Biscoff McFlurry at McDonald’s (The International Menu Heist)

Biscoff McFlurry at McDonald's (The International Menu Heist)
Location
Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Montreal
Websitehttps://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The International Menu Heist continues!  Seriously: I love this.  Can we just make this a permanent thing?  One new menu item a month from an international McDonald’s location?  Forever?  Yeah, let’s go ahead and do that, McDonald’s.  Thanks.

Biscoff McFlurry at McDonald's (The International Menu Heist)

I recently tried the McPizza Bites from Italy, which I thought were pretty decent.  Up next: the Biscoff McFlurry from Belgium (“Think creamy vanilla soft serve swirled together with Biscoff cookie crumbs.  Now you can picture yourself wandering cobbled streets of Bruges while tucking in to this deliciously sweet treat”).

Biscoff McFlurry at McDonald's (The International Menu Heist)

Do I need to describe this?  If you’ve had Biscoff cookies and you’ve had vanilla soft serve, then there are no surprises for you here.  It’s crushed up Biscoff cookies in soft serve.  It tastes exactly what you think that’s going to taste like, which is to say: quite delicious!  I’m a big fan of Biscoff’s distinct spiced caramel flavour, so yeah, I enjoyed this.

Also: I had this on a layover in the Montreal airport, and I don’t know if the soft serve at McDonald’s is tastier in Quebec or if it’s just better than I remembered, but it was creamy and satisfying.  It was a great McFlurry.

Tasty Drinks at Yomie’s Rice X Yogurt

Yomie's Rice X Yogurt
Location
: 4188 Finch Avenue East, Scarborough
Website: None

I didn’t realize when I visited, but apparently Yomie’s is a chain with locations all over the world (I can’t find a listing of all their locations, but a quick Google search shows locations in the US, Australia, and Singapore).  They specialize in yogurt drinks, and yeah, I get why they’re successful.  It’s tasty.

Yomie's Rice X Yogurt

They have a fairly extensive menu, but the purple rice yogurt seems to be the specialty, so that’s what I went with.

Yomie's Rice X Yogurt

It’s a really simple drink: it’s just sweet yogurt with chewy purple rice.  I had a similar drink at Kome Yogurt downtown, and I think I liked this one even better.  It had a satisfying proportion of yogurt to rice, and the level of sweetness was slightly more restrained.  It’s quite good.

Steakhouse Teen Burger from A&W

Steakhouse Teen Burger
Location
: 3300 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://web.aw.ca/en/home

I like A&W.  Generally speaking, I think they’re one of the better fast food chains.  The Steakhouse Teen Burger, on the other hand?  Uh… well, they can’t all be winners, can they?

Here’s how A&W describes it: “A perfectly seasoned grass-fed beef patty topped with sweet and smoky bacon jam, real cheddar cheese, tomato, arugula and creamy peppercorn aioli, all served on a freshly toasted sesame bun.”

Steakhouse Teen Burger

It’s that bacon jam.  The ads for this thing proudly proclaim that it’s sweet and smoky; I don’t know if I noticed any smokiness, but wow, is it sweet.  It’s sweet.  I’ve had desserts that aren’t this sugary.

This might have been okay if it has been applied sparingly — a little bit goes a long way — but they had globbed an alarming amount of it onto the burger, and it was all you could taste.

Don’t ask me what the peppercorn aioli tasted like, because I have no idea — the flavour here was 100% pure bacon jam.

Steakhouse Teen Burger

And hey, bacon jam can be quite tasty, but this stuff was all jam, no bacon — it had very little bacon flavour, a little bit of tanginess, and a whole lot of sweetness.

I also got unlucky and got a burger patty that had clearly been sitting out for a while, because it was honestly one of the drier hamburgers I’ve had in a long time.

I did not enjoy anything about this.  Sorry A&W; I like you, but today was not your day.

Fruit on a Stick at Tanghulu Tanghulu

Tanghulu Tanghulu
Location
: 252 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.tanghulutanghulu.com/

Tanghulu is an Asian street food snack in which pieces of fruit are coated in crispy sugar and served on a stick.  That’s it — fruit + sugar + stick.

Tanghulu Tanghulu

At Tanghulu Tanghulu, they give strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and clementines the sugar-coating treatment.  They also serve fruit cups with chocolate sauce.

I went with strawberries, and yeah, it’s good.  The strawberries were fresh, ripe, and juicy, and the generous layer of sugar gives it a nice crunch and some extra sweetness.

Tanghulu Tanghulu

That’s it.  It’s fruit covered in glassy sugar.  It’s exactly what you think it is.

Quick Bites: Doraji, Chica’s, Maman

Bibimbap from Doraji at the Well
Bibimbap from Doraji at the Well

I tried the bibimbap here during the media night at the Well, and quite enjoyed it.  Well, I just tried it again — spicy pork this time (bulgogi beef, chicken, fried tofu, and vegetarian are also options) — and again, I quite enjoyed it.  It’s a very classic bowl of bibimbap, executed perfectly.  I honestly don’t have much more to say about it than that.  If you like bibimbap, it’s a great version of that dish.  And if you don’t, what is wrong with you??

Hot Honey at Chica's
Hot Honey at Chica’s Chicken

While Chica’s days of being the mind-blowing, thigh-slapping best fried chicken that you’ve ever had are long gone, it’s still quite good.  For some reason, I hadn’t tried their Hot Honey sandwich until now, and yeah, it’s predictably delicious.  Most things at Chica’s tend to be a bit sweeter than I’d like, so I probably shouldn’t be surprised that their version of hot honey is more honey, less hot.  A bit more acidity and heat would really help round out the sweetness, but it’s still quite tasty for what it is.  And as always, the chicken itself features a great balance between the crispy exterior and juicy interior.

Chocolate chip cookie at Maman
Chocolate chip cookie at Maman

Maman is an NYC bakery chain that opened a location in Toronto a few years ago.  They have a whole bunch of sandwiches and pastries on the menu, but I heard that the chocolate chip cookie is the thing to get.  And yeah, it’s tasty.  Nothing about it knocked my socks off, but it’s clearly an above average cookie.  My only real issue is the sugar they sprinkle on top; it’s a neat idea in theory (I’m assuming the idea is to give you a crispy, slightly caramelized top), but in practice it just gives the cookie a slightly grainy texture.  I still quite enjoyed the cookie (and it wasn’t too sweet, despite the sprinkling of sugar), but that was a shame.