McDonald's Around the World

Spicy Korean Burger w. Criss Cut Chips & Pulut Hitam Pie - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - September 2017

2017-09-23T22:55:00.003+07:00

Spicy Korean Burger - Malaysia 2017

Spicy Korean Burger Black Bun

Consumed on 20 September 2017

Location - McDonald's Sogo Department Store, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Burger Combo Price - 17.59MYR = $4.21USD. Pie Price 3.95MYR = $0.95USD

Calories - Unknown

I didn't expect there to be an entire month break between my last review from Taiwan and now, but even though I made trips to both Singapore, and Japan, over the last few weeks, neither gave me the opportunity to try something new for the blog. My trip to Japan was especially disappointing, since they were running both a Tokyo Roast Beef Burger, and an Osaka Donkatsu Burger, but either Okinawa Island where I was visiting either never offer those promos, or they were already sold out across the island, but I tried to visit at least 5 branches to find them only to be denied each time. My trip to Malaysia earlier this week I was at lucky enough to find the Spicy Korean Burger on the tail end of it's promo run, since most branches had already replaced it with the "Syok" Chicken.

McDonald's Malaysia Receipt 2017

Spicy Korean Burger Box - McDonald's Malaysia 2017

Sarang Hae Spicy? Really?

This isn't the first time the Spicy Korean Burger has made an appearance at McDonald's Malaysia, as it quickly sold out in July of this year only to be brought back for a few more weeks in September. When I mentioned what I ate to a few people our office, they were shocked that I was able to find the burger and asked which branch still had it. All mention of it on the official website were removed about 2 weeks ago, so the branch I found likely was just clearing out the end of their stock. As my photos easily show, the burger was topped with a charcoal-coloured Black Bun, but coloured buns have been so common in Asia over recent years, it was hardly a selling point. What was special about this burger was the Kimchi-seasoned beef patty, and the "Korean" spicy sauce.

First, I have absolutely no idea what those track marks on the top bun were from. They weren't supposed to be there, and since I was in a rush to do some last minute shopping before heading back to Thailand, I didn't feel like asking either, so I just tore that part off. In retrospect I probably should have asked, since it does look like something ran over the bun...Like every other black or coloured bun I've had before, it didn't taste anything different than a standard bun.

The toppings weren't all that exciting either, mostly lettuce, but there was a sprinkling of cabbage on there like other Korean-themed burgers I've had over the years. I was impressed that they used two slices of cheese, as most burgers in Asia are restricted to one.

When this burger was about to be released, many people reported that Korean Spicy Sauce was going to be a Korean Gochuchang, which is a dark red-pepper paste used heavily in Korea, but those were mostly incorrect as the sauce used was still a standard McDonald's mayo-based sauce. It was orange, and didn't resemble gochuchang at all, and it didn't really taste any different from a standard "spicy" sauce used on burgers. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't Korean at all.

The beef was what I was most excited to try, since it was supposed to be Kimchi "seasoned" and to me, that just sounded, well, wrong. Long time readers will know that I started this blog when I was living in Korea, and my wife is Korean...I know my kimchi. In Korea, "kimchi" is a side dish or an ingredient, not a seasoning nor a 'flavour'. I know in South East Asia you can find Kimchi-flavoured snacks, and Singapore just had Kimchi Shakers, but that's just not really common in Korea at all. So to me, a Kimchi-seasoned beef patty was either going to be horrible, or amazing, if done right. This beef took me completely by surprised and leaned surprisingly towards the amazing side, as I was extremely impressed. The beef did have a pickled kimchi-esc hit too it, but you wouldn't be finding any cabbage or other veg here as they almost certainly seasoned the beef in kimchi brine rather than trying to do something silly like use vegetables mixed in the patty. The vinegariness of the brine was subtle and nearly hidden out by flavours of the sauce and the cheese, but you could taste it if you knew what to look for. I wouldn't be surprised at all if people said this burger doesn't taste like Kimchi at all, and that's correct. If you've ever had Kimchi-fried-rice, where they mix cabbage kimchi and make fried rice out of it. That sourness of the rice that you can taste even when you don't have any veg in your bite, is as close as an example as I can think of to try and compare it too.

McDonald's Malaysia Criss Cut Chips 2017

I only tried the Criss Cut Chips because getting a combo was something like 2MYR ($0.48USD) more than getting the burger on it's own, and the Criss Cut Chips have had a style change since I had them last. They used to be significantly thicker and waffle-fry cut, and much like other non-french fry potato items, back then they were soggy and pretty gross. Now that they were as thin as crisps, they were crunchy, and the slightly more well done pieces that I could dig up from the box, I rather enjoyed. Although there was a clear variance in even the single box I was served, as some were crispy, but others were half-cooked and stuck together.

Some burnt, some undercooked - all from the same box.

Last but not least would be the Pulut Hitam Pie. It's been a while since I've had a really 'local' McDonald's pie, and they are usually pretty hit or miss in my books. To the non-Bahasa speakers Pulut Hitam is black sticky rice pudding, usually sweetened and served with coconut milk.

McDonald's Pulut Hitam Pie - Sticky Black Rice Pudding Pie

The building this McDonald's was in was closing about 20min after I ordered, so I half expected the pies to be either finished, or in terrible shape after sitting most of the evening. This pie actually seemed pretty fresh, as the outer fried crust wasn't soggy, and the filling still quite warm. The black rice fulling was a bit on the light side, but it at least filled the pie from end to end. I know it will sound unappetising, but the rice had an almost chalky texture to it, which is exactly what should be. There wasn't any visible coconut milk in there, but you could definitely taste it, likely as the base of the syrup that surrounded the rice. It also meant the pie was not unbearingly sweet at all, and discounting the savoury pies that you might get in Thailand, or maybe the Georgie Pie in New Zealand this was one of the least-sweet pies I've ever had!

Rating:

Spicy Korean Burger - 4/5

Criss Cut Chips - 3.5/5

Pulut Hitam Pie - 4.5/5

Just like the track marks on my burger bun, my pie box had small pieces of loose, fried pie filling floating around inside. I at first thought it might have been something that leaked out of my pie and fell into the box, but I checked and the pie I had was completely intact. They were very hard, and definetly had a round through the fryer, but I didn't dare try one...

McDonald's Malaysia Syok Chicken Burger 2017

This is the Burger Syok that replaced the Spicy Korean Burger. I had the chance to review either, and I think I made the right decision by skipping this one, as it looks like a pretty plain spicy chicken promo.

McDonald's Malaysia Salted Caramel McFlurry 2017

They also had a Salted Caramel dessert range, and the branch I was visiting, still had the Durian McFlurry on offer. Durian is something I've had before, and don't really feel like having again, so I gave both a pass.

Vanilla Flavoured McNuggets (香草雞塊) & Berry Brownie Sundae (莓果布朗尼) - Taoyuan, Taiwan - July 2017

2017-08-20T12:05:00.001+07:00

Consumed on 29 July 2017

Location - McDonald's Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Price - 49NTD each = $1.61USD

Calories - Unknown

I think this is the first time in a couple of years that I haven't posted a review for over two weeks. That was because for nearly a full week I was quite sick, and didn't have the energy, or the stomach, to write any reviews for this blog. Now that I'm feeling a bit better (but still not 100%), and found a few spare minutes on a flight, I am able to show you both the 'Flavoured' McNuggets, and the Berry Brownie Sundae from McDonald's Taiwan.

I made it to Taiwan a couple weeks ago now, between a trip to Hong Kong, which I reviewed the Silly, and a trip to the Philippines (reviews to come!). I was only in Taiwan for a day, and the promo burgers available were 2 from the European Tastes line, the first was the Alfredo Italian Chicken (奶油白醬脆雞堡), the same burger I had in the airport last year, and a new French Mushroom burger. Since I don't eat Mushrooms, I opted to try both the new sides instead.

The French Mustard Mushroom Burger I didn't try

The Flavoured McNuggets weren't really being heavily promoted in branch, as the burgers dominated the marketing, both in-branch on and the website, they only had a small "add on" poster attached to the register trying to get you to add it to a meal. They also weren't mentioned anywhere on the official website, so I wasn't even able to try and Google Translate what "flavour" they were supposed to be. Since I was ordering these at the airport, and the staff taking my order could speak a bit of English I asked him, and he confidently answered "vanilla". I've had Spicy Nuggets before, and those made sense, and I thought with the specks of colour inside, that it might herb or something like that, but Vanilla was certainly not a what I expected at all. I double checked and asked "Vanilla?" and he said "Yes, Italian Vanilla"...So I took these to my seat ready to find out what Vanilla Nuggets could ever be like.

I cracked open the white paper bag they were served in excited to see if I could spot any differences, and lo and behold, these were visibility a different colour to standard McNuggets even without taking a bite. Sure, they were the standard shapes, but had a darker, almost greyish-green hue to them which make them stand out from a non-flavoured nugget. They also looked a bit wrinklier compared to the normal ones as well, but that might just be because my serving ended up being stone cold. I wasn't sick at the time, so my tastebuds were fully functional, and these had no distinguishable vanilla, nor any other flavour for that matter, they tasted exactly like 100% standard Chicken McNuggets, which was a pretty big disappointment. Since they weren't even fresh, I finished about a nugget and a half before tossing the rest. I was hoping since the Steamed Veggie Nuggets surprised me a few years ago, that these would have at least been better than they were.

The Berry Brownie Sundae was being marketed as a "British" dessert keeping in line with the other "French" and "Italian" burgers. Although I usually go for McFlurries when given the option, the sundae just seemed generally prettier, since the brownie chunks could keep their shape on top, and a Pirouline-style biscuit stuck in there for good measure.

The Berry-blend, ended up tasting like Raspberry jam, rather than a multi-fruit blend. The brownies on top, were decent thick and chocolaty, but they were still had a more cake-like consistency than a brownie. The biscuit stick inside certainly wasn't high quality either, as it was purely a sugar cookie, and expected semi-cream filling you might expect to find in a Pirouline just wasn't there. I had put in a good 8 hours of walking before eating this, so I ate the brownies, and as much of the soft serve that I could get that didn't have much of the syrup on it, but I left more than half the bucuit together with the nuggets.

Rating -

Vanilla Flavoured McNuggets - 0/5

Berry Brownie Sundae - 2/5

I haven't been in Taiwan during breakfast hours in over a year, so the new Eggs Benedict breakfast has still eluded me.

On my latest trip to Singapore, the popular Nasi Lemak Burger finished it's run early due to being so popular, so it was replaced with the rather boring Black Pepper Mayo Chicken and BBQ Beef Burger. Neither were that exciting, and since I was feverish my entire time in Singapore, I easily gave them a pass.

Eggcellent Silly Double Beef Burger - Hong Kong - July 2017

2017-07-31T22:31:00.001+07:00

McDonald's Eggcellent Silly Double Beef Burger - Hong Kong June 2017

McDonald's Hong Kong Eggcellent Silly Double Beef Burger - June 2017

Consumed on 26 July 2017

Location - McDonald's Yen Chow Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Price - 19HKD = $2.43USD

Calories - ~590kcal

McDonald's Hong Kong Eggcellent Silly Double Beef Receipt

Eggcellent Silly Double Beef Burger Minion Bun - Hong Kong 2017

A couple years ago McDonald's Hong Kong released the Diner Double Beef Batman burger and it went viral all over the internet. The burger was a double beef burger topped with an egg, black pepper sauce, and black pepper mayo. I wasn't able to try that burger, but I did get a follow-up Superman Chicken Burger (and Cheese Balls) flown into Singapore for me to try. The next year, in 2015 McDonald's Hong Kong released the same burger under the Eggcellent Silly Double Beef Burger moniker to coincide with the Minions movie. This year, they brought it back yet again with a slight variation on the bun for the 3rd (or 4th?) Minions film, and I was finally able to give it a try, but only after my Twitter followers picked it over the Va Va Vatapa Honey Mustard Chicken.

The burger itself was a pretty big contrast to the massive Crispy Onion Angus Burger I had in Hong Kong about a month earlier. Rather than a huge angus patty, it only used 2 basic hamburger sized beef patties, which were flanked by an Egg and a standard slice of cheese, nothing really 'premium' about this burger, but it was sold at a budget price point, so it wasn't really that bad. I've had eggs on McDonald's burgers so many times over the last few years it's doesn't even warrant a second glace anymore, so the sauces were what I really wanted to taste.

The sauce on the top bun, and the one being shown off in most of the promotional imagery was a black pepper sauce. Hong Kong used to run the McPepper at least once a year back in the day, and I've reviewed it before, and the black pepper sauce they used in Hong Kong (and Macau) was historically one of my favourites, as it was very peppery. I have a feeling since they've replaced the McPepper with movie promo tie-ins, the sauce has gone a bit downhill as this time it didn't give off that hit of black pepper flavour like it used to.

