ADV: Maccing Around The World

This is one of my favourite movie scenes in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

John Travolta’s character asked Samuel L Jackson.
Travolta: You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jackson: They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?!
Travolta: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn’t know what the f— a Quarter Pounder is.
Jackson:Then what do they call it?
Travolta: Royale with Cheese.
Jackson: Royale with Cheese! Hahaha! What do they call a Big Mac?
Travolta: A Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
Jackson: Hahaha! What do they call a Whopper?
Travolta: Dunno man. Didn’t go into Burger King.

McDonald’s is the ultimate symbol of globalisation taking place. In virtually every country in every single part of the world, you are more likely to find a McDonald’s outlet than a Malaysian embassy.
I travel a lot, and I make it a point to go to a McDonald’s restaurant in every foreign country I visit. It’s always fun to spot the subtle differences in their restaurant menus.
The thing I like most about McDonald’s is that whilst their traditional menu is pretty much the same worldwide, they usually have special menu items to cater for different tastes in the different countries.

Like here in Italy, there’s a McFlurry made with Baci chocolates.

McSawadeekap

In Thailand, they have the Samurai Pork Burger (basically pork burger in teriyaki sauce).
In South Korea, you can get a Bulgogi Burger.
In India, there’s even something called a McSurprise Burger.
What’s in it? I don’t know. It’s a surprise. If I tell you then it wouldn’t be a surprise.

When I visited Egypt last year, I laughed my backside off when I found out their grilled chicken foldover is called McArabia.
In New Zealand, they have the Kiwi Burger that is not actually made of kiwi bird meat.
And if you ever go to the Phillipines, you can try out their McSpaghetti.

And how could I possibly resist my all-time favourite McDonald’s menu item, the Fan-tastic Rice Burger, which was sadly only available for a short time in Hong Kong and Singapore.
It’s this really delicious burger that uses rice patties in place of buns, and in between them are some shredded beef or chicken that oozes with yummy gravy. I still dream of that taste in my mouth after having tried them 2 years ago.

In Malaysia, the variations in our McDonald’s menu is quite admirable. Not many other places in the world offer Bubur Ayam McD or Ayam Goreng McD as standards on their McMenu.
You can NEVER get porridge or fried chicken at a McDonald’s in Australia. It’s just too weird to picture Ronald McDonald holding onto a piece of fried chicken.

I remember back when McD’s opened their first outlet in Kuching, and this was before they have Ayam Goreng McD on their menu. I brought my mom along and for the life of her, she just could not understand why a fast food restaurant does not serve fried chicken.
To her, that’s about as inexplicable as a kopitiam NOT serving coffee.

I haven’t been to a local McD’s in ages. But having visited so many of their outlets all over the world, I must say I’m impressed with how well our outlets measure up.
Nowadays you can chill out and even watch late night football at some McD’s outlets.

Many of their more popular outlets have gone 24 hours. Some even have a 24-hour drive-thru service.
And if you’re really lazy, there’s even McDelivery 24 hours available at certain locations.

I popped by McDonald’s at Sunway Pyramid recently and I noticed they now offer this McSaver menu everyday promotion.
Looks like the guys at the golden arches are getting generous, slashing prices off their best-selling items to help us save on the costs of living. As if McD’s aren’t cheap enough already.

The prices may be slightly dearer in Sabah and Sarawak, but there’s a good variety of great deals on the McSaver menu.
Cheap snacks like French Fries, Drinks and Apple or Banana Pies are only RM2 each. And if you add a ringgit more, you can get items like the Cheese Burger, Bubur Ayam McD, Nuggets, 2 Pies or even the Sundae at just RM3.

Then there’s the new Spicy Chicken Wrap, which is something unique only to McD’s in Malaysia. Can’t find it anywhere else, and now it’s only RM4.
The best deal from the menu? Most definitely it’s the Filet-O-Fish.

