Robot Claw

Pineapple fritters are battered and fried pineapple rings. I’ve had a few this trip, and here’s a comparison.

The first came from Red Rooster, a chicken chain that competes with KFC. I hadn’t eaten a pineapple fritter in decades and had a mental image of what they would be like: juicy sweet pineapple in a light batter. So when this one was breaded that was a surprise. It was $3.

The taste was an even bigger surprise: it didn’t taste like pineapple! The pineapple ring itself was weirdly tasteless, and the batter had a strange donut/sweet taste to it. It wasn’t entirely terrible, but it also wasn’t particularly good, and I’d say had I eaten it blindfolded I wouldn’t have even known it was pineapple. I’d never eat one like this again 🙂

The second came from a kebab shop on Maitland Road (Charcoal Chicken) and when we ordered and she asked if we wanted sugar I remembered these are supposed to be a dessert item. As you can see it doesn’t look much like a pineapple ring as much as a large potato scallop, and the sugar was fine like baking sugar. This one was also $3.

This one was absolutely heavenly. A juicy, sweet and delicious pair of thinly sliced pineapple rings covered by a light batter. Every bite was wonderful and the sugar only heightened the sweetness. I would have happily eaten more than one 🙂

The third and last one I ate this trip was from a fish and chip shop in Cooranbong. It resembles the previous but the sugar this time was cinnamon sugar. It was the cheapest at $2.50.

This one wasn’t quite as good as the previous, but still many times better than the first. The batter was nice and light and the cinnamon sugar sweet, but the pineapple itself – the very soul of the fritter – was lacking in taste. It was a thin slice compared to two in the previous and perhaps this was the problem? I’d eat this one again, but wish I was eating the precious example.

So the question arises. At about $3 a pop, with the taste on average being only ok, should a pineapple fritter be your first choice for a hot fruit dessert snack?

Do I even need to answer? 🙂

We returned to Newcastle yesterday (in a car driven by one of Chris Hemsworth’s private drivers!) and since it was an unremarkable day this is as good a time as any to provide an update on the Happy Meal situation down here.

Astonishingly, the current promotion is a collaboration between Yu-Gi-Oh and Hello Kitty. This is apparently a worldwide Happy Meal promotion although it has so far only launched in Australia and a couple of European countries.

I had no idea what I’d find inside and was surprised to see a boxed toy! I would later get a second meal so I’ve now received two of the toys:

They’re surprisingly well made little stuffed toys. There’s apparently ten in total but – and I’ve checked – no Gudetama. I like/hate them enough I’ll probably try to get more 🙂

Another Maccas visit gave me this strange box. It’s got a variety of Warners Brothers characters on it and refers to ‘multi versus’ event. You may also note that it is heavily perforated, and indeed the box itself is part of the toy:

It converts into an arena in which the characters on the box ‘fight’. Adam would love this since he’s such a big fan of Wonder Woman Bugs Bunny so perhaps I should have saved it for him? The toys for this promotion were little metal tins but apparently the Maccas had run out since that’s when I got my second Yu-Gi-Oh toy.

Stay tuned (perhaps) for a similar update on the Japanese Happy Meal situation in a couple of weeks or so…