In Praise of the Grand Cheese

Vegetarians outside India, I can't tell you how deprived you are.

I didn't know how much I was missing out on until my very brief post-security stint at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on my way out of India on Monday morning.

I decided to try something from McDonald's, an eatery I usually avoid at home in the UK because their idea of a vegetarian meal is inferior to literally every other option on the market. All their vegetarian products feature the same insipid 90's style vegetable finger...things that taste of exactly nothing and have the temerity to cost the same as the meat products, which presumably taste good or else people wouldn't keep eating them.

However, the Indian McDonald's menu has intrigued me every since Ameesha Patel told Hrithik Roshan to bring her a vegetarian burger in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, a film made long before veggie burgers had even been introduced in British McDonald's, so I was optimistic about what I might find there.

The first thing I saw was this shiny, decadent, irresistable (AI) poster of the two stars of their Signature collection:

I defy anyone who calls themselves a cheese lover to refrain from ordering a burger that beautiful, even if it is AI. (I don't know why it is, it is just as perfect-looking in real life.)

It's one vegetable patty (in itself dramatically better than the weird vegetable finger...things they serve over here), separated by one classic cheese slice from another patty which is...cheese. Pure, perfect, melty, yummy, breadcrumbed cheese. It's amazing. You have to take breaks while eating it because your feeble system just isn't used to so much cheese (and it kind of won't fit in your mouth), but it is incredibly worth it.

It's also got an ultra-special and soft potato-based bun, but to be honest I barely noticed because I was too busy delighting in the cheese. You can even see it on video, and why wouldn't you want to?

I would eat one of these every day of my life, no problem, but I can't, because British McDonald's is awful, hates us and wants us to suffer. I want to write and let them know how much better they could be doing, despite the fact that I suspect that they know perfectly well already, and just don't care. If they cared, we would have an edible vegetarian menu already.

However. the Customer Services section of their website only suggests a chat bot as a means to communicate, and I doubt it has the power to make menu decisions. It has also been 'loading' with one of those annoying spinning circles for the last 10 minutes, so I guess they aren't very open to suggestions, or the system is already clogged with complaints about their rubbish menu, or the robot is on lunch. Or maybe I am supposed to start a viral X campaign, a task I am certainly not up to.

Regardless of my communication difficulties with McDonald's at least you now know what you should eat if you're visiting India as a cheese-lover! And if you're an Indian cheese-lover, know that the rest of the world is very, very jealous.

As you can see, this 365 stories in 2025 is going very well. I've just returned from an exciting trip to India, so hopefully I'll have plenty to inspire me for a while!

Let me know if you liked this or not in the comments. :)

If you enjoy yummy food recommendations, you might like to read about my Scottish Ice Cream recipe!