hello everyone this is running on empty food review well hello ladies gentlemen and
everyone watching this is running on empty food review i am your host the report of the week and
welcome to this uh this special edition of running on empty because this is honestly
an unplanned review now you might say how on earth could that even happen you know how much
planning even goes into these um but this took me by surprise and i think it took you by surprise
it took you know your parents by surprise uh it took your best friend by surprise whoever
took the world by surprise this is truly an earth-shattering event an earth-shattering release
it is something that changes everything today was largely just a day that i was focusing to working
on my podcast and just managing some things and i was looking i was browsing around through some
of the potential uh things to review next and i i wistfully gave out a sigh of disappointment
you know that's for the story right it wasn't actually that pronounced
uh because there was nothing to try out and then i see it mcdonald's released the j balvin meal
i was blown away i thought i can't believe they really they released another one and sure enough
they did so here we are we're trying it out and uh now admittedly you know i would have done this a
little sooner but i was almost in a catatonic state at first because you know there's only
so much the mind can handle so much the mind can process and after that it just shuts down
but to get into things what is the j balvin meal who is jay balvin what is what is that who is that
so here's what uh this is this is similar to the travis scott meal
to the extent that j balvin is a famous musician and this is his go-to meal from mcdonald's so he's
teaming up with them again similar to how travis scott uh worked with them right we have j balvin
who this is his favorite meal and now they have this again it's like a little bit of a meal deal
and you could get it for yourself as well but j balvin he's actually one of the best-selling
latin music artists and he's actually sold 35 million records which is very very impressive
he's actually as we speak the third most streamed artist on spotify so he's very popular
and he certainly is he's up there as a matter of fact when i saw the name at first
i wasn't i wasn't sure you know i knew the name i knew j balvin okay you know i i've heard of him
but i don't know what type of music he does but then as i've researched him i actually
it's a very very obscure crossover i know but i realized i've actually heard his music before
because one of my biggest biggest interest is shortwave radio now tune into stations
from all over the world and though i'll sometimes listen to a lot of spanish stations from central
south america the caribbean i realize oh my gosh i've actually heard a lot of his music before so
yeah j balvin i wasn't sure what the name but i've actually heard his stuff before and he's
got he's got some good uh some good tunes as one could say but that's an aside what is the
j balvin meal exactly it is a three-part meal uh you know similar to the travis scott meal where
you have the main course the side and the drink and here's what we have it comes with a big mac
medium fries with ketchup right i did that to show that it does come with ketchup
and an oreo mcflurry now there are two things that need to be mentioned number one what is
the price for this meal well that depends unlike the travis scott mill where you can get the entire
thing for six dollars this does not have a set price what does that mean exactly well if you
get the j balvin meal and you could go and you could say i want the j balvin okay you could say
that and they will know what you're talking about that's how i ordered it actually and
they will they will get everything for you but you have to pay for each item individually at least
from what i'm seeing right now because there is no set price however there is a special deal if you
order this on the mcdonald's app the oreo mcflurry is free now you still have to pay regular price
for the big mac and the fries um but the oreo mcflurry is free so in some cases it is cheaper in
some cases it's not um but it's just a meal that you know has the celebrity endorsement and people
i do want to try out so for instance in my case i paid six dollars for it there was there were some
people let's say in boston who said it's a little more expensive i had to pay eight dollars for it
and someone else said i only paid four dollars so the price is very flexible and it just depends
on where you're located but it still seems affordable for the most part secondly
and this is the most controversial of all it has been dubbed a wide variety of things but people
right now are calling it pickle gate reason being j balvin is uh is not a fan of pickles
right he he just when he gets the big mac he says i don't like it with the pickles so i get it sans
pickles right but for the j balvin meal you order the big mac and it comes with the pickles
but in the promotional photograph right of the big mac j balvin with the big mac there
are no pickles on it so the internet is in fierce fierce debate right now
uh does the big mac have pickles on it or does it not is it you know some people are even
they're taking sides they're digging in they're saying you're not a real j balvin meal consumer
if you get the big mac with the pickles so you better watch out whereas other people are saying
no you know this is a this is a message it has the pickles on it for a reason so we're going to find
out i got it delivered but again as i ordered it i got it you know i just ordered the j balvin meal
we've got our drink a bag inside of a bag
there's those fries we were talking about and
there's the big mac i guess it comes with the napkins and uh
there's the ketchup too so it's got it's got all the stuff we've got everything
this is this is the j balvin meal right and uh let's just how are we going to do this right
you know kind of like that you know you got you got everything on the plate right on the
