Spice of life

You can't go to Japan without checking out McDonald's for their Japan-only menu.

There were a couple of interesting and promising options, but this is where I started:

Spicy Chicken McNuggets with 4 cheese sauce!

It's. So. Good!

Has Mark try it, and it's Mark-approved as well.

Please bring this to the Philippines!

Cap it off

Oh, the things you find when you rummage your old stuff.

It gave me such a thrill to find this:

My McDonald's cap!

This was my cap during my crew days at McDonald's Commonwealth in college. It still has a lot of the pins I collected from contests, milestones, awards, and the like. Back then, collecting pins were all the rage, and it's so great to see that my pin collection (some of it, at least) is still there.

This re-ignited my wish to be a crew for the day, yet again.

Hooked on it!

Since they've discontinued Filet-o-fish in the Philippines, it's one sandwich that I'm constantly on the look-out for whenever my travels take me out of the country.

Luckily, they still have it in Japan!

Bonus, they also have sweet potato pie!

This meal got me. Hook, like and sinker.

Far For Fast Food

This wasn’t planned, but Mark and I ended up eating at Western Fast Food places more than we ate at Japanese restos

We went to McDonald’s for breakfast because we wanted to try the McGriddle breakfast.

We went toWendy’s-First Kitchen because they had a Truffle Chicken burger and a Portobello Mushroom pasta.

Not to mention our Carl’s Jr. dinner.

So yes, we went to Tokyo to eat Western food.

Wing it!

When I was living in HKG, i’d often go to McDonald’s for their McSpicy Wings.

Now, after almost 2 decades, that product is finally here!

Better late than never!

Excuse me while I rush to McDonald’s.

Belated Blowout

Thanks to an impromptu get together with the 026 trio, was finally able to blow out a birthday candle. Almost a week after my birthday!

You know what they say, better belated than never.

P.S. It’s the shirt I just talked about...

Off-Er

So, they brought back that "Er" promo at McDonald's.

If your name has an "Er" like "LestEr," you can get a quarter pounder for P25.

Just for kicks, I went to the neighbourhood McDonald's to see if there was a queue or a crazy crowd.

Well, there wasn't.

So, I ended up having a P25 Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

But I don't eat burgers. 

Errr...

McReunion

This actually happened more than a month ago.

We were on our way from lunch with Tita Sally and Victor when my phone rang. Upon looking at it, the name of the person who was calling was Helene. She's a close friend from McDonald's who I haven't seen in 20-or-so years. Since lives it AUS, so, it was quite surprising that she was calling.

Of course, I had to pick it up. Indeed, it was Helene and she said that she's here in MNL for a short vacation. And the cool part is, she's going to White Plains, near where Dexter's is. She'll be meeting up with some of our 026 friends, and asked if I'd be free to join.

When you haven't seen a close friend for that long, the answer was obvious:

It was awesome to see Helene, Teng and Chingky again. And we had a grand time reminiscing our McDonald's days.

You gotta love unplanned meet-ups that push through.

More of the Usuals

It might have been just a 3D/2N trip, but there was a conscious effort to sample all the HKG eats that are part of my life.

Like my usual McDonald's breakfast:

And Lok Bo Fan (from another resto, though.)

They were great eats! As per usual.

Grimace-inducing memories

Mom was cleaning up some of the cabinets in the house. She found this and immediately knew that this was mine.

It's a Grimace stuffed toy!

Grimace is very memorable and is an indelible part of my teen years. When I was 17 years old and working at McDonald's, they'd sometimes ask me to wear the Grimace costume and perform the "Wiggle, Wiggle" dance during kiddie parties.

While it was fun and I'd get a kick out of it, the whole process was difficult because I had to bend my knees to make Grimace look short and stubby. As a character, he's supposed to be stubby, and I was 5'10", so a tall Grimace just wouldn't cut it.

