Man who has visited more than 300 McDonald's around the world shares his favourite menu items
Seaweed seasoned fries and dried fish are among the more unusual menu options
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Your support makes all the difference.A man who travels the world eating McDonald's has revealed his favourite places on the planet to eat fast food.
Born in Ontario, Canada, James McGowan now lives in Bangkok, where he works for a tech startup company.
His true passion, however, appears to be eating as much fast food as possible in as many places as he can get to.
Mr McGowan has eaten McDonald's everywhere from the United Kingdom to Japan, and from Qatar to Hawaii.
Dishes range from McDonald’s churros, available in Seoul, South Korea, to the Japanese Crab Croquette burger.
He spoke to The Independent about his favourite countries to go to McDonald’s - and the best items he has tried so far.
Thailand
“The rice dishes stand out to me because they aren't a burger, wrap, or anything else that you can eat with your hands," he said.
"It's a nice twist to the standard McDonald's fare. Rice and wings are always a bestseller at Thai McDs.
“They also continue to surprise me with their savoury pies which work surprisingly well. Growing up, McDonald’s pies were always sweet and mainly for dessert, so these rich savoury pies sound strange to me, but usually end up being tasty.”
Hong Kong
“McDonald's Hong Kong Soup breakfast items have always been one of my personal favourite regular menu," James says.
“It was one of the first strange items I had at McDonald's. I first tried it many years before starting the blog, and it's one of the few regular menu items I actually try more than once.”
Sri Lanka
“The Seeni Sambol breakfast sandwich from Sri Lanka always stays in my mind as well, as I've never had dried fish in any other McDonald's dish before," James says.
"It has that perfect mix of local flavours, local ingredients, and that "unique" factor that I'm looking for. It also happened to be one of the spiciest McDonald's items I've ever had, and I love spicy food!”
On his travels, James has come across many other strange and unexpected dishes.
This includes Japan’s Cherry Blossom Pink Seaweed seasoned fries. The cherry blossom and seaweed flavour combination was “a perfect combination”, according to James.
Japan also boasts the McChocolate Potato – fries which come with a double chocolate sauce.
According to James, chocolate and potato is not a new combination in Japan, and chocolate flavoured crisps are often eaten. Somewhat surprisingly, the McChocolate Potato received a respectable 3.5/5 review from James, who said “When there was just the right amount of salt, there was a decent play between the sweet, salt, and fat content of the fry.”
In Singapore, you can order a Bubblegum McFizz beverage. Real bubblegum is banned in Singapore, and so this is an odd product to sell. The drink did not exactly get rave reviews, since the “hopefully-not-cancer-causing blue syrup” was so thick that “it got stuck in the straw preventing us from even drinking the thing”.
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