Hello, everyone, this is Running On Empty...
...Food Review!
Well hello ladies and gentlemen, and everyone watching.
This is Running On Empty Food Review.
I am your host, The Report of The Week.
Wow!
I don't even know what else to say this time around.
This is... this is just incredible.
This is just absolutely incredible;
it's the biggest twist of 2018, by far.
That's right ladies and gentlemen, I remember,
very wistfully as a matter of fact,
looking at that sad day in early October,
2017, when McDonald's,
they released their Szechuan sauce.
And I remember sitting there in the parking lot tears in my eyes,
if not streaming down my face,
when they told me that they were all out.
And I remember
kind of looking at that McDonald's sign.
I remember saying, "I know they're gonna be back.
I know they're coming back."
They might not be here tomorrow...
They might not be here the next day,
or the day after that, or even the day after that...
But maybe a couple months from now
It's coming back.
It's back. Its back. Its back allegedly,
for today only but they said, they understood
the the mistakes that were made in terms of the availability
Thereof they're, flooding the market,
today they're coming into almost every McDonald's
and I got my hands on them.
They're really meant to be paired with their
buttermilk chicken tenders so that's what I got, also.
And along with that came two packets
of their Szechuan sauce.
You can see it right there.
Two packets, where we're double dosing it up,
the two packets right here. There's one.
There's the other, and there they are together,
and there's me in between the packets, yeah.
There they are.
Uh, now first and foremost,
one thing that a few people have already brought up,
um because number one a few people they were asking,
well are you gonna, you're not going to review the
Szechuan sauce, right?
Well, by viewer demand this time
I'm giving it a shot and giving it a try.
I've gotten literally so many comments,
so many emails sent to that rep week email address;
I'm talking not just dozens,
hundreds, if not thousands coming in.
So many I can't even respond to any other emails,
there's literally that many coming in. They're saying, "ReviewBrah,
when are you gonna review, are you gonna review it on the,
you know, the twenty-
sixth, seventh, whatever day that it's out? You know
they say are you gonna review it, are you, gonna try it?"
And I finally caved into the peer pressure, and uh,
well here we are.
Uh, one thing, do take note, they do have new packaging.
They have new packaging,
a new design as you've seen. Uh, the original ones of course
have really themed with the Rick and Morty uh theme,
from the Szechuan sauce, uh
which featured a much more colorful and uh, really artistic design.
Uh, this one goes for a more minimalistic design,
which I'm still a fan of. I honestly like this design
but I know a few people, they might see this, they might have
been expecting it to be, you know, almost almost identical to the first one
that they released in October in terms of packaging, et cetera.
Um, but this is the design that they're, going with,
and I don't have a problem with it you know.
They have to change it up anyway.
Now I've already reviewed these chicken tenders and uh
they were actually pretty good, I remember that.
Tried these out back in October.
But uh you know, they pretty much look, the same.
You can, see they're nice crispy tenders,
they're the buttermilk ones.
Um, they're pretty good from my recollections.
Uh, the, box still comes with two sauce distribution centers
which we will try to utilize today.
And uh well, let's open this sauce up,
let's try it out.
Um, some of the main ingredients interestingly enough are:
sugar, water, distilled vinegar, corn starch,
wheat, soy beans, salt, corn vinegar.
Um, those are the main ingredients.
It is really a soy-based product.
Um, which considering what a Szechuan sauce really is,
um makes perfect sense.
You can see the sauce itself here on camera perhaps.
If you can't see it, I don't know how well it's showing up.
It is a, uh, you know, it's a thick dark liquid.
Um, it's not black it might look black in the color,
but really it's a very dark brown in color.
That's not it's just a really dark brown.
And we're just gonna dip a tender into this and, you're gonna see
see how this one uh, how this tastes. So it's the Szechuan sauce,
from McDonald's. Newly released, for today only. I'm gonna try it out.
It's goin' in.
Trying to get the prized
close-up shot
of the
quarter, milk chicken tender,
with a slow, drip of Szechuan sauce coming off of it.
Now we have it in the sauce distribution center.
Right there.
It was a struggle but that might be intentional. That might be, you know,
Trying to make it a little bit of a challenge
so you'd come to appreciate the sauce distribution centers even more.
Well the big question, what does it taste like?
You know a lot of people, I think they go out and
They'll, go and they'll get this sauce kind of just to get it, ya know?
