Whenever we think about fast food, the image of pan fried burger patties oozing with oil come to mind. While they are often delicious, the more health conscious bunch might not embrace fast food with open arms….. unless it is grilled instead!
Burger King at KLCC
Burger King is one of the very few fast food joints that serves burgers you can eat without feeling too guilty. In fact, it is the only quick service restaurant that serves grilled burgers, and one of my lunch stops every once in a while ever since they opened up the branch at KLCC.
A couple days ago I went over to take advantage of the BK Grilled Chicken promo. The new kid in town is the BK Black Pepper grilled chicken, while the BBQ Beefacon & Mushroom grilled chicken are included in the promo too – when you go large, you get a free sundae.
BK BBQ Beefacon & Black Pepper grilled chicken, Sundae!
My colleague Sam, who is originally an Iranian (with no BK there) but has since abandoned his country to become a Norwegian (with only one BK in the town of Stavanger, see the pic, it’s beautiful!) ordered the black pepper grilled chicken set, while I opted for the BBQ Beefacon version.
there’s no food makeup in these photos, this is what you get! yums
The burgers, while not exactly as beautiful as the posters, turned out to be pretty yummy. The crunchy beef bacon on mine goes well with the juicy grilled chicken patty, and Sam loves his black pepper grilled chicken burger too.
We made quick work of the burgers, fries, and then of course, the free sundae.
Sam & KY at Burger King
P/S: actually Sam didn’t want to go to a fast food restaurant (watching his weight apparently) until I told him that it is BK and we’re going to have the grilled chicken burger, then he went “oh, okay!”
It is often my mission to taste food that are not available locally whenever I travel to another country, and that usually means eating by the streets and at some of the more dodgy areas the locals frequent.
However, unique perhaps only to Malaysia in this part of the world, there are several big restaurant chains that altered their menu to be Muslim friendly (Tony Romas, Subway), or skip the country entirely. One of such example would be Mos Burger.
Mos Burger – Japanese Fine Burger & Coffee
Mos Burger is the 2nd largest fast food restaurant chain in Japan after the ubiquitous McDonald’s. In addition to the native country, they also operate in Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The major difference between Mos Burger and the usual McD/BK/Wendy’s is the availability of their rather unique rice burger, and of course, the liberal addition of pork in their menu. (which was exactly why I went there in both my Bangkok trips)
KY & Mell waiting for our Mos burgers!
On our 3rd day at Bangkok, we found ourself at the biggest Mall in town, CentralWorld , Mell and I decided to have a go at Mos Burger for lunch.
The menu at Mos is rather big for a fast-food restaurant. There are hotdog, prawn, fish, chicken teriyaki, beef patties, beef teriyaki, unagi, and of course, pork burger (not available in Mos Singapore, sigh)
Naturally, we went for two different pork burgers. I chose the ginger pork rice burger, while Mell ordered the pork cutlet burger set. We paid and then sat down patiently and waited for the burgers to be served.
ginger pork rice burger & pork cutlet burger
The rice burger “buns” and the ginger pork was rather awesome. The feeling was rather like having a ginger pork bento with Japanese rice, but in a convenient burger format. I can eat this kinda things 3 times a week. Mell’s pork cutlet burger was equally impressive as well. Soft buns, generous amount of shredded cabbage, and the delicious pork cutlet with the savory sauce. The lady was well satisfied.
Our sets came with soft drink and a small serving of fries. The fries are slightly thicker than your standard McDonald’s, and less salty too. They’re probably healthier, but I wasn’t too impressed with them. Then again I was never a fan of fries since I the stint with McD over 10 years ago.
some other burgers and dishes from my previous trip
The set meals we ordered were 109 and 129 bath, or roughtly RM 11 and RM 13. A little bit more than BK and McD’s but the quality of burgers more than made up for the prize difference.
If you find yourself at the center of Bangkok, head to CenterWorld and give this a try. There is also a branch at Siam Paragon’s food court level.
When I was very young, my family was not exactly one of those that can afford eating out on a regular basis. However, my late dad would still bring us out for picnics and a dinner on most Sundays as a treat to us. We usually go to tai chau places, or Gurney drive, or bak kut teh; but on rarer occasions, we would go to KFC.
I always enjoyed the trips to KFC the most. I really do, and even until today, I would head to KFC for lunch at least a couple times in a month despite having access to much wider variety of both local and foreign cuisines. KFC is simply one of my favorites.
KFC Zinger Tower!
Though I usually order original recipe chicken with drum stick and thigh, I do experiment with different offerings from KFC. Cheesy wedges, X meal, colonel burger, chicken rice, I think I have tried everything in the menu with chicken in it.