The Filet-O-Fish at McDonald’s is possibly one of the best around. Breaded fish patty on half a slice of cheese, topped lightly with tartar sauce and served between soft fluffy steamed buns. If there’s a better implementation of fish burgers around then I have yet to try them.
These buggers (no pun intended) usually sell for RM5.30, but now it’s going for just RM4 each.

Gotta be lovin’ it. 🙂


You know you’ve grown old reached a certain stage of maturity in life when most of the stuff you purchased during your holidays are not for yourself, but gifts for others.

119 Replies to “ADV: Maccing Around The World”

  1. what is this? a mcd advert? i bet there is some bitches posting an I’m FIRST comment around this time.
    still… wtf… mcd advert?
    love pulp fiction tho.

  2. You really should be a brand ambassador for McD as the way you are munching down that burger is uber cute in the kid sense… LOL…

  3. haha…my lecturer used to tell me that,every time she goes overseas,the 1st restaurant she’s go to is mcd’s. just so that she can try the diff types of burgers and food available at those mcd’s. i hope i get to try em too 1 day. lol

  4. Hey there!
    Loved this entry! Coz I also have the same idea to visit McDonald’s at any country I travel to… which so far has been only China and Malaysia (other than living in Singapore that is).
    I’d wanted to try the China’s McMuffin (which is made of pork vs Singapore & Malaysia’s Chicken) but sadly, for the 4 months that I’d stayed there, I didn’t eat McDonald’s breakfast there once. 🙁

  5. i miss the banana milkshakes in uk mcD!
    the mcflurries in msia so sad. only milo and smarties. the rest all gone off the menu ald. dulansssss
    uk got 5 types. maltesers, crunchie, m&m’s, that orange i forgot the name of, and oreos.
    yummmm. gonna order sthg now hehe

  6. you don’t have Mos Burger over there, do you? japanese fast food chain, they do rice burgers which are pretty tasty too! there’re many outlets in singapore, you can give it a try if you ever swing by…

  7. in aus, maccas have really tiny burgers….hungry jacks (a.k.a burger king) are better….. 🙂

  8. lollercakes. they have snack wraps in australia, they’re called crispy snack wraps.
    from the picture, it’s essentially the same.
    wrap, spicy tomato sauce and lettuce and chicken strips.
    (:

  9. While the government plans to impose ban on fast food advertisement, kennysia.com have openly abused us with the range of McD’s burger.
    Shit…now I have to wipe my keyboard……

  10. ….and not forgetting 5 bitches who happens to click at the same time and claims to be the first…bloody boh liao.. some more 2.47pm on a Friday afternoon. Just came back from prayers aa?

  11. Fast food advertisements cannot be shown on children’s tv show now, so they resorted to blogs?
    Great marketing guys they have.. never die spirit…

  12. If Mac’s product offerings are a reflection of the uniqueness and culture of the country, then they should start serving McIdiots or McCorrupts in MY.

  13. Mos Burger was in KLCC for some time last time, but i think the reception wasn’t too good, it closed down a couple of years later i think that place now is Nandos, i’ve been there a couple of times, i’ve even had Mos burger in Japan, the Original 1st shop too. (Know the owner) 😛 But out of touch liao

  14. “Cheap snacks like French Fries, Drinks and Apple or Banana Pies are only RM2 each. And if you add a ringgit more, you can get items like the Cheese Burger, Bubur Ayam McD, Nuggets, 2 Pies or even the Sundae at just RM3.”
    u mean i can buy fries at rm2 then add rm1 and get a cheese burger? WOW! THANKS KENNY!
    rofl*

  15. Oh, I didn’t know that McD in M’sia didn’t have fried chicken at first! Oh gosh, I do so wanna try some of those McD specials…

  16. The business executives at McCancer will be proud of this plug for their products :p
    Yeah fried chicken in Australia was available back in the 80s but sadly no more 🙁

  17. OMG they raise the price of the Sundae while reducing other prices. I remembered it was RM2-2.50 back then. Am I dreaming?
    Anyways, i think it’s kinda ‘OK’ if they do so, after all, they reduce the prices of other stuff and my first and favourite burger, the Filet-O-Fish.
    What’s next, KENNY Rogers ROASTERS??

