Call it a new method of making money, but fast food joints are blending East and West to offer fusion food.

Those in business claim fusion is the latest buzzword. "The focus is on Indian taste buds and also their pockets and fast food players in India have consistently learnt to add on more to cater to the local tastes," says Raghuvesh Sarup, marketing manager, Yum Restaurants International.

While Pizza Hut has evolved masala and tandoori pizza range, MacDonald's has introduced alu tikki burger and tandoori chicken varieties.

Nirula's has come up with makhni hotdog. There is even a chettinad pizza, with a South Indian flavour.

With the world becoming a global village and the consumers willing to experiment with food, restaurants are trying to mix and match Indian and Continental, American with German and even South Indian with Italian, says Vivek Kumar, general manager, Nirula's.

Sometimes, even three to four different cuisines are used to evolve a dish, like schezwan hotdog, he adds. Topped with chilli con carne, grilled onions and garnished with hot and spicy schezwan sauce, it is a tangy treat for spice lovers, and a right blend to cater to Delhi's ever-growing taste for Chinese cuisine.

Makhani hotdog tries to fuse Indian curry with chilli con carne and grilled onions to appeal to the Indian taste.

"We do try new flavours and sauces in fusion foods, but then the thrust is on maintaining the authenticity of the parent dish -- the pizza or the burger -- as the case may be," Kumar adds.

With the coming of Italian and American joints, the competition to survive in the local market has increased, thus the concept of fusion food. "They too soon realised that to survive here, they have to develop local range, while maintaining their originality," says Sandeep Madan, general manager, marketing, Nirula's.

"The whole idea behind fusion food is to give more variety to plain pizzas, burgers, pastas and other western foods, which may not be liked by all age groups here. Through fusion, we try to provide a package to anybody and everybody," says Tarandeep, head, corporate communication, Pizza Corner.

"To be successful in Indian market, going in for local preferences has become a necessity. In fact, most of the ideas have come to us from our clients as to what they wanted," he says.