McDonald's Around the World

Red Peri Scorcher - Singapore - May 2013

2013-05-16T15:46:00.000+08:00

Consumed on 16 May 2013

Location - McDonald's Chinatown Point Mall, Singapore

Standard Combo Price - $6.50SGD = $5.20USD. Add additional $0.65 for Shakers and McFizz.

Calories - ~550 kcal

Do they have lemon in Peri Peri?

On the 8th, I was browsing McDonald's Singapore Facebook page, and I saw a promo video for the Red Peri Scorcher. I made a comment on the video, and even shared it with a couple friends asking if they wanted to try it. About 20 minutes later, the video was gone. I posted a message to the Facebook page wall asking where it went, and it was promptly deleted, I guess someone jumped the gun and posted it a little too early. Nothing was said about this burger on the website until a couple days ago when they started releasing 'teaser' images trying to get people to guess what it was, but little did they know that I already I knew what, and when, it was coming.

Apparently McDonald's had another preview 'party' this Monday and sent 50 people messages to invite them to try it. I was surprised they didn't even bother to ask me, but I guess they weren't too happy with my Black Pepper Flamer review, so as much as I would have liked to try it a couple days early, I waited patiently until it was released today. I told my wife about the new burger last night and though she wasn't feeling 100%, she said she would meet me at Chinatown Point (the closest branch to our office) so we could try it together. She had actually never had Peri Peri anything before coming to Singapore, we bought a bottle of South African Peri Peri sauce to cook with from Mustaphas, and she loves it. A part of our honeymoon is going to be in South Africa and she's really looking forward to having authentic Peri Peri.

I was hoping that they would introduce new sides and not keep the same Lychee McFizz and Thai Citrus Shakers, but with past experience with the Prosperity and then the Chicken Prosperity burger, I had a feeling they would be keeping the same sides. I was only somewhat right, as though the kept the same Thai Citrus Shakers, they introduced the Passion Fruit McFizz, which has been available in Malaysia for the past two weeks, but strangely they still sell the Lychee flavour as well. I don't know if that's intended or if the branch was just clearing out lychee syrup stock.

Though I was standing in the queue, this was scooped by the wife pretty quickly.

We assumed that visiting at 13:20 we would have avoided the lunchtime rush, but we weren't that lucky, we arrived to the small Chinatown Point branch and though 3 registers were open, there was a queue of at least 5 people at each one. In most countries this normally wouldn't be that much of a problem, but it seems that queues just move ungodly slow here in Singapore. I noticed that a woman in front of us had a post-it note with about 15 different orders on it, so we quickly moved over to the next queue, which ended up being the right decision as we ended up beating her by a long margin. We made it to the front of the queue in about 7 minutes, and though McDonald's in Singapore is now using the little 1 minutes hourglass to try and get each person ordered and out in under a minute, ours took about 3 minutes, and we were given a Vanilla Cone coupon for our delay. I have a feeling this won't last too long in Singapore as it seemed that EVERY person ordering food was given a coupon, the only man I saw not given one was the old man who ordered only coffee.

McDonald's Singapore Red Peri Scorcher

Doesn't it look strangely like Burger King Chicken?

Noticeably thinner than the other spicy burgers

Seasoning in both the sauce, and the patty!

As my wife and I already tried the Shakers and the McFizz we went with the standard $6.50 combo, my colleague paid the $0.65 extra to have his it upsized and with the McFizz. Nice to see that it was a little cheaper than the Black Pepper Flamer, but the double still wasn't worth the extra $1.95. The bun was larger than the Flamer, but the chicken patty seemed a little thinner. Like the McSpicy and the Flamer, it used a chicken thigh, but because it was thin, it wasn't as juicy as the others. The texture was a like a combination between a McSpicy and a McChicken, and I thought it was perfect. The thinner coating of breading allowed the burger to not be over oily. After the first bite, it reminded me of a Burger King fried chicken patty, though it's not something I've had in a long long time, this definitely didn't taste like typical Singapore McDonald's.

Same as with the Black Pepper Flamer, McDonald's are promoting this as 'competition' against the McSpicy, and though they make the promo images out that the new burger is spicy, just it isn't. I might even say the Shakers were spicier than this burger. That's not to say that the Red Peri flavour wasn't good, I thought it was a great combination with the new chicken patty. This is one of the best flavoured burgers that I've had from Singapore. Whereas with the Black Pepper burger the seasoning was mixed into the patty, for the Peri, the seasoning was mixed with the mayo, which mean't you could taste it as the flavour wasn't lost in the oil from the chicken, and though they didn't put all that much on the burger, it still was flavourful.

Lunch with my colleague Mervyn

Showing off his new application. Except it's been available in Korea for years.

Rating - 4.5/5

With onions or a tomato, this would have received a perfect score. They also should have made it at least somewhat spicy as they are promoting it as such.

Cinnamon Melts - Amherstburg, Canada - June 2012

2013-05-15T14:57:00.002+08:00

Consumed on 23 June 2012

Location - Amherstburg, Ontario Canada

Price - ~$2.29CAD = ~$2.25USD

Calories - 460kcal

A quick review today to hold everyone over until the new Peri Peri Burger launches tomorrow. I'll be having it first thing for lunch, so keep an eye out for it tomorrow afternoon!

I found this photo hidden away on an old hard drive and I had completely forgotten that I've even tried the Cinnamon Melts back when I was last in Canada. I reviewed a number of items on that trip including the Mediterranean Wrap, the Strawberry Pie, the Drumstick McFlurry and even a breakfast bagel. The reason why I don't remember ordering this was because I didn't, my sister did. She wanted an excuse to have junk food for breakfast (this was ordered at 10am), and she insisted I try the Cinnamon Melts for my blog as they were here 'favourite'.

My loving sister only let me have a single piece, and that was all I would have ever wanted. It was served hot, but the flavour was terrible. The bread was soft, but it wasn't nearly 'cinnamony' enough, even the icing on top was flavourless. Rather than a traditional cinnamon bun they used these little bread 'nubs' and covered them in a cream cheese icing. I'll admit, I used to love Cinnabon when I was a kid, but haven't had one in a long time as they are deadly for you, your heart and your waist as a single bun has a whopping 880kcal. This small McDonald's version isn't much better and I searched out the nutrition info from the McDonald's Canada website for you to take a look at.

Rating - 2/5

Back tomorrow with a new review!

Norishio Shaka Shaka (シャカシャカのりしお) - Tokyo, Japan - May 2013

2013-05-13T16:56:00.000+08:00

Sorry about the shadow, this McDonald's had horribly bright overhead lighting

Purchased on 3 April 2013 - McDonald's Ichigaya Station, Tokyo, Japan

Consumed on 12 May 2013 - In City Square Mall, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Price - Free with large fry

Calories - Unknown

She's hungry, but still wanted to pose for a photo.

My wife and I made a trip over to Malaysia to try a couple new items they had on offer. Now that she has her Singapore residency card, we were able to apply for the Malaysian auto immigration card, and because I recently renewed my passport (since the old one was full, and we need a handful of visas for our honeymoon in July) I had to queue up to get my new passport 'chopped' = stamped with a Malay entry stamp before they could issue the auto immigration card. I got stuck in the slowest moving queue ever, and it took nearly 30 minutes to get through and back to the application office, and by the time everything was settled, my wife was starving. We made a beeline for the City Square branch to get our lunch.

How the little packet made it's way down to Singapore.

My Uni friend from back in Canada recently moved to Japan to start teaching English, and though I had to press him a bit to get these picked up for me, after a couple of friendly reminders, they finally arrived to our flat in Singapore - Thanks Nick! He's my first close friend living in Japan, so I'll be able to bother him to send me the new shakers/sauces as they appear which is nice, since I won't be visiting Japan nearly as often as I did when I lived in Korea. My other friend Erik, who used to live in Japan, and had previously sent me the American BBQ shakers, which, strangely enough I also reviewed ate in Malaysia.

The packaging had a simple, "Shaka Shaka" on the front, and this is the first time I've seen the packaging without any reference to what flavour was actually inside. Aside from the American BBQ, I've had many other Shaka Shaka packets in Japan, and this was the first like this, maybe it's the original flavour? I knew from searching the McDonald's Japan website that it was "norishio" flavour, which is a essentially seaweed and salt. This would explain why my wife loved it, normally she is pretty turned off by the Shakers, but she absolutely loved this one. Whenever I would visit Japan from Korea, she would expect me to bring her back the Calbee Seaweed potato chips for her, and these tasted exactly like the seasoning on those chips. I was disappointed with the American BBQ flavour, but I found myself strangely attracted to this flavour. At first I was a little under-whelmed, as some of the promo items I was eating had a bit stronger flavour to them, but the more I ate, I found myself enjoying them more and more. I eventually ended up dipping everything I could find in it, as it accompanied not only the fries well, but also the burger I was eating. These weren't the same as the Hong Kong Seaweed version I had a couple years back (my first review of seasoning from McDoanld's), but an even better attempt. Yes, they were extremely salty, but it tasted like salt should, rather than MSG.

One of the 3 promo items I tried from Malaysia was also another Shaker flavour, so keep an eye out for the next review in a couple of days to find out what it is! Also, just today McDonald's Japan started a new flavour - "Butter Soy Sauce Shaka Shaka", and as soon as I mentioned it to my wife she fell in love with the thought and said "Awesome! He has to send you one~"

McDonald's Japan Norishio on the left, and the new Malay promo on the right.

