One of the things that I have to do when visiting a new country is stop by McDonald’s. You’re probably wondering why. Well, I love checking to see if there are any locally-inspired menu items available.
While I rarely ever visit McD’s at home, I look forward to this visit during our trips! Yeah I know, you need to try the local food to really get a feel for a country. Well yes we do that too…
During our recent trip to Nicaragua, we didn’t come across a McDonald’s until close to the end of our visit. And it happened to be directly across the street from our hotel in Managua!
We first went to McDonald’s for lunch and I was happy to see a bunch of (somewhat) unique items on the menu.
Here is what we tried:
- Derritido: When I translated it, I found out that it meant melt.
- Queso Frito: Fried Cheese
- Pollo McCrispy: Fried Chicken
Here are some thoughts about each item:
Since Lucas loves grilled cheese we figured that the Derritido would be a good item to get in addition to the Happy Meal. Lucas loves McDonald’s more so for the play area and toy in the meal and not as much so for the food…
When I unwrapped the Derretido, I thought it looked kind of sad. It was practically paper thin and looked like they took a bun , added cheese to the middle and then sat on it or squashed it! Not so appealing, right?
Well, I gave it a try and have to say that it wasn’t so bad. It was kind of crispy and pretty cheesey.
For around $1.10US this is not a bad snack but I wouldn’t call it a meal.
It seems like most McDonald’s in other countries have a fried cheese snack on the menu and they tend of typcially be tasty and enjoyable. When I spotted Queso Frito on the menu, I had to give it a try.
During our trip, a salty, squishy cheese was served at breakfasts, on fries, sandwiches and in other dishes. I really enjoyed this cheese but I never found out exactly what it was called. I asked at one of our hotels and we were told it was queso blanco. So helpful!
When I opened our McDonald’s Queso Frito, I have to say that they looked really tasty. (Decent sized, shiny cubes of cheese in what looked like a light coating.)
I bit in and was impressed by the salt, tasty cheese. They looked pretty fresh and not like congeals clumps of cheese, sitting around all day. I’d definitely recommend ordering these if you see them on a McD’s menu.
I couldn’t just go ahead and order a burger or other regular item when the Pollo McCrispy was on the menu.
The Pollo McCrispy is the McDonald’s version of fried chicken in Nicaragua. I didn’t know what to expect but was curious to find out how this would be.
The order, which cost a little over $6 for a meal came with three pieces of chicken. The two smaller pieces were dark meat and tasted good but I’m more of a white meat fan.
When I bit into the larger piece, which was white meat chicken, it was a massive chunk of meat. It wasn’t just big, it was also juicy and very tasty. I’d consider all of the chicken to be a drop on the salty side but not in a bad way.
I gave Lucas some of my chicken and he also loved it- much more so than the chicken nuggets which he barely ate.
We were definitely impressed with the Pollo McCrispy. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought it was from a regular restaurant, not a fast food place!
Overall, McDonald’s in Nicaragua offered some tasty and (somewhat)unique menu items. The food was better than McD’s in the U.S. and Lucas had a lot of fun getting to play for a while with some local kids in the playground!
Stopping by was a win-win situation in the end.
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Anon- Thanks for the info!
The cheese used in Nicaragua is particular to the country. The closest you’ll get to these cheeses is queso de cojita and queso fresco, Mexican cheeses easy to find in the U.S. The special fry cheese used for making fried cheese, however, has no comparison that I know of sold in the U.S.