You are what you eat goes that old adage. And what you eat for breakfast, even if it is from the world’s famous fast food restaurant – McDonald’s, says a lot about where you are from.
McDonald’s is as common as it can get. Many countries have hundreds of branches of this fast food chain. And if having your everyday fix of this global phenomenon in your home country means that getting your breakfast at a McDonald’s abroad is the last thing on your mind, think again. Foreign McDonald’s menus can actually tell you a lot about the local culture. You might be surprised to find your favorite breakfast missing from the menu because it doesn’t make sense to the locals of a particular place.
For instance, in Macau, a Chinese territory, you can have sausage with egg and a hash brown for breakfast. But the local twist to this is the sausage and egg are in a bowl of macaroni soup with some veggies. And they call it Sausage & Egg Cheesy Tasty Pasta. Only in Macau!
And who says chocolates are a no-no for breakfast? The Germans would totally disagree. Creamy milk chocolate inside loose wheat pancakes (McToast Shoko) is what a typical breakfast is like in McDonald’s Germany. Order a coffee to go with it and you are off to a good start of your day.
As a common habit in many Asian countries, breakfast is never complete without rice. So even if hotcakes and egg muffins are available in McDonald’s Philippines, so is the traditional Longganisa (Filipino-style sausage) with garlic rice and egg. Filipinos need their fill of carbohydrates to get through their day.
If you are health conscious, you would love the breakfast menu in McDonald’s Sweden. Since Scandinavians are all about healthy eating, they have the Frukostmackan med Kalkon & Cream Cheese. This breakfast sandwich has turkey, cream cheese, and vegetables. The meal also comes with coffee and yogurt. Now that’s probably one of the healthiest breakfast meals you’ll ever find in any McDonald’s.
So the next time you find yourself on foreign soil and see the yellow M sign, do drop by. You just might discover a local favorite that your palate will love.
Kathy is a free spirit who has an attention span equivalent to that of a squirrel. So it's only seemly that she has a penchant for adventures and spontaneity. And because she is expected to earn her keep, she works as an online freelancer doing (what else?) random stuff. 