The sauce on the bottom, which isn't really shown all that well, had next to no taste. I wasn't able to find anywhere online listing exactly what the sauce was supposed to be, but it seemed a bit too thick to be just mayo/McChicken sauce, so I wouldn't be surprised it was some sort of cheese blend. It was also specked with black pepper, but if I wasn't able to taste the pepper in the top sauce, I certainly wasn't going to taste it in this one. All in this burger actually tasted fine, but it tasted like a cheap $2 McDouble and the sauces, didn't really do anything at all to give it a bit of uniqueness. I'm surprised it actually made it back a second time after the initial Batman run to be honest, as it's far from memorable. I guess the 'cool' factor made it sell well.

Oh, the minion etched (burnt?) into the bun was just appearances - the bun had no special flavours either, which reminded me of another Egg-topped Movie Tie in...

Rating - 2/5

For those of you that blame this boring burger on the Twitter poll, this is likely the burger I would have picked to review anyway as the Chicken was simply Honey Mustard and Cucumber on the same buttermilk patty I had a couple months ago.

Cheese Stars & Nougat Dream - Belgrade, Serbia - June 2017

2017-07-21T00:12:00.000+07:00

McDonald's Serbia - Cheese Stars - June 2017

McDonald's Serbia Nougat Dream - Belgrade, Serbia - June 2017

Consumed on 25 June 2017

Location - Ушће шопинг центар, Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 4, Beograd 11070, Serbia

Price - Cheese Stars - 190RSD = $1.81USD. Nougat Dream - 210RSD = $2.00USD

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Serbia Receipt 2017

I'm not sure if this giant fish tank was owned by the mall, or the McDonald's..

A few weeks ago I mentioned in my review of the Hong Kong Crispy Angus & Loaded Fries that I was visiting Croatia, Bosnia and for the first time, Serbia. I intentionally skipped the unexciting promo burger in Croatia, and although I spent nearly 2 full weeks in Bosnia, I didn't come within 200km of the nearest McDonald's so I wasn't able to try it. I did however try two limited time items in Serbia, Cheese Stars, and the Nougat Dream ice cream, as they didn't have any promo burgers running at the time.

The Cheese Stars are a recurring promo in most of the Balkan McDonald's, although previous iterations looked a bit different without the outer whitish flakes coating the outside, identical to the Camembert Cheese Bites I had in Oman last year. Not only are these Stars a recurring promo, but other cheese items pop up all the time in different shapes and forms. The weeks prior to my arrival in Serbia when I was monitoring the website for new items they were promoting Camembert Cheese "doughnuts" which were doughnut shaped cheese sticks. Just now they are serving Bacon Cheese "medallions" and I had a colleague fly me the Cheese Sombereos a few years back when I was living in Singapore. Just like back then, the sauce served with the product had a Serbian label stuck on top of a sauce made in Germany, so my 'Pavlaka Sos' quickly became Sour Cream Dip when I peeled off the label, which I think might still be a first for me at McDonald's. The sauce itself looked a bit strange since it was much firmer than a standard dip, and still even had the ripple effect from being poured into the tub etched into the top of the sauce.

McDonald's Serbia Cheese Stars

The Cheese inside the star wasn't a cheese like a typical Mozzarella stick, but rather an even more creamy cheese blend. There were clearly 2 different types of cheese with a white cheese being the predominant one, and an orange cheese being in the mix as well. Unfortunately they weren't served straight from the fryer so they weren't piping hot, and the quality of cheese wasn't quite up to the standards I've had in other European countries, so it a bit of a letdown for me. It didn't taste like a from-the-box processed cheap mozzarella stick, but it wasn't that much better either. Serbian food is typically very cheap, and most restaurants serve a cheese and cold cut plate and you'll get a huge selection of both for only a few dollars, so for three small stars being almost $2, it was an extremely poor value when you consider what you can get outside.

McDonald's Serbia Nougat Dream Sundae - June 2017

I ordered Nougat Dream because The Wife and I spent nearly a full day in the sun walking on one of the hottest days of the year in Belgrade, so we were both pretty baked and an sundae sounded pretty appetising to both of us. Long time readers will know that McFlurries are usually what I go for, but Serbia wasn't running any special flavours, so I thought a sundae was a better choice. The photos don't really do it justice about how large it was and generally how great this sundae looked was when served. Just appearance wise it didn't look like a $2 Sundae from McDonald's, but rather from a expensive dedicated ice cream please. First it was massive, the cup easily the size of a Medium drink, so at least 3 times the size of the sundaes in Asia, but it also had a foam tower on top. It wasn't even cheap foam either, it was pretty thick on it's own and tasty eaten on it's own. There was actually so much ice cream hidden underneath we pushed most of the foam away because we knew we weren't going to be able to finish both, even being so hot.

The flavours mixed together with the soft serve was a hazelnut syrup, which was surprisingly light all things considered, and wasn't overpoweringly sweet - it almost had caramel undertones rather than just simple sugars. But the stars were the speculoos cookies mixed in as well. Just like when I had the "Mocha Flavoured McFlurry with Caramelised Biscuits" I thought the addition of these biscuits are always a great addition, and despite actively enjoying speculoos when I get them served in ice cream or on a plane, I never seem to buy myself a package to eat on their own...Over the next couple days in Serbia I debated giving the Cherry Sundae a try after enjoying this one so much, but we were just so stuffed from eating our regular meals we just didn't bother.

Rating:

Cheese Stars - 2/5

Nougat Dream - 5/5

As always is my luck, just one week after departing Serbia back for Thailand, the same Ceasar Burger that taunted me in Bosnia, was added to the Serbian menu... (and you can see the new Bacon Cheese Medallions and Twisty Fries on the side)

McDonalds Serbia Ceaser Burger - June 2017

Fruit Curry & Creamy Cheese McNugget Sauce & Tomato Cream McShakers - Osaka, Japan - 2017

2017-07-09T23:54:00.002+07:00

Fruit Curry & Creamy Cheese McNugget Sauce - McDonald's Japan 2016

McDonald's Thailand McNuggets with McDonald's Japan Sauces

McDonald's Japan Tomato Cream Shakers - 2016

Fruit Curry & Creamy Cheese McNugget Sauce, Purchased in 2016 in Osaka, Japan

Consumed in May 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand

Price - Free with combo purchase

Calories - Unknown

Tomato Cream Shakers Purchased in 2016 in Osaka, Japan

Consumed in February 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand

Price - Free with combo purchase

Calories - Unknown

Earlier this week I posted a poll on Twitter asking from which country you guys would like to see my next review from. Japan inched passed Serbia in the closing couple of minutes of the poll, so that's why these three items from Japan are being posted now rather than waiting even longer as I've been waiting to write both of these up for the last couple of months. Both of these items were brought back from Japan by my buddy Andrew, and I picked them up in Hong Kong from him on my last couple of trips.

Even though the sauces were newer than the shakers, I'll start with them as I was looking forward to trying these more than the shaker. Both the Fruit Curry and Creamy Cheese McNugget dips were released in Japan in summer of last year, so I've had these sitting in my fridge for quite a while. They were in there so long I was a bit afraid to open them as not only were they ancient, they were long past their best before date. When I cracked them open, the Fruit Curry one looked and smelt just fine, but the Cheese looked a bit "firm" but after giving it a dip it was probably just he way it settled

As I've mentioned in my Japanese Curry Burger review (from Taiwan), Japanese Curry is quite a bit different than Indian Curry, and it's typically served with potatoes together with the meat and other vegetables, but is generally sweeter than you might expect. Fruit Curry is a more recent trend, so I'm not surprised McDonald's Japan wanted to try something a bit different as they've had a basic curry sauce before. Not surprisingly, this sauce tasted exactly like Japanese Curry, but it didn't however have any fruit flavours as far as I could tell. I wasn't able to find anything in English online to tell what fruit flavours it was trying to emulate, but I was expecting for something a bit more than just curry. It was perfectly fine as it was, and probably my favourite of the lot that afternoon, but I was hoping for something a bit more unique.

Next up was the slightly scary looking Creamy Cheese. I've never seen something being marketed as creamy so firm before, and just looking at it you could tell it was something absolutely horrible for you. I've had a few poor cheese sauces over the years writing this blog, but this had to have been up there with one of the worst. There wasn't inherently anything wrong with the taste, it just tasted like the cheapest processed cheese you could find. I know Japan isn't really a huge cheese market, but I was surprised that McDonald's Japan, which typically uses semi-premium ingredients for their promos, went for the absolute lowest quality "cheese" they could find. But hey - at least they weren't Nacho Cheese...

McDonald's Japan Tomato Cream Potato Shaka Shaka

I've never had a tomato that colour before...

The final review tonight would be for the Tomato Cream McShakers, that were released towards the end of 2016, which I ate them in February when I reviewed a handful of other shakers and the Fish & Fries on the same day. These were by far the worst I ate that afternoon and were actually so bad I contemplated never writing a review on them, but since this is a short post, and readers wanted to see items from Japan, here they are. If these were called Ketchup or simply Tomato, I could have 100% seen what they were going for, but the cream seemed like an afterthought as tomatoes, nor fries, are something I think of needing to be creamy. The cream was hardly noticeable, and I think it was actually powered milk in there rather than any actual cream product. The problem with these wasn't really with the cream, but for some reason the tomato flavour they went for was extremely sour, and to me was completely off putting. I haven't had a shaker as bad as these since the Ketchup Shakers from The Philippines, so there's definitely something I don't like about tomato and fries...I literally had a single fry from this batch and couldn't bring myself to have another. Even the smell was sour, almost like spoiled....milk....oh....

Fruit Curry McNugget Sauce - 3.5/5

Creamy Cheese McNugget Sauce - 2/5

Tomato Cream McShakers - 0/5

McDonald's Thailand Hot & Spicy McNugget Sauce - 2017

Keen eyed readers would have spotted that the lead in photo of these sauces had three tubs side-by-side and that's because it included the Regular Menu "Hot & Spicy" sauce from right here in Thailand. It wasn't much more than sweet chilli, which is available all over Asia, but it had a very, very little kick to it. If I were to get nuggets again in Thailand, I'd certainly go for this over the BBQ option.

*Hot & Spicy McNugget Sauce - 3.5/5

Canadian Bacon McMuffin & Peach Tea - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - April 2017

2017-06-27T22:30:00.002+07:00

McDonald's Vietnam Peach Tea 2017

McDonald's Vietnam Canadian Bacon McMuffin 2017

Consumed on 17-18 April 2017

Location - McDonald's Hoang Diau, District 3, Ho Ci Minh City, Vietnam

McMuffin Combo Price 39,000VND = $1.71USD

Peach Tea 39,000VND = $1.71USD

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Vietnam Receipt

I tried both of these items on a trip to Vietnam back in April, both weren't planned, and not all that exiting to me, so it's a perfect opportunity for them to be featured in a short review. I want to keep this one short I just flew 14 hours overnight back to Bangkok this morning, then put in a full day at work, so I'm both tired and jetlagged and would prefer to keep this short.

I'll start with the Peach Tea as I tried that one first. A colleague and I wanted to find somewhere quiet to sit and do some training for an hour. All the meeting rooms in our office were booked, so we ventured down to the McDonald's that is in the same building as our office. It was nearly 2pm and I had already had countless cups of Vietnamese coffee that morning, so the McDonald's cup wasn't a good choice. So rather than getting Coke Zero, I tried opted to try one of their new "Summer" range of drinks, Strawberry Tea was an option, but Ice Coffee was out of the question. I chose Peach over Strawberry simply because it didn't come with whipped cream on top.

The cup that was served actually looked rather pleasant, it was served in a tall McCafe glass (although this was on the non-McCafe menu) and the four Peach quarters on top were both large and looked tasty and nearly identical to the photo. The big problem here was that I watched them make it, and that was a big mistake. This wasn't tea, this was a glass of ice water mixed with six, yes six, pumps of syrup from an unmarked bottle, and the peach peaches scooped directly out of a tin can. I also have no idea why my drink started foaming the way it did, as it wasn't made with anything carbonated so after a reluctant single sip, I left pretty much the full glass on the table. I took a bite of one of the peaches just to double check, and they were exactly like I though - Made in China tinned Peaches (even those fruit cups in the US are usually made in China).

The following morning The Wife wanted food after skipping missing mediocre hotel breakfast. We had been eating street Banh Mi for the previous 4 days, and apart from that there wasn't much else around our office for a quick breakfast, so she decided to get a McMuffin. I couldn't tempt her to try the Banh McMuffin I enjoyed a few months prior, so she went with the Canadian Bacon McMuffin, as I thought it might be something unique to Vietnam, and worth reviewing for the blog. What was served was a Egg McMuffin that swapped the Egg for some veg, which would normally be a plus for me, but in this case there were three squirts of mayo on this single Muffin, far too much for both me and The Wife. Even the "bacon" was the standard slice of ham, which I expect probably wasn't even sent in from Canada. The BLT McMuffin from Australia I had a few years ago had a much better attempt at Canadian bacon, even if it wasn't being called Canadian. Strangely enough, the other BLT McMuffin I tried in Korea was identical to this Vietnamese McMuffin, swapped the Egg for Veg, but at least there it had a reasonable amount of mayo.

