McArabia

The McArabia is a pita bread sandwich available at all McDonald's outlets in Arab countries and Pakistan. It is known as the Grilled Chicken foldover in Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa,[1] as McOriental in Spain, France and the Netherlands,[2] the McTurco in Turkey,[3] Greek Mac in Greece, Cyprus and Russia (limited time offer),[4][5] and as the McKebab in Israel.[6] The sandwich was originally made to meet West Asian tastes.

History

The Sandwich was introduced as the Greek Mac in 2001 in Greece.[7]

The McArabia was introduced in Saudi Arabia and UAE in March 2003 in response to a sharp fall of profits in 2002, and declared a permanent product, due to boycotts on American brands and restaurants over the war in Iraq and claims that the ingredients were not from local vendors. The first version of the sandwich used grilled chicken with pita bread which was imported from the UK for the first week, then was switched to local bakers.[8][9] In 2004, the Kofta variant was added, while in 2005, the sandwich was introduced in Malaysia and a limited spicy beef variant in 2006.

Product description and variants

• McArabia: Grilled chicken, which contains two grilled chicken patties with tomatoes, lettuce and topped with garlic sauce wrapped in pita bread served in the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan (the only non-Arab country), and Bahrain.[10][11][12] It was served in Malaysia for a limited time in April 2020 and April 2022 as the Grilled Chicken Foldover.[13]
• McArabia Grilled Kofta: served with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and garlic mayonnaise in addition to two patties of grilled kofta, all in an Arabic-style pita bread, was served in Egypt[11] and also withdrawn from other countries in early years; it was available as a limited-time sandwich in September 2014, served in Malaysia in April 2022 as the Beef Foldover with 2 sauce variants garlic and special sauce.

External links

• The official McDonald's Arabia website
• Nutrition facts for the McArabia