For ages McDonald's has been using New York's name to promote its burgers internationally. In recent years it has boasted a line of German "I ♥ New York burgers," a New York Special burger in the UK, a New York Supreme in Scandinavia, a New York Quarter Pounder in Japan, a NYCrispy in Spain and a Big New York burger in Israel. And the trend does not seem to be stopping: a New York burger is about to hit Oz this week. But there is something very weird about McDonald's international New York burgers—namely, MUSTARD. Really?
Though most people think of McDonald's regional differences in terms of things like the McFalafel and bagel burgers, the Illinois-based fast food behemoth actually has quite a few regional differences here at home. In addition to using smaller American markets to test out new foods, McDonald's also has some built-in things it just does differently across the nation. For example? If you order a plain burger at McDonald's in Chicago you'll get a "beef" patty with ketchup, pickle, onions and mustard. But if you order one here in New York City you'll just get ketchup, pickle and onion on your meat product.
Which brings us back to the New York burger Down Under. Why in the world does the burger down there include mustard and mayo when those things are not standard in New York? We've reached out to Ronald McDonald's PR people for an answer to this very important question but in the meantime we sincerely hope that this unfortunate bit of marketing doesn't give Australians the wrong idea about how New Yorkers eat our burgers. On the plus side? At least they didn't bring the old "Broadway Burger" to Oz. That (very real) monstrosity was topped with mustard and cream cheese!
