During the summer of 2009, I worked at a theme park with many international college students, Turkish students included. Almost every day after work, many of the Turkish workers would head to the local McDonald's, something that many of American employees (myself included) did not understand. Many of us assumed that there were simply no McDonald's in Turkey, but upon asking a Turk it turned out that in fact that there were plenty of them all around the nation. Rather, along with it being cheap, he said that it was "just different: the taste, the atmosphere, everything".
This made me consider the differences that a fast-food chain can have all across the world, especially one like McDonald's. In the US - or at least in Virginia - fast-food restaurants are notable for being exactly the same no matter where you travel; I could go to Seattle tomorrow and buy the same fries and McSwirl for roughly the same price as I would in Norfolk or Virginia Beach. However, considering the vastly different cuisines that different cultures enjoy, in order for a national corporation to succeed as an international corporation, it must cater to the tastes of its new customers. How could McDonald's be successful in Turkey? Well, it must submit to Turkish cultural standards.
So I went to the Turkish McDonald's website and looked up their menu. There are particular food staples that it and its American counterpart have in common: the Big Mac, the chicken sandwiches, and the smaller burgers. Of course, all of the meat supplied to Turkish McDonald's is absolutely 100% halal, which means that by the standards of Islam it is pure to eat. Then, there are the Turkish variants on the American menu, one of which is the Doubleköfte burger. In this meal, a variant on the double cheeseburger with two beef patties, the beef is substituted with köfte, a traditional Turkish meat dish that can be compared to a meatloaf-meatball hybrid of sorts. The meat - usually beef or lamb - is minced or ground and then seasoned with spices. The köfte is not distinctive to only Turkey, but each country that partakes in this dish has their own rendition of it. The Doubleköfte burger is also adorned with a special onion and yogurt sauce; yoğurt in Turkish cuisine is a little more bitter than the sweetened yogurt we enjoy in America, can be eaten at almost any meal and usually complements the flavors of meats, particularly köfte.
Another strictly-Turkish McDonald's menu item is the McTurko, a sort of kebap that is prepared gyro style. Kebap, or as we would know it better in English, the kebab, is another staple of not just Turkish meals but Middle Eastern cuisine in general. In the McDonald's rendition of this meal, you can either order it with beef köfte or chicken breast, and it comes with a hot pepper sauce, catering to the tastebuds of its Turkish consumer group.
However, something interesting I came across was this: 
It's called the Mega Mac, and is known as the Double Big Mac in the United States. This burger has been discontinued in the States and can only be obtained internationally. It was very surprising to see a burger of these proportions on the Turkish menu. I suppose this illustrates that despite the international debut of the McDonald's franchise, it still wants to deliver large, American-sized meals. The fact that they are even successfully marketing this sandwich in Turkey also shows that Turks are willing to experiment with this dish, which almost epitomizes American fast-food culture; this speaks volumes about the globalization of culture that is happening throughout the world in small but noticeable ways, even by foods, and shows Turkey's cultural exchange that is being played out in Turkish McDonald's. Though food is prepared Turkish style, it is still presented like American food.
Other dishes that are particular to Turkey are onion rings (which usually are not found in US McDonald's), a MaxBurger, which is a regular cheeseburger with the meat seasoned with various items to fit Turkish culture; a sour cherry pie, which is similar to the US cherry pie offered by McDonald's but is flavored with a different kind of cherry; ayran, which is a traditional Turkish drink composed of Turkish yoğurt, water and salt; and a variety of sauces including an olive oil and lemon sauce as well as a hot sauce called acı sos. Their salads come with black olives, as olives are common in Turkish meals. However, there are still staples of American foods, as mentioned above in the case of the Mega Mac: Turkish Chicken McNuggets are nearly identical to their American counterpart, french fries are offered with almost any item, Coca-Cola products are sold alongside the ayran, and ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce and ranch dressing are also sauce options. Additionally, Happy Meals are available, just like they are in the states, and a toy is still included: right now, Batman toys are stated to be a part of the meal on the company website. And as for the quality? Still, as I have read in blogs and reports from Turkey, not top-notch, just like American McDonald's.
This movement of McDonald's to Turkey is not unprecedented, and started as far back as the nineties. Now over 50 restaurants are in the nation, and they are not the ones to have started this American food revolution throughout the country; they have simply capitalized on it. Due to the internationalization of Western culture, it became easy enough to find American food throughout Turkey, melding and changing its culture to reflect the new advancing, interrupting American culture that has changed the way that people around the world eat and shop. McDonald's as a corporation has seen that and merely hastened the process. However, it seems unrealistic that Turkey will entirely bend to the new culture that has invaded their republic. Rather, they will continue to eat at McDonald's because it is cheap, fast, and pretty tasty to Turkish standards.
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