This was a kind of naughty junk food bento – a McDonald’s bento, with Chicken McNuggets and a sachet of tomato sauce, and a McDonald’s apple pie for dessert. I also included one of my sweet crunchy salad combos – with mixed greens, grape tomatoes, sliced sweet gherkin pickles, grapes and swiss cheese – the sweetness and crunch in the salad comes from the pickles and grapes. I ate all of the lunch cold. I love McDonald’s apple pies cold. The trick with any deep-fried food you intend to eat cold is to let it cool completely before putting it in the fridge – if you refrigerate it with even just a hint of warmth left in it you’ll risk it turning soggy. Even eaten cold, the apple pie pastry still had a satisfying crispness to it. And the nuggets – well, I can eat mountains of McNuggets, hot or cold, any time.
On the weekend jetgirl and I were lamenting the loss of dark meat Chicken McNuggets. Do any of you guys recall the time when you’d get dark meat as well as breast meat McNuggets? My brother and I both loved the dark meat nuggets, and with every pack, we’d race to identify and eat all the dark ones first. We had identifying dark meat McNuggets by sight down to a finely-tuned art (rather than what jetgirl said she had to do to work out which was which – which was bite them in half :)). I’ve never stopped missing dark meat Chicken McNuggets – they were consistently more succulent and flavoursome than the breast meat ones. They’re on my list of
Junk Food Items I Miss. I’ve know I’ve talked about this before, but here’s a list:
- Dark meat Chicken McNuggets
- McDonald’s Big Breakfast
- The non-sesame seeded, sort of square, sweet buns they used to serve at KFC – those buns bore a closer resemblance to Southern “biscuits” than the current buns, which are more like bland, spongey miniature burger buns. They disappeared years ago, way way before TFP days!
- The Hungry Jack’s Swiss burger, which had swiss cheese and mushrooms in it – it was available for a limited time only, years ago.
- Chicken Treat Hawaiian Pack with banana fritter as well as pineapple fritter – these days, the banana fritter is available on special promotions, rather than part of the standard menu. In fact, I don’t even think the Hawaiian Pack is a standard menu item any more.
The wind is howling and it’s bucketing down with heavy rain outside, and I just heard a deep rumble of thunder. I hope it slows down by the time I have to leave for work. I hate getting wet from the rain first thing in the morning. It’s just so difficult to get warm again when you start the day with wet clothes.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Aside from the nuggets I miss burger kings stick shaped nuggets (not the chicken fries) and um… cheap ass mcdonalds birthday cake where the icing would peel off all in one go … so discusting so good :D
mmm.. dark meat…
those were the days..
I miss the Mc Monopoly the most. McDonalds served this burger once years ago for a limited time. Basically it consisted of two ciabatta buns, beef, three kinds of cheese and was smothered in tomato sauce. Nothing too spectacular but it was soooo delicious when coming home from a night of drinking/clubbing/both and being hungry. I don’t know, why they never brought it back though.
My mum loves the Chicken Treat banana fritters, she was quite upset when they took them off the menu!
Sigh. I miss the fried bananas too!
They still have hawaiian packs, but instead with two pineapple fritters…
It’s just not the same.
I also miss how you used to be able to get 6, 9 or 20 nuggets…
I recently asked for 9 (yelling at the drive thru intercom across the Jay in drivers side) and really confused the cashier, who was obviously born in the nineties, and never knew a time when there was such a thing as a 9-piece nugget pack!
jetgirl,
Mmmm chicken sticks…I’ve never been to a McDonald’s birthday party so I have never had their cake. :-(
MC,
Yup. Dark meat nuggets with sweet and sour sauce, as I recall… that’ll be a story you’ll tell Ruby and Zoe “Back when I was a boy…” LOL
Sven,
That sounds interesting! Jac would like that, having three kinds of cheese.
Krissy,
I know there was a time when bananas were really expensive (remember when the cyclones destroyed most of the banana crops?) but now that it’s pretty much back to normal, there really is no excuse! I wish they’d bring them back. I probably loved the banana fritters as much as the chicken.
Juji,
Yeah… it was just perfect having one pineapple fritter and one banana fritter… yeah, do they do 10-packs now instead? Is it 6, 10 and something else? I can’t remember.
OMG…..my heart goes to u! Big Breakfast is still being served in S’pore and frankly, i like only this + Sausage Egg McMuffin only out of the whole menu. oh, S’pore McDees is serving fish burger for breakfast now.
i kid u not.
and oh, S’pore McNuggets are all in white breast meat now too. i miss the dark meat era too. haiz…..
I was reading the start of your post and thinking “If only maccas didn’t get rid of their dark meat nuggets…”
I loved the junky dark meat nuggets they used to have. Extra juicy and succulent and went great with their curry sauce! Why did they get rid of my curry sauce :(
I used to love the fried pies at McDonalds… in recent years they have switched to “fresh baked” pies here and they are gross… no crispy bubbles… :-(
Mac’s in Singapore used to have garlic chilli sauce packets and those were the best! But with no warning whatsoever those were taken off and replaced with generic chilli sauce instead. That was the pits man! Since then, I’ve trained myself to eat my fries without sauce- no ketchup with mac’s fries because i have a weird quirk of only eating thick, fat wedges with ketchup and not shoestring-cut fries… :(
That garlic chilli sauce was the bomb and I’m sure other Singaporean readers of TFP will agree!
This bento looks indulgently delicious. I love McNuggets and apple pies although I also miss the dark meat nuggets and fried pies. I seriously still dream about this one type of discontinued burrito at Taco Bell too! Discontinued junk food is so cruel!
Fresh Fry,
I would LOVE being able to get a Filet O Fish for breaky at Maccas! If only they would reintroduce those dark meat nuggets. My nugget consumption would skyrocket!
SoRMuiJAi,
It’s funny how many people miss the dark meat nuggets… yet they got rid of them!
Bryan,
I am pleased to say we still have those fried pies with crispy bubbles. I hope they don’t get rid of them!
laundrydays,
Mmm, that chilli garlic sauce sounds great. But I am quite happy to eat my nuggets with tomato sauce. :)
Megan,
As I mentioned to Bryan above, we still have the fried pies – thank goodness!
Looks fabulous! And what an interesting salad mix. ;-) McD’s in Australia still fries its fruit pies? Here in the States, for years, they’re now baked.
Cindy,
They appear to be fried still over here. They still have those crispy bubbles all over the pastry!