McDonald’s India is adding to its vegetarian options.

When it comes to American-style gluttony, there’s no better option than McDonald’s.  What’s more American than a giant pile of fried meat and fried potatoes with a side of milky sugary goodness?  Nothing, that’s what.  However, first and foremost McDonald’s is a business, and part of running a business is catering to the tastes of the locals.  In India, that means getting rid of the pork and beef options and leaning heavily on vegetables.  In that spirit, McDonald’s is opening its first vegetarian-only restaurant in India; the company is attempting to boost its profile in India.

“It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant in the world,” said McDonald’s spokesman Rajesh Kumar Maini.  “We have just 271 restaurants in India and across the world we have nearly 33,000.  “When you look at the potential of the country, it’s one of the top priority countries and we’re laying the groundwork for capturing the market.  We plan to nearly double the number of outlets to 500 plus within the next three years.”

The city of Amritsar, India, is the site of the Golden Temple, one of the most holy sites of the Sikh religion.  Religious authorities there forbid the consumption of meat in the holy site, hence McDonald’s is paring down its 50-percent meatless menu to no meat at all.  After this opening, McDonald’s is going to launch a second vegetarian restaurant at Katra in Kashmir, near the Vaishno Devi cave that is a major shrine for the Hindu.  Hence, absolutely no meat at either location.  McDonald’s most popular menu item in India is the McAloo Tikki burger, a spicy fried potato patty burger.

Hindus, who do not consume meat, make up 80 percent of India’s population.  Muslims, who do not consume pork, are a significant minority.  Hence, no deep-fried pork McRib and no Great Moon Burger.

Tags: mcdonald’s, mcdonald’s india, vegetarian mcdonald’s, first vegetarian-only mcdonald’s, Amritsar, India, fast food in India, McDonald’s in India, mcdonald’s with no pork or beef, golden temple, mcdonald’s to open vegetarian only restaurant near Sikh holy site,  Rajesh Kumar Maini, Kashmir,  Vaishno Devi, Katra, Indian vegetarian mcdonald’s

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]