Germany - McDonald's Menu

I'm back with stories when I was in Germany! We made a short break at McDonalds in between the long drive from the Netherlands. And of course, as usual, I tried to look for the special menu in Germany's McDonalds. I found this:

I'm not sure what the German words say but on the menu it says Big South Africa Big Mac. 

The bread was coated with some sort of spices. With beef patties, lettuce, tomato and cheese covered in somehow spicy paprika sauce. I expected the bread to be somehow better because German breads are really famous. Unfortunately I am not a bread expert because my primary carbohydrate source is still rice and noodles (maybe pasta), so I can't really tell a difference.

There are also other unique menus like Big Argentina Barbecue and Wan Tan (funny how they sell fried Chinese dumplings in Germany - I doubt China's McDonalds have these).

Surprisingly, I don't see anything related to wurst or any other German sausages. No sauerkrauts (sour, fermented cabbage) as well.

What about the fries?

 HUGE.

And actually we were a little disappointed because the fries were not up to standard. They were flimsy and not crispy :( I don't know if it's the same across Germany or we were just unlucky, but these fries were definitely not good.

Inside McDonalds, we also found McCafe. And what's interesting is that the McCafe here sells bubble tea! And the choices are actually in English, so it was fairly easy to read.

What puzzles me was the fact that you have to add an extra flavor syrup for everything, including milk tea. I mean, originally, in Asia, when you ordered bubble milk tea, you don't put any flavorings unless it's stated in the menu. Milk tea means milk, tea and sugar, and nothing else. I was forced to add a flavor to my milk tea (I guess I could refuse but I paid for it, so why shouldn't I add a flavor?). The only flavor that makes sense was vanilla. I don't want to add anything like mango and citrus flavors into my milk tea.

In the end I bought hibiscus milk tea because I've had hibiscus tea before and I liked it, but I haven't tried adding milk to hibiscus tea. Hibiscus tea is generally very fruity; sometimes acidic and if you don't add sugar it is quite astringent. Drinking hibiscus tea with sugar feels like drinking some kind of red-fruit juice because of its color and its taste.

And here, they don't sell tapioca pearls but BOBA (small gel balls that are still liquid on the inside but a firm gel on the outside - a product made with alginate gel). I had a bad experience with chocolate-flavored BOBA, so I decided to add strawberry-flavored BOBA to my hibiscus milk tea.

I forgot to take a picture before I drank it because I was too hungry at that time.  I like the hibiscus milk tea, but adding vanilla makes it feel a little bit too creamy (even though there's no addition of cream in the tea). Also, the strawberry BOBA was not satisfactory. The skin of the BOBA is quite thick so after it burst in the mouth you still have to chew the skin. And chewing the skin is like chewing on eggshell membrane or something like that. The strawberry flavor was also too strong, and it leaks easily to the drink. If you don't finish the drink fast, you'll end up drinking strawberry hibiscus milk tea instead of drinking hibiscus milk tea with strawberry-flavored BOBA.

If I come back to McDonald's in Germany, I think I will order the hibiscus tea again. This time, without any pearls. And no french fries either. I might want to try the wan tan although I am sure I will be dissatisfied with it because I know what authentic wan tan should taste like and I know how to make them. I have a tendency of getting unsatisfied when I bought something that I can prepare on my own and mine actually tastes better (or equally delicious, at least).