I had one or two bites, and she couldn't even finish the rest, which meant we needed to go have an early lunch.

Peach Tea - 0/5

Canadian Bacon McMuffin - 2/5

I haven't had the chance to get to review that many McMuffins over the years looking back . But some of the few memorable ones were the Halloumi Cheese McMuffin in Oman, and the Tuna McMuffin from Japan.

Crispy Onion Angus Burger & Loaded Fries with Cheese and Bacon - Hong Kong - June 2017

2017-06-16T01:51:00.001+07:00

McDonald's Hong Kong Crispy Onion Angus Burger - Hong Kong June 2017

McDonald's Hong Kong Loaded Fries with Cheese and Bacon - Hong Kong June 2017

Consumed on 09 June 2017

Location - McDonald's Smithfield Road, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong

Burger Combo Price - 41.80HKD = $5.36USD. Loaded Fries Add On - $4HKD = $0.51USD

Calories - ~900kcal

McDonald's Hong Kong Receipt June 2017

I didn't plan on ending up in Hong Kong only a month after my last trip, when I reviewed the Spicy Jalapeno Chicken and various sides, but I had to make a trip to Bosnia (from where I'm typing this review), and Hong Kong ended up being a free stopover point for our flight there, so we took advantage and stopped for a few days. The week prior to my arrival in HK, the McDonald's official website was promoting a Spicy Sriracha Burger, which was pretty much the same as the Spicy Jalapeno that I had, but swapping the Jalapeno sauce for a Thai-style Sriracha. For someone that lives in Thailand, I thought that would be a bit disappointing and planned on skipping it entirely, so when we arrived only to find that the burger had been replaced with the Crispy Onion Angus, I was rather pleased and made sure I would try it for lunch.

It's actually been quite a long time since I've had a promo Beef burger, as most of the limited time burgers in Asia are usually Chicken-based, and an even longer time since I've had anything Angus. The burger was being marketed under the Signature Collection, so that meant the ingredients were intended to be a bit more premium over the regular menu. They even displayed that the 100% Angus Beef patty was 130g (4.6oz) so for McDonald's, especially in Asia, that's a pretty hefty patty. Accompanying that patty was a fried egg, which when ordered through the digital kiosk could have been swapped for a "round" egg, which are typically found on McMuffins. Also hidden in there were the eponymous Crispy Onion bits, a slice of non-processed emmental cheese, a veg mix (purple cabbage, lettuce & carrot) and both Gravy & Cream Cheese sauces.

Just reading through the list of ingredients, anyone would know that it was definitely a busy burger with so many different flavours going on. On taking my first bite, the most distinct taste was surprisingly the cream cheese sauce of all things. It was probably because there was a rather large serving of the sauce on the top bun, especially when compared to the Gravy sauce on the bottom. The broken-yolk fried egg was a nice change to the standard McMuffin round egg, so even though I've had egg on burgers before at McDonald's I think this might have been the first non-round egg - I'll have to dig through some older reviews and double check. The egg was actually cooked quite well, and although the yolk was cooked all the way through, it wasn't overcooked at all. For something that isn't a part of the standard menu, I was impressed with the quality.

The biggest disappointment here ended up being the thick beef patty. I felt that it was both underseasoned, and overcooked. It certainly wasn't bad, but could have been much better. I don't know if Hong Kong has ever had such a large patty prior to this Signature Collection range, but they weren't really prepared for one of this size if this is the standard they keep. The size also ended up being a detriment, since its sheer size hid some the other flavours. The large patty meant the Crispy Onions were completely absent - I could see them hidden between the egg and patty, but I couldn't taste them at all. Same goes with the veg, aside from their added crunch, their taste was hidden. The emmental cheese was nice, not as nice as when I had it in Denmark, but the burger would have needed another slice to give it enough to compete with that massive patty.

The Loaded Fries with Cheese and Bacon released together with the Sriracha Chicken Burger 2 weeks prior, but luckily for me they continued their run together with the Crispy Onion. Unlike the do-it-yourself toppings that are served in Japan, these were served topped with their Cheese and Bacon. The open-face box they were served on meant that only about 2/3 the serving of a typical medium fry was provided, and that was a bit disappointing since you actually had to pay a premium to get these.

The cheese wasn't just a melted cheese slice either, this was proper nacho cheese, like you'd get at a cinema or sports event. I was rather impressed they didn't just use the same cream cheese sauce that was served on the burger, and this was unique to the fries, as nothing else on the menu used nacho cheese (but that doesn't mean the next burger won't). McDonald's Singapore just discontinued their Nacho Cheese Filet o' Fish, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Both my fries, and the cheese was lukewarm, which made it a rather unpleasant fry experience, and since my Potato Grids last month were the same, I wonder if it's more due to this branch, rather than just my luck. They were a bit stingy with the cheese too as if I wanted to finish the whole box worth, it would have needed to have more on there to coat each fry. The bacon was as expected, just a standard strip of McDonald's bacon cut up into small pieces. My serving had pieces which were extremely hard and dry, which means they were likely breakfast leftovers. They were difficult to pick up with the flimsy plastic fork, so I ended up leaving the majority on the tray together with the fries.

Rating -

Crispy Onion Angus Burger - 3/5

Loaded Fries with Cheese and Bacon - 1/5

At first I thought I was served the box intended for the Spicy Sriracha, as that was Thailand-themed, but if you look closely it also references the Crispy Onion Angus. This wasn't Thai-style at all, nor was it being marked anywhere else as Thai, so I think they just got lazy with the box, and knew they had to use the same one for both.

McDonald's Croatia Maestro Burger - June 2017

McDonald's Croatia Snickers & Twix McFlurry - June 2017

McDonald's Bosnia Beef Spicy Los Angeles Burger - June 2017

The Wife and I flew into Croatia to get to Bosnia, and since I had this burger literally the day before, I didn't try their "Maestro Burger" as it was very similar. I didn't try their Promo Snickers & Twix McFlurries either, but last year I did have both the Young Potatoes and a Kraš Domaćica McFlurry. I'm not in a part of Bosnia where they have McDonald's, so I won't be able to try their Los Angeles Beef burger either...I will however be in Serbia in 2 weeks, and I do plan on trying anything they might have.

Minion Potatoes & Spicy Bellow Burger - Bangkok, Thailand - June 2017

2017-06-04T19:20:00.000+07:00

McDonald's Thailand Minion Potatoes - June 2017

McDonald's Thailand Spicy Bellow Burger - June 2017

McDonald's Thailand - Yellow Mania Minions Promo - June 2017

Consumed on 03 June 2017

Location - McDonald's Central Rama IX, Bangkok, Thailand

Price - "Yellow Mania" Set - 99THB = $2.90USD

Calories - Burger ~575kcal. Fries - Unknown.

McDonald's Thailand Receipt - June 2017

Last Thursday, McDonald's Thailand started quietly promoting their new "Minions" items on their various social media pages. I think I saw one of the films on a plane a few years back, but I don't really have any feeling for these characters, so the branding did nothing for me. The two items which clearly stood out in the sea of drinks and ice cream options, were the Spicy "Bellow" Burger, and Minion Potatoes. Since moving to Thailand in 2015, promo burgers have been pretty non-existent, or repeatedly bringing back something I've had before. I've tried reviewing all the sides they've run over the last couple years, but my last actual burger review was from a short-lived, black-bunned, Pork Burger in late 2015! I have a 3 week trip starting next week, and I didn't want to risk missing these items, so I insisted that The Wife and I try it over the weekend.

McDonald's Thailand Minion Potatoes

McDonald's Thailand Minion Potato Box

McDonald's Thailand Minion Potatoes Box

McDonald's Thailand Minion Potatoes Filling

I'll start with the Potatoes, as aside from their appearance, there wasn't that much to them. They were served 6-to-a-box, and from what I could tell, if you didn't order one of the two "Yellow Mania" sets, either with the burger I had, or one with some fried chicken, rice and a Happy Meal bundled together, you couldn't order them ala carte in the restaurant. However, I did notice that McDelivery had a promotion that if you ordered over 300THB of any other food, you could get these for free.

I think someone at McDonald's knew they weren't going to perform well so giving them away for free through McDelivery would be the best way to clear their stock, as these were pretty horrible in every aspect. Worst of which was the texture - these had a dark, but still outer shell, and the inside looked and tasted like instant "just add water" mashed potatoes. If you look closely at the photos of them in the box, a few have very small black specs on them, but don't be mistaken as that was certainly not seasoning, but likely something they picked up from the oil, as these were about as tasteless as they looked. They weren't even salted, so all each bite could give you was a a very bland potato flavour. When I first saw them on the promotional photo I thought they might be more like a crispy tater tot. Maybe if they were at least remotely fresh, but the batch I received was served at room temperature, made everything that much worse. At best, these could be good for kids, but seeing as they weren't being served with Happy Meals and the only way to get them was with full adult meals I'm not sure they aimed for the right audience. No adult is going to order them more than once, even if a massive Minions fan.

Since McDonald's Thailand handles their social media exclusively in Thai and Spicy Bellow Burger wasn't even mentioned on their official website, I went into the burger completely dark without any idea what to expecting. I could assume "Bellow" was supposed to be a play on Yellow, as you could also see bit of a yellow sauce in the promo photo of the burger.

What I was served was a fried chicken thigh patty, that was clearly dipped in a sticky, chilli sauce prior to being placed on the bun. The top bun was covered in that yellow sauce, which looked an awful lot like mustard, but I refrained from giving it a smell before my first bite. The only veg on there was shredded lettuce, so just from the appearance it reminded me an awful lot of the McSpicy, that is served in Singapore and Malaysia.

In my first bite, I had a big mouthful of Chicken, and could taste the chilli sauce more than anything. My chicken was fresh, and actually surprisingly meaty, and not that oily which is a common complaint of mine when I get thigh meat. The meat itself was seasoned just like the McSpicy patty, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was the same. The sauce was decently spicy as well, and although sticky, it didn't really taste all that sweet and wasn't a typical Thai Sweet Chilli sauce, which was a nice change. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Korean spicy chicken sauce, and could even be considered a better effort than the Seoul Spicy I recently had in Singapore. In that first bite, I couldn't really taste the Yellow at all, The Wife had a bit on the side with a bit less chicken. She instantly called it out as Mango, to which I didn't really believe her at first - until I finally gave the sauce a smell... and it was indeed a Mango sauce!

I guess it was somewhat to be expected? The rest of the ice cream based Minion promos were Mango flavoured (the last film they were banana, but sadly no Banana Burger), but Mango was not something I expected at all on a Spicy Chicken burger. Unfortunately when I had my first bite that wasn't all chicken and finally got a taste of the mango sauce together with the rest of the burger, I wasn't really all that impressed by it whatsoever. The sweetness of the Mango didn't work well with the pleasant chilli sauce, and it certainly didn't work with the fried chicken. I tried one more bite and it actually became worse the more I ate (or at least the more I focused on it) so I ended up removing the bottom bun that had all the mango sauce on it and ate the chicken only with the plain top bun. McDonald's Thailand should just sell that spicy chilli sauce together with the chicken and brand it as their own McSpicy and they'd be all set.

Rating -

Minion Potatoes - 0/5

Spicy Bellow Burger - 2/5

Potato Grid (脆薯格) & Korean Yuzu Punch (韓式柚子特飲) - Hong Kong - May 2017

2017-05-27T21:42:00.001+07:00

Potato Grid (脆薯格) - McDonald's Hong Kong May 2017

Korean Yuzu Punch (韓式柚子特飲) - Hong Kong - May 2017

Consumed on 09 May 2017

Location - McDonald's Smithfield Road, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong

Potato Grid Price - $3HKD = $0.38USD with any combo purchase.

Korean Yuzu Punch Price - $4HKD = $0.51USD with any combo purchase.

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Hong Kong Receipt May 2017

My sides together with my meal

2 weeks back when I tried the Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger in Hong Kong, I paid a slight upcharge required for both the available promotional sides, Potato Grids, which are basically known everywhere else as Waffle Fries, and a Korean Yuzu Punch, which was leftover from a promo from the month prior. This isn't the first time Potato Grids have made it on the McDonald's Hong Kong menu either. A quick Google search seems to show that their first appearance was around Halloween 2015, but I seem to remember seeing them before that, but I guess it could have been somewhere else, this is however the first time I've been able to try them at any McDonald's, since they don't appear nearly as often as Twisty Fries do.

