One man’s meat is another man’s poison; Singapore’s breakfast porridge is apparently “kitchen sink” scraps to a white man’s culture. While everyone can agree that bizarre game meat can most definitely be defined as “weird food”, there is still a smorgasbord of everyday grub that can still seem freaky for the uninitiated and unadventurous.
UK-based website Joyscribe, for one, has listed McDonald’s Singapore’s Red Rice Porridge as one of the “weirdest McDonald’s menu items you’ll find across the globe”.
Predictably, the author has also included other McDonald’s menu items from other Asian markets. Here they are:
McCurry Pan
Where It’s Available: India
Apple pies aside, McDonald’s India also offers vegetable pies. The McCurry Pan consists of mushrooms, corn, peppers, broccoli, and creamy sauce in an edible pastry box. Joyscribe added this to their List of Weird due to the fact that the dish is served in a pastry-based edible receptacle. Have they never had a soup served in a bread bowl, we wonder?
Gratin Croquette Burger
Which Asian market: Japan
Despite its French name, this burger is a winter menu limited edition Japanese product. The patty consists of deep-fried macaroni and crab placed between two steamed buns. Joyscribe describes the patty as a “sickly mix of crab and macaroni” – something that apparently makes them “feel queasy just writing about it”.
Taro Pie
Which Asian market: China
Taro is a purple-specked tuber that grows in the Pacific Islands. It is sweet and starchy and is often compared to yam and ube. Taro-flavoured food items are popular in Asia, as are sweet potato, ube and yam. According to Joyscribe, however, the colour of taro “just doesn’t go with food”. They even describe the experience of biting into the pie as a “horror” and a “purple nightmare”.
McChoco Potato
Which Asian market: Japan
A limited time menu item from McDonald’s Japan, the McChoco Potato features French fries that are drizzled with white milk chocolate sauce and dark chocolate sauce. The combination of sweet and salty delighted many customers, but Joyscribe has been left “baffled” by this combo. “Worryingly, there is also a Halloween version that includes pumpkin spice chocolate,” they add. So they’ve never tried eating their French fries with McDonald’s Hot Fudge Sundae? These guys have no idea what they’re missing out on.
Red Rice Porridge
Which Asian market: Singapore
Jumping onto the clean eating trend, McDonald’s Singapore released the Red Rice Porridge that is made of healthier wholegrain red rice, and is topped with shiitake mushrooms, corn, sweet potato, goji berries, and beancurd. The dish was designed to be nutritious and easily digestible, but such sentiments have been lost on Joyscribe, which has described this porridge as “kitchen sink mentality”.
Introduced in 2018 as a permanent item on the breakfast menu, the Red Rice Porridge has since been quietly dropped after reviewers panned it for being too bland. Bland, mind you, not weird.
Do you agree that these McDonald’s food items are weird? Which ones would you love to try? Tell us in the comments!
