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| Looks like the Egg Variant was the only one to get promo packaging this year. |
Purchased on 07 December 2013, at Hong Kong International Airport
Price - 19HKD = $2.45USD
Calories - ~600kcal
My buddy Kchan came down to Singapore to visit us in early December, and since he was flying Cathay Pacific, he would therefore be transiting Hong Kong, and when he booked his tickets I asked him to pick up whatever promo burger they had for me to review. At the time the Ebi Burger was their promo, seemingly the same as it was here in Singapore just a couple weeks priort. It looks like the Ebi Burger makes it back to HKG just about every year where the run the standard, and a variant. In 2012 they had one with a black sesame bun and sesame sauce along side the standard, and this year they had one with egg. I probably should have just told him to not bother, since I had the Singapore version just a couple weeks before, but he still graciously picked one for me (sadly it was without egg).
Other than that it was about 5 hours old by the time I was able to eat it, there were still a couple differences from the one I had in Singapore. First, the Thousand Island sauce they used was noticeably both stronger, but tangier than the near tasteless sauce on the Singapore edition. The batter was also a bit thicker, and it tasted like it retained a lot of oil, but that might have been because I didn't eat it fresh. Also, there was an absence of mustard (which I felt really helped the Singapore one), and the lack whole shrimp inside the patty was the biggest letdown. The minced shrimp really reminded me of the Japanese or the former Korean patties (RIP), and the whole shrimp inside the SG and Taiwanese versions really made it shine.
I shouldn't be judging the one with egg since I didn't try it, but I believe egg would have been a terrible edition to what was already a lacklustre attempt. All in, if I lived in HK, and this was what they brought back I would have felt a bit disappointed, when previous years they had more interesting versions of the promo. This year they served it along side Curry Shakers, which my friend didn't bring me, but I've also already had recently here in SG as well as in Malaysia.
Rating - 3/5
My friend also didn't just graciously bring me a burger from HK, but he also brought me photos of the McLobster Burger that I missed in Canada last summer, and wrote a short review on it (and the After Eight Pie) just to rub it in a bit. The McLobster is usually available only in the Atlantic provinces, but they did a countrywide promo in August. My wife was supposed to buy one and freeze it for me so I could try it in December, but was a day too late...
