The moment we land in a new destination abroad, even before unpacking our suitcase or finding the hotel, we check in at the local McDonald's. It's not because we're hungry. It's because that's where we truly learn about the local culture.
The best way to absorb the vibe of a new destination is to stop at the first McDonald's you see coming out of the subway. It's mandatory. Even before we've had a chance to say "bonjour," we're already at the ordering counter, checking whether the local hamburgers and fries really live up to the iconic standard or are just overrated.
That's the real game – digging through the menu to find the wild item that only exists here, and we don't have, and filming it for TikTok. Because let's face it, we didn't fly to London for a salad. We flew to see if the Big Mac there actually tastes like it's from abroad.
But here's something we didn't think about. While we're booking Big Macs abroad, there's a whole world of tourists coming to Israel and treating our McDonald's as a must-visit destination. Yes, so it turns out this is completely a global thing, and they're not just coming for the hummus in Jaffa – they're coming for the nuggets too.
What about the Pitzutz ice cream? In the US, the McFlurry is pretty mundane, but here? Pitzutz ice cream with bagel bits and salt, or the pistachio edition, makes them feel as if they've entered a Parisian patisserie rather than a food court in an Israeli mall. For them, the combination of junk food with updated Mediterranean flavors is nothing short of culinary genius; they'd be happy to export to Chicago.
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For the average American, McDonald's is the place you go when you're in a hurry or on a tight budget. It's industrial, it's fast, and it usually doesn't look anything like the pictures.
For a tourist, seeing a McDonald's branch with a blue logo is like seeing a unicorn. It turns into a TikTok video within seconds, where they try to explain to their followers why there's no cheese on the hamburger, and in the same breath, beg for the corn sticks to be naturalized in the US, too.
And what about diaspora Jews? Amusingly, it turns out that all the kosher-observant people living abroad can only eat McDonald's in Israel, and when they come to visit the homeland, this is the best stop.
In a video, Jewish-American actress Noa Solomon literally shows us what we look like when we arrive at McDonald's abroad.
True, when they get to pay, they discover their meal costs like half a day – $70 –, but for them it's an experience and an exploration of culture. We may travel to find the different, but it turns out they come here to find the familiar, just in a much more successful version.