  18. Ahhh f**k all those on health talks… Its an ad…Preach somewhr else pls… Tell ronald…he’ll b glad 2 hear frm health maniacs.

  19. Did you really mean it when you spoke good of the filet-o-fish? Maybe you shouldn’t do food review blogs 😛

  20. U mentioned “As if McD’s aren’t cheap enough already.” , WTF macD’s food are never cheap. The cost of a mac D’s set if twice of my dinner.

  21. Kenny told you to buy McD..
    then McD got more money..
    then McD can order more ads review..
    then Kenny will not have any sort of writer block thing..
    and, all of us happy..just go buy some McD..

  22. You taught me something. From now on every country I go, I will visit their McDonald. Alah, that time I was in Mumbai but I never go because my dad say is absurd to eat Mac when I’m there. Haha… Now I’m going against his words in future. Thank you Kenny! Interesting post again.

  23. KENNY you are losing your touch. This is extremely boring stuff to be blogging about and kinda puts me off visiting your site.

  24. why oh why do i visit your site at this time of the day? i was possessed when reading this entry… and just dialed a delivery of fillet-o-fish…oups, my saliva…

  25. You went to Vietnam. Maybe you did not know, but you just could not find any McD in whole Vietnam coz there’s none! Correct me if I’m wrong. ^_^

  26. There are way better deals for burger around, and it’s at Burger King! Still, McD’s is pretty ok, I just wish their burgers come in more generous portions.

  27. Oh pleaaase!!! If u think McD’s Fillet-O-Fish is tasty…there’s something wrong with u. It is dry, small, and kinda taste like hot paper.
    U have to try Ramli’s Burger or A&W’s Marina fish burger. They are much better than McD’s Fillet-O-Fish!!! I can only applaud McD for their delicious desserts.

  28. wao… the burger looks damn small in your hands man. seems as if for ur case u gotta eat like maybe 4-6 to get full…

  29. in glasgow here, everything is in pounds. try to imagine, calling for one mcD set will cause u almost 5 pounds, a Mcs sundae icecream cost you 1 pounds too! walan yeah!!!

  30. wot………….. stop globalisation. not cool kenny. you should be helping out smaller start ups instead of maccas. I was impressed by your chicago 7 blog, but the maccas one, im sure they’ve already cemented their position in malaysia via unscrupulous marketing towards kids.
    Tho, i shouldn’t be hating, im a maccas fan as much as everyone else. in terms of burgers, MOS is way better, and having lived in Perth for a good 12 years now, the ramly burger owns all. STAT

  31. Rice burger is commonly available in China and Taiwan McD, at least that’s the case and told so when visited Beijing and Taipei couple months ago.

