ZAP’S FACTS!
ORIGINS

There is a McDonald's in over 100 countries.

From Iceland to India to the smallest Pacific islands, the golden arches are nearly everywhere on Earth.

2 min read
There is a McDonald's in over 100 countries.
THE FULL STORY

McDonald’s started as a small burger stand in San Bernardino, California, in 1940, run by two brothers named Richard and Maurice McDonald. They pioneered a fast cooking system they called the “Speedee Service System” - basically an assembly line for burgers. A travelling salesman named Ray Kroc saw it, bought into the company, and turned it into a global chain.

Today there are around 40,000 McDonald’s restaurants in over 100 countries. The menus differ from place to place: India has the McAloo Tikki (a spiced potato burger), Japan has the Ebi Filet-O shrimp burger, and France serves the Croque McDo. In some countries you can even get McSpaghetti or McRice.

McDonald’s sells roughly 75 burgers every single second of every day, somewhere on Earth. The Big Mac, invented by a franchisee in Pennsylvania in 1967, is so widely sold that economists use the “Big Mac Index” to compare prices between countries. A Big Mac in Switzerland costs more than twice what one costs in India.

The world's oldest cookbook is about 4,000 years old.
DID YOU KNOW? The world's oldest cookbook is about 4,000 years old. Ancient cooks wrote recipes for stews and bread on clay tablets in what is now Iraq - long before paper existed. 2 min read
French fries are probably Belgian.
DID YOU KNOW? French fries are probably Belgian. Belgians have been frying potato strips for at least 300 years - long before "French fries" got their American nickname. 2 min read
Croissants are originally from Austria, not France.
DID YOU KNOW? Croissants are originally from Austria, not France. The famous flaky crescent pastry was created in Vienna and only travelled to France a century later. 2 min read