When I was served my order, the very first thing that caught my eye were the cute "Line" characters that graced all sides of the box. These characters distracted me for a few seconds, only for me to then realise how small the actual box was - nice try McD's HK! You had to pay extra to swap your standard Medium Fries for a box of Potato Grids these are easily 1/2 the size of the standard fry. Due to the waffle shape of the fries themselves, it appeared like the box was stuffed full, but in reality there were about 10 or so pieces in the entire box. They ranged from the size of a small 2.5x2.5cm coin to about double that, nothing massive hidden away in there, but still a respectable size. There wasn't really any consistency I could find with the size they were all a bit different from each other, but each piece had a full and clear waffle shape. Most surprisingly was that all pieces retained their full round shape and weren't broken up or deformed like the McDonald's Twisty/Curly fries, or hell, even standard fries usually ended up looking like. The fries were seasoned, and tasted pretty much like any pre-seasoned fry does, salty, slightly peppery as well. But the huge problem with my portion was that they were served cold...

I ordered my meal in the busy lunchtime rush, so they should have been moving fries pretty quickly without time for them to sit, but somehow these fries tasted like they were cooked well over an hour before I ate them. They didn't even taste like they were sitting under a heat lamp, as they were stone cold. I wonder if that's because they could have been cooked in a different fryer from the standard fries which doesn't have a heat lamp whilst they wait? My colleagues that had standard fries, and one even fried chicken, were all served a fresh, so it was clearly a problem with only the Grids. The strange thing was that even though these were cold, they weren't horrible in that state. Due to their unique shape, after frying they didn't leave much soft potato in the centre, so the result was they were crispy like a potato chip, and not soggy like a french fry would have been. The seasoning even made it taste more like a chip, but that was clearly not intentional. Don't get me wrong, they would have been much better had they been fresh, but unashamedly I ended up eating the whole cold box...

As I mentioned earlier, the Korean Yuzu Punch didn't launch together with the Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger in May 2017, but it came out a month earlier with the Tokyo Night burger (a beef burger with egg) and Korean-themed McNugget Sauces (I won't spoil the names of those as a review will be coming). McDonald's Hong Kong has a habit of letting their promo sides run long if they don't finish the stock, so I was lucky enough to catch Korean-flavoured drink. McDonald's Hong Kong ran a Yuzu McShaker late last year, and I as mentioned in that review, the Korean name for the Mandarin Orange is Yuja. I reviewed a Yuja McFlurry in Korea way back in 2011, and even a similarly named Yuzu McFizz in Singapore in 2014, which shared a similar name, but nothing else. The Yuzu McFizz was orange syrup mixed with Sprite, whereas this Hong Kong release was a sweetened Green Tea base with actual pieces of fruit mixed in. It reminded me of the Kumquat (there's a flavour you don't see at McDonald's all that often) Punch with the small pieces of fruit mixed in.

I really hope that since this was a near-the-end-of-its-run serving but the large pieces of fruit were far too big for the standard straw, which made this a pain in the ass to drink. Whenever you'd take a sip, the fruit pieces would block the bottom of the straw preventing any suction. I resorted to getting the tea from the top of the cup and tried to avoid the fruit. The tea did have a bit of orange flavouring mixed in, likely from the syrup of the fruit, but it wasn't that strong, I think the intention here was that you'd get fruit together with your tea, but it simply wasn't possible. It's not like a stray piece that happened to be too big, but every single piece was too large, which meant that even after struggling getting the tea out, all the fruit remained at the bottom of the cup. I tried to fish some out using straws as a pair of chopsticks, but they just tasted like canned fruit, so I ended up leaving them. Being a Yuzu flavoured drink, Mandarin Orange pieces were in there, but they also had a few Pineapples and Cherries in there for good measure - too bad I didn't get to taste any...

Rating:

Potato Grid (脆薯格) - 2/5

Korean Yuzu Punch (韓式柚子特飲) - 1/5

The tray liner was showing how to create and play a traditional Korean game called Ddakji, so you could fold then throw around? I guess it could be cool, if you didn't get food or grease all over it.

Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger (狂惹火辣脆雞) - Hong Kong - May 2017

2017-05-16T00:32:00.002+07:00

Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger (狂惹火辣脆雞) + Potato Grid (脆薯格). The reviews of the sides will be coming up soon.

Consumed on 09 May 2017

Location - McDonald's Smithfield Road, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong

Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger Combo Price - 39.80HKD = ~$5.11USD

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Hong Kong Receipt 2017

This actually story starts in Singapore, where I failed to find a Buttermilk Chicken anywhere just a few days prior to ending up in Hong Kong...I mentioned not being able to find it in my last Veggie Crunch review, but I did make one last ditch effort at the Singapore airport to find it by making 2 terminal changes to go visit all the in-airport branches, but alas, I never did get one. If you are ever interested in these exploits, I usually Tweet in real-time amongst other things. The Wife was staying in Singapore for the rest of the week and McDonald's Singapore re-stocked all their branches after I left so she was actually able to give it a try and rub it in a bit, but she wasn't able to get me a Seaweed Sesame McShaker, those never reappeared.

My trip to Hong Kong ended up being a bit last minute, so I didn't really get a chance to check out the menu on the website in advance, and if I did, I probably wouldn't have made such an effort to find one in Singapore as there was a nearly identical burger being sold under the same "Signature Collection" branding in Hong Kong called the "Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger", and although there were two other options available, this was the one I went with.

It was interesting in that the Singaporean promotional material make a huge point in stating that the chicken thigh patty was seasoned with buttermilk, whereas the same patty was being used here in Hong Kong, but it was little more than a token mention on the official website. The Spicy Jalapeno Chicken Burger, true to its name had two different Jalapeno toppings, the first being a Tomato Jalapeno Relish, and then topped off whole sliced pickled Jalapeno peppers. At first you think, like I did, that the peppers were just part of the relish, but they were called out separately on the official website, and if you looked closely they were also from two different sources as their colour and texture were completely different. Hidden in there was a whole ring of pineapple, which is something that has appeared on McDonald's burgers in the past, but it's definitely been a few years since I've spotted one. Also tucked away were grilled onion, whole leaf lettuce, and a "bakery style bun". When you look back on it, it really was one busy burger!

McDonald's Hong Kong Signature Collection 2017

Since the burger was a part of the "Signature Collection" and supposed to be a premium option, rather than being served in a typical promo box, or paper wrapper, the burger was served in an special open tray, half wrapped, which was a nice bit of presentation, similar to the Create Your Taste plating, but created quite a lot of unnecessary waste. I counted four layers of paper between the food and the tray, three of which were purely decorative. The burger itself didn't look huge on the plate, but it also didn't look like it wasn't worth the money either, I thought it was a pretty decent size for the price. At $39 HKD, or about $5USD for the combo it was about a 20% premium over standard larger burgers, which wasn't horrible, and worked out to be about $3.50USD cheaper than the smaller burger being sold in Singapore.

When I took my first bite, as expected, the first taste to hit me was the jalapeno. I love peppers on anything, but I've always felt mass-produced pickled jalapeno peppers have a vinegary flavour that is overpowering for most sandwiches, this was no exception. But as soon as the vinegar passed, you could really taste the rest of the tomato jalapeno relish, which I thought was easily the star of this burger. It was chunky, flavourful and had a relative kick it to it, not hot by any means, but zesty enough. The whole leaf lettuce added a nice balance to the zestfulness, but I would have liked slightly larger pieces rather than the three smallish leaves that were on mine. The chicken, being a fried thigh in a Chinese speaking country, I expected it to be oily, but it was actually pretty tender, I just wasn't getting anything from the buttermilk flavouring at all. Sure the batter looked a bit different than it usually would, but if you told me it wasn't anything different I would have believed you, because it tasted no different than a standard McChicken patty, but again since it wasn't oily, there wasn't really anything bad about it, just nothing that special.

The real disappointment was the pineapple, as I just didn't see any real purpose of pineapple being on this burger. Every single other topping down to the bun and grilled onions were a "promotional" topping, so they could have probably gone with something simple like tomato to give it a bit of juiciness in an attempt to cut down on the spice from the jalapenos. The pineapple wasn't even good and of rather poor quality, as mine was very white, with not a hint of yellow at all and very tough, almost like it was the core of the pineapple rather than anything fruity. At least it wasn't canned, but it really was a poor attempt.

The thing is, even though this had some ups and downs, I rather enjoyed it. It was one of those promo burgers that was just trying a bit too hard with some of it's special toppings, but it would be something I might try again if I was hungry.

Rating - 3.5/5

I just wanted to touch on more of the similarities between The Signature Collection being run in both Hong Kong and Singapore right now. Singapore has two, Buttermilk Chicken and Angus Cheese. As mentioned, the Chicken shares the same patty as Hong Kong, but it also has pineapple as well. The Tomato Jalapeno relish and grilled onions that were on my burger? Well, those are served on the Angus Cheese.

Hong Kong has two other burgers in their range, the first being the Cheesy Champignon Angus Burger. Not much stands out on this one but that it has grilled mushrooms on it, which long time readers know I'll never eat as I cannot stand mushrooms, but it's the same Angus beef patty used in Singapore.

The Signature Collection 芝味蘑菇安格斯 Cheesy Champignon Angus Burger - Hong Kong 2017

The final option is the Garden Breeze Grilled Chicken Burger. I probably would have gone with this one had I not wanted to see what the Buttermilk Chicken was about. The Herb Aloli on this one was also on the Singapore version of the Angus Beef (yes, it uses two sauces), but also Guacamole, which I've never had at McDonald's yet. The Hong Kong marketing material called its cheese a vague sounding "White Cheese" whereas in Singapore, they specified that it was New Zealand Colby Jack cheese. They looked pretty similar in the photos, so I'm not sure why they didn't reference it and gave it such an unappealing name?

The Signature Collection 清新田園烤雞 Garden Breeze Grilled Chicken Burger - Hong Kong 2017

Veggie Crunch Burger - Singapore - April 2017

2017-05-08T23:08:00.002+07:00

McDonald's Singapore Veggie Crunch Burger - 2017

Consumed on 02 April 2017

Location - McDonald's Siglap, Singapore

Combo Price - $5.00SGD = $3.56USD

Calories - Unknown

In September 2016 McDonald's Singapore released it's first ever regular-menu vegetarian burger. They've a few different veggie items over the years, but always as a promo item. I always thought it was a bit surprising since Singapore has a huge vegetarian population of primarily Indians, and I always thought a veggie burger would do very well. My Indian colleagues used look forward to visiting our office in Bangkok as Burger King here in Thailand sells a veggie burger that usually was a missed treat for those living in Singapore. McDonald's in India sells numerous veggie options, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same patty, just shipped in from India. McDonald's doesn't actually make anything in Singapore and items are at least manufactured abroad and shipped in to Singapore. Since none of its neighbours offer a veggie burger, it probably is the same one sold in India, I just haven't been able to find any sources to corroborate that.

Since the burger is a part of the "$5 Extra Value Meal" menu together with the Filet o Fish (and the recently introduced, Chilli Lime Filet o' Fish which replaced the Nacho Cheese version), McChicken and McDouble, the Veggie Crunch is about the same size as all those standard options, it's not overly big, but is a decently sized medium sandwich. On it's own it's $3 SGD, which is $1 more than the $2 McChicken, but not really all that bad. Recent promos which I'll talk more about later were $9 for only a burger, so it's really one of the better values in Singapore.

The taste, was surprisingly on point, and although fried, the inner veggie mash still had a respectable croquette like flavour to it. According to the official website the vegetables included are green peas, carrots, potato and red bell peppers. They are all certainty surrounded by batter, but it still felt like a somewhat lighter option and wasn't greasy at all. Due to the density of the patty it was actually far more filling than a typical discount McDonald's sandwich.

The real problem here were the aesthetics. The promotional images try and not show much of the actual inside of the patty, but opt to try and display whatever vegetables you might find hidden within. What was served however was an ugly brownish paste with a very leftover pea casings and a few specs of orange carrot. It was certainly ugly, but very tasty. Another welcome surprise was not only was it topped with McChicken Sauce (rebranded as Veggie Crunch Sauce) and lettuce just like a McChicken, but they splurged and threw in a couple pieces of cucumber from the McWraps, which after the launch I've never seen anyone actually order. The crunch and freshness from the cucumber added just that missing bit of flavour that might have been missing from the patty on its own.

When I first told The Wife that it was a veggie burger she pulled her nose, as they aren't something ever found in Korea, but she enjoyed it just as much as I did after her first bite, so as long as you don't look down, it deserves a very high score.

