A couple times a year, a new fast food product comes along that leaves us alternately scratching our heads and blown away by the inventors’ ingenuity.
Pizza with a crust that’s stuffed with cheese? Amazing. A taco shell that’s actually a giant Dorito? Genius! But believe it or not, even America’s most far-out fast food creations pale in comparison to what’s being offered by these same chains internationally.
We’ve rounded up the wildest, most over the top ones that we’ve encountered.
Chains like Pizza Hut, Burger King, and KFC actually give their international divisions a lot of leeway to come up with new menu items (usually limited-time-only releases) that they think will appeal to the locals while still representing “American” cuisine. And when the popular belief around the world is that American food is grossly outrageous (I wonder why?), that tends to create some truly wild offerings.
Take Pizza Hut Singapore, for example, widely regarded as the most outside-the-box international fast food division. Last year, they released what they called the Double Sensation Pizza, which is so complex it takes a while to describe: The pizza is separated into two rings, an inner ring and an outer ring. The outer ring’s crust has melted mozzarella, Cheddar, and Parmesan oozing out of it, and between that and ring number two is a pizza topped with cheese, salsa, bell peppers, mushrooms, and turkey ham. The inner ring is stuffed with chicken sausage, which itself is stuffed with cheese. Inside that ring is a pepper Alfredo sauce, smoked chicken, and slices of zucchini. Oh, and at the center of it all is a cherry.
Believe it or not, it gets even crazier than that.
We’re not exactly sure why these chains feel so compelled to release such outrageously insane offering, but hey, good for them. They’re living dangerously, pushing the boundaries, and in some cases leading folks to believe that this is how Americans actually eat. Some of these menu items sound legitimately tasty – Pizza Hut Puerto Rico’s Crazy Cheesy Bacon Crust Pizza, for example – but we think we’ll be sticking with the Big Mac.
So click here to read about international fast food items that are so over the top it’s hard to believe that these were actually unleashed on the public. And, oh yeah, these were all released within the past six months.
1. Pizza Hut Sri Lanka: Birizza
(Pizza Hut Sri Lanka)
Biryani, the popular South Asian rice dish, is about the last thing you’d expect to see at a Pizza Hut, but last July the ‘Birizza’ hit the menus on locations in Sri Lanka. The dish was offered with either chicken or paneer cheese, and was topped with a pizza dough crust (starch on starch!). An onion salad came on the side, as well as a spicy gravy.
2. Subway Japan: Sausage and Barbecue Sub
(Subway Japan)
In August 2013, Subways in Japan added a new meat to the menu: a long sausage, topped with barbecue sauce. As usual, guests were able to choose the cheese, bread, and veggies. I think we can safely say that we won’t be seeing stateside Subways offering sausages any time soon.
3. KFC Indonesia: Cheese Donut
(KFC Indonesia)
For some reason, cheese-topped donuts are quite popular in Indonesia, and in September 2013 KFC decided to get in on the action, offering a glazed donut topped with shredded Swiss and cheddar cheese. Here in America, we only eat cheesy donuts if they’re sandwiching a burger patty.
4. Pizza Hut UK: Cheeseburger Pizza
(Pizza Hut UK)
A cheeseburger pizza isn’t so wild around these parts anymore; it’s usually just a regular pizza topped with ground beef and American cheese. But in England (and previously in the Middle East), Pizza Hut released a limited-time only pizza where the crust was actually made out of little cheeseburgers. They were topped with mozzarella, and ketchup was served on the side.
5. Pizza Hut Japan: Black Ninja Burger
(Pizza Hut Japan)
This offering made international waves last October for its sheer outlandishness: a burger patty, onions, lettuce, mayo, a hash brown patty, and a giant piece of bacon were sandwiched between a black bun. Meant to resemble a ninja with his tongue sticking out (seriously), the burger even had its own mascot.
6. McDonald’s Italy: Gran Chianina
(McDonald’s Italy)
Made from Italy’s famed Chianina beef, this fancy burger sandwiched the high-quality beef patty, along with onion rings, lettuce, cheese sauce made with pecorino Romano, and a walnut sauce inside a tartaruga, or turtle, roll. It was available for three weeks last November, and sounds pretty classy.
Check out more outrageous international fast-food items.
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