For Singapore's National Day, McDonald's featured some returning seasonal items. These include the Pulut Hitam Pie and Chilli Crab Sauce Burgers. I believe the prawn patty for the Chilli Crab Sauce Burger was new, so I tried that version. But first, I'll review the Pulut Hitam Pie.
Pulut Hitam Pie
I must say that I quite liked how they did it. The pulut hitam filling tasted very authentic, like a legit thick pulut hitam paste dessert complete with a good amount of coconut milk or cream and chewy black glutinous rice grains. As you can see in the picture, it wasn't a dark purple, which would be plain pulut hitam. Instead, it is lighter, the colour of pulut hitam paste with coconut cream mixed in.
It didn't feel too sweet to me (and for context I'm usually quite sensitive to sweetness and prefer as little sugar as possible). It also felt like a good balance of pulut hitam and coconut milk, so while the coconut's nutty and creamy flavour was prominent, it was not too rich or heavy, nor did it drown out the woody and earthy flavour of the pulut hitam.
In terms of texture, I reheated the pie crust as this was a takeaway order, so it was nice and crispy. This provided a nice contrast to the gooey filling, and it is possibly one of the only pulut hitam snacks that pairs it with something crispy.
And finally, here is where the magic lies - the overall combination was a perfect balance, as the salt in the pie crust actually helped to balance the sweetness of the pulut hitam filling, so it wasn't cloying at all. The salt also paired well with the coconut notes in the filling - as you know many recipes tend to add salt to coconut cream to balance the rich nuttiness, so this was perfectly executed.
Finally, the grainy wheat taste in the pie crust helped to complement the dark. woody and earthy pulut hitam flavour, creating a very nice body in the taste.
Overall, this is a wonderful gourmet-level experience achieved at a low cost, so it is awesome value. I would highly recommend it whenever you see it on the menu.
Finally, this is how the packet looked like. Cute colour.
Chilli Crab Sauce Prawn Burger
I tried this again as the prawn patty seemed new, along with the scrambled egg that was added.
As you can see in the picture, the sauce was evidently too liquid and drippy, so it turned out to be a mess and looks like a total accidental disaster. I'm glad that I ordered this as a takeaway, so I could eat it as messily as I wanted without worrying about being able to clean up properly. I think they should have added a bit more starch or jelly-like ingredient or something to hold the sauce together.
First, a review of the most important component - the chilli crab sauce. This was done very decently given the price constraints, in my opinion. The sauce was very flavourful and fragrant, with a strong galangal ginger flavour that sported bright citrusy notes. The downside was that it seems they used some artificial MSG-type of seasoning, possibly to get the seafood flavour, as I had this strong lingering seasoning taste in my mouth long after I was done with it. It's the same seasoning taste you get after eating a lot of instant noodles with loads of seasoning powder, or those heavily seasoned seaweed strips.
The egg didn't end up contributing much to the taste, however... probably because it either got drowned under the heavily seasoned sauce or else they used some rather flavourless liquid egg or something. There wasn't that eggy taste which you would normally get in Japanese omelette dishes. That said, it wasn't a negative either as it was some nice protein source, so this is a neutral element to me.
The huge downer was the patty - it was very oily and greasy, and also very soggy. I'm not sure if it would have been better if it was dine-in and freshly fried. But given how liquid the sauce was, they really should have made it a grilled patty instead of a deep fried one. That would at least have made it less oily and greasy, and eliminated the soggy batter.
The small upside to the patty is that you can see that they actually used fresh crystalline shrimp. Check out the blotches of crystalline pink in the patty in the image above. So at least you know it's not fake like how starchy imitation meat is made. The amount of prawn and the patty size was quite small though, as the deep-fried soggy batter took up a significant volume of the patty.
Comparison to Chilli Crab Sauce Chicken Burger Version
For comparison, I also eventually tried the Chilli Crab Sauce Chicken Burger on another day, and that turned out to be much worse, because the patty was very processed and looked like there was a lot of imitation filling. It was the McChicken type of patty, not the McSpicy type of patty. So given the higher price compared to McChicken, you are essentially just paying more for the sauce and egg. (I didn't take a photo unfortunately, because I didn't think it was worth reviewing at all.)
Final Thoughts
Finally, this is the wrapper, just for reference. It's kinda weird how it looks to neat and pretty on the outside but ended up like someone sat on it once you unwrap it.
Overall, I wouldn't try the Chilli Crab Sauce Burger again, but if I had to, I would pick the Chilli Crab Sauce Prawn Burger over the chicken version handsdown.
If you're wanting to try something local, go for the pulut hitam pie instead!
Discover other pulut hitam or crab treats
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