Thus, I'd spend about 15 minutes with knees bent, dancing to the delight of kids. It was difficult, yes, but hearing the kids laughing and cheering always made the discomfort worth it.

And that's why Grimace is very memorable.

And that's why I still have this Grimace toy with me.

King's Gambit

This is a perfect example of businesses banding together and setting aside competition for the greater good of all. 

They've done it in the Philippines with the recent "Ingat Angat Tayong Lahat" commercial, and it's nice to see it happening all over the world, too.

Well-played, Burger King UK. Well-played.

McNormal

Today's lunch made things feel normal for a change.

Was able to get McDelivery from the nearby McDonald's branch. And after a long, long, time, I was able to enjoy a burger and fries for lunch!

Times like these make you appreciate little joys.

Durian for your money

Since it was out of stock in 2 of the McDonald's stores I visited, I thought I wouldn't be able to try the Durian McFlurry here in SG.

Thankfully, they had it in the airport!

Ugh! It's SO good! But I can only have so much durian in a day.

Don't call me chicken!

McDonald's Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich. We meet again.

First time I tried this was in HKG. Now, it's in SG.

Two different countries, but it's the same great chicken sandwich.

Carl's Jr. is in for major competition this SG visit.

Berry nice!

In celebration of the Sakura season, McDonald's in HKG came out with a special edition strawberry series inspired by the pink hues of the sakura.

Strawberry? I'm definitely on-board!

Strawberry waffle cone + Strawberry soft serve + Strawberry cookie = Strawberry bliss!

It's definitely tastes as good as it looks.

Affixing my signature

During the last 4 or 5 trips to HKG, the McDonald's Signature Menu has always caught my eye.

Ain't it swanky?

Strangely, though, I've never gotten around to trying it. Mainly because the people I've travelled with didn't want to step into a Mickey Ds!

On this trip, one of my non-negotiables was to finally try this menu. And voila!

The Spicy Jalapeno Chicken burger is so good! What's even better is that it has a pineapple slice! (Sorry, Pineapple haters.)

Finally, I've signed off on this food goal!

Looking for a signature

During last week's short trip to HKG, I found out that McDonald's had a special signature line of sandwiches!

Unlike their usual burgers, these ones were a bit Le Swank. Get this: Angus beef with champignons, a garden grilled chicken sandwich, and a buttermilk chicken sandwich with Jalapeno.

I decided to try it out at the airport, but as luck would have it, they were all out of stock.

Hopefully, they'll still be around when I go back this month.

McFriendship

They say that life is peppered with happy accidents. Working at McDonald's was one of mine.

It was the summer of my sophomore year in college. I was thinking of taking summer classes or taking a summer job. Since none of my friends were taking classes that summer, I thought: "What the heck, I'll be a crew member at McDonald's Commonwealth."

Back then, working at McDonald's was a badge of honor. Being an all-American fast food chain, you had to speak impeccable English. In fact, the person who interviewed me was American. Which was - as one film once quoted - "surreal, but nice."

At first, I wasn't sure of my chances of getting hired. First, I was underage. They needed people who were 18 years and above. Thankfully, since it was summer, they hired people below 18, granting that they had a waiver signed by their parents. Now, I knew my parents wouldn't allow me to work so far from  home, so I did what any good kid would do:

I asked someone else to sign the waiver for me.

Then just like that, I was a crew at McDonald's 026 - a happy accident that resulted is so, so, so, SO many wonderful memories.

During most of my life at McDonald's, I was with the opening shift, or "The Openers." Now, in the McDonald's universe, the openers were usually geeky, wholesome, quirky and non-conventional. These archetypes were fine by me since I was geeky, wholesome, quirky and non-conventional to begin with.

I'd be at the store as early as 5am. Sometimes, my brother Biboy would drive me from Tomas Morato to Commonwealth - something he'd also do if I was a closer, or a member of the closing shift. Sometimes, my Mom would prepare breakfast before my shfit, and I remember one time when she got upset because she wasn't able to wake up early enough to make my breakfast.

