There was a McDonalds in Nicaragua once, and there will probably never be again. In 1975, McDonalds decided to expand their market by opening a McDonalds in Managua, the capitol of Nicaragua. Shortly after, the US put a trade embargo on Nicaragua because the US thought they were communists.

The quality of this restaurant decreased and McDonalds took action. The corporation sent a letter saying “Do not sell cheeseburgers unless they contain cheese”. This was hard to do with the trade embargo.

They used cabbage for lettuce, white cheese for yellow cheese, and Deep-fried cassava instead of fries. Cassava is the plant they use to make tapioca pudding. When they ran out of Coca-Cola, they used pitaya, a fruit drink made from cactus.

McDonalds International was not pleased about this, but they couldn’t do much about it. Finally, the owner bought the restaurant and changed the name to Donald’s.