Rating - 4.5/5

Raspberry Dazzle McFlurry - Johor, Malaysia - March 2013

2013-05-09T15:04:00.001+08:00

Consumed on 10 March 2013

Location -

Price - 5.35MYR = $1.80USD

Calories = ~300kcal

McDonald's Malaysia McFlurry and Beef & Egg Burger Receipt

This review has been in the queue for quite a bit of time, I ate the Raspberry Dazzle McFlurry when I went to Malaysia back in March to visit my colleague. I also ate the Beef & Egg McLunch combo, which at <$2 for the entire combo was a great value, but the burger wasn't anything special. The McFlurry nearly cost the same as my meal, which on it's own isn't a terrible value, but in comparison to the rest of the Malaysian menu, it isn't the best value.

I've found McDonald's Malaysia a little more inventive in their McFlurry combinations than their Singapore counterparts, and this variant was no exception. The Raspberry Dazzle was topped with Raspberry syrup (naturally), chocolate syrup, and some Cornetto cone pieces mixed in. The Cornetto isn't very special in Malaysian McDonald's, as they have a regular menu Cornetto Sundae. Much like the Lime McFlurry I had in Malaysia, the syrup had large chunks of actual fruit mixed in, and it wasn't overly sweet. Though personally I didn't like the combination between Raspberry and Chocolate syrup and I think Oreo pieces might have worked a little better, but I can understand why they went with syrup, as it would have been too chunky. Though this was far from a poor attempt and I would recommend it if you are a fan of Raspberry.

Rating - 3/5

Ham Patty Burger - Taipei, Taiwan - April 2013

2013-05-06T16:00:00.001+08:00

Finally reunited with my camera! No more terrible phone camera shots for the time being.

Even the website makes it look simple.

Consumed on 12 April 2013

Location - McDonald's Nanjing East Road MRT Station, Taipei, Taiwan

Combo Price - 59NTD = $2.00USD

Calories - ~280kcal

Did you know all Taiwanese receipts have a number at the top, and there is a lottery based on the numbers. They have charity boxes which you can drop you receipts into in hope that the charity will win the lottery and collect the money.

Our full breakfast that morning.

The McDonald's Ham Patty Burger was the 2nd sandwich my wife and I had for breakfast in Taiwan that April morning. The first burger I sampled that morning was the Egg Burger with Vegetables, and similar to the Egg Burger, this burger also used the standard McDonald's Hamburger buns, rather than the expected McMuffin buns that are served on most breakfast sandwiches. McDonald's Taiwan sells one more 'burger' variant, the "Egg Burger with Bacon", which is the same burger as the one "with Vegetables" that I had, (including the slice ham, which they call bacon), but does not come with tomato or lettuce, and is $10NT cheaper ($0.30USD) than the veggie variant. I was hoping that Taiwan had some type of soup for breakfast like Hong Kong, or something a little out of the box, but these were the most interesting I could find.

Just from the name, this burger seems pretty simple, and it was. All that it was was the bun, a ham patty, mustard and cheese. What made this simple sandwich stand out for me was first, the price, at only $2 USD for the entire combo, it was a great value, and the 'ham patty' was not the typical McDonald's sausage patty. This slice of meat was much more 'Chinese' than I expected it to be. If you've ever had Chinese sausage you'll know what I mean, it was tougher than a regular sausage and had that slightly sweet flavour. It was something which was totally different than what I was expecting.

My two breakfast burger wrappers side by side.

Not much else to say about this, there was cheese, and there was mustard, neither of which were special. I was glad there wasn't any ketchup on this, and I will admit the mustard was a nice combination with the chewy Chinese-style sausage. This would be a perfect breakfast if you wanted something a little greasy, but not greasy enough to make you feel sick. Though, if you are just travelling through Taiwan, you might want to give this burger a skip as there are thousands of other foods you should be filling your stomach with rather than this burger. Though if you are in the mood for a coffee, you can get this as a combo for only a couple cents more than just the coffee, so why not try a bite or two.

Rating - 2.5/5

Egg Burger with Vegetables - Taipei, Taiwan - April 2013

2013-05-02T16:44:00.002+08:00

Consumed on 12 April 2013

Location - McDonald's Nanjing East Road MRT Station, Taipei, Taiwan

Combo Price - 69NTD = ~$2.34USD
Calories - ~360kcal

McDonald's Taiwan Receipt

I love travelling to Taiwan, I have quite a number of friends living there, and since my first trip in 2007, I've been maybe 10 times. Even back then, though I wasn't writing this blog, I was still on the hunt for unique McDonald's items which I would snap a photo of. On my first trip way back in 2007 I was able to have a Shrimp Burger on a rice bun, and a side of Corn Soup. The shrimp burger has since been discontinued, and though the corn soup is still a side, every trip I've made to Taiwan has provided me absolutely no new items to sample. Taiwan does occasionally have promo items (I'll post some photos at the bottom of the review), but I always seem to just miss them.

This trip in April 2013 was my wife's first time visiting Taiwan, and after our first night there she realised that since we were not SPG elite members (we were staying at the Westin), that we wouldn't have a free breakfast in the morning. She spotted the McDonald's near the MRT station the night before and asked if we could have "McMorning" for breakfast, which I happily agreed to as there were a couple standard menu breakfast items I could review. The first of two items we shared for breakfast that morning was the Egg Burger with Vegetables.

We arrived at the branch around 10am, and it was doing pretty good business, even through it was located off the main street. The seating area was all downstairs from where you ordered, so my wife went off in hunt of a good seat, and I attempted to order the burgers I wanted. The woman who took my order couldn't speak much English, and with my limited Chinese, I managed to order the proper burgers that I wanted.

The sandwich itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but it's not something that I've seen on the menu before. It was a basic hamburger bun, and the same ham and egg from the Egg McMuffin, but also a slice of tomato, lettuce, mayo and strangely ketchup. Luckily there wasn't much ketchup on the burger and I could fight my way through it, and with the amount of English spoken when I ordered, I wouldn't have been able to order the burger without the ketchup anyway. The hamburger bun along with the filling made a light breakfast, though I think I preferred the standard McMuffin bun. The price was also very appealing, as it was only 69NTD for the combo. The coffee was smaller than the cups in Singapore, but was about the same size as the coffee served in Japan.

Rating - 3/5

Texas Burger - Sydney, Australia - March 2013

2013-04-26T16:14:00.001+08:00

Even after 9 hours it looks pretty tasty.

The Texas Burger, front and centre.

Consumed on 31 March 2013

Location - Purchased at Sydney International Airport. Consumed in Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 1

Price - $6.95 AUD = $7.16USD. Just the burger, not the combo.

Calories - 650kcal

All three promos, officially tested!

Now that I've finished up reviewing the entire line of new Singapore promo items, I can get back to reviewing the 3rd and final Tastes of America burgers that my colleague flew back from Australia for me a few weeks ago. This was the 3rd burger that I tried that night (the first being the New York Classic, and then the California Chicken), and though it was the most expensive burger of the three, it was also the largest and the best tasting.

Former Fish & Fries Promo box.

Fish & Fries promo inlay

Unfortunately they must have run out of Texas Burger boxes at the Sydney Airport branch these were purchased in, and they used a leftover box from their previous promo item, the Fish and Fries that was on offer before the Tastes of America promo started. I wasn't able to try any of the items from the previous promotion, and that BBQ Lamb Burger probably would have been amazing! I've also missed out on the McOz (a beef burger + beetroot), its one I've been wanting to try for quite some time now.

McDonald's Aussie Range promotion. McOz, Lamb Burger, Fish & Fries, & Frozen Fanta!

The Texas burger used the same bun as the other two burgers, and whereas the others were standard size meat patties with a new sauce, this used an oversized beef patty (ala the Angus burgers in North America), 'texan sauce', and a decent slice of bacon. What made this burger my favourite was the large patty. Even after 9 hours I could still taste the seasoning inside, the sauce that they used wasn't my favourite of the new promos, but it worked well with the thick patty of beef and with the bacon. It was tangy and sweet, but not overpowering. I don't have a photo of the bacon, but it was nicer than most McDonald's bacon, and more similar to Canadian bacon (peameal) than what you would expect on a McDonald's burger.

Rating - 4/5

A couple last thoughts.

- This Banana Split shake looks awesome!

McDonald's Australia Banana Split Shake

- They introduced one more sandwich that I wasn't able to try during the promo (aside from the Cheese poppers I talked about in the New York Classic review), the breakfast-only Roadhouse Brekkie Roll, but it looks to have used the same bacon that was served on the Texas Burger, and it looks pretty good too. I can only imagine how much it would be.

- This also isn't the only Texas Burger I've ever reviewed. I had the original Big America Texas Burger back in Nagoya Japan in 2010. They brought it back in February 2013 which my mother was supposed to fly down to Singapore for me to try again, but she never was able too...here's the review where I was expecting it.

- They had a couple other no-so-special items as well, McGriddles, which are standard menu in US/Canada, and Waffle Cones.

McDonald's Australia McGriddle and Waffle Cone

Lychee McFizz - Singapore - April 2013

2013-04-24T16:26:00.001+08:00

Consumed on - 18 April 2013

Location - McDonald's Kovan Station, Singapore

Price - Free with upsized combo. 1 size only. $2.40SGD = $1.93USD ala carte.

Calories - ~250kcal

Keeping in line with the fruit flavoured Citrus Thai Shakers, the 2nd promotional side introduced with the Black Pepper Flamer is the Lychee McFizz. This is the 3rd McFizz that I've had in either Singapore or Malaysia since moving here last year. The first was the decent Sakura McFizz, which was introduced with the Samurai Burger. This was a mixture of Ribena and Sprite. The 2nd McFizz I tried was back in February when I finally had the Orange Juice + Sprite concoction, the Prosperity McFizz, which was launched along with the Prosperity Burger, which I passed on in Malaysia a couple times before eventually trying it in Singapore.

