McDonald’s Summer Country Chicken Sandwich

After last week’s onion disaster (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration), I was hoping for better things with the Ontario Summer Country Chicken Sandwich. I like most of McDonald’s chicken sandwiches, so I was feeling good about this one going into it.

I went to the self-serve kiosk and placed my order. Then came the point to make my changes to the sandwich. This time, it was to take off the tomato slice (leaving on the cheese again today). That’s when I noticed something terrifying on the screen. …Tomato and herb sauce…

I have a weird relationship with tomatoes. I’m okay with tomato sauce on pizza and pasta, but I dislike chunks of tomatoes in them. I can stomach ketchup if I absolutely have too, but I’d rather not have it at all. But tomatoes seem like one of those things I can grow to enjoy, like pickles and (not grilled) onions. Plus, since tomatoes seem to be everywhere, it would be useful to learn to appreciate them. So, despite my reservations, I decided to stay on track and order the sandwich (removing the sauce would be removing the purpose).

I thought the BBQ burger was messy. This one had sauce oozing out of the back. And boy does that sauce have a strong scent.

No sense waiting around. I took a bite and I can tell you, that sauce tasted as strong as it smelled. I then realized what was causing the odour and strong flavour. It was definitely Parmesan (I double checked this later to confirm my suspicion). I don’t have anything against Parmesan, but it was drowning out the other cheese on the sandwich. It was to the point where it seemed pointless for that slice of cheese to even be there.

Unlike the western burger, the flavours complemented each other better. Yes, the sauce was strong, but I still got plenty of the chicken to go along with it. It was like eating a cheap chicken parmesan, and there’s where it falls flat. It didn’t blow me away, and it just makes me want a better sandwich. There’s already a better chicken sandwich on the McDonald’s menu, the 12. So while this one was better than the Western BBQ burger, I won’t be revisiting this one in July either.

Next week is the Quebec Delectable Bacon & Cheese Burger. Maybe it can save this taste adventure from mediocrity.

6.5/10

McDonald’s Western BBQ Burger

Right now in McDonald’s Canada, they have “The Great Canadian Taste Adventure”. Every week, they have a different burger for a different region in Canada. They ran this promotion last year, but I missed out. This time around, I decided to give each burger a shot.

First up is the Alberta Western BBQ Burger. It’s got crispy fried onions, grilled onions, white cheddar cheese, mayo, and of course, BBQ sauce. Unfortunately, by the time this is posted, this burger will already be rotated out. But unlike last year, they’ll be rotating though the burgers twice, so it’ll be back in July. So let’s see how this one goes and whether or not it’s worth revisiting in July.

I decided to give myself one small change. I ordered it without mayo.

…Or chicken sauce?

Chicken sauce on a beef burger? Uh, okay, but not for me. Either way, the real selling point of the burger is the BBQ sauce. If the burger features a special signature sauce, then I’ll leave it on. But for generic ketchup, mustard, and mayo, I’ll give myself the option of taking those off until I get to that point. Besides, I don’t really think mayo is something I urgently need to add to my diet (I say as I’m about to wolf down a cheeseburger. This is a health conscious blog). And yes, I realize most sauces are mayo based. I’m just weird.

I did leave the cheese on. I figured it’s promoted as a cheeseburger, I may as well go all in. I don’t often leave the cheese one, mainly because I don’t really like the two most popular burger cheeses, cheddar and American. I’ve yet to have either on a burger though, so that might make me change my mind.

Anyways, enough talking about the burger.  Let’s actually take a look at this thing.

 

It’s never like the picture, is it? I’ll be honest, I was more nervous than I should be, with that slice of cheddar staring right at me. Still, I was committed to doing this and so I took my first bite.

…I couldn’t taste the cheese. My worries were unfounded. What I should have been worried about were the onions, because that’s all I tasted. Now, like I said in my intro post, I’m okay with onions. However, I like them sparingly. I find they have strong flavour, so a little goes a long way. Having the two types of onions here was just too much.

The crispy onions were pretty good. They had a nice subtle flavour and I liked the bit of crunch they added. The grilled onions…I was not a fan. They felt slimy and gross, and just overpowering. And worst of all, way too abundant. I found myself taking a good chunk of them off.

As I continued eating, the sauce started to kick in. It was good, albeit rather generic. Nothing really to stand out compared to any other BBQ sauce you might buy at the supermarket. It did mute the onions a bit, but only a bit. Honestly, this should be called the Western Onion Burger, because all it did was reinforcing the fact that I do not like grilled onions all that much. It’s 80% of what I tasted, and I didn’t get any of the cheese at all.

All in all, I wouldn’t say it was so bad that it wasn’t worth trying out. It wasn’t so offensive that I couldn’t finish, but I can say for certain that I won’t be getting it again in July. And I could still tastes those onions hours later. Fun.

Let’s hope the Ontario Summer Country Chicken Burger is better.

 

5/10

An Introduction

Hello. My name is Mike and I’m a finicky eater. How finicky? Often when I get a burger, it looks like this:

There aren’t any condiments hiding in that photo. It’s all beef and bun. No ketchup, mustard, mayo, or cheese.

Yes, it’s bad. The problem is, when I want to try new foods, I tend to get anxious and nauseous. It borders on being an eating disorder. But I’m slowly getting better! Some foods still make me queasy, but I’m ever so slightly learning to expand my diet. Onions, ribs, pickles…all things that use to trigger my gag reflex are now edible for me. I usually have a pretty good read on what I think I might be able to stomach and what I should still avoid for now. It’s all in my head, but I’m working on exorcising those demons.

Now, one kind of food that should make me queasy but doesn’t is fast food. I loooooove me some fast food. So, I figure why not try new fast food items? It could be a way to expand my diet further by adding new items to things I already enjoy (albeit, this is probably the worst way to expand one’s diet).

So that’s what this blog is for. I thought I should document my progress, and for fun and practice, I could rate and review the new items I eat (ratings to be taken with a grain of salt because this is me after all). I’ll also write about my experiences trying other new foods outside of fast food, as well as possibly even trying out recipes, local eateries, and other products as I expand my horizons. Hopefully, if I’m still doing this years from now, it’ll be closer to a normal food blog because my food aversion will be gone.

I have a few items lined up already. I might have a lot of quick updates to start, but I’ll try to keep it to a regular two updates a week. I’m excited to get this started. I hope you all enjoy the ride.