Rating - 4.5/5

I actually just left Singapore again yesterday, and their current promo burgers are new additions to the Signature Collection. They've replaced the Spicy Chicken with Apple Slaw and a few others with the somewhat boring looking Classic Angus Cheese, and the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken. Since the Angus looked boring and was over $11 for a combo, I wanted to give the chicken a try, but I visited 5 branches on my 2 day trip to find this burger and it was sold out in every location I went too! It looked good, and must have been good to have sold out so fast. They were also launched with Sesame Seaweed McShakers which would have been new for me as well, but they were also completely sold out at every branch I checked! Since you won't be getting a review, so these photos will have to suffice!.

McDonald's Singapore Buttermilk Crispy Chicken - 2017

McDonald's Singapore Classic Angus Cheese 2017

McDonald's Singapore Sesame Seaweed Shakers 2017

Ginger Soy Sauce & Tartar Sauce (しょうが醤油ソース & タルタルソース) - Okinawa, Japan - February 2017

2017-04-27T00:37:00.002+07:00

McDonald's Japan Chicken McNuggets & Ginger Soy Sauce & Tartar Sauce

McDonald's Japan しょうが醤油ソース & タルタルソース 2017

Consumed on 20 February 2017

Location - McDonald's Kokusai Dori, Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Price - 2 sauces & 5 Piece McNugget = 200JPY ($1.78USD) with coupon. 20JPY ala carte.

Calories - Ginger Sauce ~28kcal. Tartar Sauce ~100kcal

I almost didn't write a review on these two sauces that I tried in Japan, since I realised after the fact that I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked. But since I've been pretty busy with real work and haven't had time to write up as many full-length reviews over the last couple months, I thought I could write this one up quickly for you guys. Let me know if McNugget sauces are your thing, as McDonald's Japan just released a Wasabi and Teriyaki sauce I might be able to get my hands on, and I still have a not-that-expired Fruit Curry & Cheese Dip from 2016 sitting in my fridge I'm debating whether or not to still eat...

I had both of these sauces on the same trip to Okinawa that I was able to review both the honey-topped Daigaku Imo Fries and the Chicken Taruta. I used the McDonald's Japan Android app to get a coupon for 5 McNuggets for only 200JPY. Technically, with a 5-piece it should have only allowed me to get one tub of sauce, but I asked for one of each and surprisingly they obliged. Bending the rules isn't common in Japan at all, so I was pretty lucky there I thought.

I cracked open the tartar sauce first, and since I had just eaten the Chicken Taruta, I immediately was disappointed since it was the same yellow aioli-style base as the tartar sauce used on the sandwich. It wasn't identical however, since it was far more creamy and wasn't nearly as thick since didn't have any egg whites mixed in, and the pieces of pickle were significantly smaller. The lack of egg whites also meant that the sauce was bit overly yellow, and not really all that appetising to look at. It also strangely smelt like pickles more than anything else, and I'm not a fan of pickles at all. Despite the colour and odour, it actually relatively pretty well with the nugget, but in the end it was a weaker, and all around not as nice of a sauce compared to the one on the sandwich. I guess, if I wouldn't have just eaten the better sauce I probably wouldn't have felt it was better on it's own. It certainly wasn't bad, it just felt a bit cheap.

When I opened up the Ginger Soy Sauce tub, it looked like it had a layer of grease sitting on the top, as it seemed like there was a lighter layer sitting atop a darker sauce below. When I stuck the nugget in, I was incorrect as it was actually the whole sauce had this strange "sticky" texture to it. After far too much Googlefu, I found that was because this sauce had a base of shredded daikon radish rather than just not oil, which gave it that strange consistency. Other than the strange appearance, the other noticeable variable with this sauce was the very, very strong scent coming from it. Thankfully the ginger taste was as strong as the smell. This sauce was extremely ginger-heavy and the soy sauce in the name was pretty much non-existent. A similar cooking sauce was used for the original Chicken Tatsuta, so that's probably what they were going for. You also can't really see them in my photos, but the sauce was also dotted with white sesame seeds for that last bit of missing seasoning. Since I was eating this with both The Wife and my mother, I wasn't the only fan of this sauce, and it ended up being completely polished off - always a good sign.

Tartar Sauce Rating - 2/5

Ginger Soy Sauce Rating - 5/5

Kimchi Shakers & Peach McFizz - Singapore - April 2017

2017-04-16T20:15:00.000+07:00

McDonald's Singapore Kimchi Shakers - April 2017

Consumed on 02 April 2017

Location - McDonald's Siglap, Singapore

Price - Free with "Seoul Spicy" Deluxe Combo

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Singapore Kimchi McShakers - April 2017

The Seoul Spicy Chicken and Beef burgers I reviewed last week, weren't the only Korea-themed items available at McDonald's Singapore on my last trip. Kimchi Shakers were released as a part of the promotion, and they have to be some of the strangest flavoured Shakers McDonald's has ever come up with and over the years, I've had some weird ones. Now, I'm not sure if the absurdness comes from living in Korea for 4 years (and having a Korean wife), but Kimchi isn't even something eaten anywhere near french fries, nor is it a flavour used on snacks, potato chips, or anything else that might need a seasoning. Kimchi in Korea is pretty much exclusive to Kimchi. To be completely honest, when we placed our order, the burgers immediately went to the side as the first thing both The Wife and I wanted to try were these shakers as we both wanted see how bad they would be.

I'm sure anyone that's been caught up in the Korean food craze that's sweeping most countries knows kimchi to be the traditional "fermented cabbage" version that you'd find at any Korean restaurant and supermarket. But if you aren't familiar with the actual history, and various different versions of kimchi you should go check out the Wikipedia page about it. There's a whole world of kimchi you've never had before and some of my personal favourites living in Korea were Cucumber and Spring Onion Kimchi. Not surprisingly, this Kimchi Shaker was trying to recreate the flavours you'd get with the typical Cabbage Kimchi rather than something more obscure, but they weren't exactly going for the cabbage vegetable flavour, but mainly that tart taste you get from the brine that the cabbage is fermented in.

Full disclosure, both The Wife and I went in expecting these to be awful, so when I ate my first fry and actually found it pretty palatable, almost to the point where it was even pretty decent, I was immediately taken aback. The real problem which emerged with these was the lingering, lingering, aftertaste that only got worse the longer it sat in your mouth. Yes, it actually does taste like kimchi brine, but the brine of the kimchi isn't something you really want your McDonald's fries to taste like. If you look back on various different Shaker flavours, they are typically something that could be repurposed as a potato chip flavour and there's a reason why they don't typically make Kimchi Chips.

For any of you that might know the subtleties to certain kimchi, this tasted less like kimchi in Korea, and more like the less-fermented Made-in-China kimchi that is sold in a package and exported. That sourness that comes with that packaged kimchi was also noticeable here, and that's somewhat expected if the flavour was designed in Singapore, as all their kimchi tastes like that variant. I looked through the ingredient list and the one additive was Malic Acid which is used to make food sour, and this same ingredient is also found in Chinese packaged kimchi. The shaker package didn't say which country it was made, but it wouldn't be surprising if it was also made in China.

Of the the four adults eating McDonald's that evening, we used one packet of the seasoning which was provided, and between the four of us, we couldn't finish the one serving of fries we used. So even though these did in fact surprise me by how close to kimchi they tasted, no one really enjoyed them enough to eat more than a few fries each.

Kimchi Shakers Rating - 2.5/5

I'll keep the Peach McFizz review pretty light as even when I was able to review a handful back when I lived in Singapore between 2012-2015, none of those reviews ever get that many views, as they just aren't interesting enough, and this 2017 Peach McFizz was no different. You could buy it on it's own for an absurdly priced $3.30SGD, but it was included in the Seoul Spicy Burger "Premium" set together with the Kimchi Shakers for just $0.70 more than the regular combo which made it affordable enough. I did however find it a bit strange they marketed Peach together with other Korean items. They do grow peaches in Korea, but there are other more traditional Korea-only fruits that they could have made this drink with, Yuja was used in Korea before, and Korean Melon would have been an interesting flavour, but more on Melons in a bit.

McDonald's Singapore Peach McFizz April 2017

McFizzes are still the same as they were three years ago. Simply Sprite mixed with whatever flavoured syrup that give it the name, and that's about it. On occasion they have had small pieces of actual fruit in the syrup, but not this time. I usually found these overly sweet since Sprite is sugary enough and adding more syrup to it was usually overpowering. This time however the Peach syrup was rather subtle and actually blended together well to taste more like a Peach flavoured Sprite rather than two distinct things just mixed in one. A few years ago McDonald's Singapore had a White Peach McFizz which was one of the worst flavours I've tried, so unless my taste buds changed with age, they've reformulated the Peach syrup for this edition. I think this was the first time I've ever finished a McFizz to the bottom of the cup, and that's a pretty clear indication that it deserves a positive score, even when it's not overly "Korean".

Peach McFizz Rating - 4/5

McDonald's Singapore Melon McFlurry

Last but not least would be the Melon McFlurry with Coconut Jelly. This was the desert side that launched with the Seoul Spicy set, but apparently I was too late to Singapore to find a branch with it still available. I popped my head into about 4 branches over a few days, and each one clearly had SOLD OUT taped over the McFlurry on the promotional poster. I wonder if that's an indication that it was very good, or if they just killed it early. I did have a similar looking Honeydew Melon McFlurry a few years ago, and the syrup looks pretty close to the same, so I might have not missed much.

Seoul Spicy Beef & Chicken - Singapore - April 2017

2017-04-05T23:33:00.001+07:00

McDonald's Singapore Seoul Spicy Box

McDonald's Singapore Seoul Spicy Chicken - April 2017

McDonald's Singapore Seoul Spicy Beef - April 2017

Random Korean always makes things look more authentic doesn't it?

Consumed on 02 April 2017

Location - McDonald's Siglap, Singapore

Combo Price - $8.40SGD = $6.00USD

Calories - ~700kcal

McDonald's Singapore Receipt April 2017

The Wife and I ended up in Singapore over the last couple days which allowed us to catch the tail end of the "Seoul Spicy" promo burgers that have been sold for most of March. I knew from my time living in Singapore that promos usually run about a month, so they should disappear pretty soon. Since The Wife was with me I was able to try both variants of the burger, Chicken and Beef. Long time readers will know that prior to moving to Thailand and even Singapore, I was based out of Korea for a couple years, so I was rather interested to get a foreign-McDonald's take on Korean food.

Why not learn some Korean with your dinner?

Now I'm not reviewing these separately because apart from the meat, the rest of the burger was identical between the two, so it doesn't really warrant two individual reviews this time. The Chicken comes from the McSpicy which I reviewed years ago, and is one of my most "popular" reviews as I get frequent feedback from Singaporeans saying my opinion on the burger is completely incorrect. The beef patty is taken straight from a Quarter Pounder. The rest of the burger is where it gets interesting as each other ingredient is special for this specific burger. The bun is a black pepper and white sesame topped 'premium' bun which is a bit thicker than a traditional bun for a burger of its size. The veggies used were white and purple cabbage with carrot which were then tossed with mayo to make a "slaw", something that was similarly used in the Apple Slaw burger I was able to review last year. but the real "Korean" flavour comes from the sauce, and that's the real star of the show here.

Both the Beef and Chicken burgers that I received were covered in an absolutely ridiculous amount of sauce. They were wrapped in paper before being placed in the box, but each paper wrapper was covered with sauce, which meant the burger had sauce both inside, outside the burger. I would say that both probably had 3-4 times the necessary amount of sauce needed. There was actually so much sauce that it was difficult to take a pleasant looking photo for the blog since they looked mostly like a wet sloppy mess. I wasn't able to find a manufacturer of the sauce, so I'm not sure if it actually came from Korea (but being Singapore - most likely China). The sauce was being promoted as a "galbi" sauce, which are marinated short ribs typically found at Korean BBQ places. The Korean Wife (same as The Wife), after her first bite said the sauce didn't really remind of us galbi marinade at all, and couldn't really place it to anything specific, but it had a basic Korean 'flavour' I personally thought it tasted like another sauce used on certain variants of Korean fried chicken, but The Wife shot that idea down. The PR release from McDonald's Singapore said it includes traditional Korean ingredients such as fermented soy bean paste, sesame paste, soy sauce, chilli peppers, red paprika and garlic. Both of us thought it was good, but there was just something not quite 100% Korean about it. Same goes with the choice of veg toppings - sure Korea uses cabbage, but the cabbage/carrot mix isn't something you'd find in Korea, nor on burgers in Korea.

