McDonalds in Kuwait

This is a blog post I’ve tried to write before, but at the moment I’m managing this blog on an iPhone. Last time I made this post, I was nearly finished when I pushed one wrong button by accident and it all went away. Wish me better luck this time.

Here is the McArabia. It comes in some neato packaging so you don’t have to get your hands dirty when you eat it.

After the McArabia, I was feeling a bit baleful because I didn’t think there was much unique about McDonalds in the Middle East. Then I realised that I have never seen a Chicken Big Mac anywhere but in the Middle East, so here it is. It’s basically just a chicken burger constructed like a Big Mac. It’s just okay, but it could be made much better if it had actual Mac sauce instead of plain mayonnaise.

There is also the McFizz, which I’m realising was just a limited time offer. No matter, as it’s basically just a glorified soft drink, anyway. I chose the blue one mostly because I like the colour blue, but also because it claimed to have passion fruit flavouring, and I like passion fruit. And I’d be lying if I said its name (I think it was called the Blue Lagoon) and the mention of the word “curaçao” made me think of a cocktail and whetted my thirst just a bit (but alas! this was not a cocktail, just a simple soft drink– we are in the Middle East, after all, and alcohol is haram).

Lotteria

Yesterday, I posted about the Bulgogi Burger over at McDonalds.  Well, Korea has its very own chain of fast food, Lotteria.  And Lotteria has its very own Bulgogi Burger.  The Hanwoo Bulgogi Burger to be exact.  But this is NOT the most interesting thing on offer at Lotteria.  No, no.  Follow me…

Not only does Lotteria serve up a standard Bulgogi Burger, they’ve got a version where instead of a normal bun, the “bun” is two sticky rice patties with veggies mixed in with the rice.  This reminded me of the sticky rice burgers I found at 7-Eleven in Thailand once, but Lotteria’s sticky rice buns do not hold up as well as Thai 7-Eleven’s sticky rice buns do.

But perhaps even more intriguing than the vege (sic) rice bulgogi burger is the Shrimp Burger (not pictured) and the Squid Burger (pictured below).  Both the Shrimp Burger and the Squid burger feature patties made of shrimp and squid, respectively.  The Shrimp Burger is relatively mild and features a thousand island-type of sauce, while the Squid Burger is fiery hot.  I guess that’s why I’ve got a soft spot for it because I simply adore fiery hot food.

Oh, and one last funny Konglish thing that I love about the Squid Burger: its packaging features the exhortation to eat the burger as quickly as possible.  To be fair to Lotteria, I understand the point they were trying to make, but in the end, the grammar they chose means they ended up urging their customers to do something entirely different.  I challenge thee to eat this as fast as possible!  I am very competitive and cannot resist a challenge… do I sense a Squid Burger eating competition coming on?

KFC Maxx Burger

No surprises here.  It’s exactly as KFC claims: no bun, all meat!  Where the bun ought to be, there are two pieces of breaded chicken.

I am a flexitarian.  I felt disgusting about eating this, but I ate it anyway in the interests of, ahem, reasearch.  Oh, and if you’re wondering why there is no photo of the burger midway through eating it, it’s because it made my hands so greasy they actually shone, and there was no way I was going to pick up my camera with my hands in that state.  See?

Third World Burgers

My friend knew that I was interested in starting a blog about all the burgers in Yangon, so he took me around for a little preliminary “research” awhile back.  Outside of one of the supermarkets, we found this little gem.  There were two patties on it.  The top paty was maybe pork.  Or possibly chicken.  Hell it could have been beef.  It really could have been antyhing.  There was lettuce.  And cucumbers.  And a funky sauce.  The bottom patty was either a patty of deep-fried fish or a patty of deep-fried potato.  I really couldn’t tell.  If you don’t want to pay a lot of money for nice food and instead would like to get by spending very little in Burma, THIS is what very little money buys you in Yangon.  Bon appetit, britches!