For a brief time in early 2022, Chinese McDonald's locations began serving their version of a McFlurry sundae featuring vanilla ice cream topped with fresh cilantro. It's far from the only untraditional invention to combine sweet and savory flavors at Chinese McDonald's locations, as they've also sold a spicy chili oil sundae as well as a Spam-Oreo burger.

The Finnish burger chain Hesburger is beloved for its homemade mayonnaise, but several locations also feature a car wash service called HesePesu. With the ability to wash up to 35 cars per hour, Hesburger allows customers to get their cars cleaned while enjoying a meal. Some Hesburgers also offer accommodations in the form of the HeseHotelli.

Pizza Huts in Taiwan are unlike other locations throughout the world. Just one example is the No. 1 Salted Chicken Pizza, which is topped with spicy popcorn chicken, tempura, and fried squid rings. The pizza's most distinct feature, however, is the ring of Oreo cookies baked into the crust, and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

From KFC to Jollibee to Pollo Campero, fried chicken is beloved across the globe. The latter — which was founded in Guatemala in 1971 — offers both fried and grilled chicken seasoned with local Guatemalan spices, as well as unique fast food items such as flan, sweet plantains, and horchata. Instead of deep-frying their chicken, Pollo Campero uses pressure frying.

Hitting the slopes can work up quite the appetite, but what to do with all that ski gear? Sweden’s Lindvallen ski resort has solved that issue with the world's first and only McSki. The Lindvallen McDonald’s invites customers to ski right up to the “ski-thru” window, place their order, and ski off again with something to eat on their way back to the lift.

What began in 1999 as a small bakery in Osaka, Japan, has blossomed into an international giant with over 400 locations worldwide. Beard Papa's is known for their crusty cream puffs that contain vanilla custard cream. The company’s logo — which features a bearded man — is based on the owner of the original restaurant, Yuji Hirota, who grew a fluffy white beard.

The Filipino answer to KFC, Jollibee is a rapidly expanding fast food chain known for their signature style of chicken known as "Chickenjoy." Other notable items on the menu include a sweet spaghetti, a mango pie (similar to the classic apple pies sold at McDonald's), and a dessert known as halo-halo, which features gummies and fruit atop shaved ice.

Starbucks first opened its doors in Seattle on March 30, 1971, and soon began spreading across the continent. The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo, Japan, in 1996, and the chain expanded to Singapore later that year and the Philippines the next year. Today, Starbucks has locations in 76 countries.

Along with other Western fast food establishments, McDonald’s is banned in Iran due to the nation’s complicated political relationship with the U.S. But that doesn’t mean fast food isn’t popular with Iranians. Mash Donald's is a loving tribute to one of America’s best-known cultural exports, serving halal burgers, crispy chicken nuggets, and French fries to customers craving a taste of American-style fast food.

Subway has restaurants in more than 100 countries, and the chain often incorporates local flavors into their sandwiches. Among those interesting international sandwiches is a corn-and-pea sub found at locations throughout India. The mixture is bound together with an eggless mayo and meant to satisfy the country's large vegetarian population.

Nando's first opened in 1987 in Johannesburg before expanding internationally (it’s particularly popular in the United Kingdom). The restaurant is known for its beloved peri-peri sauce, a chicken marinade containing spices, lemons, onion, garlic, and African bird's eye chili. Each week, Nando's serves upwards of half a million chickens to its customers worldwide.

You might want to avoid Vermont if you need a daily fix of Venti Caramel Frappuccino — there are a mere eight Starbucks locations to serve the state’s nearly 625,000 residents. West Virginia isn’t far behind with only 25 stores, and New Hampshire has just 29 locations. The state with the most locations is California, which has more than 2,800 Starbucks stores.

In 2001, Pizza Hut staged a publicity stunt costing more than $1 million to send a pie aboard a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. The pie was heavily seasoned, as taste buds become dulled in space, and pepperoni was swapped out for salami, as the latter kept fresh longer.

There are more than three million saunas in Finland — about one for every two people who live there — and 99% of Finns use a sauna at least once per week. So it only made sense to combine one of the country’s favorite pastimes with the burgeoning popularity of fast food — and take "meat sweats" to a whole new level.

The fast food restaurant has over 17,000 locations around the globe, but when Burger King expanded to Australia in the 1970s, the American company quickly discovered there was already a burger chain there with the same name. So the first local franchisee, Jack Cowin, coined the name “Hungry Jack's” after himself.

Taco Bell serves Mexican-inspired cuisine, but you won’t find any locations south of the border — but not for lack of trying. The first Taco Bell in Mexico opened in Mexico City in 1992, but local customers quickly deemed the menu items confusing because they were so different from their authentic counterparts. The brand left the country two years later and had another failed attempt in Mexico in 2007.

America may run on Dunkin’, but the beloved coffee and doughnut chain had relatively humble beginnings in the Boston suburb of Quincy, Massachusetts. Bill Rosenberg opened the first Dunkin’ Donuts in 1950. Five years later, the first Dunkin’ Donuts franchise opened. Since then, the brand has grown to more than 12,400 restaurants in 46 countries.

A cultural staple throughout Canada, the coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons was founded by former Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Tim Horton. The first franchise opened in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964, and by 2016, it had become Canada's largest restaurant chain, with 3,665 locations. Wendy's purchased Tim Hortons in 1995, and it was later sold to Burger King in 2014.

While most of Canada speaks English, Quebec is the only province that is home to a majority French-speaking population. Local and provincial laws state that all business names must be in French. That's how Kentucky Fried Chicken ended up having to rename its restaurants in Quebec from KFC to PFK, which stands for “Poulet Frit Kentucky.”

France is the largest European market for McDonald’s, where locals call it McDo (pronounced “Mac-Dough”). However, these aren’t the fast food restaurants you’re used to — McDo features a McCafe filled with patisserie staples such as macarons and croissants and lunch menu options like a cheesy fondue burger with melted raclette and Emmentaler.