But they might not really...
The thought of how it tastes might be a second, you know,
The second thought. It might not really be at the forefront of one's mind.
The Szechuan sauce...
could, also be pronounced perhaps "SzeCHuan" sauce,
"Seechuan" sauce, you know, everyone has their, own different pronunciation for it.
Is...
It's something that you would expect,
from like a Chinese restaurant.
You know, it's that type of sauce.
It's not exactly like a soy sauce
but for those of you who don't really
eat a lot of sauce,
that's what you would you would find it to be
closest to. You know, I think it's like something that
you might find at your local Chinese place
or Panda Express, or something like that.
Uh, where definitely has a very strong
Asian influence in terms of its flavor.
The sauce itself is, as I said, heavily soy based,
but it's got really two main things.
It's got a little bit of a sweetness to it.
Which it first seems like that's
gonna be the prevailing characteristic of it,
but that changes, and that changes fast.
Then this tanginess comes in
and I think if I'm not mistaken, let
me just check, I think that's from the vinegar
and a little bit from the uh
really from the ginger, I'd say.
That the vinegar kind of, of course, does help that out
but really from the ginger there's one other
ingredient here that caught my eye;
um the garlic, also.
Sometimes I like perusing through the ingredients in a sauce
because it really kind of helps you see its make-up and help identify
some of the flavors in it best.
But really that ginger certainly does come through.
As does the garlic. That is mostly secondary
but it really overall look
That works out pretty nice it's a type of
sauce that you really wouldn't expect from McDonald's,
so it's a nice little change in that regard.
You know, it's something again, has a little bit of sweetness first,
then comes the tanginess, and
that's what really prevails and lingers on
even as a little bit of an aftertaste.
But it blends very, well with these
chicken tenders here.
Um, probably blend well with fries too, chicken nuggets.
Otherwise as I said, it's really meant to go with these
chicken tenders here, so that's really my main
recommended pairing. The sauce itself is free though,
so you could just get it with anything.
They usually give two packets per customer,
and all in all the sauce is,
it's pretty good for what it is.
You know one of the things that I always like
about McDonald's is sometimes how anfractuous
they can be. And that's a big word which pretty mean... pretty much... pretty much means
uh, you know
winding about. How how varied they can be.
It means I like that they're willing to kind of delve into things like
this, this type of sauce so last this is really the last place you
would expect it from. You know, if you just opened up this sauce
and gave it to a consumer and said, "you know
where do you think, what major chain you think it's from?"
People probably say, "Oh it's from you know,
Panda Express." Of course, you know it tastes like something like at a chinese restaurant.
But the fact that they're releasing this at McDonald's
and being respectful of those who didn't have the opportunity
to try it the first time is admirable,
and for what it is you know it's not like, they just said
we know that this is gonna be a gimmick and a novelty
and we don't have to put any attention into how it tastes 'cause
people are gonna buy it anyway.
I like that they didn't just go with
that route. They actually put it together
and they made it a pretty nice unique and tasty sauce, if you ask me.
So, again considering the price,
which it's free, and considering the quality for what it's worth.
I say if you have McDonald's near you and it's not too
crazy, I don't think it will be today,
but if you're in the mood for it,
you just want to get some fries, just some nuggets you know,
some chicken tenders, whatever;
I say go for it. I say get it,
try it out. Get this sauce. It's completely complimentary.
You get two packets. It's a unique flavor that,
again, you really won't expect
from McDonald's, but they do it well.
They do it better than you'd expect it to be. They do a good job with it,
and especially for a novelty, I think
they did a good job on this one,
and I say try it out, you know, if you
you're feeling it, try it out.
I don't really think be disappointed
and hey, then you could say you've got to try the
Szechuan sauce.
Even at that you know so you could just kind of laud that around also.
With that being said, out of ten
I'm gonna be giving this a nine point four out of ten.
A higher rating because again,
for something that's complimentary I think they did a
good job on it, and I think it serves as a pretty good accompaniment
to uh, you know, many of their items here
"dat dipping life", as they say
That's all that I have for you ladies and gentlemen.
I'm your host, The Report of The Week.
Today's review is for the limited time Szechuan sauce from McDonald's.
Released today only. And if you are interested,
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Until next time, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you again for watching, and I'll see you soon. That's all.
Now we march...
...to turn off the camera.