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| Pre-thawed McPizza Pepperoni Burger |
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| 15 hours and 2 days in a freezer, and the box still has shape! |
Purchased on 08 November 2014, McDonald's Bath Road, Just Outside Heathrow Airport, England
Consumed on 11 November 2013 in Singapore
Price - 3.99GBP - $6.29USD
Calories ~680kcal
Since I moonlight as our office travel agent, my colleague had to spend a night near Heathrow Airport...it just so happened that he ended up staying at the airport hotel directly across the street from the only McDonald's anywhere close...I wonder how that happened... Unfortunately this burger not only spent 13 hours in the air, but it also then needed to spend another 48 hours in the freezer, as I was away in Brunei when he returned. This isn't the first time a flown in burger has been frozen on it's arrival, but my first experience wasn't really a positive one, but I was hoping this would fare a bit better.
Before getting into the review, I should first explain how this burger came about. McDonald's UK ran an online promo earlier this year to 'design' a burger, and the highest voted creations would make it to the 'finals' where McDonald's would then pick 5 winners for proper release. Fellow UK-based Burger Blogger, Burger Lad was a finalist, and although his burger didn't make the final roster, he has been reviewing them as they've been released. He also has a breakdown of the 4 other finalists, so rather than typing out info about burgers I'm not going to review, you can check it them here. Luckily for me, the McPizza burger seems to be the most interesting of the lot, so I'm glad I was able to review it over some of the others.
Since my burger was frozen solid, rather than sticking the burger into the microwave and hoping for the best, I thought I would take the same approach I did with the Superman Honey Mustard Chicken burger, and break it down into sections. I popped the bun into the toaster and placed the patty and pepperoni slices onto a hot pan. Strangely, but somewhat luckily for me since the burger was frozen and needed to be reheated, my burger had a complete lack of tomato, and about 2-3 single lettuce shavings. But where I lost out on some veg, I lucked out with the pepperoni - whereas Burger Lad only had 2 slices in his review, but I had 5! It was also missing ketchup, but I will never complain about that, since I can't stand ketchup. You might also notice in some of my photos, my patty looks to be broken into pieces, well, I did that just to ensure anything nasty that started to grow on my burger in the 15 hours it was unrefrigerated, would die. Although I've had pies flown in from North America, this was the first time I've had meat flown in from outside of Asia, so I was a bit worried about this one. I felt it was safer to look a little off than to get sick. It's been a couple days since I've eaten it and I've been fine, so I might continue with this method.
Naturally, since I had 5 slices, the predominant flavour was the pepperoni, that's also because due to the salt content of the meat caused it to hold it's flavour the best of of anything else in this burger. Even though it survived a trip and a stint in the freezer, each piece still gave off quite a bit of oil when I had it on the pan, so much so, that I couldn't image how greasy it would have been fresh. This clearly wasn't the highest quality pepperoni, but it's flavour was like you'd expect. The mozzarella cheese also held up surprisingly well, and after being reheated on the patty, was as creamy and of a higher quality of any mozzarella cheese I'd get here in Asia. I mentioned this the last time I was in the UK when I had the Cheddar Deluxe.
Unfortunately, the rest of the burger didn't hold up nearly as well. Although the bun still looked pretty, it had absolutely zero cheese taste, and the small squirt of Tomato & Smoked Paprika tasted more of oregano than anything else. I tried to give it a smell on it's own as I toasted the bun, but I couldn't place either tomato nor paprika in it. Surprisingly, the texture of the beef was still there, but it had lost nearly any flavour that it once held. After I finished half the burger, I ended up taking off the rest of the beef, and simply having a pepperoni sandwich for lunch...
Like many of the flown in burgers I've had, I do feel that I would have enjoyed it more if it was fresh (and had all the required veg). Even with a lacklustre bun and sauce, if the beef had been fresh, it probably would have been a solid 4 or 4.5 but as I had it, even after what it endured, it still deserved a respectable:
Rating - 3.5/5
I have actually reviewed a Pizza item before, and as I mentioned in that old review, my hometown in Canada was a launch market for real Pizza (which they delivered!) back in the early 90's. I would have only been a couple years old, but I do honestly remember it. For a review of a fresh McPizza Pepperoni burger, you can check out Burger Lads here.
Actually, another colleague is going to be flying in from London next week, so he could bring me the final burger in the My Burger series, the "Big Spicy Bacon", but he'd have to freeze it for 2 days on the outbound trip since he flies to Singapore shortly after it finishes its run on the 19th. Not sure I should bother, but if you are interested and think I should let me know on Facebook or Twitter!