International McDonald’s menu items that should come to the US

• After traveling to over 55 countries, photojournalist Gary He has tried many McDonald’s menus.
• In his upcoming book, El captured the cultural essence of McDonald’s locations around the world.
• Speaking to Business Insider, he shared the top 10 items he wishes were on American menus.

In 2019, while on a trip to Marrakech, Morocco, Brooklyn-based photojournalist Gary He got an unexpected surprise with his regular McDonald’s order.

A packet of dates combined with a chebakia – a Maghrebi sweet made from fried dough that is shaped like a rose and drizzled with honey syrup – a tomato and legume soup called harira soup and a bottle of laban or salted milk, all packed in a tiny box.

Curious about the box and its significance, he turned to Google to find out more…only to find that there wasn’t much information available online.

“When I started researching McDonald’s specialties in other countries, there was very little information and most of it was very scattered,” he told Business Insider.

That’s where the idea to document one of the world’s biggest restaurant chains came for He, who recalled, “There was an opportunity to play a journalist and a documentarian, while tapping into that love of -one life for McDonald’s and combining it into one. design.”

Five years later, the James Beard Award-winning photojournalist has traveled to more than 55 countries on six continents and compiled a 420-page book, “McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches,” to be released in November . The book contains more than 200 photos of menu items and architectural wonders that show how this American chain has integrated into cultures.

With about 27,000 of the brand’s 40,000 restaurants based outside the U.S., one way the company maintains its popularity and strives to boost international sales is by introducing popular items locally, with a McDonald’s role . The Wall Street Journal reported in 2023 that these local items contribute about 30% of the brand’s food sales.

While some of these dishes were introduced to American audiences in 2018 as part of the brand’s rotating menu at its international restaurant in Chicago, most others are still a plane ride away.

Even El – who has tried and tasted many of the brand’s local offerings, from special Middle Eastern Iftar menus (like the one he was served with in Marrakech during Ramadan) to sandwiches inspired by celebrity chefs in Europe – wishes he could get a slice of them without always having to travel across the ocean.

Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 global items He wishes were on American menus.