As I mentioned in the previous reviews, I don't generally like to have sweetened drinks along side my junk food, so I usually go for Coke Zero, or Coke Light, and if neither are available, a standard Coke. I very rarely venture out into other drinks, so the McFizzes are never sound that appealing to me.

The Lychee McFizz had a pretty boring name, the McFizz itself is a pretty terrible name, but at least previously with the Prosperity & Sakura variants they went with something which made you try and guess what the combination could be. This time they copped out and went with the boring 'Lychee McFizz', no mystery in the name this time around - I guess they used all their naming 'ability' for the Black Pepper 'Flamer'...

I couldn't see how this drink was mixed but it definitely tasted watered down, either their Sprite was flat, or they tried to cut it with some water. The other McFizzes I had were noticeably fizzier, and the flatness of this made it taste just as rancid as flat Coke tastes. You can see in the photos above how half of the cup looks just like water. Aside from being flat, the flavour was very Lychee heavy, and one could easily tell this wasn't real juice mixed in with the Sprite (like the Prosperity McFizz), but either a Lychee fizzy drink, or more probably an artificial Lychee syrup mixed together with the Sprite.

I'm a big fan of the lychee, but this wasn't for me, it just tasted too artificial.

Rating - 1/5

Citrus Thai Shakers - Singapore - April 2013

2013-04-22T18:19:00.002+08:00

Consumed on - 18 April 2013

Location - McDonald's Kovan Station, Singapore

Price - Free with upsized combo

Calories - Unknown

The Mini pouring the packet into the bag to be 'McShaked'

Normal v. Seasoned

Add caption

With all the heavy marketing going on for the Black Pepper Flamer, the promo sides that were launched with them have been pretty much lost in the shuffle. The Shakers seem to be a pretty common promo item these days in Singapore and neighbouring Malaysia, but not really in the rest of Asia outside of Japan. I'll start off by saying that I generally like the flavours of these shakers, as they add a nice change to the standard fries, but the Citrus Thai Shakers were one of the worst that I've ever had.

The Mini has NEVER enjoyed the shakers but will never turn down a chance to pose.

If you're an avid McDonald's Around the World reader than you'll know that I've mentioned on a number of occasions, that the Singapore/Malaysia shakers have about 2-3X the amount of seasoning compared to the Japanese packets. The Japanese ones act more as a topping and barely have enough to top most of the tried, whereas these try to act as a coating. You can see in the photos that the fries have a pretty solid coating on all sides, which normally would be a positive accept I the flavour of the Thai Citrus was so strong it would have been better if there was less of it.

These Shakers usually are pretty salty, but this one was strangely tangy. Our fries were hot, fresh and already salted. The salt from the fries did not blend well with the tanginess of the seasoning. I usually like to dip my fries in the sauce that falls off my burger, but these wouldn't even mix well with a any sauce, let alone the mayo from my Black Pepper Shaker.

If you were to try these, you might want to request your fries to be unsalted if you plan on upsizing your combo anyway, but in my opinion if you weren't originally planning on upsizing and just wanted to try these, I'd just give them a miss this time around.

Rating - 1/5

Black Pepper Flamer - Singapore - April 2013

2013-04-19T12:14:00.001+08:00

McDonald's Singapore Black Pepper Flamer. April 2013

McDonald's Singapore finally used a promo box!

Consumed on 18 April 2013

Location - McDonald's Kovan Station, Singapore

Price (combo) - $7.05SGD = $5.71USD

Calories - Unknown

World Class photography right there.

I don't particularly like the marketing McDonald's Singapore has used to promote their new burger, the Black Pepper Flamer. What they are trying to do is have people vote (though a very difficult to find webpage), which 'spicy' burger they prefer, the McDonald's Singapore standard menu item, the McSpicy, or the new Flamer. In all of their promotional photos, they only promote the Double patty version. Now, I stand by my previous review and saying that the McSpicy isn't really all that spicy, but at least it tries to be. My biggest problem with the new burger is that it's not even trying to be spicy, its just seasoned...and that's a big difference. I could see what they were trying to do. For the last 6 months, McDonald's Singapore has run promotions for their fillet-o-fish promos, Samurai burger, Prosperity burger, their $2 line, and a couple other items here and there. They haven't been able to promote a regular menu item like the McSpicy for quite some time, so even though these burgers aren't really all that similar, they still seized the opportunity to market two burgers at once.

Same size chicken thigh as the McSpicy, but un-breaded.

The Black Pepper Flamer, used a slightly different bun than the regular burgers which was a nice change, as many of the previous burgers here have just used the standard sesame seed bun. Unfortunately the toppings were standard and pretty basic, just a sprinkling of lettuce, and standard mayo. The bun was a decent size, and I didn't find it to take away from the taste of the meat, but there wasn't really anything special about the flavour. The chicken patty wasn't battered, which was nice change, but as it was still fried, it I found it a little too oily as the thick chicken skin soaked up the oil it was fried in.

As McDonald's wasn't promoting the bun at all, the draw for this new burger was the Black Pepper seasoning. At first, I thought it would be a little too similar to the Prosperity burger which only finished its overly long run just a couple months ago, but it was nice to see that it wasn't really a sauce the chicken was dipped in, but a seasoning that was put on the burger prior to frying. As much as I dislike frying whenever possible, a thicker breading on the patty mixed together with the sauce probably would have worked a little better. Though the chicken thigh was still juicy, I felt the black pepper seasoning was overly salty, rather than just black pepper, its almost like the used a Black Pepper flavour McShaker to season the meat.

At $7+ for the combo, it wasn't cheap, but McDonald's in Singapore rarely is good value. They also offered a couple other promo sides, Lychee McFizz, and the Citrus Thai Shakers, which I tried, so keep an eye our next week for their reviews.

Other promo sides - Lychee McFizz & Citrus Thai Shakers

Rating - 3/5

We had originally planned on making this a video review as I've had a couple requests...but it just didn't turn out that well.....here's a couple out-takes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9TVwwt1yhs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uuRyOD6kp8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw4gPP9BLuU

My wife did a video review in Korean, and I'll be posting that sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Thousand Island Filet o Fish - Singapore - April 2013

2013-04-18T17:23:00.000+08:00

Still no promo boxes...disappointing.

Double on the left, (My) Single on the right

Consumed on - 09 April 2013

Location - Chinatown Point, New Bridge Road, Singapore

Price - Single Patty Combo - $5.00SGD ($4.00USD). Double Patty Combo - $6.95SGD

Calories - Single ~325kcal. Double ~435kcal

McDonald's Singapore Thousand Island Filet o Fish Receipt

I'm posting this review of the Thousand Island Filet-o-Fish before the 3rd burger of the Tastes of America promo as I think this burger is almost finished, as they just introduced the Black Pepper Flamer burger here in Singapore today, so that means the Filet-o-Fish is almost out the door (and may very well already be gone)

On 7 April, my wife was still back in Seoul, and I was bored so I walked from our flat to Nex Mall. As I was killing my afternoon window shopping, I noticed their McDonald's branch promoting the Thousand Island Filet-o-Fish, and I nearly had a heart attack as a big hand written "Sold Out" sticker was placed on the poster. I had heard rumours that some SG McDonald's branches are test branches for special items, and since the rest of Singapore had recently launched the Tangy Sesame Filet-o-Fish, I thought that maybe the Nex Mall was serving a test item that I missed out on. On the way to work Monday I checked out the Chinatown point branch and still saw no mention of it, so I sent a message to McDonald's Singapore's Facebook page. They only got back to me on Tuesday, saying that it is now available in all branches, so that is what I forced my colleague to have lunch that afternoon. I'm not sure why the promotion was so heavy for the Tangy Sesame (2 weeks of heavy promotion), but this Thousand Island variant only received a menu poster, and a single Facebook link 4 days after it's launch.

McDonald's Singapore Chinatown Point Menu

I was hungry a little earlier than usual, so we walked over to the branch around 1pm (I like to eat lunch around 2:30) and joined the somewhat long queue. I've had pretty good experiences at this branch before, and this lunchtime rush was the longest I've ever encountered there. The branch doesn't have all that many tables, and though it seemed that most people had already finished their meal, no one seemed interested in leaving their seat to let new diners sit down. As we were queuing to order, an old 80+ year old woman was carrying her tray around for a few minutes looking for a place to eat and none of the students using the booths to study, nor the already finished eating office workers on their lunch hour felt like giving the old woman a seat, so she gave up had to go ask for her food to be taken away. We relegated to having our meal as a takeaway and brought it back to our office.

Both the double, and single patty version

My feelings on the price were the same as the Tangy Sesame variant, that I thought it was a little crazy that they felt they could charge an extra $1.95 for the extra patty, when you can get a entire McDouble or a McChicken sandwich for $2. My co-worker wasn't so bothered by the price, and when he said he was going to order a double and I suggested he get a McDouble or McChicken for the extra $2, he just shrugged this shoulders and ordered the double without hesitation...

I felt that this Filet-o-Fish variant had the exact same problem as the Tangy Sesame, the sauce was just too weak. Now, I've actually had some comments on the Tangy Sesame saying that they didn't agree with my opinion, and they felt the sauce was more flavourful than I made it sound, but sadly this sauce was even weaker and more tasteless than the first one. I was able to eat my burger before my colleague could start his (as he got a phone call), and I made no mention to the flavour whatsoever to him before he started. He took two bites into his burger, and he asked me "I can't taste the Thousand Island".