on the not so silver platter and again you know you got the mcflurry you got the fries
you got the big mac so what we're going to do this is what we did with the travis scott meal
we're just going to try out a little bit of everything and then we'll discuss but first we
have to see what's on the big mac all right does it have the pickles does it not let's find out so
right there let's see where are those pickles no pickles yet what's that i see a slab of green
we have confirmed pickle siding confirmed pickle siding
pickles have been spotted they are there pickles pickles are on the burger okay we do have pickles
uh we do have a confirmed sighting of the pickles so they are there
let me just adjust the brightness real quick for you here sorry that's a little better
all right we do have that pickle siding okay that is confirmed um but otherwise this is a standard
meal so we're just going to try it out and uh we'll go from there so as you can see you know
you do have that pickle hanging out right there uh the j balvin meal from mcdonald's it's going in
so we took a bite of the big mac
i do want to just get my hands clean because i do have a little bit of sauce on my fingers and then
what we'll do is we'll i guess we'll hit the fries next and then from there we'll go ahead and uh
just have a bite of that shake where the mcflurry is not a shake right
got the ketchup here i know the brightness was a little bit of an
issue now i guess what we'll do is we'll just pour the ketchup on the fries right
they give you the ketchup packet so looks like i i misfired i got a little bit of ketchup on
the big mac but that's fine i guess it's not the end of the world right voice crack
it's a good ketchup covered fry
wow i'm messy today yeah also getting some of the
ketchup on my fingers but that's why we have such devices such as this to uh
do away with that and then real quick we'll just try out
some of the uh mcflurry right here right look at that there's a giant glob of it right here
i don't know what should we do should we just just try and take a bite off of this
how silly it is to eat it this way but hey i'm still eating it right
all right well it's a little bit of a messier meal to eat granted not to the extent where it's to any
sort of detriment but it's just you know the big mac can sometimes you get the big mac sauce that
can get on your hands and i guess it all depends on how you want to eat the fries you know i don't
know if j balvin has a specific way that he goes about consuming the fries you know i don't know if
that is you know cannon or not but i thought why not right mate as well
put it on the fries like that anyway yeah it tastes good for what it is the thing is compared
to the travis scott meal and we just have to understand this there are no special adjustments
to the items you know with travis scott you know he had the bacon and the lettuce on the quarter
pounder this time around you know you're just getting a regular big mac some regular fries
regular ketchup and a regular uh oreo mcflurry so you have to understand that um but overall taste
wise i've tried all these things out i personally like the big mac it's it's one of my favorite
sandwiches from mcdonald's if not my favorite to tell you the truth and uh i always like it
i just i just like i like that little tang that the sauce has the zesty you know the zesty sauce
that's the better word for it i just like that it's not overwhelming it's just a good sandwich i
like the lettuce i like the just the beef patties the two beef patties it's an iconic sandwich you
know it's just good for what it is um it can again be a little messy but the big mac is good it's
on par it's how the big macs usually are supposed to be the fries as well are still decent um
i think i got a pretty good batch today it's you know they weren't soggy but they weren't
they weren't overdone either but well salted the ketchup now usually i go with barbecue sauce or
honey um what is that the sweet and sour sauce is what i usually go with for the fries but ketchup
is a classic accompaniment you really can't go wrong with ketchup and fries it pairs well with it
but certainly works and the oreo mcflurry that's the one that i don't usually get all that often
um but i like it you know you get the creamy vanilla in there as well but you get the little
crumbly um bites of oreo you know in every really in every bite and it just works well it's a very
very simple uh meal overall you know you get these flavors that of course you're very familiar with
you've had one or the other before usually and that's what it comes down to so overall taste wise
if you're in the mood for it right this is something that you have to be in the mood for
uh give it a shot i think it works well i i do like the pairing though of the mcflurry
to the sandwich and the fries um but overall my assessment as a meal i'm not going to rate
each item individually as a meal though i do have just one little issue and that's that there isn't
a set price for it and that's a bit disappointing there should just be a set deal for this as a meal
as opposed to having to pay a different price for each one and then if you sign up for the
app you know you get it for free so that's my one complaint i think that they should just say
all right this is six dollars you know seven dollars five dollars whatever it is and let that
be the end of things so that's my my complaint and otherwise it's a little bit of a generic meal but
it's still fun you know people they like j valve and it's uh one of those endorsements that you
know gets people excited to go out want to try it and uh that's totally understandable so out of 10
i'm going to give it a 7.5 out of 10. um because it's a little bit above average
it's not the world's greatest thing but for what it is again i think there's a few adjustments
especially with the price that should be worked out but from the food standpoint it's good and
i am a fan of it there so that's all that i have for you on this special edition of
running on empty food review i'm your host the report of the week and that is all take care