The Openers made sure that the operations for the rest of the day ran like clockwork. That included opening and calibrating all the machines, stocking all the freezers, and making sure that there were enough stocks for the whole day. These were things I relished doing on a daily basis.

One of the best parts of being an opener was the friendships I made.

Through the opening shift, a group of crazy characters was born. Crazy characters who later became some of my best friends. This group included Helene, Teody, Chris, Ces, Nadine, Glenn, Dhymphle, Anj, Chinky, Joc and Tang. We'd all come in at 6:00 am and finish our shift at 12 nn or 1 pm. After our shift, we'd go out to watch a movie.

Movie watching came in two forms. First, we'd ride the jeep to SM North EDSA where we'd watch the latest geeky film. Our tradition was that every week, a pair would be assigned to pay for the movie and food. It was a tradition that was strictly followed, no matter how meager our pay for that week was. Second, we'd bring a VHS tape (!) and go to one of our friend's houses in Fairview to watch it. More often that not, it was Nadine's house. And I remember watching the animated version of "Beauty and the Beast" there for the first time.

Later on, we started leaving McDonald's, mainly because of school. But even if we weren't openers anymore, the group made sure to stay in contact and keep our friendship intact.

It's a friendship that's now 25 years old!

This was a realization I made this weekend during Chris' wedding. Over breakfast, Ces and I were talking about our McDonald's antics, and she exclaimed that those antics were from 25 years back!

And even if our friendship is that old, I feel we've remained the same young, geeky, wholesome,  quirky and non-conventional kids from 026. Although we weren't complete, we brought the other members of the gang in our hearts.

 (Ces, Glenn, Chris and myself. McDonald's 026 represent!)

Here's to 025 years of friendship among the 026 kids!

FAN-tastic lunch!

After walking about around North Point in search of a good lunch place, the gang decided to just go our separate ways. Vince and Keat ended up at Maxim's, while the Shigster and I went to good old Mickey-Ds for a dose of American junk food. This was good news for me because i'm really lovin' McDonald's and have been wanting to try their new Rice Burger. Since the branch near the office was packed with students, we decided to take our orders out. Presenting the newest offering from McDonald's Hong Kong. The "Fantastic Chicken Burger" or the new "Rice Burger." In Chinese, "Fan" means "Rice", that's why the product name is actually a play of words: "Fan-tastic" = "Rice-tastic". The Fantastic sandwich comes in beef and chicken, and since I don't eat beef, I ended up with this little baby. Instead of a bun, the fried chicken patty is lodged in between two lumps of bun-shaped rice. The rice/bun is made of glutinuous rice, gravy and mushroom, which gives it a very distinct and very pleasing flavor. It's just like eating machang, with less spices. The sandwich is garnished with 2 types of lettuce, giving it a "healthier" feel. Biting into this little critter is just like eating a complete rice meal rather than munching a sandwich. Imagine your ulam and kanin, sans the kubiertos. It's very, very convenient, very, very tasty, but very, very Atkins unfriendly. Initially, I didn't think i'd like it because i've tried a similar sandwich in Manila in the 90s in a place called "Rice Meal." (Pretty creative name, eh?) It was just awful! It was like eating week-old, coagulated lugaw which is never, never good. But when I tried this sandwich, I LOVE IT! The mix of tastes and textures are just right. And it's really a meal in a sandwich - giving "fast food" a totally new meaning. To wrap the meal up, I tried the Sweet Taro pie, which is pretty much like Kamote Pie. It was ok, nothing spectacular. I'd rather have Choco-Mallow Pie from Jollibee anytime. Thanks Ronald McDonald. I'm Lovin' It again, thanks to your newest burger innovation. I'm told that they plan to roll this out in Manila soo, and I hope they do. It's time to put the ghost of that mid-90s catastrophe called "Rice Meal" to rest, and make way for the new, uber Fan-tastic Rice burger from McDonald's.