Friday, April 25, 2008

[Food] Fake McRib (I'm Faking It~)

Of course I can't stand having something so simple with such a high price tag. (Especially the taste didn't completely satisfy me.)

So I have decided to make my own McRib-like sandwich.
Only a few ingredients: Minced Pork Meat, Chopped Onion, Sliced Pickle, a Bun, and most important of all, THE Barbecue (BBQ) Sauce.


First we mix little salt and pepper into the meat, then we form it into a square patty. (you will see why in just a second)


The meat patty was made into the same size as the sliced bread. Why sliced bread? It's just because I don't want to spent extra on the bun, so I use something that I would have in house everyday. (Also, bun comes in a pack of 8, and I'm just having one sandwich. what am I going to do with the rest?)
I should have make the patty slightly larger than the sliced bread, as the meat will shrink. (As it shrink, the center of the patty will get thicker! It's good to keep the patty thin.)


Look at this! Fried to perfection! (But a little bit too much oil around...)


Well, you can use the oil to fry some Onion. It's all done by using the remaining heat in the pat.


The patty I made was a little thick, to make sure it's cooked inside, and to get rid of some of the oil, we put it into a oven to bake it for 5 minutes.
See the oil on the right side? It's almost 2 teaspoon of oil right there.
Now we are sure the meat is done, and much less oil going into the final product. (Which means this sandwich is much more healthier than you would think, or you would get in one of those fast food chain.)


This is a slice of Cucumber, marinated in a quick brine. (This will turn into the sliced pickle that we need.) It's really east to make!
Slice your Cucumber to the thickness you like, but thinner it is, the quicker it will become pickle.
Sprinkle salt and sugar all over the Cucumber, and put in some Red Wine Vinegar to cover all of it. (You can use just normal vinegar, but I don't have any of it in the house, and I think the Red Wine Vinegar brings in both flavour and colour to the pickle. A nice touch~)
Let it sit for 30 minutes. (You can do this at beginning and take it out of the brine at the time you assemble the sandwich. But it probably don't need that long, if you slice it as thin as the slice in the picture.)


Tony Roma's Hickory Barbecue Sauce.
Got this from Costco, love the taste as it's not really sour, a nice sweet taste with a bit of smokiness is perfect of Ribs!
This is the key flavour (probably the only flavour?) for this McRib-like sandwich.


Now put some BBQ sauce on the meat! Both side!!


See the thickness of the meat? It's real meat! NO fillers!
With the sauce on it, it's just so attractive~


Add some fried Onion on the top. Fried Onion has a slightly sweet taste to it, and it smells great!


Now add some raw Onion, so we can have two different taste of Onion.
The raw Onion gives the sandwich a little bit of a kick, and the sharpness of raw Onion can cut through the sweetness of the BBQ sauce. A nice balance in the sandwich.


But we still need to put more BBQ sauce on the Onions.


As we need the BBQ sauce to make the pickle slices sticks to the whole sandwich.
Using four slice of pickle because I like the sweet and sour taste it brings into the sandwich. (You don't have to add as much.)


Now take a Big bite into it!

With this done, I can really careless about McRib coming back for a limited time or not. I can have this McRib-like sandwich any time I want. Now you can try it at home and...Enjoy~


Chinese version posted at:
http://chichican.blogspot.com/2008/04/fake-mcrib.html

Sunday, April 20, 2008

[Food] McDonald's McRib (limited time only)

McRib.
Something you don't see very often at McDonald's menu, and if you go check it on McDonald's website (Canada), you won't even see anything about it. (well, may be on their nutrition chart?)

A McRib is a piece of meat (minced pork) shaped into a boneless pork rib shape. With onion, pickle, and BBQ sauce to top it off. Different from your everyday sandwich, and in order to fit the meat perfectly inside, McRib uses a sub-like bun rather than the round shape bun.

Haven't seen a McDonald's sandwich using a box for a long time. (well, that just me not having McDonald's from quite some time. Try to live a better / healthier life?)
But it doesn't say it's McRib on the box, guess they are just using a generic box for all these limited time sandwich in order to save some money? Hmm...


Once I open it up, WOW! See all that sauce on the box? isn't that a little too much?
Onions are pushed to one side, and the pickle is in the middle. (actually there is another piece right behind the onions.)
On the top of the bun, it's Semolina, not sesame seed as I have expected.


And you can the sauce also hit the side and the top of the box.


There isn't much "stuff" added to this McRib, just onion and pickles, no lettuce or anything.
Well, a TON of sauce, drowning the meat inside.


I guess they use the same pickle in every other sandwich? I can't really taste the pickle as the BBQ sauce they use here is really sour. And it's really alot of sauce, covers up all the other flavours. (Well, if it can cover up the taste of RAW onion, you can imagine how strong it is.)

Of course I have ordered a Combo and that means a great side of french fries!


Ever since I knew about the McRib is back, I have been dying to try it again. But something came up every time I want to have it for lunch at work.
Finally get a chance to have it two weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, I guess that's the last day of this "Limited time only" promotion. As I was picking up lunch for my nephews, I saw the big poster of McRib and how it's piece of meat sticking out of the bun. I wasn't hungry at the time, so I didn't get one. (And didn't bring my camera with me, so I didn't take a picture. I thought it would be online at their website or some other place on internet, but I guess I was wrong.)

Later on that day, drove by the same McDonald's again, decided to pick up this McRib as a afternoon snack on my way home.
While I'm lining up in the drive thru, I look up and the big poster was gone! I'm like, "oh crap, they don't serve it anymore?!"
So I ask (thinking if they don't serve it, I will just leave...), and lucky for me, they still have it.

Checked it online, don't seems to see anyone talking about it. And later on I found out the promotion of McRib really ended that Saturday. (at least I don't see it anymore at the local McDonald's and the one near my work place in Mississauga.) (now that McDonald's going to have a new Angus Beef sandwich coming out in April 27th or 29th, I'm sure the McRib is gone again.)

Well, it's quite expensive for a lunch with this little ingredients, it's $6.54 for a combo. I know it's just the same as a BigMac Combo, but BigMac seems to have a lot more going on inside.
I guess since it's a limited time offer, so having it once in a year (in my case it's a few years since the last time I have it) isn't too bad.

It turns out someone made a website for McRib! (actually it's McDonald's made it)
www.mcrib.com
or you can read more about McRib at wikipedia - McRib



If you can read Chinese, you can visit my other blog for the similar entry:
http://chichican.blogspot.com/2008/04/mcrib.html
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