It's possible that the Chinatown branch is being cheap with the sauce, but both times it seemed that the burgers had enough sauce that I should be able to taste something more powerful than I did. The people creating these burgers should check out Hong Kong's recent McCurry if they want to see how a sauce could be done properly. I'll be having the new Black Pepper Flamer today, so I hope that is a better effort than these last two.

Rating - 1.5/5

California Chicken - Sydney, Australia - March 2013

2013-04-17T16:04:00.000+08:00

McDonald's California Chicken 'Tastes of America' 2013

Consumed on 31 March 2013

Location - Purchased at Sydney International Airport. Consumed in Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 1

Price - $5.95 AUD = $6.17USD. Just the burger, not the combo.

Calories - 565kcal

This is the 2nd of 3 burgers that my colleague Min brought me back from Sydney a couple weeks ago. This was the 2nd burger I tried that evening, and if you missed the review of the New York Classic, click here to give it a read. The California Chicken was the one burger that scared me the most. I would have loved to have given it a taste when it was fresh, and I was worried that I would get sick after eating a 9 hour old fried chicken patty, also the fact that it had two sauces worried me a bit too as I don't generally like my burgers to be overly saucy.

I took these photos on Min's phone as my wife still had my camera back in Korea, and I am not sure what happened to the open-burger photo, so unfortunately the only photo I have is from the top of the bun (above), and the photo I took after I had tried all three of the burgers (below), so you can't see how small the chicken patty was inside the oversized bun. It used the same large, herb topped bun as the rest of the promo burgers, but the chicken patty was just too small for it. Every bite I took, most of the flavours came from the sauces, and the texture only came from the bun, also, because the bun was old, it was a little stale and hard. I would imagine that if the bun was fresh and soft, it wouldn't have been so noticeable.

Like the New York Classic, the 'special' ingredient for this burger was the sauce, in this case it was topped with a sweet chilli & lime sauce, and 'summer' mayo. I'm not sure why they didn't mix them into a single sauce (like the mustard mayo on the New York Classic), but because I don't have an open-bun photo, I can't show it to you. The sweet chilli and lime combination caught me off guard as it wasn't a combination I've had before, nor ever expected on a McDonald's burger and it was a nice interesting combination. I could definitely taste the lime more than the sweet chilli, and it overpowered the mayo completely. The lack of vegetables was a little disappointing, and I felt the New York Classic was expensive at 4.95AUD for just the burger, so I can't see how McDonald's goes about selling this for 5.95AUD when it has the same bun, same vegetables, a smaller patty and no cheese. Therefore it gets an even lower rating of -

Rating - 2/5

New York Classic - Sydney, Australia - March 2013

2013-04-15T15:31:00.001+08:00

McDonald's Australia - New York Classic Promo Box

Consumed on 31 March 2013

Location - Purchased at Sydney International Airport. Consumed in Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 1

Price - $4.95 AUD = $5.15USD. Just the burger, not the combo.

Calories - 545kcal

McDonald's Australia - New York Classic Receipt

The 'cute' $2 cooler which housed my burgers for the 8 hour flight

A couple weeks ago my co-worker Min, flew back from Australia to Singapore carrying a few promo burgers for me to try. We had planned this before he left as I even went to Daiso and bought him a little lunch box (see the photo above) to help carry the burgers back, and hopefully prevent me from getting food poisoning after eating 9+ hour old burgers. I've had my mother bring me pies from Canada, and they survived the 24+ hour trip to Singapore with grace, but I was surprised how well the burgers held up, and no, I didn't get sick.

The 3 burgers. Yes, one was using an old promo box.

9 hour old "New York Classic"

Min had travelled to Australia for 2 weeks, and before he left he said he would bring me whatever promo items were available. They were running the "Tastes of America" promotion for a couple of weeks before he left, so we weren't sure if it would still be running by the time he was coming back to Singapore, luckily it was, so at Sydney Airport he picked up whatever he could for me. They also offered a Chilli Cheese Pops, but they were either sold out, or not available at the airport branch as he said they didn't have them when he asked. It's probably best anyway as they would have probably been pretty disgusting eaten cold.

The New York Classic was the first burger I tried of the three he bought. It had a premium bun which was speckled with herbs along with the standard sesame seeds, but the burger toppings seemed a little too typical. Just the standard lettuce, cheese, onion, pickles and ketchup. What made this unique was the 'mustard mayo', and though they made no mention of the herb topped bun, they felt the need to market the pickles, as if they were something special. The mustard was the stand-out flavour of the burger. I'm a huge fan of Colman-esc hot mustard, so I quite liked the mayo which was on this burger as the mustard had the sharp taste that I enjoy. The cheese was cold, but it still wasn't anything special than the standard processed cheese that you'd find on any other McDonald's burger. The meat was dry, but that isn't going to take away any points since it was over 9 hours old, but it still held the seasoning inside well enough, but I did feel that it was a little on the salty side. The bun was decent, but a bit too thick for the

My colleague said he tried all 3 during his trip, and this was the least favourite, and I happened to agree with him. It was pretty big, though it was the was the cheapest of the 3 promo burgers, at a whopping $4.95AUD for only the sandwich, it just didn't warrant the inflated price. If I would have known they would be so expensive, I probably would have asked him to skip this one.

Rating - 2.5/5

Korean McSpicy - Hong Kong - March 2013

2013-04-08T14:50:00.002+08:00

McDonald's Hong Kong Spicy Sensations Korean McSpicy - "It's got the hots for you"

I paid $18.60. I assume the extra $1 is for the privilege of eating it at the airport.

Consumed on 26 March 2013

Location - Hong Kong International Airport

Price - $18.60 (just for the burger) = $2.40USD

Calories - ~550kcal

Hong Kong International Airport McDonald's Receipt 2013

This was the 3rd and final Spicy Sensations promo item I was able to try in Hong Kong International Airport on the 26th of March. The first two being the Pickled Chilli McWings, and the McCurry. Unfortunately, this will be the shortest, and least detailed of the 3 items I tried that afternoon. As I was midway through eating the McCurry, I realised that I left an item back at the security checkpoint. This isn't something I've ever done before. They had called me over to inspect my bag as I had a large bottle of crushed chilli in my backpack, and they wanted to take a look at it. When they called me over to the side to inspect it, I forgot about the plastic bag I was carrying and went on my way. Upon reflection, I was the ONLY person going through the checkpoint at the time, you think someone would have noticed the bag I was leaving there on the belt. As I mentioned in Pickled Chili McWings review, I used the security checkpoint furthest from the Thai Airways gate, but closest to the McDonald's. I let the gate agents know about the item I left, and they radioed over to the security checkpoint to ask about it. Now, since I had been eating during the boarding process, most people were already on board, and my flight was about 20 minutes away from departure, 10 from when the gate would close. The staff at the checkpoint had my item, but they wouldn't be able to get it all the way over to the gate in 10 minutes. I offered to take a later flight, but the agent advised me otherwise, as it was full, and I would be placed on standby, so I might get stuck in HKG overnight. He said because they already had the item in their possession, I could fill out a lost item claim when I arrived in Singapore, and they would make sure the item would get delivered to me. In the meantime, they needed to copy my passport, and have me write a letter saying Thai Airways could collect the item from security on my behalf. It took about 10 minutes to do all this, and by the time it was finished, I was the only person yet to board. So I didn't have time to eat the burger at the gate as planned.

I got to my seat, and kicked out the mainland Chinese guy sitting in it (he was in the middle seat, and wasn't happy that I made him move from my aisle seat). I'll admit, I was stressed about leaving the item behind in HKG (it's pretty important), the man who was in my seat was staring me down, and the woman across the aisle was starting at the McDonald's bag I had on my lap. I don't like it when passengers eat smelly food next to me on a plane either, and since the doors had yet be closed, I ran to the toilet. I tossed out the fries which I didn't touch, as well as the 1/2 of the McCurry which was left, and the bones from the Pickled Chilli McWings, by now, the box for the Korean McSpicy was pretty soft, and unfortunately, I didn't get a better photo of it. The box was soggy, probably because the burger wasn't wrapped like the McCurry was, the burger was cold as it had been made over 25 minutes ago, but I was still willing to give it a try, as I knew I wouldn't be in HK again to try it out. The chicken was a standard McSpicy patty, a heavily breaded chicken thigh patty with some spicy seasoning on the chicken itself. The McSpicy has a cult following here in Singapore, and my review of the Double McSpicy, I've received some pretty negative feed back on my review of it. The chicken patty itself is supposed to be spicy, but what made this a promo variant was the Korean style sauce they added to it. Living in Korea for 3 years, I can actually say this tasted somewhat Korean, unlike the KBQ (Korean Barbecue Burger) Japan had a couple of years ago, this wasn't just using Korean in its name. The sauce was a Korean style pepper paste (gochujang), mixed with a whole sesame seeds, and a little vinegar. It wasn't a 100% authentic Korean taste, as I think the sauce also had a little oil mixed into the sauce, hopefully sesame oil. It still had a nice taste, but it wasn't as thick as I would have liked. The bun wasn't anything special, it was just the sauce. The onion they used on the McCurry would have been a perfect combination with the sauce, so I'm not sure why they only topped it with lettuce.

Apologies for only a photo of the box. I felt rushed enough as it was, literally as soon as I tossed most of the burger in to the trash, I realised that I forgot to take a photo of the burger itself. Not sure what was wrong with me that day, first I forget something at security, then I forgot to take photos of the burger. I didn't feel like reaching into an aeroplane toilet trash bin to grab a half eaten burger, so I just made my way back to the seat, only to find the same mainland Chinese guy back in my seat again...

