To celebrate Singapore’s National Day, McDonald outlets across Singapore have unveiled the all-new ‘Ha Ha Cheong Gai’ Chicken Burger and the ‘Ha Ha Cheong Gai’ Chicken Drumlets.

The two dishes have been inspired by a local Singaporean hawker favourite, the Ha Cheong Gai, which is also known as the prawn paste chicken.

Said Agatha Yap, Senior Director of Marketing and Digital Innovation at McDonald’s Singapore, “As Singaporeans, we pride ourselves on many things local, and food is definitely one of the things that binds us together.” 

She added, “So in conjunction with the Singapore Tourism Board’s Singapore Food Festival 2018 and the upcoming National Day, we want to fuel Singaporeans’ passion for authentic local flavours with a twist, alongside their love for our core burger classics.”

So eager to have a taste of these National Day inspired menu items, I braved the queues at my nearby McDonald’s outlet at lunch time today – in order to buy the “Ha Ha Cheong Gai” Chicken Burger set meal as well as the Drumlets and the Durian McFlurry.

Here are my thoughts and comments on these McDonald’s Singapore new menu offerings, and whether or not I think that they are worth spending your time, money and calories on.

“Ha Ha Cheong Gai” Chicken Burger

Launched in conjunction with the Singapore Food Festival, this consists of a whole chicken thigh marinated with real prawn paste and coated with crispy bread crumbs and then it is slathered with prawn paste flavoured mayonnaise.

When I had tried this burger, I thought the chicken thigh meat tasted rather juicy and tender – which was good. The moisture coming from the chicken also went well together with the soft burger buns, to prevent them from tasting too dry.

However I had thought the actual prawn paste flavour had been lacking though. I did not taste much of the prawn paste even after eating a few mouthfuls of the burger; though the chicken itself was nice, it had basically reminded me of eating a normal deep-fried chicken burger. 

 This was quite disappointing to me, because the Ha Cheong Gai aspect of the burger had been drummed up quite a bit. So I was expecting the prawn flavour to have been much stronger.

As well, the prawn paste flavour also did not come out well in the mayonnaise too; it felt as though I was eating ordinary mayonnaise.

Overall though I would say that this burger is quite nice for a generic deep-fried chicken burger, McDonalds Singapore could have been much more generous with the flavour of the Ha Cheong Gai prawn paste.

Also, there could have been more vegetables in the burger in order to make it a more balanced and healthier meal. This was because my burger had just consisted of a couple slices of cucumber and one sad piece of lettuce. 

Prices for the burger begin from S$6.05.

“Ha Ha Cheong Gai” Chicken Drumlets

As the name suggests, these drumlets are marinated with the same prawn paste flavour as the chicken burger.

When I took a bite into one of these, I could taste a slight hint of the prawn paste flavour that is similar to the Ha Cheong Gai hawker dish. But this too, was quite weak and did not come out strongly.

In fact, I had to really concentrate in order to detect the taste of the prawn paste. But when I did finally taste some prawn paste flavour, I did feel that it was good and authentic enough for me. At least McDonald’s Singapore had got their recipe right, in this aspect.

Otherwise, the chicken drumlets were very juicy and moist as well and quite pleasant to munch on. It was quite addictive too and I wished that there had been more than two pieces available in each bag. 

But at the same time, this item had been a tad on the oily side – my hand was covered in quite a fair bit of grease after finishing off my chicken drumlets.

If I want to eat Ha Cheong Gai chicken though, I would still prefer to head to my neighbourhood Zi Char shop instead, as the tastes and flavours of the version there are still stronger and feels more authentic too.

Prices for each two-piece serving of the ‘Ha Ha Cheong Gai’ Chicken Drumlets begin from S$2.20.

Criss-Cut Fries

Also re-introduced into McDonald’s stores islandwide to celebrate National Day, these criss-cut fries are essentially deep fried potato wedges that are cut in a miniature waffle shape.

They are available as an S$0.70 top-up to any extra value meal at the fast food outlet.

I tried these out for myself, but I think that the twister fries are still nicer. Appearance wise, the criss-cut fries, to me, had resembled a cross between French fries and potato wedges. 

Texture wise, they were not as crunchy as I would have liked them to be. So you need to eat these fries really quickly as they do not last very well. For instance, after leaving them around in the open for about 10-15 minutes, they can already get quite soggy and cold.

But at least the flavour of these new fries were quite nice though, as there had been plenty of seasonings and spices on these – to set them apart from regular fries, and making them rather addictive, at the same time. 

Each serving size is quite small. For the premium that I had paid for these, I would have expected to get a bigger box. However there were probably not more than 8-10 pieces of fries, including the small broken ones, in the Medium size package that I had received.

My conclusion though, is that you should just stick to the regular McDonald’s fries – as those are more value for your money.

Durian McFlurry

Advertised as being made using real D24 durian puree, this creamy durian based treat is also a new National Day item on McDonald’s Singapore menu.

After trying it, I feel that the durian taste here had been mild to medium. However it had been diluted somewhat when eaten together with the ice cream. Perhaps the durian flavour could have been slightly stronger in order to compensate with the ice cream.

The texture of the durian puree though, was quite clean and smooth with no fibrous mouth-feel and the combination of the smooth durian puree with McDonald’s signature vanilla soft-serve ice cream, went quite well together. 

As for the amount of sweetness present in the dessert, this had been just right and had been balanced out well enough, for a fruit-based ice cream.

I think that most durian lovers would enjoy eating this – if they want something sweet and refreshing, though nothing can probably beat munching on the real fruit.

This item is priced at S$4.00 per serving.

Breakfast Curry Burger

Also a new item on the McDonalds Singapore menu, this is a McChicken patty layered with the classic McDonald’s curry sauce and served up with melted cheese and a sunny-side-up egg. 

Prices for this Breakfast Curry Burger start from S$4.20. 

This item is available during breakfast hours via McDelivery, GrabFood and at all outlets except LIDO and the Singapore Science Centre.

And with the exception of the Breakfast Curry Burger, the other items are available islandwide after breakfast hours (11am on weekdays and 12 noon on weekends & public holidays) as well as via McDelivery and GrabFood too.

This is not a sponsored post. The writer paid for the items.