When I lived in Singapore, McDonald's was clearly on a "spicy" kick as every other promo burger was some kind of new spicy sauce. Since moving to Thailand, a land full of spicy food of its own, I haven't had that many spicy McDonald's items over the last couple of years. I used to always say McDonald's Singapore rarely had properly spicy items, but this Korean sauce used had not only a nice flavour to it, but a surprising kick to it. This leads me to my last point about this burger, which was better, Beef or Chicken? If I were by myself and not sharing with The Wife, I likely would have gone for the Beef as I like to avoid eating Fried Chicken when I can, but in this case the Chicken variant was the clearly better burger. Since I felt that the sauce reminded me of Korean Fried Chicken sauce, naturally, I felt that the sauce being used on Chicken was simply the smarter combination. Also, since the it used a McSpicy patty, that meant the patty itself had more spice in the patty, and I'm one of those people where spicier is usually better, so that was another plus in my book.

Despite not being 100% authentic "Korean" it still was Korean enough to not be laughably different, and the burgers still held their own flavour-wise as well so both were solid entries, deserving decent scores.

Seoul Spicy Beef - 4/5

Seoul Spicy Chicken - 4.5/5

If you want to check out some reviews from real Korea click here.

Cotton Candy McFloat - Manila, Philippines & Pear Pie - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - March 2017

2017-03-27T22:56:00.002+07:00

McDonald's Cotton Candy McFloat- Manila, Philippines - March 2017

McDonald's Pear Pie - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - March 2017

Cotton Candy McFloat:

Consumed on 09 March 2017

Location - McDonald's Greenbelt, Makati, Manila, Philippines

Price - 29PHP ($0.58USD) for 1, or 55PHP ($1.08USD) for 2.

Calories - ~320kcal

Pear Pie

Consumed on 12 March 2017

Location - McDonald's KLIA, Sepang, Malaysia

Airport Price - 4.95MYR = $1.12USD

Calories - ~250kcal

McDonald's Philippines Receipt March 2017

Apologies once again for the lack of reviews over the last week and a half. The Wife and I had guests visiting from Taiwan, then I ended up with food poisoning of all things (likely from Pizza, not McD's) so I didn't want to even look at pictures of food, let alone try and think of the taste. But I'm feeling much better now, so it's a perfect opportunity to present two items I had on recent business trips, the Cotton Candy McFloat and Pear Pie. Both items didn't really warrant a full review of their own so I'm combining into one. I'll start with the McFloat since that is the slightly older item.

McDonald's McFloat

On my latest run up to Manila, I only was able to try the Cotton Candy McFloat as the other promo item they were offering at the time was a Mushroom Steak & Rice set. Long time readers know that I can't stand mushrooms of any kind, so I wasn't even going to try giving it a review. Usually The Wife tries anything Mushroom for me, but she wasn't with the on this trip, so I had to make do with the only other promo on the menu I hadn't tried before.

McDonald's Philippines Mushroom Pepper Steak 2017

McFloats aren't that uncommon at McDonald's Philippines nor even the rest of Asia. I've seen them offered around quite a bit and they are a regular menu item in a few countries, usually promoted with the McFlurries or Sundaes and typically served with the standard Coke or Sprite. "Promo" McFloats popup now and then as well, and apart from the proper review I did in Malaysia years ago, I've always given them a pass, as I just don't really enjoy floats all that much...I think they are pretty gross. The Peach McFloat I had in the pre-blog days really turned me off them.

A colleague of mine visited the branch with me, so we decided to order two, since they had a special on two for only 55PHP, and since it was late in the afternoon after the lunch rush I was able to get a clear view on how it was made. First they walked over to a plastic bottle labelled "RED" put in a few spoonfuls and filled the cup half way with Sprite. Then it was time for far too many scoops from the bottle of "BLUE" and then filled the rest up with more Sprite, only to then top it off with the signature soft serve ice cream. I have no idea of the combination of the unidentifiable scoops of RED and BLUE gave it a two-tone look like in the promo photos as we were served in opaque white paper cups.

When I stuck my straw in and gave it a taste, that exact ice cream + fizzy pop combination which I do not enjoy came through nearly instantly ruining the drink for me. I know it's more the texture over the taste I do not enjoy so I wanted to make sure I gave the drink a fair taste...Once I cleared the straw of ice cream I was finally able to give the drink a proper try. Being at the bottom of the cup, I was most likely drinking "RED" on my second sip and it tasted exactly like bubblegum. I wondered if "BLUE" would taste any different, so I pointed my straw closer to the top where the blue layer would be...still bubblegum. This whole cup, regardless of what colour it was tasted like bubblegum. I guess that's how Cotton Candy should taste? It's not really one of those flavours that you can place in drink form when you try and think about. Maybe since Hong Kong had a Bubblegum McFloat before they wanted something completely different? I had at best 1 more sip, before using the straw like a spoon to try and eat the ice cream, which was far more difficult than it sounds.

Rating - 0/5

The longer it sat, the more strange foam started to congeal on the top...

McDonald's Malaysia Pear Pie & Milo McFlurry 2017

McDonald's Malaysia Receipt 2017

McDonald's Malaysia Standard Apple Pie Box 2017

A couple days after Manila I had to head down to Kuala Lumpur. Even though I was there for two full days, KL is one of those cities I just never find myself near a McDonald's when I have time to eat. I also find myself not hunting them down since I know there's a branch at the airport as a last resort. This branch has bit be in the ass before being sold out of promos, but this time I was lucky enough to find the Pear Pie being offered on one last days of it's 1.5 month run. You might have noticed in the promo photo above that it was bring sold with the Milo McFlurry, but that's something I reviewed years back on the day I launched this blog.

If a Pear Pie just sounds like a boring, slightly less sweet Apple Pie you'd be just about spot on with how I feel. It was pretty flavourless all things considered, and yes you could get a hit of pear if you had a big serving of syrup, but those were few and far between in the pie itself. Most of my pie was hollow without that much filling at all. I would have liked a bit of pear "crunch" in there a few larger pieces of pear inside would have made a huge difference, but it was just as soft as any other fruit filled pie would have been. What I also didn't like was how similar it was to the standard McDonald's Apple Pie, just without any cinnamon. I suspect that if they added cinnamon to this pie most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference apart from the colour.

The one redeeming quality I will give it was that it was a near perfectly cooked McDonald's Pie. This airport branch has not only disappointed me by not having what I want, but when they do, it's often horribly cooked. This time at least the pie was served hot and somewhat fresh. With that quality bump, they've also increased their prices to astronomical levels (for Malaysia). A Pie in the city is 2.95MYR, and at the airport they were 3.95MYR. They are now selling them at 4.95MYR which isn't much more than $1, but still I don't like the price gouging out of principle, so I might do better to eat in the city next time.

Rating - 1/5

Daigaku Imo Fries (大学いもの味) - Okinawa, Japan - February 2017

2017-03-14T22:08:00.004+07:00

McDonald's Japan Daigaku Imo Fries (大学いもの味) - Okinawa, Japan - February 2017

Daigaku Imo Box (大学いもの味)

Consumed on 20 February 2017

Location - McDonald's Kokusai Dori, Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Combo Price - 330JPY - $2.87USD ala carte. 60JPY - $0.52USD with a meal.

Calories - 503kcal

McDonald's Japan Receipt February 2017

A couple weeks ago when I was able to review the Chicken Taruta (チキンタルタ) I paid the 60JPY add-on to get myself an order of the Daigaku Imo Fries alongside my burger. Daigaku Imo roughly translates to "College Potato" and it's traditionally a candied sweet potato snack which is supposed to be a cheap, calorie-dense meal for students on a budget. Unlike McDonald's Australia and Singapore, McDonald's Japan didn't want to give proper sweet potato a try, so they topped their standard fries with the Honey-Sesame sauce that usually glazes the original...but at least they didn't try to make it into a pie!

Like the rest of their previous "squeeze fries" items, the fries are served in a small low lipped box, completely unseasoned, to which you need to break the seal on the sauce packet (by folding it backward and squeezing) and spread it all around. These unique packages were released a couple years ago with the American Vintage Cheese & Bacon, and I've had them a couple other times over the years, but most recently in with the McChocolate Potato (マックチョコポテト) when it was McDonald's Japan first attempt with a sweet sauce flavour. Last year around Halloween they had a Pumpkin and a Chocolate Pumpkin flavour, but apparently sweet, but I wasn't lucky enough to try (or get someone to send me) either flavour.

As expected, the fries are just standard McDonald's fries, so really the only thing I can speak about is the sauce. The sauce was mostly honey, but clearly not 100% honey as it was less thick, and noticeably less sweet than just honey would have been. I couldn't find a full ingredient list anywhere online, but it didn't seem like it was cut with any additional sugar or fructose as it wasn't sickeningly sweet, so it was likely the sesame paste included gave it that consistency and subtleness. The problem was that the honey hid pretty much any other flavour in the sauce. I tasted absolutely no sesame flavour even when I tried to pick out some of the whole black sesame seeds to eat them individually. I suspect the strong honey flavour was because they used low quality honey, and when I looked it up online I found that it was actually from China, which explains that, but interestingly enough the black sesame seeds come from Myanmar, and the sesame paste comes from Paraguay of all places. The honey didn't even wash out just the sesame, but also the fries in general. Every bite tasted only like the sauce, whether or not you had a small drop worth, or your fry were covered in it. I wonder if the sauce for College Potato that you'd eat outside of McDonald's used slightly higher quality ingredients than this, as I was pretty disappointed, especially for Japan.

This is definitely one of those items that sounds interesting on paper and probably only to get people to pay the 60 Yen to give it a try once, but I couldn't find any redeeming quality from it. Maybe there's something nostalgic about it that only Japanese that grew up eating the real College Potato could understand, but three of us tried it that afternoon, and not a single one of us wanted to eat more than a handful of fries...so we threw out more than 1/2 the portion.

Rating - 1.5/5

McDonald's Japan even has 6 different box designs for this fry. I don't think previous editions went anywhere near this far, so I'm not sure what prompted this. With the stickiness of that sauce, it's not like you could collect them. Speaking of which - one big change from previous fries was that the plastic fork they provide was 100% necessary for this version as that sauce was sticky, and you didn't want it anywhere near your hands.

Fish & Fries - Bangkok, Thailand - February 2017

2017-03-07T23:39:00.001+07:00

McDonald's Thailand - Fish & Fries 2017

They still can't get rid of that soup can they...

Consumed on 11 February 2017

Location - Bangkok, Thailand

Price - 69THB = $1.95USD

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Thailand Receipt 2017 + Wifi code at the bottom

A couple weeks back, before I headed to Japan to review the Chicken Taruta, I needed some fries in order to review a handful of shakers I had piling up. It just so happens that McDonald's Thailand introduced their first new "meal" product to the menu in over a year, the Fish 'n Fries. Along with a few sides like soup and shakers, they've brought back a couple recurring promos over the last year, but all items I've reviewed at some point in the past such as the Chicken Ham Pie, Spinach Pie, Hokkaido Salmon Burger & Rice and even the Taro Gingko Pie, so this was the first new dish for me to try in a very long time.

I've had a similar dish under the same name in Indonesia in 2016, but this was a significantly better attempt at fish & chips than that was, in pretty much every aspect. Naturally, the most important ingredient would be the fish itself, and although the single fillet of fish on the plate didn't look like much, the quality of the fish inside was actually very impressive. Unlike the filet o' fish patties where the fish ends up often looking like a mince, this was clearly a single whole piece of breaded fish. My photos don't really show off how large and flaky the fish was, but you'll have to take my word on it. I couldn't find any English translation on the menu about what actual fish it was, but I suspect it was pollack just like the fillet o fish. Sure, is it the same quality you'd get at a proper restaurant, no, but it was like a respectable piece of boxed frozen fish.

As tasty as the fish inside was, the breading surrounding the fish was equally impressive. It had a thicker batter than most fried items at McDonald's so that meant it needed to be fried just a little longer than most. The thick breading gave the outer layer a more well done texture from the longer cooking time, but still eft the fish inside moist. If you've ever had a Japanese tempura batter, that would similar, if a bit firmer. My order took a few minutes to prepare, so it was probably cooked to order, which means there wasn't any resting time for it to get cold or soggy.

One noticeable difference, and something that doesn't usually occur at McDonald's was that the fish served actually didn't look anything like the fish on the promotional photos (which made it look more like it's lightly battered Indonesian cousin). This is one of those rare occasions, that the food served looked nothing like the photo, but that was actually a positive this time!

McDonald's Thailand Fish & Fries Batter

My biggest issue with this dish wasn't the fish at all, but rather the copious amount of fried batter pieces served next to the fish (go back and take a look at the lead photo on the review to really see how much was served). It wasn't just a token sprinkle of flakes to make it look like the piece of fish had just been dropped out of the fryer onto the plate (yes, it was a real plate - McDonald's Thailand uses those), but easily 10 full spoonfuls of the stuff. It tasted exactly like fried batter would, and I couldn't really see any use for it, you wouldn't top your already battered fish with them, nor would you eat them with french fries so in essence they were just a garnish for the plate and a complete waste of food. Even the promotional photos show the giant pile of batter bits, and I really don't understand why they were served. That's really the only point holding this back from a prefect score.

