The Potato men!
New Delhi: according to reports, McDonald’s Corp. will shift from its near-exclusive focus on non-veg food to potato sandwiches with its two vegetarian restaurants in India next year. A first time for the world’s biggest restaurant chain. The fast-food chain will open two new outlets in northern Indian cities that are pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Sikhs, according to Rajesh Kumar Maini, a spokesman for the company’s north and east Indian operations. Of course, McDonald stayed away from beef and pork products menu in India with its Hindu and Muslim populations.
The vegetarian restaurants will include offerings such as the McAloo Tikki burger, a sandwich with a mashed-potato patty and the Pizza McPuff, a vegetable and cheese pastry.
This should indeed work as Indians like to eat unimaginable combinations like potato paratha with potato curry and many other starch-starch combos like bread and potato curry. Of late paneer has begun to seem as omni-present as potatoes too! Serve a potato-free meal to an Indian and see his searching looks dart all over and sadden in disappointment! Bihar and Bengal are perhaps two areas in the country where potato obsession is taken to utter extremes!
To come back to the Mcstory, one of the vegetarian outlets will be in Amritsar, where the Golden Temple, a holy site for Sikhs, is located. The other will be in Katra in Jammu and Kashmir in the north, which houses one of the main pilgrimage sites for Hindu people, according to the spokesman. McDonald’s sells Chicken McNuggets and fish burgers in its regular Indian outlets although its traditional beef burgers aren’t available.
India, the world’s second most populous nation, is important for McDonald’s as it increases sales overseas. The country’s large population, growing urbanization and increasing number of people joining the workforce may help the fast-food industry expand from 47 billion rupees ($840 million) in 2010 to 146 billion rupees in 2014, according to estimates by researcher RNCOS E-Services Pvt. McDonald’s operates as many as 271 stores in India through partnerships with two local Indian companies, Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. for the north and east, and Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. in the west and south.
In brief, salivating India awaits the experience with a gluttonously open mouth and a readiness to turn ourselves into rotund potatoes over the years.