Rating - 3.5/5

True to their word, I did get my item back a couple days, I did get a little bit of a run around by the Changi lost and found staff for 3 days. I contacted HKG directly, and they made sure I had it within 24 hours. Thanks HKG!

McCurry - Hong Kong - March 2013

2013-04-04T13:51:00.003+08:00

McCurry - Hong Kong - March 2013

Didn't look very special

Not sure where that curry orange disappeared too

Consumed on - 26 March 2013

Location - Hong Kong International Airport

Price - $36.50HKD (lare size meal) = $4.70USD

Calories - Unknown

Apologies for the terrible quality of photos. My wife still has our camera in Seoul, and I took these with my ancient phone camera. She's back soon, so hopefully the photos will get better.

Hong Kong Airport McDonald's Receipt

Hi guys, I wanted to post these Hong Kong reviews a little closer together, but ever since I wrote the last review (and I should probably go back and re-read that review to make sure it's coherent), I've been pretty out of it with a fever and a terrible headache. Not sure if it was a reaction to the yellow fever vaccination in Korea last week, but I'm feeling much better, and well enough to write the review for the McCurry, the 2nd "Spicy Sensations" promo item I was able to get in Hong Kong airport last week. If you haven't read the review for the Pickled Chili McWings, go back and do so now, and you'll get a little background on my race to get these items in HKG.

Wrapping allowed it to stay together during my long walk to the gate, for that, I was thankful.

I opened up the burger immediately after finishing up the Pickled Chili McWings. I was trying to be quick, but I could see the queue to board was still pretty long, so I wasn't all that rushed. As this was the first of two burgers I would be trying, I only opted for the single patty McCurry, rather than the double patty Mega McCurry, and it was a good thing I did, the beef was thick, and though the only vegetable on it was a meagre sprinkling of onion, it still had a pretty hefty weight to it. I was also pretty impressed that the beef was actually bigger than the bun, just like the promotional photos, that isn't something that usually happens. Now, it didn't have the same orange curry colour as the photo, but I was still impressed by the curry smell coming from the burger, even though it was made 10+ minutes before I sat down to eat it.

Before I arrived at McDonald's, I knew the McCurry was a burger that was available, but I never noticed the Japanese writing just under the "Spicy Sensations" on the McDonald's Hong Kong website (look at the photo at the top of the page to see what I mean). I knew the other Spicy Sensations burgers were supposed to be Korean and Japanese themed, so I assumed that the McCurry was going to be an Indian curry, rather than another Japanese. My first bite surprised me when I found out that it was indeed a Japanese curry flavour they were aiming for, it took me by surprise, but it worked out well. The curry flavour had a subtle kick when you swallowed, and you the meat though thick, was coated perfectly, that not only could you taste the curry in every bite, you could still taste the beef. I'm glad the curry flavour had a bit of spice too it, as this was in the "Spicy Sensations" line of spicy burgers, and I'm sure lots of other countries would have just used non-spicy curry sauce.

I would have liked a bit more vegetables on the burger. It could have been really cool if they put some curried carrots or potatoes on there, but I guess that's a little much to ask from McDonald's. But as it sat, it earned itself a decent -

Rating - 4/5

Pickled Chili McWings - Hong Kong - March 2013

2013-04-01T14:38:00.003+08:00

Hong Kong Spicy Sensations Promo 2013 - Pickled Chili McWings

4 of these would not be enough for a meal, but I could see someone giving it a try.

Consumed on 26 March 2013

Location - Hong Kong International Airport, East Hall, Level 7.

Price - $9.80HKD when added to a combo purchase.

Calories - ~110kcal for 2

The bag, within a bag, which contained the wings. A small promo box would have been nicer.

McDonald's Hong Kong International Airport Receipt

Last week I was flying back from Seoul to Singapore, on Thai Airways. When I booked these tickets in January, I had the option of taking the non-stop flight from Seoul to Bangkok, which would allow me to connect to Singapore and arrive at 7pm, or another option was taking the Seoul-Hong Kong-Bangkok flight which barring any delays, would allow me to quickly grab McDonald's at HKG. Adding this stop in Hong Kong meant that I would miss the early flight to Singapore, so I would arrive at 10:45pm, not that it made any difference for me, as my wife was still back in Seoul. Also, it's worth to mention that there aren't any airport taxes if you arrive and depart Hong Kong in the same calendar day, so it didn't cost me anything extra to make this stop. What made this risky is that it's not a typical connection, but a technical stop, so you fly out on the exact same plan you fly in on to Bangkok. I also knew, since I've flown TG quite a bit from HKG, is that they use the farthest possible wing from the only McDonald's in HKG, so I had to plan this stop very well.

When I arrived in HKG, it figures that our plane had a gate at the absolute FURTHEST gate from the McDonald's. If you think of HKG as a human body, with legs spead and arms wide open, we were at a gate in the left foot, (far left in the photo above) and the McDonald's is the floor above the head (the large cluster of orange on the right side of the photo). There was a transit security checkpoint in the 'crotch' of HKG, but I knew if I used that one, I would have to walk all the way down the 'body' to reach McDonald's. I knew that if I hopped on the train towards immigration and baggage claim, that I would be spit out at the head, and I could use the transit security checkpoint there, cutting 10 minutes of walking off my already short time. Luckily I did this, as the McDonald's had a 10 minute queue to order my food, so if I walked all the way there, I probably wouldn't have been able to wait, as my stop only gave me 30 or so minutes on the ground in HKG.

Once I ordered my food, it took longer than I would have liked to get it. I was on the look out for an open table but most seemed to be full, so I asked them for take away. I saw that my flight was still not boarding, so I thought that I could at least get over to the gate, and eat my food there whilst the rest of the passengers boarded. Thai Airways only needs you to be on the plane 10-15 minutes before departure anyway. I made the long hike back over to the gate with my food in hand and though the flight was calling for boarding, there was a long, 100+ passenger queue waiting to get on the flight. This was perfect for me as I never wanted to eat the food on the plane, and it allowed me to have 'most' of my food whilst waiting for everyone else was boarding, I say most, because something happened which made me stop eating immediately and rush to find airport staff, but I'll get to that in the next review. What I didn't mention was that I was able to get 3 new item's to review during this stop in HKG. I'm only reviewing the Pickled Chili McWings now as they were the first item I tried, and I'll do them in order to explain the situation nearly preventing me from reviewing one of the items.

To be honest, I had completely forgotten about the Pickled Chili McWings. When I checked the McDonald's Hong Kong website prior to arriving, I did see the McWings promo as it was apart of their new "Spicy Sensations" line of items, but I was more interested in the burgers, but when I arrived at the branch they had the little promo posters above the register, which reminded me to give them a try. When I look at the receipt, I see that it was $9.80HKD to add to the combo, but their website said it's only $9.50. Seems to me all of the prices on my receipt are more than the website, so that must be the 'airport surcharge'. Seems a little misleading since there are posters all over HKG saying that the shopping is the same price as 'downtown'. But the $0.30HK (5 US cents) increase isn't bad compared to some airports which charge you double the city price.

When I finally opened them up, I was surprised to see that they were noticeably bigger than the recent Honey Lemon Drumlets that I had back in Singapore a month ago, and they were cheaper too! I was disappointed that they didn't have any promo packaging for these, and the bag they served them in was far too big for 2 pieces of chicken, a complete waste of paper. When I gave them a smell, it didn't smell like any pickled chilli that I have ever had, and the skin had a very sticky feel to it. I had one drumstick, and one wing, and both had decent amount of meat on them. As I said in the Honey Lemon Drumlet review, I'm not a fan of fried chicken, but the flavouring they added to these McWings was quite nice. I can't say that I imagined picked chilli whenever I took a bite, but whatever the flavour was supposed to be, I enjoyed it. Though I love spicy food, I actually shy away from having picked peppers in my food, as I can't taste the necessary spiciness and I find the acidity in the vinegar to be too overpowering. I think what McDonald's was going for wasn't supposed to be a 'fresh' pickled pepper taste, but rather a dried chilli pickled pepper, and whatever it was pickled with, was more sour than acidic. As I said before, they were larger than the Honey Lemon Drumlets, but each piece only had 2 or so bites worth of meat, but I think McDonald's trying to sell 4 pieces as a stand alone meal is a bit of a stretch. You are better off going for a cheaper meal, and adding these on.

If you are in Hong Kong over the next few weeks, definitely give these a try whilst you can, add them on to a combo, don't buy them as a meal.

Rating - 4/5

Double Choco Brownie (더블초코 브라우니) - Seoul, Korea - March 2013

2013-03-28T13:50:00.002+08:00

McDonald's Korea - Double Choco Brownie

It actually looks surprisingly tasty

Consumed on 24 March 2013

Location - McDonald's Jongak Station, Seoul, South Korea

Price - 1500KRW = ~$1.35USD

Calories - Unknown

For January & February my travelling was VERY light, I've been keeping very busy in Singapore for the first couple months of the year, and the trip to Seoul last weekend was the start of some heavy travelling over the next couple months, so I had been looking forward to it for quite some time.

Yet again, I missed the Australian BBQ burger (and this time they also had a wrap) by a couple of days. McDonald's Korea had been selling it for most of February and March, and since wife had been back in Seoul since the beginning of March, and I asked her to buy me one and freeze it, but she resisted, thinking I was insane. Just as it did last summer when they offered it as an Olympic Promo, the Australian BBQ promotion ended about 10 days before I arrived, so I wasn't able to try it. I was disappointed, but luckily a couple days before I arrived, the McDonald's Korea website had been updated to show their new promo item, the Double Choco Brownie. I hoped it wasn't a McCafe item, so I would be able to write a review on it, and luckily, it wasn't.

