: if you're in Chicago, you can actually go try a lot of these products at the McDonald's corporate HQ!

Every silver lining must have a cloud, though, so there's also some bad news. While you can certainly get (some) international items at the McDonald's headquarters, there's a whole litany of reasons you might feel let down by the process, from the taste of the ingredients themselves to their specific availability.

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You're Going To Have A Hard Time Finding Exactly What You Want

Chef Mike Haracz is a former McDonald's corporate chef who has attained popularity on TikTok with numerous clips sharing McDonald's secrets, tips, and tricks. He's talked about why you're not likely to see snack wraps appear on the McDonald's menu again, how the company seasons its burgers, and how there isn't any ketchup in big mac sauce. A few days ago, he released a video about how the McDonald's corporate HQ contains a restaurant called Hamburger University with global menu items -- but how it may not quite live up to your expectations.

First, it's a rotating menu. This makes sense; there are a lot of international menu items, and it wouldn't be feasible for the company to stock all of them at once. Also, since they have limited amounts of each product in store, if you come near the end of the month, they're likely to be sold out of a lot of things. The real issue here, however, isn't about availability but quality.

It All Comes Down To Supply Chains

Importing unusual foreign ingredients isn't cheap, especially not if you're doing it on a limited scale for a single restaurant. According to Haracz, McDonald's solution to this problem is simply to not import them at all. Every "global" McDonald's product at Hamburger University is thus made by replicating local products available through their suppliers into a facsimile of the international ingredient. This explains why Hamburger University is likely to run out of these menu items (there's just not as many of these facsimile products available), but it also begs a question Haracz himself raises: does this even count as the international menu item?

Ultimately, not really. You're not actually eating the product as it would be served at a McDonald's in Italy or Japan or Australia, but an imitation that's as close as McDonald's USA cares to get. So while, yes, you might be able to try some new things at Hamburger University, don't expect them to be 100% representative of what the real thing actually tastes like.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.