  32. Stunning incompetence – and proof that nothing
    Posted by kasee
    Saturday, 29 March 2008
    ALIRAN
    If we thought that dealing an electoral blow to the Umno-led BN would serve as a wake-up call, we’d better think again. Far from learning anything from the rebuke, the new cabinet is proof that not one thing has got in those thick skulls, observes Tingang.
    First, it would be a normal assumption that there is consultation before announcing a cabinet. But the two instant rejections show the arrogance behind the appointments. The assumption is that people are so hungry for cabinet positions that you don’t have to consult them.
    Second, the huge disappointment of the Dayaks in Sarawak pushed even the usually subservient James Masing, disputed leader of the Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), to voice his disappointment.
    Now, if one wants to know what the NEP really means to today’s Umno, Sarawak is a great place to learn about it – and the cabinet appointments only serve to underline that.
    This is a state whose bumiputera – a majority non-Malay bumiputera – have seen the favoured grow rich while first the forest and now the land is literally being taken away from them. For these bumiputera, there is no NEP, instead lectures about changing their mindsets while their sources of livelihood are handed over to the well-connected, mostly apparently Chinese companies, but who knows the ultimate beneficiaries.
    So, a first-term MP, son of the Chief Minister of Sarawak, is immediately given a deputy ministership, while long-serving Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu MPs are left out in the cold. Now, if anyone is interested in how politics and business are intertwined in Sarawak, just look up the Annual Report of Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMSB), a company laughingly referred to as Chief Minister & Sons Bhd.
    Go along most major roads in Sarawak and you’ll see signs proudly announcing that the road maintenance is under CMSB. The proposed USD2 billion aluminium smelter is a joint venture with CMSB – and we can guess why Rio Tinto picked CMSB as a partner. The concrete and cement and steel for Bakun is from CMSB. CMSB’s tiny Bank Utama was allowed to do a reverse take-over of much larger RHB Bank – but unable to turn a profit out of it, it’s now sold to EPF. CMSB owns the former JKR construction arm. And so on – to the tune of doing business amounting to 10 per cent of Sarawak’s GDP. One company, owned by the Chief Minister’s family – and our Mr Clean had no problems appointing the first-term MP son to the cabinet.
    Well, it should be interesting to see Suleiman Taib Mahmud’s asset declarations. But if the government means what it says – who believes that anymore – then it should insist on asset declarations covering the extended family of parents, siblings and nephews and nieces.
    But it gets worse. The new environment minister is from Sarawak, as is the plantations minister. Guess which state has done more deforestation in the past ten years? Right, Sarawak. And for what purpose? Right, for plantations. Check and balance? Or, green light to go ahead and further dispossess the bumiputera of Sarawak, handing over the degraded forest to the same people who degraded it with terrible logging practices, so that they can plant acacia and oil palm? Look at the timber companies. Now look at the ones in plantation. They are the same – the Big Five – they call them. And the economy of Sarawak is being handed over to them: forests, plantations, shipping, hyper-malls, hotels, real estate, etc.
    Rafidah Aziz deserved to go. But by all accounts she was a competent international trade and industry minister – she deserved to go not because she couldn’t do that job, but because she got too good at some other jobs.
    Whover has replaced her, it should be fun. But even more of a joke is the deputy minister, a long-serving Orang Ulu MP, also from the CM’s party, whose only knowledge of international trade and industry is staring at oil palm and acacia plantations coming up all over the Baram. Now this is a man who dare not even talk with his constituents when they want to talk about the land issue. And he is going to represent us in those international forums facing the sharks?
    If Mr Clean had appointed him to the works ministry, it might at least be understandable. After all, he is MP of an area where, after more than twenty years, the government road remains unfinished, and is in worse shape than even the logging roads! They used to blame Samy Vellu. Now we don’t have Samy to kick around any more, it would have been good to let Jacob Dungau prove himself and finally get the road completed.
    Come to think of it, maybe we should present the whole cabinet with pillows. Things might actually be better if they all went to sleep.

  33. Adv again? Looks like you’re start misusing the popularity of your blog to make $ out of it.. Sorry to say that.

  34. It had a great start, an interesting middle and then it sounded like an advert! Anyway I’ll just remember the good start and the fact that I’ve not seen Pulp Fiction for YEARS! Hope you’re feeling refreshed by the way… (I could do with a holiday too!)

  35. i wish our mcd does promo like uk mcd does, its so good! 1 diff day 1 diff burger up for promo price…and our msian’s mcd is lacking the variety…i hope they put out more new stuffs…

  36. Kenny, this is your blog, so you can write whatever you want and anything you want. But really those ads are starting to become troublesome. You should limit to 5 per month and hike the ad price up. This way you earn money and blog at the same time. Just some suggestions…

  37. Not a fan of mcdonald’s, been reading morgan spurlock’s book-“don’t eat this book” and his documentary “super-size me”

  38. The way you made your post is as if McDonald is a wonderful place to dine in anytime of the day.
    I admit, I was kind of amazed by the food but only for a moment.
    Are you forgetting that it is basically unhealthy fast food ? Go watch ‘Supersize Me’ to confirm it.
    Using your blog to advertise unhealthy food to the society.. Geez man ! Where did yo integrity go ?
    Ooh yeah, it was bought with a fat cheque.

