Korean McSpicy - Hong Kong - March 2013

 McDonald's Hong Kong Spicy Sensations Korean McSpicy - "It's got the hots for you"

I paid $18.60.  I assume the extra $1 is for the privilege of eating it at the airport.

Consumed on 26 March 2013

Location - Hong Kong International Airport

Price - $18.60 (just for the burger) = $2.40USD

Calories - ~550kcal

Hong Kong International Airport McDonald's Receipt 2013

This was the 3rd and final Spicy Sensations promo item I was able to try in Hong Kong International Airport on the 26th of March. The first two being the Pickled Chilli McWings, and the McCurry.  Unfortunately, this will be the shortest, and least detailed of the 3 items I tried that afternoon. As I was midway through eating the McCurry, I realised that I left an item back at the security checkpoint. This isn't something I've ever done before. They had called me over to inspect my bag as I had a large bottle of crushed chilli in my backpack, and they wanted to take a look at it.  When they called me over to the side to inspect it, I forgot about the plastic bag I was carrying and went on my way.  Upon reflection, I was the ONLY person going through the checkpoint at the time, you think someone would have noticed the bag I was leaving there on the belt.  As I mentioned in Pickled Chili McWings review, I used the security checkpoint furthest from the Thai Airways gate, but closest to the McDonald's.  I let the gate agents know about the item I left, and they radioed over to the security checkpoint to ask about it.  Now, since I had been eating during the boarding process, most people were already on board, and my flight was about 20 minutes away from departure, 10 from when the gate would close.  The staff at the checkpoint had my item, but they wouldn't be able to get it all the way over to the gate in 10 minutes.  I offered to take a later flight, but the agent advised me otherwise, as it was full, and I would be placed on standby, so I might get stuck in HKG overnight.  He said because they already had the item in their possession, I could fill out a lost item claim when I arrived in Singapore, and they would make sure the item would get delivered to me.  In the meantime, they needed to copy my passport, and have me write a letter saying Thai Airways could collect the item from security on my behalf.  It took about 10 minutes to do all this, and by the time it was finished, I was the only person yet to board. So I didn't have time to eat the burger at the gate as planned.

I got to my seat, and kicked out the mainland Chinese guy sitting in it (he was in the middle seat, and wasn't happy that I made him move from my aisle seat).  I'll admit, I was stressed about leaving the item behind in HKG (it's pretty important), the man who was in my seat was staring me down, and the woman across the aisle was starting at the McDonald's bag I had on my lap.  I don't like it when passengers eat smelly food next to me on a plane either, and since the doors had yet be closed, I ran to the toilet.  I tossed out the fries which I didn't touch, as well as the 1/2 of the McCurry which was left, and the bones from the Pickled Chilli McWings, by now, the box for the Korean McSpicy was pretty soft, and unfortunately, I didn't get a better photo of it.  The box was soggy, probably because the burger wasn't wrapped like the McCurry was, the burger was cold as it had been made over 25 minutes ago, but I was still willing to give it a try, as I knew I wouldn't be in HK again to try it out.  The chicken was a standard McSpicy patty, a heavily breaded chicken thigh patty with some spicy seasoning on the chicken itself. The McSpicy has a cult following here in Singapore, and my review of the Double McSpicy, I've received some pretty negative feed back on my review of it. The chicken patty itself is supposed to be spicy, but what made this a promo variant was the Korean style sauce they added to it.  Living in Korea for 3 years, I can actually say this tasted somewhat Korean, unlike the KBQ (Korean Barbecue Burger) Japan had a couple of years ago, this wasn't just using Korean in its name.  The sauce was a Korean style pepper paste (gochujang), mixed with a whole sesame seeds, and a little vinegar. It wasn't a 100% authentic Korean taste, as I think the sauce also had a little oil mixed into the sauce, hopefully sesame oil.  It still had a nice taste, but it wasn't as thick as I would have liked.  The bun wasn't anything special, it was just the sauce.  The onion they used on the McCurry would have been a perfect combination with the sauce, so I'm not sure why they only topped it with lettuce.

Apologies for only a photo of the box.  I felt rushed enough as it was, literally as soon as I tossed most of the burger in to the trash, I realised that I forgot to take a photo of the burger itself. Not sure what was wrong with me that day, first I forget something at security, then I forgot to take photos of the burger. I didn't feel like reaching into an aeroplane toilet trash bin to grab a half eaten burger, so I just made my way back to the seat, only to find the same mainland Chinese guy back in my seat again...

Rating - 3.5/5

True to their word, I did get my item back a couple days, I did get a little bit of a run around by the Changi lost and found staff for 3 days.  I contacted HKG directly, and they made sure I had it within 24 hours.  Thanks HKG!