Rating - 4/5

Chicken Taruta (チキンタルタ) - Okinawa, Japan - February 2017

2017-02-25T22:29:00.000+07:00

Chicken Taruta (チキンタルタ) - Okinawa, Japan - February 2017

The Wife said the bun looks like it has a tumour.

Consumed on 20 February 2017

Location - McDonald's Kokusai Dori, Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Combo Price - 680JPY = $6.08USD

Calories - 483kcal

McDonald's Kokusai Dori Naha, Okinawa Japan Receipt

My last shaker review will be put to the side for a bit, as it was from Japan, but since I happened to be in Japan all this week, I thought it would be better to post some of the new and interesting items on the menu they are serving right now. There are in fact so many promo items on the menu right now (7 by my count) that I didn't even get to try them all before leaving last night. The first review will be for the new Chicken Taruta (チキンタルタ) a variant of the Chicken Tatsuta which was one of my first reviews on this blog, and a perennial promo burger in Japan. Although that original review is pretty sparse being back from the early days of the blog with only a single photo, my review a few months later of the, ginger sauced, Chicken Tasuta - 'Wafu Oroshi Edition' has a handful more, including a branded box, which wasn't something I was lucky enough to get with mine this time.

As is usually my luck - no promo box for me!

Where's the bump?

The Chicken Taruta doesn't carry the Tatsuta name over from the original, but it does use the same soft bun I spoke about in my original reviews, (although mine didn't have the tumourous "lump" that the promo photos used) and it also uses the exact same soy sauce marinated fried chicken patty served on top of a bed of cabbage. The Chicken patty itself was identical to all those I've had before, a nice change from the battered and fried Chicken Patties you are usually served. This only has a token bit of batter on top, and is lightly fried. If I didn't know beforehand it was deep fried, I might have guessed it was pan fried as it wasn't oily at all. The texture if a bit strange at first, as it doesn't have the crunch of a deeply fried patty, nor the chewiness of a grilled patty, so its slightly springy-but-firm texture always gives me a "huh" on my first bite. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, it's just not a standard burger patty texture I've come to expect.

For those wondering, if so many things are the same, what's actually new about this sandwich? The "Taruta" name is the giveaway here for what was special about this variant, as it was topped with a egg, onion and pickle tartar sauce. Taruta = Tartar, see it now?

That's a surprisingly generous portion for McDonald's JP

A bit of nice colour on that chicken. A welcome change to a heavy breading.

The tartar sauce wasn't exactly similar to a tartar sauce you'd dip your fish in, but rather far heavier with the egg, as one might expect being Japan. Sure it was cut with an mayo-aioli base, but there was probably half an eggs worth of egg whites mixed in. The onions were raw, so added a respectable crunch to it, but thankfully the pickles couldn't really be tasted at all, and I usually find pickles far too overpowering. I'm not completely sure if this was a typical Japanese take on tartar sauce, or if it was something McDonald's Japan tailored for their chicken patty for this specific burger, either way I rather enjoyed it.

The soy-sauce based marinate has soaked through the patty

The only part about this burger which I didn't really enjoy was the bed of cabbage. Cabbage is served on the original Tatusta Chicken to offset the saltiness from the soy sauce in the patty, and is a typical bed for many fried foods even outside of McDonald's in Japan. But with the heavy tartar sauce this time around it wasn't really needed. It could have been because I received a pretty large serving of sauce (much larger than the single scoop of Mashed Potato on the Hokkaido Burger last year) I would have preferred they tried to go for a different veg in place over the cabbage, tomato could have worked, if a bit boring. The Wafu Oroshi edition swapped it out for radish, so there could have been some other Japanese vegetable to give the flavour even more of a twist. One other minor point of interest which I didn't really notice when I ate the burger years ago was the colour of the meat inside the patty. The soy sauce marinate turned the entire patty a semi-dark black colour. It wasn't dark enough to be off-putting, but it was noticeable.

All in, I enjoyed and finished a complete burger. If was living in Japan and had to have the Tatusta year after year I might have been a bit more picky, but since it's a completely new Taruta variant on a respectable burger on it's own, it earned itself a solid score.

Rating - 4/5

Black Truffle Shakers (黑松露調味粉)- Hong Kong - February 2017

2017-02-20T00:54:00.000+07:00

McDonald's Hong Kong 2016 Black Truffle Shakers

麥當勞®麥麥加推 Shake Shake薯條 (全新口味: 黑松露調味粉)

Purchased December 2016 in Hong Kong

Consumed on 11 February 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand

Price - Free with upsized combo.

Calories - Unknown

Third up in my series of four short McShakers reviews are the Black Truffle Shakers also from Hong Kong. Like it's Yuzu Pepper cousin, this was also sourced by my friend Andrew and I picked it up on my latest trip to HK (the same trip that I was able to try the Crayfish Soup and Bagel Breakfast & Purple Soy Milk). As unbelievable as McDonald's-Truffle-anything sounds, it actually wasn't the first time I've had a Truffle Shaker, as Singapore had it in late 2015.

Despite my constantly repeated hatred of Mushrooms, the aforementioned Truffle Shakers from Singapore actually ended up being pretty OK in my books, but that might have been because it was only truffle "flavoured" and didn't contain any real truffle inside. This Hong Kong edition had real black truffle on the bottom of it's ingredient list, so even if it only had a minuscule token amount of truffle inside, at least it had something. The flavour itself was definitely one of the "lightest" and most subtle shakers flavours I've tried thus far. I don't think that's due to being Truffle flavoured per se, but rather due to the sheer number of other ingredients that they needed to mix with the token amount of truffle included. Some of the noticeable ingredients were Milk Powder, Onion, Garlic, Black Pepper, Ginger, White pepper, Chilli and Mushroom powder with the peppers being the standout flavours here.

To be completely honest, if it wasn't called the Black Truffle Shaker, there wasn't really any flavour that I would have called truffle-like if I was going on taste alone. The seasoning itself had absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it probably more like a seasoning that you could buy to use outside of shaking on some McDonald's Fries. I don't think it was overly impressive on the fries so all things considered, it probably will earn a slightly lower than average score.

Rating - 2.5/5

Yuzu Pepper Shakers (柚子胡椒風味調味粉) - Hong Kong - February 2017

2017-02-15T22:18:00.000+07:00

Yuzu Pepper Flavoured Seasoning Shaker - McDonald's Hong Kong

柚子胡椒風味調味粉 - 香港

Purchased December 2016 in Hong Kong

Consumed on 11 February 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand

Price - Free with upsized combo.

Calories - Unknown

The second flavour in this mini-series of shaker reviews is the Yuzu Pepper Flavoured shakers from McDonald's Hong Kong. My friend Andrew lives in HK so was able save me a packet of these together with the flavour I'll be reviewing tomorrow, Black Truffle until we met a couple weeks later. Yuzu Pepper and Black Truffle were being offered together with Honey BBQ and Seaweed, both flavours from Hong Kong that I've reviewed before so I didn't think it was worth a second (or third) try. Now this isn't the first time I've Yuzu/Yuja flavoured items from McDonald's before, but if you haven't read my old reviews from Singapore or Korea, Yuzu is kind of like a soft, wrinkly Mandarin Orange.

Since I was reviewing four shakers at once, like the Garlic Butter, I only used a portion of the package together with a handful of fries. The seasoning itself gave off a fruity smell, so it was clear they really went with the Yuzu flavour over say, the pepper. I gave my fries a quick shake and each one collected a nice consistent coating - much better than the Garlic Butter did under the same conditions. The orange colour was broken up by small black flakes which aren't really noticeable in the photos. Since the only dark ingredients on the list were Soy Sauce Powder and Mint, I'd guess it was mint just by the sparseness of them all.

Not sure why The Wife dipped it, but we ate them 'shaken' as intended

Actual Yuzu fruit is as like a cross between an orange, mandarin and even a grapefruit, but is slightly sweeter, but less tart than a typical orange. So as expected, these shakers were more sweet and less salty than a "traditional" seasoning shaker. It's not surprising that Sugar was the first ingredient, but what was less exiting was that they didn't use any real Yuzu fruit in it at all. The citrusy flavour which was noticeable and relatively pleasant either came from the vague "flavouring" but more likely the "Mandarin Peel" hidden further down the ingredient list. The pepper in the name didn't mean that it would try and be spicy like the majority of items that use it in the name, but rather it was heavy on the also-sweet paprika pepper which even though it was two rather sweet flavours together in one, worked well with one another.

I'm very glad this didn't end up being simply a rebadged of the lacklustre "Citrus" flavour that they sold in 2014 but something new all together. An alternative from the salty McShakers flavours are a welcome change, especially when they don't end up being sickeningly sweet. It had a nice balance and a flavour that I'd be willing to eat again.

Rating - 3.5/5

Garlic Butter Shakers - Manila, Philippines - February 2017

2017-02-14T23:49:00.001+07:00

Purchased in Manila Philippines in September 2016

Consumed on 11 February 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand

Price - Free with upsized combo.

Calories - Unknown

A couple days ago The Wife, The Mother and I wanted to stop and get a coffee, and since McCafe in Thailand has a promo on Cappuccinos at the moment 49THB ($1.39USD) it was a perfect time to relax and try a backlog of McShakers that has grown considerably over the last month. Like my previous "Various McShakers" review, I'll do these in order, first in, last out. I thought about consolidating all 4 shakers I ate that day into a single review, but I think it'll be easier for me to write 4 shorter reviews, over one long one this week. I already have the next one queued up so I should be able to post them all before the end of the week, so even though they'll be short, they won't replace multiple "full" reviews.

First on the list would be the Garlic Butter Shakers from The Philippines that Twitter pal JetSetCD was able to acquire for me back at the tail end of their run, way back in September 2016! Although I made a few trips to Manila even after receiving these, they were after their run was complete, so it was perfect timing on her part (thanks again is you are reading!). I've had Shakers from The Philippines before, during a 2014 promo when they had 3 different flavours all at once - Three Cheese was nothing special, as was BBQ, but Kickin' Ketchup still has to be one of the worst shakers flavours imaginable.

To be honest, at least 'Garlic Butter' is a pleasant sounding combination, and 'garlic butter fries' are something that I'd happily eat. At home The Wife and I load up nearly every dish we cook at home with garlic, so we both were looking forward to giving this a try. Like the other shakers in PH, they had no mention of any ingredients on the packet, nor where they were made, so I was going in completely blind apart from my sight and smell.

Cracking open the far-too-big-for-one-serving packet I wasn't really hit with that much garlic scent, which wasn't a great first impression. As required with McShakers, I added some seasoning to a paper bag together with some fries and shook. Since I only added a handful of fries (and a pinch of seasoning) they didn't coat perfectly but it was still more than good enough. Only during my first bite could I actually taste the garlic, which as expected, was a good combination together with the fries. The "butter" was a bit of a letdown however as it tasted more like Garlic Salt (or popcorn garlic seasoning) rather than anything close to Garlic Butter. Like far too many shakers before it, I felt it was a touch on the salty side, which isn't something garlic butter should be in my opinion. Some flavours go well with the saltiness that comes with a shaker, but this wasn't one of them...

Unfortunately it ended up being yet another unimpressive middle of the road shaker from The Philippines. There wasn't anything off-putting about it at all, and I finished the handful of fries that I seasoned, but I wouldn't have wanted to coat an entire serving with it, nor would I really want to eat it again.

Rating - 2.5/5

Strawberry & Cream Pie - Michigan, USA - February 2017

2017-02-11T22:07:00.000+07:00

McDonald's USA Strawberry & Cream Pie - February 2017

Pretty decent shape after travelling for 30 hours.

Purchased on 8 February 2017, in Detroit McNamara Airport, Michigan, USA

Consumed on 10 February 2017, in Bangkok, Thailand

Price = $1.03USD

Calories = 300kcal

McDonald's USA Reciept 2017

I know it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last review, and that's because The Wife and I had guests for a week and I had to make another trip to Vietnam which didn't provide any new items to review as they are still running the Samurai Burger and the Banh McMuffin from my last review. Despite a drought on this side, my mother flew to Bangkok through the US a couple days ago and thus was able to pick up a Strawberry & Cream Pie from the airport in Detroit for me to try. I haven't had a "flown in" review for a long time and that's mostly because those reviews don't really garner that much interest over trying something fresh, but since pies generally do hold up better than a burger does I felt this was worth a try anyway. It might seem like a lot of work for just a pie, but my last review of a pie was way back in November when I had the Banana Custard Pie in Qatar, and my last pie in Asia was the Burbur Cha Cha from Malaysia in July 2016 (I guess the Banana Cream Pie Sundae from The Philippines doesn't count.

A Pre "toasted" Baked Pie.

