McDonald’s Launches Spicy Pork McBites In China

Do you enjoy popcorn chicken and shrimp, but wish that they were much porkier? You’re in luck! For about $1.50, you can pick up a container of about 18 popcorn-sized fried pork morsels, covered with crispy breading, salt, pepper, and MSG at McDonald’s. The bad news: you’ll have to travel to China to get them.

We learned about this new dish from The Beijinger, which taste-tested and photographed the morsels, and also provided their own translation of the name: “Piggy Balls.” We’ll stick with “Spicy Pork McBites.”

The most important question, though, is how do they taste? Some new menu items start at overseas McDonald’s outlets and eventually make their way here. In their review, Beijinger makes us almost hopeful that these McBites will cross the McOcean.

Done in a Chicken McNuggets style, these porky spheres of goodness have a crispy coating like their poultry counterparts, but the added bonus of a delicious, mildly spicy bite to them courtesy of that wonderful salt-pepper-MSG combination known as 椒盐, technically salt and pepper but so much more.

Reporting from Shanghai, Quartz was less enthusiastic. “If you were drunk, and could stop yourself from thinking about how the pork product interior was actually made, they’d probably be awesome,” notes Heather Timmons. Oh, like that isn’t the case with every other product at McDonald’s as well.

Fast Food Watch: McDonald’s Debuts Pork McNuggets in China [The Beijinger]

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