Sunday was the only day I had some free time to meet up with my friends still living in Seoul. We planned to meet at the Gangnam McDonald's branch, similar to what we did when I was in Korea last and I reviewed the BLT McMuffin. We met there, and found that this branch did not offer the brownie. My wife and I just had a massive lunch with her family (20+ side dishes), so we opted to just sit and have a coffee so we could chat. It worked out, as the McDonald's had an empty table big enough for 5, and coffee was on promotion for only 1000W (which was much cheaper than I used to pay back when I lived in Korea). The Starbucks right next door was completely full, and they charge more than 5000W for a coffee. Later that evening, after we had dinner together I forced everyone to make the walk over to the nearest McDonald's to where we eat, to try and hunt down the brownie. The McDonald's on the north side of Jonggak Station had it, so we stopped in to give it a try. My wife and friends went upstairs to find a table, and I did the ordering. It's been a while since I ordered in Korea, and even after I spoke Korean for the entire order, paying with my Korean credit card, and using the Korean McDonald's point card, she looked at me with a little confusion, and finished our conversation with "Take away or take inside?". I opted for "Take Inside".

When the girl who took my order placed the brownie on the tray, it was comically small. For 1500W, I wasn't expecting something so pathetic looking. It would have been a little better if she just handed it to me, as on the empty tray it just looked overly small. When I carried it upstairs, my wife and friend had nearly the exact same reaction "That's it?". What I compared it too, was those bite-size brownies you get on United Airlines domestic first class flights, but that was lost on them (and probably most of the readers of this blog). I tried to take some comparison photos next to a 1000W note, and the McDonald's point card, even the photos don't really show how tiny it was. It was about a thick as a deck of cards, and as large as a credit card.

It was small enough that I could have finished the entire brownie in a single bite, but I left enough to get a photo of the inside, as well as enough left over for my friend to give it a try. I was expecting since this was a regular menu item, and not a snack that you would get at the McCafe kisok, that it would at least be served warm, or look to be baked fresh, kind of like how the muffins back in Canada are, taken off a tray and placed in a bag, not pre-packaged as this brownie was. I guess you could say it used promo packaging, but the clear plastic bag just made it look cheap. My friend Andrew, who took a bite asked a pretty interesting question, "why is this called double chocolate?" Sure, it was made of chocolate, and it was soft like a brownie, but usually double chocolate means there is fudge or some other type of chocolate on top, this was nothing but a standard chocolate brownie. The Korean name is the same (더블초코 브라우니), I'm sure it wasn't just us who noticed that little oversight. I'll admit, the chocolate brownie was thick and chewy for Korea as most of their chocolate items like muffins and brownies are pretty light and tasteless, but it wasn't anything special for a brownie in another country.

Though they had a huge poster promoting it, I was the only person who I saw order one, and it was the first time that I saw something in Korea that wasn't being served at every branch. It wasn't disgusting, it just wasn't worth my time to hunt down, nor the money. I thought at most it should have been 1000W, 1500W was far too expensive. What made it even worse, was the following day my my wife and I were 45 minutes early for an appointment, and since we were in Apgujeong, a normal cafe would have charged us 6000W+ for a coffee, we went into Burger King (blasphemous, I know) to have a cheaper coffee. For 2500W they had the "Black Delight" combo, which was a coffee double the size of the McDonald's coffee, and a Brownie Caramel Sundae, which the brownie inside was roughly the same size as the one at McDonald's. This might be the only time you heard this on my blog, but in this case - go to Burger King instead.

Burger King Korea - "Black Delight" Coffee + Brownie Sundae

Rating - 1/5

Tangy Sesame Filet-o-Fish - Singapore - March 2013

2013-03-20T14:55:00.002+08:00

McDonald's Singapore Tangy Sesame Filet-o-Fish

Consumed on 19 March 2013

Location - McDonald's Chinatown Point, Singapore

Price - Single Patty Combo - $5.00SGD ($4.00USD). Double Patty Combo - $6.95SGD

Calories - Single ~325kcal. Double ~435kcal

McDonald's Singapore Tangy Sesame Filet-o-Fish Receipt

Yesterday I was planning on writing a review for the Raspberry Dazzle McFlurry which I had in Malaysia about a week and a half ago, but when I was pulling up mcdonalds.com.my to grab a screenshot of the Mcflurry, but my browser auto filled in .com.sg, and I was brought to the McDonald's Singapore website by mistake. What a good mistake that was, as they had must have just updated their website with the new promo burger, the Tangy Sesame Filet-o-Fish. Usually their Facebook page is the first thing to update with new promos, but I didn't get notification of the new burger for another couple hours on FB, and by then, I would have already been on my way home from the office, and probably wouldn't have tried it. Since my wife is back at home in Seoul, I've been getting a little sick of cooking for just myself at home, so the new burger gave me a perfect excuse to go out and eat alone.

The standard Filet-o-Fish box.

I was pleasantly surprised with the pricing of the new promo, as the last variant of a standard menu burger, the BLT McChicken was a whole $2.00 more than the standard. Though this was only a new sauce, it was nice to see that they kept the standard Filet-o-Fish pricing. If they can charge a premium on the McFlurries for an new sauce, then I would have expected a premium on the burger as well. Yes, the $5.00 is actually more than a decent meal would cost you in a hawker centre here in Singapore, but the standard McDonald's pricing issue is another problem issue all together. My intention wasn't to get a combo if the price was right, but seeing as the price was $3.95 for the burger, or $5 for the combo, I went with the set.

I visited the Chinatown Point branch at around 7pm. This branch is consistently busy, but they do a very good job at keeping the queues short, and I've never had to wait long to place my order. To order, I just pointed at the sign, and asked for a Fillet-o-Fish, she asked if I wanted to try the new one, she pushed both the upsize and making it a double, but I stood my ground. I had my food within a couple seconds and then had to go hunt for a table where I could take photos without much embarrassment, which I found hidden off in the corner. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a promo box for this variant. They must have spent all their marketing budget on the nice large menu banners, and cash register popups they had promoting these new burgers. When I opened the box, I was in for another disappointment. I don't remember the last time I've had a the standard fillet-o-fish, but I was somewhat taken aback from the size. I just didn't expect it to be so small. In retrospect, its about the same size as a standard McChicken, but those are only $2.00 for the sandwich, not $3.95. They had quite a bit of sauce on there, but it didn't have the dark colour that the promo posters had. Being a Tangy Sesame flavour sauce, I thought it would have been darker than it was.

I took the first bite, and all I could taste was the fish patty. I assumed that I didn't get any sauce in that bite, so I went in for a second. I knew this second bite had sauce as I could feel it, but I still couldn't taste it. Now, when I first opened and examined the burger I thought there was going to be far too much sauce and it was going to be overpowering, but this stuff was WEAK. If you look at the big glob of sause in the next photo, I used a fry to scoop that off to try it on its own, but it was still pretty tasteless! It was NOT zesty, nor did it have any sesame flavour, a complete disappointment. If you like the regular fillet-o-fish, stick with it, the standard tartar is better. If you want to try something new, don't expect much from this. As I said before, I hadn't had a fillet-o-fish in quite a while, but I would have liked it to be more than 4 bites. My fries were hot and slightly overcooked (I like them this way, I prefer them crispy), so I actually ate all the fries, which I don't usually do, but I was still hungry. Before I went home I bought some fruits and vegetables to snack on, and only after that, was I satisfied.

Rating - 2/5

Looks like McDonald's have redesigned their menus, and tray inlays. The new menus are a total failure though. The prices are far too small, to read from any distance. Also the way they group Single/Double/Combo/Burger Only for each burger is a little too cluttered. They are stylish, but not functional. Though, it's nice to see that they have a nutrition value on there now, it's something I always look out for.

McDonald's Singapore Nutrition Facts

Beef & Egg Burger - Johor Bahru, Malaysia - March 2013

2013-03-14T14:05:00.003+08:00

Beef & Egg Burger - McDonald's Malaysia March 2013

Consumed on 10 March 2013

Location - Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Price - 5.95MYR (Lunchtime discount) = ~$1.90 (Yes, that's for the entire combo!)

Calories - Unknown

This was the burger which I reviewed last weekend, which I used the fries from the combo to review the American BBQ McShakers that my friend sent me down from Japan. McDonald's in Malaysia released two new burgers with Egg, the first being the one I reviewed, the Beef & Egg burger, and the other, McEgg Deluxe. I only gave the Beef & Egg a try as they were both the same price, and I think having beef rather than cheese & vegetables is the better value. Though, for the price of only 5.95MYR ($1.90USD), I could have bought 2 combos for cheaper than a standard meal would have been back in Singapore. I'm not sure, but I think since McDonald's in Hong Kong has slowly been creeping up their prices over the past 2 years, Malaysia seems to be the cheapest in Asia these days. The two new burgers were being promoted along with the McChicken, and those are the only 3 items available for 5.95, the rest of the menu varies between 6-9MYR.

This McDonald's was just down the street from my colleagues new house, but the taxi driver refused to go through the drive-through unless we paid him double, so we ate inside and walked to his house after I finished up. This branch was not really near anything as its an area going through a bit of new development. It seemed that everyone else had driven to it, as the car park was pretty full. This was the first McD's I've had in Malaysia that wasn't inside a mall or another building and it was very new, spacious, and modern inside, it couldn't be more than a couple years old. They even had free WiFi which I didn't bother registering for as we didn't plan on staying long. Though it was busy, there wasn't a queue to order (Singapore, take note!), and my order was taken quickly and accurately. It didn't take more than a minute for my items to be on the tray. I forgot to ask for my burger without ketchup, but upon opening it, there was hardly enough to even taste, so it didn't bother me that much.