My $10 toaster in action.

Even after ~30 hours of transit, the pie was still in perfect shape and I was surprised to find even the box made it across the pacific without a dent. I stuck it in the toaster to heat it up before eating, and unlike the Blueberry Maple Pie I had in Canada a couple months ago, this one didn't fall to pieces in there. If you didn't click the link back to the Blueberry Maple, that same review also includes the Pumpkin Cream Pie also from the US which I didn't enjoy it as it wasn't really anything that special. Since this Strawberry & Cream Pie has made multiple wintertime appearances in the US prior to this 2017 release. When I Googled it, I see articles as far back as 2012, so I'm not surprised that it ended up being pretty tasty if it sold well enough to reappear 4-5 times.

Unlike its pumpkin cousin, this was a proper 50/50 split between cream and jelly/jam. Not sure if it was a side effect of the pie being "old" but the cream didn't taste nearly as cheap as it did when I had Pumpkin, and the Strawberry section had small chunks of real fruit inside which at least meant it didn't give off a dollar store jam type consistency. The baked-then-toasted cream filling was firm and didn't really ooze out like I guess it would have if served fresh, and I though that was just fine. Although it clocks up a whopping 300kcal, I ended up eating the entire pie for my breakfast. Something I don't usually do with items that have travelled across the world. That alone allows me to give it a perfectly acceptable score.

Rating - 4/5

In case any of you were disappointed by a not-so-crazy Pie review after a long time off, needn't worry, here's a taste of what's to come! Although my last trip to Vietnam was a failure, with a little help from some friends, I have reviews coming of Black Truffle and Yuzu Pepper Shakers from Hong Kong, Garlic Butter from The Philippines, and Tomato Cream from Japan! Also 2 McNugget sauces, Fruit Curry and Creamy Cheese also from Japan. I've also built up a couple reviews from Thailand that I need to type out (those same ones I promiced back when I did the McCreamy Chicken Soup review).

Banh McMuffin - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - January 2017

2017-01-31T01:09:00.003+07:00

Banh McMuffin - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - January 2017

No promo, or even translated packaging for this one.

Not exactly an accurate representation of the egg, and that's perfectly fine in this case.

Consumed on 19 January 2017

Location - McDonald's Hoang Dieu, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Price - 20,000VND = $0.88USD

Calories - ~220kcal

McDonald's Receipt Hoang Dieu, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

In early January 2017 McDonald's Vietnam rolled out their first localised McMuffin, the 'Banh McMuffin'. I assumed it was not called the 'Banh Mi McMuffin' since they already sold a 'traditional' Banh Mi on the lunch menu and didn't want to introduce any confusion. I recommend you go back and read that review as it was my first review from Vietnam and I talk a bit about different versions of Banh Mi, but if you can't be bothered, the abridged version is that it wasn't one of my favourite local dishes, so I went into this McMuffin with a strong hesitation.

So, there's a Banh Mi cart directly outside our office in Ho Chi Minh City. I pretty much always take the 7am flight from Bangkok landing at 8:30 so I'm hungry by the time I get to the office around 9. Before I enter, I grab two (yes, two) breakfast Banh Mi from her before even dropping off my bags. It's a simple but very tasty breakfast sandwich - just a typical Vietnamese baguette filled with cucumber, a freshly fried egg topped with some chilli, a few other herbs and a dash of sauce. The McMuffin pretty much copied this, except by replacing the chilli with a generous amount of black pepper. Ignoring the three large slices of cucumber, the biggest difference between this and a McMuffin you'd find elsewhere is the yolk of the egg was still runny, just like how you'd get them on the street, and nothing like that firm, cooked-in-a-ring egg you get everywhere else.

Ok, if I'm being completely honest, the egg wasn't as runny as it is outside, but it was still enough that you'd get your fingers messy if you weren't careful. The black pepper was a nice touch, but I would have preferred something a bit spicier, and the lack of chilli was really noticeable as I like my eggs spicy. Not including fish sauce was expected coming from McDonald's, but some sauce (or cheese) was needed here as it was a bit dry just egg and cucumber. This is definitely one of those promo items that is far from bad, but it isn't really anything all that special. If you look at the receipt photo they don't even call it the Banh McMuffin like the promotional poster, but rather the more literal Egg McMuffin with Cucumber, but this Egg McMuffing doesn't even have ham or cheese!

It's probably not worth hunting down to try, but if you wanted to sit and have a decent Vietnamese Coffee in some air conditioning, it's worth the price, but you need to offset one by getting one off the street as well, if only to be full. Certainly a lot better than the Rice options on the breakfast menu, and since it doesn't have any sauce, meat or cheese, it has to be one of the healthier options you can get anywhere.

Rating - 3.5/5

Not sure why they had to give me a leaflet of the same thing I just ordered?

Crayfish Soup (小龍蝦湯) - Hong Kong - January 2017

2017-01-22T20:19:00.001+07:00

McDonald's Hong Kong Crayfish Soup (小龍蝦湯) - Hong Kong - January 2017

Consumed on 15 January 2017

Location - McDonald's IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong

Price - $13.50HKD = $1.74USD

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Hong Kong 2017 Receipt

A couple days after I had tried the Bagel Deluxe Breakfast & Purple Rice Soy Milk, I visited a branch to pick up the only promo item currently on the McDonald's Hong Kong lunch/dinner menu that I hadn't already tried before, Crayfish Soup. Travelling around Asia on the hunt for new burgers before (and after) the Lunar New Year period is challenging, as most countries run the Prosperity burger, or a variant of it and I have no interest in repeatedly trying the same burger over and over again. Since that burger occupies the 'promo' burger space, I'm pretty much limited to trying one of the side dishes or a breakfast item if they happen to have one, and this last trip to Hong Kong was no exception. The far-too-small IFC McDonald's didn't have any open seats so we ordered the soup for takeaway and brought it downstairs to eat whilst waiting for the Airport Express. You might remember those ugly blue chairs from when I ate the Beef & Egg Fan-tastic off the same seats back last June. I thought about leaving it to try from the actual airport itself, but they have a tendency to run out of the promos quicker than the in-city branches, and I didn't want to risk it - I've been burned before.

I might be mistaken, but I believe the first time the Crayfish Soup appeared in Hong Kong was back in early 2013, and it has pretty much made an appearance about once a year since then, but I've never been able to try it. When I transited through Macau last year (which shares their menu with Hong Kong) it was already sold out in every branch I checked. This year I was lucky enough to see that every branch still sold it, so I wasn't too worried about leaving it until my last day.

Just like the Pumpkin Soup I had in Hong Kong back in 2012, this was a semi-thick cup of soup, topped off with a dash of fresh cream. I had a cold at the time, so the wife took the first couple bites as we didn't risk sharing the bowl after I've used the spoon, and mentioned to me that there were four large pieces of crayfish, so we agreed she'd eat two pieces of fish and leave me with the the other two.

The meat was actually pretty damn impressive for McDonald's, as each piece was easily the size of a medium sized crayfish. I went in expecting the soup to only have a few shavings of meat to keep costs down (which reminded me of the Crab Croquette Burger from Japan) so to find these large pieces was a welcome surprise. They were firm, but not overcooked, and each was a slightly different size and shape from the rest, which is always nice to see as it looks better than processed uniformity. An even better surprise was that when The Wife passed the bowl over for me to eat, there ended up being a total of six pieces in our serving, as I fished out four of my own. Unlike the Pumpkin soup, the cream actually added some noticeable flavour to the lobster-bisque-esc broth. There weren't any large pieces of vegetables floating around in the broth itself, but the broth clearly was made onions and some 'heavier' vegetable (maybe a potato or yam?) that I couldn't quite place. It wasn't creamy, so it didn't have that unhealthy heavy feeling I get after eating a cream based soup.

Mask and all. That was probably the worst afternoon of my weeklong cold...

There's not really much else I can say about this soup, as it was only made up of the three ingredients, broth, crayfish and cream. The broth did wonders for my cold and I drank every drop I could before boarding the train back to the airport. Long time readers will know that soup pops up at McDonald's every now and then, and I find that it's usually a hit or a very big miss. This one was firmly a hit in my books, and I'd happily swap out my fries for it whenever I have the opportunity.

Rating - 5/5

Who wouldn't want to eat out of that cup?!

McDonald's Hong Kong 2017 Prosperity Burgers

Bagel Deluxe Breakfast (Bagel小麥圈早晨套餐) & Purple Rice Soy Milk (紫米豆漿) - Hong Kong - January 2017

2017-01-13T23:57:00.000+07:00

Bagel Deluxe Breakfast (Bagel小麥圈早晨套餐) - Hong Kong 2017

Purple Rice Soy Milk (紫米豆漿) - Hong Kong

Consumed on 13 Jan 2017

Location - McDonald's 265 Queens Road West, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong

Combo Price - $26.50HKD = $3.54USD. Purple Rice Soy Milk add-on $1HKD = $0.13USD

Calories - Unknown

McDonald's Hong Kong Receipt 2017

McDonald's Hong Kong Deluxe Breakfast & Hotcakes Box

Whenever The Wife and I make a trip to Hong Kong, she always wants to have a Twisty Pasta Breakfast which is only available here. It's our tradition, and this latest trip was no exception. It also happens to be pretty much the only regular menu item that I'll eat even when not writing a review! This morning (yes, this is one of those rare reviews that I write on the day I ate the food) I felt like giving the only breakfast promo currently available a try together with our Twisty Pasta Breakfast, the Bagel Deluxe Breakfast. McDonald's Hong Kong also sells a handful of "premium" drinks that you could out swap your regular coffee or juice for a token additional payment of $1HKD ($0.13USD) so I opted to go for the Purple Rice Soy Milk as it's something I've never had before, even outside of a McDonald's.

Our hotel was only a block or so away from a McDonald's so rather than eating it in the small and very busy restaurant, we brought it back to our room. When I cracked open the box, all the ingredients of my breakfast had shifted to one of the box during the short walk back, and the already meagre looking food within looked even worse when piled on top of each other. Since the only thing truly "special" in this meal was the bagel, I was at least expecting a bagel of half-decent quality, but even my photos show how miserable it looked. The bagels in the promotional material McDonald's HK used, looked large and like a bagels should, but what was served was completely different. The hole in the centre was far too big, and the bagel itself wasn't large, nor fluffy - it looked more like a dough ring rather than a bagel.

Since it was served in the Big Breakfast/Hotcakes box, I guess it was intended to be eaten with a knife and fork. Sure, that could be possible for the eggs and sausage, but then what I was I then supposed to do with the bagel? It was toasted (but served cold), but I wasn't provided with with butter, nor margarine, to spread on the bagel. It was however served with a packet of Grape Jam (see top photo)...I've never put jam on a bagel before and wasn't about to start today, and since it was a pretty pathetic looking bagel to begin with, I wasn't going to eat it dry.

So I ended up turning the entire meal into a bagel sandwich...Which coincidentally is available in Canada.

To be completely honest, the Bagel Sandwich I concocted wasn't half bad, and could be a promo item of it's own, it was probably better than the actual NY Bagel Burger that I had in Taiwan last year. I was almost about to be a bit cheeky and thought I could then spread the Grape Jam all over my sandwich, but I opted against it as I was actually pretty hungry and wanted to enjoy as much of the meal as I could.

Purple Rice Soy Milk (紫米豆漿) - McDonald's Hong Kong

The Purple Rice Soy Milk was a bit boring, so that's why I am not dedicating a review of its own for it. Plain Soy Milk has been on the McDonald's Hong Kong breakfast menu for a few years now, and I vaguely remember the 'Purple Rice' variant popping up up 1-2 years ago during one of their "healthy" promotions, so I guess it's become a regular menu option as of late. Soy Milk for breakfast is extremely common in Hong Kong is typically served hot, but you can also get it over ice (and sweetened) pretty much any time of the day. Sweetened Soy Milk also comes in various varieties and flavours, like Melon, Chocolate and Strawberry, and I've had those before (they are even sold at convenience stores next to the Coke and Water) but I've never had any being Purple Rice flavour before. This Purple Rice Soy Milk was served in the typical styrofoam cup (used for tea) but mine wasn't really all that hot, which was a bit disappointing, it also wasn't all that purple. Plain Soy Milk is off-white, and I guess this was off-purple? Either way it still wasn't anything close to the purple shown in the promo photos. As for the taste, it was no different from standard Soy Milk. I didn't taste anything special and had it not been that slight shade of off-purple I wouldn't have noticed any difference between it and plain soy milk and since I'm not the biggest fan of soy milk in general, I only had a couple sips before returning to my coffee.

Ratings:

Bagel Deluxe Breakfast (Bagel小麥圈早晨套餐) - 1/5

Purple Rice Soy Milk (紫米豆漿) - 2/5

Here's The Wife's Twisty Pasta meal.