(Salted Egg Yolk) Food Hype Gone Wrong?

Perfect example to elaborate "so near yet so far".

#Mcd #saltedeggyolk #mcnuggets #foodhype

Throughout the month of March, it seems that the salted egg yolk hype was making a comeback in several fast food chains, such as McDonald’s "Salted Egg Yolk Invasion"and the "Salted Egg Yolk Royale Pizzas" from the Domino's.

In case you're wondering what do I mean by "comeback", let’s not forget about the “pioneer” of salted egg yolk snacks -- the legendary "Salted Egg Yolk Fried Fish Skin". ANDDDD since then, salted-egg-yolk-flavoured snacks and food products is believed to be a guarantee of heavenly scrumptiousness.

So, better late than never, the adventurous (kepoh) side of me decided to give a try on the McD's limited edition salted egg yolk foods: the Salted Egg Yolk McNuggets Sauce & McNuggets and the Loaded Fries with Chicken Bits (thanks to the super-duper efficient marketing ads that appeared on my Facebook feed!).

Food tasting experiment... start!

The Invasion of the Salted Egg Yolk Duo!

Some foreword...

Honestly speaking, I did not have any (high) expectation on them since I have often been traumatised by the “limited edition for limited time” fast food products, especially those which were launched and featured specialties from certain countries UGH. #noexpectationnodisappointment

Although the idea of different McNuggets dip sauces is not something extraordinary already, since this is not the first time that McD launches their limited edition dip sauces (eg. French Cheese, Honey Mustard and even curry flavour!), what has interested me is the combination of the fast food culture from the West and the ingredient from the East, especially from the Chinese culture which I can relate to.

K, time to taste the magic, shall we?

1. "Salted Egg Yolk McNuggets Sauce & McNuggets" from McDonald's

The prejudging moment before trying it out. *gulp*

List of ingredients in the dip sauce

The colour is a bit off of what I was expecting

Somehow I just don't feel good when seeing that. Definitely not a dare from anyone else.

Rolling in the DIP (pun intended)

I would say the result was kind of expected for me (thanks to the previous traumatic experiences I had for those limited-time-food THANKS).

First thing first, the smell. Once opened the tub of dip sauce, the most prominent smell is the mayonnaise and a milky smell.

The smell just gets stronger (and even more complicated) while being chewed.

Eaten with the nuggets, the sauce actually tastes sour and later turns to a sweet after-taste along with the milky and mayo smell.

"Then where is the salted egg yolk taste-AH?"

The taste of salted egg yolk just kicks in after chewing for a while and immediately covered by the taste of mayo. So, in short, a better name could have been suggested for this item, based on the review of taste: "Honey Mustard Mayonnaise Sauce with a Hint of Salted Egg Flavour", for its failure to feature the salted egg yolk flavour as the main prominent element.

Verdict: PUI !!!!

2. "Loaded Fries with Chicken Bits" from McDonald's

Moving on, let's try some (salted egg yolk sauce) Loaded Fries.

Fries loaded with mayo and salted egg yolk sauce (and chicken bits!)

Seems like McD has learnt their lesson to take the presentation of food and naming game more seriously, after its previously launched salted egg yolk fries in Singapore was being roasted by the netizens.

Basically for Loaded Fries, it is French fries drizzled with some mayonnaise and salted egg yolk sauce and topped with chicken ham bits.

For this one, it is more acceptable than the previous one in terms of the smell and taste.

Since the list of ingredients is not enclosed on the packaging, it's not clear that whether it's another different sauce compared to the dip sauce.

Taste wise, the (weird) sour taste is not as strong as the McNuggets sauce and there is a really subtle smoky BBQ smell and taste that goes well with the chicken ham bits.

In short, it is more acceptable because of its topping. BUT STILL the salted egg yolk sauce is not the main specialty to be featured (in both cases!).

Verdicts: Still OK-lah!

Until here, and you may ask: "Why you so hard to please-AH?"

I'm pretty sure that there are still people out there who like it (who knows?) but it just doesn't live up to the hype because it's going too far from my minimum expectation. Another problem to be questioned is the degree of authenticity of the food for its misrepresentation to be used as a type of marketing gimmick. It really got me thinking that whether "the consumers are hard to please" or "the consumers are presumably easy to be brushed off". I suppose that the former one is becoming true now because McD (at least the one that I visited) started giving out the salted egg yolk dip sauce without charging extra for that whenever I ordered the chicken McNuggets. #thatdesperatetho

So, legit anot? It's really up to you to decide.

Muak dah :|