HUNGARY: Budapest

My recollections from Hungary again reiterated that my tour group was on board with my mission, and here I succumbed to trying something I had seen in multiple locations.

Date of purchase: August 10, 2010

By the time I got to Budapest I'd seen these on a few menus, with different meats. And heaps of the tour peeps had seen my photos and were aware of my quest... which made me more persistent to explore the menus.

I went with the beef McWrap, and although small it had a lot of flavour. It really does look like a miniature version of a yiros you would get in Adelaide.

The tangy yellow sauce went well with the beef and the strange mix of stuff (I could never recollect if that bit in the picture was actually mango) packed a punch.

On the run this worked easily, 7/10.

SLOVAKIA: Bratislava

By this point my tour buddies were well aware I was on a constant mission. I had already been tested on how soon I could find my next McDonald's fix, and a short stop in Slovakia proved no different...

Date of purchase: August 9, 2010

Bratislava was only a day stop; we spent 60 to 90 minutes there, and three quarters of that was in rain.

It cleared up by the time we ventured from coffee to continue my quest, and it was so worth it, so credit is due to my group for putting up with my persistence.

Complete with delivery to your table(!), Central Europe was offering a taste of Greece (the food I missed so much at this point after spending time with extended family there).

A Beef Tzatziki burger and crinkle-cut herbed wedges - now that's what I'm talking about. With the usual (ingredient) culprits as well as fetta cheese, tzatziki and a herbed bun, this was unbelievably tasty even after having eaten a decent amount of burgers across the past week and a half.

With the mouth-watering wedges, I'm going to say this was perfect, if a bit messy. 10/10.

AUSTRIA: Vienna

My Austrian stop took the odyssey's first turn away from burgers and into different fare.

Date of purchase: August 8, 2010

Although we couldn't really do too much in Vienna because it was a Sunday (the discovery many cities essentially shut down was pretty frustrating), I still only found little time to find myself a Maccas lunch because everyone else had already eaten.

Although I only picked a snack as such, what a snack it was - Cheesy Broccoli Nuggets.

The pack gave me six bites of gooey goodness - warm and indeed cheesy on the inside. Never seen anything like it before. Perfect snack, but six wasn't enough! 8/10.

 

***

 

The Mango Passion McSundae came as tour-mate Sally and I went hunting for apple strudel following dinner that night (as you do in Austria).

There was no McCafe so I settled for this. Not huge on their toppings, but the mango taste was incredible and in no way sickly. Like mango yoghurt but so much sweeter. 9/10.

ITALY: Rome

My third stop was within the hustle and bustle of Rome on an extremely hot Rome summer day, where we stopped for a moment of respite.

Date of purchase: August 4, 2010

After a long, hot morning in Rome, where we saw the Pope speak in St Peter's Basilica to between 70 and 80,000 people and then not being able to find a metro station anywhere, we all agreed on Maccas for lunch (yesss).

The il Mac looked appealing, especially after noticing it had Swiss cheese in the picture.

I like Swiss cheese. A lot.

But I still found myself unable to order a small meal, even when I asked...

'Piccolo?' No.

The chips tasted better by this point (more like the Australian ones, but still not overly salty) while the burger had nice thick beef. But the thick bread cancelled out half that taste. 7/10.