Cycle 5 – Item 36

10 (Mon) February 2014

1-Piece Chicken McDo & McSpaghetti Meal

1.0

at McDonald’s

(Robinsons Place)

-Ermita, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines-

solo

Try Every Restaurant in Robinsons Place (15) (see also TERRP)

From what I’ve been able to gather, though unable to verify, “McDo” is a trade name used by McDonald’s Philippines to designate items designed for the local market.  In many other countries around the world, including the Philippines, but neither America nor Korea, the term is a nickname for the chain itself – pronounced “Mc-DOH.”  The current menu here includes Burger McDo, a small hamburger with some kind of mayo-ketchup sauce (or so I’m told), and Chicken McDo, which is just American-style fried chicken but served Filipino-style with gravy.

Although not labeled as “McDo,” McSpaghetti is, as far as I’m aware, a pasta dish also available exclusively in the Philippines.  Even McDonald’s Italy, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t serve spaghetti, not yet – only a pasta salad, newly developed as part of their recent collaboration with pasta company Barilla (see article on Time.com “McDonald’s Takes on Italian Cuisine, in Italy”).

The McSpaghetti was horrendous.  Overcooked cheap pasta with processed cheese and processed meat in reddish sugar water – I’m well aware that Filipinos like their spaghetti sweet, but this was too much.  One bite was all that I could take.

The Chicken McDo was pretty crappy, too.   At least here, this evening: they gave me a small breast piece that was all cold and dried out.  I’ve had the Chicken McDo on a couple other occasions, when it was hot and crispy and juicy – granted, I was drunk on both occasions, so maybe it’d just seemed much better.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN PHILIPPINES)