  39. i’m a mcD lover all these while, it’s really one of the best fast food restaurants available around. The free refill of soft drink is just irresistable!

  40. McDonald has gotten so expensive these days. About RM10 for a large meal and their burgers are shrinking as well. The Filet i ordered the other day was so pathetically small. I thought it was just an exception rather than the norm until I saw this picture. Ughh, Burger King grilled Double Whopper all the way!!

  41. lol ~love the random talk abt McDees all over the world.
    Fascinating stuff.
    Oh and i think Spore also got the mcDee porridge for
    awhile.
    But then, the thing i hate is hw a non-upsize McDee
    meal in Spore costs like 10 bucks nowadays..
    like, wtf. Terlalu mahal. Eurgh. =_=”

  42. Dheepan, I’m sorry if you find the ads troublesome. But limit it to 5 per month? Dude, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I never have more than 5 advertorials per month. It’s always TWO per month, and on rare occasions only THREE per month max.
    Considering I update around 15 entries per month, surely having 2 out of 15 entires being ads is permissible?

  43. McD SUCKS in KK, Sabah! Buns are stale, fries are flat n soggy with oil, patties bland n the worst thing is, they CHOP up the pickled cucumber so they can stretch it. I couldn’t believe it until I tried one myself. So don’t think McDs have the same standard everywhere. And if any McD execs are reading this, you better do something about the horrible standards here because everybody prefers the yummy, fresh, consistent BURGER KING!!!
    Just because McD is a US institution doesn’t mean its best. John Travolta in real life, I read, thinks Denny’s best restaurant ever. Denny’s?!

  44. unless i really hungry or lazy to cook, no mcD for me, man! sure, they’re relatively ‘cheap’ but their service sucks to high heaven. esp the delivery wan.
    hate mcD…

  45. Fillet-o-fish used to be my favourite burger ever! Then I stopped going to McDs for a while. Friend convinced me to have McDs against last year, and of course I chose the Fillet-o-fish, it was small, felt like I was eating air and so completely not filling. Had to go and buy something else to fill my tummy.
    My local fish and chip shop has the best fish burger ever! Can’t remember how much fillet-o-fish cost, but I think it’s only slightly less than the fish and chip shop fish burger priced at NZ$4, crumbed hoki fillet, lettuce, onion, tartare sauce, and it’s filling. 🙂 Can add other stuff too at 70cents per extra ingredient.
    Mind you I went to McCafe yesterday for brunch, and happy surprise, the pumpkin quiche and bacon & brie quiche was quite nice.

  46. too many ads, kenny.
    when mcD gets ahold of u, that’s it..
    uve sold out. instead of blogging, u’re
    another freaking person advertising fatty foods
    to an already fast fattening population for THE (u said it urself) most lobalised money hungry corporation, exploiting local blood for their profits.

  47. Eh, Maccer’s are so overated la.
    The fillet ‘o’ fish can be gulped down in one bite.
    It’s the size of their medium size coke cup lid.
    Pathetically, Maccers are getting stingy with their sizes. Look at the westerns Maccers! They have a size up after large.
    Well, i bet since you have loads of comments, i’m quite sure you wont rememeber me and you will not reply.
    I still love McD’s but they need to do sth about the size!!!!
    -faithful Maccers goer.

  48. How much did McD’s pay you ? Your blog is getting super sucky. You WERE funny. Now you’re just sad and lame. Mail me, block my ip you still suck !

  49. The food at McDonalds is super substandard. Have you tried Carl’s Junior?
    Not only that, they aren’t environmentally friendly AT ALL. Apparently, they chop down large parts of the Amazon to harvest their meat. And the plastic bags they use is enough to choke the billions of aquatic life found in the Atlantic. Even ice cream sundae also have to use plastic.
    They don’t bother educating their staff because Malaysians just don’t care. F*cking capitalist bastards.

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