Friday, September 14, 2012

The Netherlands - McDonald's

When I travel to another country, the last thing I want to eat is anything from McDonald's. Why? Because the menu is pretty much standardized around the country. Sometimes you will see unique menus that are only available in certain countries, for example Shaka Shaka (mini doughnut balls) in Japan and yam pie (instead of apple pie) in China.

I wasn't able to find McD in Wageningen (where my current campus is). I thought there would be one because Wageningen is a student city and fast food is most of the time a student's best friend during busy times. And then one day I went strolling at the Centrum (the center part of a town, kind of like a CBD but much, much smaller version of it) in Ede. I found it!

One fine Saturday I was with my friend studying food physics in McD because there is no Starbucks or Starbucks equivalent where you can sit down and spend hours drinking only one cup of coffee around. I took this opportunity to have a little investigation on McD in the Netherlands.

There was nothing too special on the menu (I was hoping to see something with Gouda cheese, but there isn't), so I ordered small fries. 



The size is just perfect, not too big and not too small for small size fries. I think the biggest small-size fries can be found in the US: it's about 1.5 times bigger than the one in the Netherlands, and about 2 times bigger than the one in Japan.

There is nothing different with the fries, but there is something different with the sauce. When you order fries from McD they'll ask you what kind of sauce you want, and I was only given a choice between mayonnaise and ketchup. So I said "mayonnaise".



Mayonnaise, in the Netherlands, is called fritessaus, which I believe means "fries sauce". 


 What surprises me more is that the mayonnaise is mixed with mustard!

The sauce actually tasted pretty good. I love the slight tang and spiciness from the mustard, accompanied with the creaminess from the oils in mayonnaise. The mayonnaise in the Netherlands is closer to Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie): more savory than sweet. I dislike the mayonnaise in the US because it's too sweet for me and there is no or almost no savory component to it.

I have to come back to McD again and see if they have any other unique sauces. Normally they'd have BBQ sauce, cocktail, Cajun or some kind of special sauces if you ask them for those. Maybe they have Hollandaise sauce as a dipping? LOL

I'm lovin' it.

1 comments:

  1. Mayonaise is not the same as fritessaus. Fritessaus contains just around 25% of fat. The sauce you got was not mayonaise or fritessaus. The thing you get at the McDonalds is called American fritessaus. So you should be familiar with it right? (if not I don't know why they call it like that)

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