Luckily for me, hardly any ketchup up there.

I was surprised with the size of the burger, as I was expecting it to be the size of a Happy Meal hamburger, but this had a bun about the size of a full-size bun that you'd get on a McChicken, but minus the sesame seeds. Seems that the new McEgg also used this bun, but I'm not sure what other items on the menu do. The egg was exactly what I expected, the same that is served on an Egg McMuffin, but unlike when I had an Egg on the Big Tsukimi Burger in Japan, it was the entire egg, and it was hot and fresh, rather than something that looked like it had been sitting around since breakfast. The egg was a little greasy, and I felt that it overpowered the smallish piece of beef that they used. I preferred the part of the burger where the egg had the yolk, as you could then taste the flavours mix, but when eating just the egg white part of the egg, it was overpowering. It also didn't taste like the beef had any seasoning, with a little salt and pepper I'm sure it would have made a better combination than it did.

Rating - 3/5

My colleague, not very impressed I dragged him to McDonald's so soon after he finished his lunch.

American BBQ Shakers - Japan - March 2013

2013-03-12T14:29:00.002+08:00

McDonald's Japan March 2013 - American BBQ McShakers

Consumed on 10 March 2013

Location Consumed - Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Location of Purchase - Tokyo, Japan

Price - Free with Big America 2013 Idaho Burger Set, or Large Fry

Calories - Unknown

The fries in the bag, pre-shake.

The American BBQ McShakers (or Shaka Shaka Fry, as they are called in Japan), are currently a free promo being offered in Japan, along with the other Big America 2013 items. I wrote about them, and how I was originally going to have my mother bring me some, back when I wrote the review for the Texas Burger that I tried in 2011. My mother was unable to bring me one of the burgers from Narita, but I was able to get my mate Erik to send me one of the seasoning packets for me to review, so last weekend when I went over to Malaysia to see my co-workers new house, I stopped into the McD's down the street to grab some fries.

My friend even sent over the original shaker bag!

The first difference I noticed was before I even opened the packet. The American BBQ packet only held 1.5g of seasoning, compared to the 5g packets that I had recently in Singapore and Malaysia. Sure, Japanese fries are smaller than ones you get in western countries, but they are similar in size to the fries you get throughout the rest of Asia, so I'm not sure why how the seasoning size could vary so much. Luckily, since I was sharing the fries with my colleague, I only put half the fries into the bag to shake up, though it still seemed that there wasn't enough seasoning to even cover half the fries, you can see the photos below that the left side was the coated fries and the right, non-seasoned fried.

At first I was a little afraid that the American BBQ would be too similar to the Smoky BBQ McShakers but as soon as I opened the packet, it had a completely different appearance and smell. Whereas the Smoky BBQ shakers was a finely ground powder (almost like a curry powder), the American BBQ seasoning had larger pieces of herbs mixed in with chunky salt-like seasoning power. Though there was only 1.5g of it, it still had a VERY strong flavour. My first bite was not my favourite and I felt it was too salty, my colleague only tried a single fry before moving back to the non-seasoned ones. The number one ingredient in the Malaysian one was sugar, but as I can't read Japanese I don't know what know what these were mostly made of, but I suspect it was salt/MSG. I fought my way through it, and because I was also sampling a new Malaysian burger at the time (review to come soon, keep an eye out!), the more I ate, the less the saltiness was noticeable (far from a good thing, I know). I ended up finishing the fries, but it wouldn't be a flavour that I would go for again.

Rating - 2/5

Blueberry Crunch McFlurry - Singapore - February 2013

2013-03-06T15:14:00.003+08:00

Consumed on 23 Febuary 2013

Location - McDonald's Plaza Singapura, Orchard Road, Singapore

Price - $2.70SGD - ~$2.17USD

Calories - ~280kcal

About a week or so ago, when I went out to sample the Honey Lemon Drumlets, I noticed this little hidden gem being promoted at the Dessert Kiosk. Now, I knew the Blueberry Sundae is one of their new Saver Menu items ($1.50), and you are able to get it at every McDonald's in Singapore, and I had originally planned on giving it a try. But, when I saw this hidden away at the Dessert Kiosk, and neither the website, nor the McDonald's Singapore facebook page promoting it whatsoever, I planned on trying this instead, as even though it's $1.30 more than the sundae, I prefer McFlurries. That, and because not every McDonald's in Singapore has a dessert kiosk (its probably 1/4), it made it slightly more rare than the sundae.

My wife and I stopped into the Plaza Singapora branch of McDonald's on a very busy Saturday evening. We had a late lunch, and planned on cooking once we arrived back home, so the McFlurry was just to hold us over until then. As I always do, I tried to pay for the McFlurry with my credit card, and unlike when I was flat out denied paying with it recently (when I had the Tropical Orange Flavour Burst cone), the women manning the dessert kiosk happily took my card and led me over to the neighbouring cash register to complete the transaction.

Whilst I was queuing for my turn to order, I saw the dessert kiosk auntie pile on the toppings for both people that ordered before me, and though I was the only one who ordered a McFlurry (the others ordered Blueberry Sundaes), she was equally generous with the toppings for mine. I'm not sure if the generous toppings were compensating for the poor ice cream, but it was certainly not up to spec. The ice cream was noticeably softer than usual, and though I watched it come straight from the machine, by the time I carried it the 10 steps to the table where my wife was waiting, it already looked pretty melted. The branch was warm, but not enough to melt ice cream in a span of <30 seconds, so it must have been from the overworked machine, or a poorly made mix.

The Blueberry Crunch McFlurry, is very similar to the promo McFlurries they ran late last year, with the Mudpie McFlurry, and Strawberry Shortcake McFlurry. I complained about these in their reviews because the only thing 'special' about them was their name. Each was made using the standard Chocolate, or Strawberry sundae sauce, mixed in with a bit of Oreo. Both were disappointing, and I felt cheated having to pay a premium for them. At least with the Blueberry Crunch, the blueberry sauce isn't a standard sundae sauce that you can get any other day, so I didn't feel so bad about paying the slight premium over the standard Oreo McFlurry. I was also very impressed about the quality of the blueberry sauce. Sure it was sugary and runny, but it had actual blueberries inside! My wife didn't like the taste, as she complained it didn't taste like blueberries at all. I think she was a little too quick to pass judgement, as though no McDonald's ice cream is going to taste exactly like eating fresh fruit, the flavour of the blueberry sauce was far from terrible. The blueberry sauce mixed well with the Oreo pieces, and though she was very generous with both toppings, neither felt like there was too much. Had the ice cream been firmer and not so runny that day, it might have received a better score.

Not all the blueberries were crushed, I just couldn't manage a decent photo of the others.

Rating - 4/5

Tropical Orange "Flavour Burst" Ice Cream - Singapore - February 2013

2013-03-01T14:46:00.003+08:00

Consumed on 02 February 2013

Location - McDonald's Centrepoint Mall, Orchard Road, Singapore

Price - $1.00SGD = $0.81USD

Calories - ~200kcal.

Throughout January, and for the first couple weeks of February, the "Dessert Kiosks" at McDonald's here in Singapore we promoting the Tropical Orange "Flavour Burst" ice cream cone. Throughout my time in Singapore and the times I was visiting before I moved here, I've noticed a decent selection of flavours cycle through, including Green Apple, Root Beer, Chocolate, and a various selection of fruit flavours. Normally, I pass on these as they don't seem that interesting nor would a reviews would get pretty repetitive, but this one Tropical Orange variant was different. First, these promo flavours are usually only promoted with a small sign down near the cash register, I've only noticed one other large poster, and that was for the Root Beer flavour (see the photo below). This Tropical Orange cone had a massive bright orange poster at every Dessert Kiosk I passed. Another reason why this was special, was that McDonald's was promoting it at a $0.20 premium over the previous flavours, instead of $0.80, this one was $1, so I wanted to give it a try to see if anything was special about it.

The previous large Root Beer flavour poster (right side)

I had this cone at the Centrepoint Mall branch, and the woman who took my order at the dessert kiosk refused to process the credit card payment, as the dessert kiosk register didn't have a card reader. I've paid by card at this same branch before, and the girl at the time didn't have any problem walking the 5 steps to her right to use the register next to her to process the card, but apparently this was too much for her and she insisted I paid cash. It was only a dollar, but I still prefer to pay on card so I earn miles, and can track my monthly expenses easier. Though, what was a bigger disappointment was that she also said they could not print a receipt (again, wouldn't have been an issue if she took my card), so that's why there isn't a photo of the receipt for this cone.

As I watched her make the cone, I was slightly impressed, as I always thought that these 'favour burst' were just a bit of syrup drizzled over a standard vanilla ice cream. I learned that it actually comes out of the machine that way, and the flavouring is mixed throughout the entire portion of ice cream. I guess this explains why they only ever have 2-3 flavours on offer at any time, as they need the machine to make these, it also helped me justify the 25% premium it has over the standard vanilla cone.

My wife, though she wasn't my wife at the time, as we were getting married at the end of the week, was saving a seat for me as it was very busy (unlike when I reviewed the Honey Lemon Drumlets a couple weeks later). She was busy on the phone when I sat down, and as soon I took the first bite (I guess you could call it a lick), the throught that crossed my mind was 'ewwwww'. I guess my face told her the story and she asked if it was gross. She had the next bite and her reaction was pretty much the same. It was terrible. I was trying to think of orange flavoured things that I could compare it too, but the only thing that was crossing my mind was 'this is probably what orange flavoured polystyrene tastes like'. Not only did it taste nothing like orange, it had an acidic flavour that I just couldn't pinpoint. I will admit, I finished the ice cream because my wife wanted to eat the cone, and the more I had, the less horrible I thought it was, but it was still far from anything I would ever want to eat again.

