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When I decided to visit McDonald's in South Korea, I knew that there was one limited-time menu offering that I had to try: the McChicken Mozzarella.
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I had glimpsed a picture of the McChicken Mozzarella while scrolling through the various fast-food-centric publications I follow. Brand Eating had written up the new menu item in South Korea, summing it up as "your plain old McChicken stuffed with two mozzarella sticks and spicy Arrabbiata sauce."
I was ecstatic. My Instagram stalking had already taught me that fast-food chains frequently launch quirkier menu items in Asia. A fried chicken sandwich topped with mozzarella sticks sounds pretty close to my ideal sandwich.
However, when I finally ordered the McChicken Mozzarella, the sandwich was closer to a nightmare than my fried chicken dream.
Here is what the McChicken Mozzarella looks like on McDonald's Korea's website. Now that is a gorgeous looking sandwich.
When I ordered the chicken sandwich, I was impressed by its heft even before unwrapping it. This McChicken was the height of at least three Big Macs.
It was so tall it had to have its own wrapper around the side to keep things contained! (Upon reflection, a sandwich that needs two wrappers should have been my first sign something was amiss.)
Upon first glance, the McChicken Mozzarella seemed promising. It was hefty, but full of intriguing ingredients. And, upon first nibble, the mozz sticks seemed to be of quality, stretchable stock.
However, the Arrabbiata sauce quickly proved to be a problem. The somewhat sweet, somewhat spicy sauce tasted like a cheap, off-brand tomato sauce. And, it was everywhere — soaking into the mozzarella sticks, drowning the lettuce, dripping off the sandwich onto my hands and jeans.
It was surprising that such a big sandwich could be so overwhelmed by sauce — but, as you can see from this selfie, the sauce truly was everywhere.
As McDonald's deals with questions of chicken quality in the US, I hoped this sandwich would help me understand whether the chain had found solutions overseas. However, the chicken was overwhelmed by the sauce. The bits I tried to isolate were on par with their American counterpart — not horrible, but nothing to write home about.
The sauce and general sogginess of the sandwich even ruined the originally compelling mozzarella sticks, reducing them to soggy, plasticky blobs. My dream of a mozzarella stick-topped sandwich had become a nightmare.
McDonald's has some quality options in Korea, including the bulgogi burger and even the corn chowder. However, as someone who spent her second night in Korea scrubbing Arrabbiata sauce from my jeans — and also, somehow, my hat — I would say some mozzarella dreams are better left unrealized.
