The Maharaja Mac: Fast-food Indian style

Spicing it up for the Indian market

American restaurants are adapting their menus to Indian palates.

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- McDonald's and Pizza Hut are the latest U.S. fast-food giants trying to carve out a niche in the hearts of India's billion-plus diners.

But they are finding that for a consumer raised on tandoori and curry you have to make it spicy or not at all.

Hence the very Indian feel to the menu found beneath the golden arches on the subcontinent -- there's the Maharaja Mac, a chicken patty-based offering, and the all-vegetarian Veggie Burger.

The menu completely excludes beef or pork, which could be offensive to Hindus and Muslims respectively.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Ram Ramgopal looks at how fast-food chains are adapting to Indian tastes (July 14) Play video   Fast food in India First McDonald's opened in 1996; Now has 34 locations Pizza Hut has 34 locations and serves 25,000 customers a day India also has TGI Friday's, Subway and Domino's. Source: CNN

And rival Pizza Hut is pushing its range of Masala Pizzas, a spiced-up version of what you might find in the West.

"We're not here to change the Indian customer's taste buds. We're here to give him a top quality product with a taste and texture that appeals to him," said Pankaj Batra, director of marketing for Pizza Hut's parent company.

The Pizza Hut menu offers the Veggie Lover's and the Spicy Indian.

But other U.S. companies have found the Indian market a tough one to crack and the cultural and culinary differences too wide to bridge.

After an ambitious start in the late 1990s, KFC scaled back its expansion plans after protests against what some in India called cultural imperialism. It now has just one restaurant in India.