Rating - 1/5

Oh, one more thing I noticed. This cone was not a more expensive variation, since they finished the Tropical Orange flavour, the originals all now share the same $1 price tag, up from $0.80. Thanks for the sneaky price increase McDonald's Singapore...and you thought we wouldn't notice.

Honey Lemon Drumlets - Singapore - February 2013

2013-02-23T15:54:00.000+08:00

McDonald's Singapore - Honey Lemon Drumlets - February 2013

McDonald's Singapore February 2013 Promos

Consumed on 21 February 2013

Location - McDonald's Centrepoint Mall, Singapore

Price - $2.00SGD = $1.62USD

Calories - Unknown

Never had this type of small bag before. When did they switch over from brown?

McDonald's Singapore Receipt

I have McDonald's Singapore as one of my Facebook "Likes", and they've been pretty quick update when they introduce new promo items, as their website usually is a week behind, or never updates at all. Last Thursday afternoon (shortly before I wrote the review for the Prosperity McFizz), I saw a promo shot for their new "Saver Menu" items. The 3 new items were the Taro Pie for $1 (which I've had in HK and China previously, and reviewed here), the Blueberry Sundae for $1.50 (which I missed in Korea a couple years back, but mentioned here), and the most interesting to me at least, the Honey Lemon Drumlets for $2.00. Not sure if they have ever been on the menu before, or if they are a totally new thing, but they seemed interesting enough for me to want to go out to try that evening.

My wife and I were walking around Orchard Road trying to decide what to have for dinner. As we need to take the purple (North-East) line to go home, we normally walk to Dhoby Ghaut station rather than getting a red line train at Orchard or Summerset and then have to transfer. As we were walking, we stopped into Centrepoint Mall to use the toilet, and since we decided to skip the restaurants and just cook at home, I thought I'd be able to quickly try the Honey Lemon Drumlets as a snack, and it wouldn't ruin my dinner. The Centrepoint Mall branch of McD's is normally pretty busy, but it seemed that we caught it in a lull as at ~19:15 there wasn't a queue to order, nor was there a struggle to find an empty seat. I ordered my food, and through I didn't ask for it as takeaway, they provided it in a small white bag. I've never noticed the bleached white takeaway bags before, I always picture them in my head as brown bags, is this just a Singapore thing?

The bag seemed heavy enough as I carried it to the table, but when I opened it and looked inside I actually laughed because I was so shocked at the size of the 'drumlets'. I guess I never really thought about the name, as 'drumlets' do lead you to believe that they are going to be small, but judging from the promo photos, I expected them to be bigger. Each one was about the size of my thumb and neither had all that much meat on the bone. They would have been slightly larger than a single chicken nugget, but really, with the bone, each one only has as much meat as a single nugget. It's McDonald's, and its on the value menu, I never expected them to be huge, but at $1.00 each, they should be significantly bigger. If they can sell a double cheese burger (McDouble), or a McChicken sandwich for the same price, these should at most be $1.00 for two.

Nearly finished after one bite.

At least making up for the lack of size, they had a surprising nice flavour to them. You could certainly taste, and smell the lemon, and though the honey wasn't stand-out, there was a definite glaze on the outside that wasn't just oil. The meat, though small, was of respectable quality, though you could easily finish the entire drum stick in a bite and a half. The meat was not overcooked, and it had a decent texture and it was still juicy. When I was finished my hands were sticky, though I didn't feel like I had eaten a lot of grease, so it must have been the honey glaze. McDonald's must realise the markup they have on these, as not only did they have a big poster outside the restaurant promoting these, but also a large poster next to the standard menu, as well small stand alone promo on top of every cash register. When a man next to me was ordering a Big Mac combo, they asked if he would like to add them to his meal for "only" $2. He agreed.

My wife was sick, so I had to have my photo taken this time.

I wasn't going to bother to scrape the last tiny pieces of meat off the bone.

If I was just judging the flavour, it would have been an easy 5/5, they tasted great! The only problem was the size. They could have sold them at half the price, and I still might have felt a bit ripped off. When I can get a whole meal at a Hawker Centre for $3, I expect more than 3 bites of food for $2, even if at McDonald's. I'd say give them a try once if you want to experience the flavour, but don't bother coming back for more next time, just get the $2 McChicken instead.

Rating - 3/5

Prosperity McFizz - Singapore - February 2013

2013-02-21T15:53:00.001+08:00

McDonald's Singapore - Prosperity McFizz

Consumed on 09 February 2013

Location - McDonald's City Square Mall, Singapore

Price - $0.90 with twisty fries when added to a combo meal.

Calories - ~250kcal (Averaging a Medium Sprite + Orange Juice)

I thought today would be a perfect time to post this up, as it looks like the Prosperity Burgers are FINALLY finished, and it's about time. The Prosperity McFizz was the promotional drink that was served as a side for the Prosperity Burger (along with Twisty Fries, and a Pineapple Pie), in both Malaysia and Singapore, which started in mid-December 2012, and though it looks like it is still running over in Malaysia, just finished in Singapore today. I tried both the Beef and Chicken versions of the Prosperity Burger in Malaysia (as they were available first, and less than half the price than in Singapore). Neither of those two times I went with the Prosperity McFizz, as I wasn't (and normally aren't) in the mood for a sugary drink. My mother and grandmother were in Singapore to witness my wedding over the past couple of weeks, so when my grandmother said she wanted to have some fries and a drink at McDonald's, it was a perfect opportunity to be able to the drink, as I could try a few sips, and she could finish the rest. Also, after the horrible twisty fries I had in Malaysia last December, it gave me an excuse to try them again.

I ordered the cheapest combo available, which was the $4.50 McChicken combo, and then added the $0.90 to have the McFizz and Twisty fries. At first, I thought the plastic cup that the drink was served in was a smoothie cup, but it was actually its own Prosperity McFizz promo cup, which was a nice touch, though it wasn't as noticeable, nor as large as the Sakura McFizz I had last summer in Malaysia. Much like with that McFizz, at first I thought it was going to be horribly sweet and not enjoy it, but the Orange Juice + Sprite combo wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I haven't had McDonald's orange juice for breakfast in ages, but I remember it always tasting like the canned Minute Maid orange juice you get on an aeroplane. I don't know if Singapore McDonald's uses the same juice that Canada did way back then, or if McDonald's has changed over to a fresher tasting OJ, but I could defiantly taste that tartness of that style of orange juice in the McFizz. The orange juice somewhat over powered the Sprite, but it added enough carbonation to give the drink a fizz. I'm sure if I told my grandmother that there was Sprite in it she wouldn't have drank it, and she didn't notice, so I guess I'm not the only one. The ice generally didn't help as it watered down the taste somewhat. My wife tried a sip and didn't mind it either, she even had a couple sips later on after we finished off the fries...which were still dry, but considerably better than the ones we had in Malaysia!

Rating - 2.5/5

Chocolate Raspberry Pie - Amherstburg, Canada - February 2013

2013-02-19T16:18:00.000+08:00

The differences in colour will be explained in the review.

The same Baked Pie box they've been using for years.

Consumed on 7 February 2013.

Purchased on 15 January 2013.

Location - Purchased in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. Consumed in Singapore.

Price - $1.39+ 13% tax for 2.

Calories - ~280kcal each.

Back in January, when I was checking out McDonalds.ca for new items, I found a little ad on the side of the coupons which they post on their website for this Chocolate Raspberry Pie. It wasn't being promoted anywhere else on the site, and there wasn't even a coupon for it, this was the only reference I could find. I had my mother stop into McD's later that week to buy me one, and to freeze it so she could bring it over to Singapore for me. I didn't know if it was only a 1-month promo, or if its still being sold now. This wasn't the first time my mother has flown a pie for me across the globe. Last time she came to Singapore she carried the Baked Caramel Pie, and I didn't die from food poisoning that time, so I thought I'd give it a go again.

As my mother landed at 00:30, and by the time we collected them at Changi Airport, took a taxi to the Conrad, set them up, and then headed home, it was nearly 3am. I didn't feel like eating that late, so I threw them in the fridge and had them for breakfast a couple hours later for breakfast before heading into the office. They were frozen in Canada, and they were actually still somewhat chilled by the time she reached Singapore, but no doubt that was due to the cold luggage compartment of the plane rather than still being frozen 24+ hours prior. If you look at the photos, she brought me 2 pies. One (left in the photos), I threw in the microwave for 30 seconds, the other I ate chilled from the fridge. I was surprised the microwave didn't dry it out more than it did, as the batter was soft, and the filling was very hot and moist. I actually burnt the roof of my mouth on the filling during the first bite. The filling had a darker-than-raspberry colour to it, and though it was noticeably red even to these colour-blind eyes, its darkness threw me off a little. The raspberry filling was very tart, though you could still taste the sweetness. My first thought was that it had to be raspberry mixed with something else, and when I pulled up the nutrition facts online, I found that the primary ingredient in the filling was chocolate fudge, with (luckily), the second ingredient being raspberries. I couldn't taste any of the little seeds you would normally find in raspberry jam, which was somewhat disappointing. More surprising was that I enjoyed the flavour and texture of the cold pie more than the hot pie. With the filling being hot and runny, it took away from any of the chocolate flavour that was in the pie. When I ate the cold pie, I could taste both the chocolate (in the crust), and the raspberry filling, together. I don't know if the tart raspberry filling hid the chocolate taste when eaten fresh from McDonald's, but that was the case with me.

Rating - 3/5