Cycle 3 – Item 188
11 (Wed) July 2012
Taste of Australia: BBQ Burger + Taste of Asia: Shake Shake Fries
1.0
at McDonald’s
(E-Mart)
-Seongsu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with W and DJ
In connection with the upcoming 2012 London Summer Olympics, McDonald’s Korea has cooked up a new promotion featuring items based on or inspired by or having absolutely nothing to do with 5 continents.
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- Taste of Africa: Piri-Piri Sauce (3.170 Taste of Africa: Piri-Piri Sauce)
- Taste of Europe: Pomodoro Chicken Burger (3.173 Taste of Europe: Pomodoro Chicken Burger)
- Taste of Australia: Barbecue Burger (3.188 Taste of Australia: BBQ Burger)
- Taste of Asia: Shake Shake Chili Fries (3.188 Taste of Asia: Shake Shake Fries)
- Taste of United States: Deluxe Brunch and Bacon Tomato McMuffin
United States gets 2 items because it’s a continent, the most important one.
South America and Antarctica don’t get items because they not continents.
With this third and final post, I’ve had enough. Two additional items in the series remain – the USA items – but I will decline to waste any further consideration on them – in any case, they’re only available at the breakfast service.
The burger was terrible, nearly to the point of being inedible. For one thing, the sauce tasted so strange that “strange” is the only adjective that I can think to describe it. It wasn’t “BBQ sauce” in any known sense of the term. It was suspiciously reminiscent both in appearance and flavor of the sauce for the Bulgogi Burger, and if bulgogi represents Korean BBQ, then maybe it could be considered “Korean BBQ sauce,” but of course the Bulgogi Burger doesn’t taste anything like actual bulgogi, so maybe not. This is supposed to represent Australia?! WTF?! Sauce aside – literally, I did brush aside as much of the sauce as I could with a napkin after the first bite – the beef patty was quite possibly the driest puck of ground meat that I’ve ever encountered in my life, which really surprised me as the basics at McDonald’s tend to be consistent. 5,100 won alone or 6,500 with fries and a drink.
The fries were even worse. Basically, they were standard fries that came with a packet of seasoning and a (barf) bag in which to “shake-shake” them together. Again, the seasoning was “strange.” It was suspiciously reminiscent both in appearance and flavor to the orange powder on Pringles Cheezums, only with a hint of spice. This is supposed to represent Asia?!?! What-The-Fuck?!?! 1,700 won alone or 300 won with purchase of regular fries or free with purchase of a large burger-fries-drink set.
Seriously, though, Korean food companies have to stop this kind of bullshit marketing that entails inventing some idiotic item and then arbitrarily attributing it to a foreign country/region. It demonstrates an utter disrespect for and/or a total ignorance of other food cultures, which is particularly foolish at a time when Korea is striving so hard to establish its own food as a globally recognized cuisine. Ironic that American chains in Korea, such McDonald’s, seem to be most guilty of it.
(See also FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