I vaguely remember that the Zinger Tower was introduced a few years ago and then disappeared from the menu for some reasons, and this is the it’s 2nd coming. The burger is pretty big and comes in this order:
What intrigued me most in the list is definitely the hash brown. I’ve actually seen people stuffing fries in their burger and always wonder how it tastes like, and this is just the perfect chance to give it a go.
The Zinger Tower, poster girl not included
So Cheesie and I headed to KFC at Atria over the weekend to find out that the mall being painted white and red, exactly the color of KFC, conincident? I don’t know.
We ordered a Zinger Tower set that comes with a Zinger Tower, a mango pudding, a regular soft drink, and curiously enough, a Zinger Time watch. The watches come in 4 designs, yellow and green; yellow and red, blue and orange, and pink. No prize guessing which one the girl picked.
Comes with a Zinger Time watch too!
After a bite into the burger, I now really understand why some of those mat sallehs put fries the burger. The combination of hash brown and the juicy KFC chicken fillet works really well, the melted cheese and the chili lime sauce added extra flavors to the burger too. It was surprisingly good, better than I had expected before I give it a try.
I’m not writing how good this burger is because this is supposed to be an advertorial, but because it was really that tasty. I liked it, and Cheesie too.
The Zinger Tower set goes for RM 15.90 while the a la carte price for the burger alone is RM 6.60. I think I’m going to have it again sometimes next week.
Check out my latest installation of KY TV, and this time it is my awesome Big Mac Chant!
This is actually my entry to McDonald’s Big Mac Chant Challenge that is currently running. If you think you can beat my video, make yourself an even better one (which I doubt!), upload it to youtube, and send your entry to BigMacChant@nuffnang.com with the title Big Mac Chant.
Oh, the chant is
Two All-Beef Patties,
Special Sauce, Lettuce,
Cheese, Pickles, Onions
On A Sesame Seed Bun!
Winner gets RM 10,000! I am imagining a holiday… if you’re a nuffnanger, do vote for me here!
Writing about this brings back quite a few memories. One of my buddies friend described how he once ate five Big Macs in a seating. Amazing. McDonalds is also my first employer as I used to work for them after my high school PMR examination many years ago. It was at the Gurney branch in Penang, and I can proudly say that I went through the whole menu many times over. The other thing that I always remember is that we had to keep the kitchen spotlessly clean all the time. I have no doubt that McD keeps the highest standard of hygiene in any food outlets.
Ahh.. those memories. Now let me win my RM 10,000!
Undoubtedly many of you has noticed that there is a renaissance in the fast food business in Malaysia. In the last few years, we have the introduction (or reintroduction) of chains like Carl’s Jr and Subway. I think this due to consumer’s acceptance to higher priced fast food, higher price in hawker offerings, and the general deterioration of hawker food standards in Klang Valley.
The latest that came on board would be Wendy’s at Sunway Pyramid, the restaurant opened on the 5th of April and I just came back from my 3rd visit this afternoon. 
Wendy’s at Sunway Pyramid
During my stay at the States, Wendy’s was one of the few fast food restaurants I used to go on a regular basis. I would put it second on my list after Chick-fil-A, but above A&W, Arby’s, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Subway. The reason was simple, it was relatively cheap and the food tastes good.
juicy burgers with beef, chicken, and shrimp, fried chicken too
I was overjoyed when Wendy’s opened here, and the first thing I tasted was of course, the 1/2 Pounder Burger. Two patties of 1/4 pound beef (a big Mac has slightly less than 1/4 pound beef in total) with a cheese in between sandwiched by soft but firm bun. The quality was just as good as I remembered, very juicy and flavorful. In the subsequent visits I tried their Shrimp Burger and Spicy Chicken Sandwich, both the items were equally good and I do attribute it to the quality of ingredient used. The shrimp burger nullified my complain of McDonald’s not serving their shrimp burger in Malaysia (they do have it in Bangkok and Tokyo).
Wendy’s is in between Carl’s Jr. and McDonald’s when it comes to pricing. A small set goes for 7.99 (nuggets) to 17.99 (3/4 pounder), add RM 1 for medium and RM 2 for large, and additional RM 1 if you want Ribena instead of soft drinks. Not a bad deal considering the quality, give it a try!
check out my hand drawn wendy’s logo!
Wendy’s have plans for outlets in IOI Mall, Jaya One, and Berjaya Times Square.
Address:
Wendy’s Pyramid
(opposite McDonald’s)
GPS: 3.073297, 101.607576
Tel: 03-5637 1059
