I have read enough about the love of hamburgers and in particular McDonald’s that many people around the world have. In the US, it seems like McDonald’s has a very storied and yet divisive history. Some people really enjoy it, while others would prefer the restaurant to simply disappear from the public consciousness.
Now, from what I understand, one of the holy grails of McDonald’s is a pork sandwich called the McRib. This sandwich is so popular but rarely appears the menu, and then only for a limited time. Apparently, it is so popular that there are websites and forums devoted to discussing it. In fact, it was even parodied on The Simpsons TV show!
Here in South Korea, we also get a pork sandwich at our McDonald’s once a year. Luckily for us, we have been able to set our calendars by it, as the sandwich comes every New Year’s!
So, when the calendar turns to January, McDonald’s has, for many years now, put on the menu three items for a limited time: the Prosperity Burger Gold, the Prosperity Burger Red, and Curly Fries. As these items are now on the menu, I decided I just had to go and try them to have a chance to write about them!
After choosing one of the McDonald’s to visit, I jumped in the car and drove there, as there are none in walking distance.
After using the nifty (and still slow) screen ordering system, I waited for my order which was a meal for each of the two burgers.
The McDonald’s that I chose had two floors, as many of the newer locations do these days, and so I went up to the second floor where there were more seats and more space.
The order was nicely displayed on the tray, and the Prosperity Burger Gold and the Prosperity Burger Red even have slightly different wrappers, so you know exactly which one is which!
The first thing I tried was the Curly Fries. In previous years, I have found these to be quite tasty. This year however, it was a little different.
The first issue was that there wasn’t a lot of spice to them. It certainly looks like there should be a lot of spice on them, but in this case there wasn’t. This year they just tasted like grease, which was very disappointing. In fact, compared to the new Cajun Fries at KFC Korea, these were very inferior.
Also, there weren’t exactly a lot of “curly” fries. Mostly, there was just a lot of broken bits, which made me a little disappointed.
The next thing I tried was the Prosperity Burger Gold. McDonald’s describes this as a “deliciously chewy patty with rich garlic sauce”. I don’t know about the chewy part, but the sauce was definitely garlic-y. The sandwich comes with lettuce, onions, and mayonnaise as well as the pork patty and the garlic sauce.
The pork patty is even shaped like a small rack of pork ribs, which I understand is how the McRib is in the United States and other countries.
The Prosperity Burger Gold was my favorite of the three. The bun was very soft, and the garlic sauce worked very well with the pork patty and the mayonnaise.
The Prosperity Burger Red was not quite so tasty. This one is very similar to the Prosperity Burger Gold, but the garlic sauce is switched with what is called a “spicy barbecue sauce”. The only problem with this sandwich is that the barbecue sauce was not spicy. In fact, it was quite bland.
This year’s collection of McDonald’s New Year’s products just doesn’t match up with previous years. The Prosperity Burger Gold was very good, but the other two items were lackluster. Here’s hoping that next year McDonald’s Korea ups the taste so that the Prosperity Burger Red and the Curly Fries are equally as tasty!