Oh, BTS.
When I first heard about this band, I actually didn’t really know that K-pop was popular. It was years ago, back in the time when listening to Asian pop music was a fringe thing. For a while, I assumed it was going to be a band that remained in the outside circles of society. Boy was I wrong!
The other month, I opened up Hypebeast’s food section (don’t judge me) and saw a blurb about the BTS meal. Don’t ask me why, but I decided to give it a go. After all, Hypebeast wouldn’t betray me, right? Right??!
The BTS Meal: What Is It
So, I’ll be honest about this. I have no idea how or why this collaboration came to be. Regardless, the two brands worked together to create this thing. Apparently, members of BTS had a say in it and the sauces were inspired by McDonald’s Korea.
It’s basically a 10-piece chicken nugget meal, a Cajun sauce, and a Korean Sweet Chili sauce. You can also get a medium fries with it, to make it more waistline-friendly than the full ‘Murica version.
Trying The BTS Meal
After reading about it, I decided to try it out. I am a fan of chicken nuggets and used to eat a lot of McDonald’s back in the day. So, my husband and I ventured out to a McDonald’s and bought the bag. We ate it in the parking lot, and let’s just put it this way: bleargh.
The cajun dipping sauce was apparently supposed to be a remoulade of sorts. It didn’t taste like remoulade. It was more like a sad cheese sauce that made me angry. The Korean sauce was cloyingly sweet with an aftertaste of chili.
I immediately regretted buying this thing. Even the nuggets looked more depressing when it was sat next to the sauces. Like, bro, did I grow out of eating chicken nuggets or something? I pondered my life decisions that led me to this point.
It seemed like this meal was made to make me sad. Like a reverse Happy Meal. A Sad Meal. The chicken was so much greasier than I remembered and the sauces somehow made it worse. What the heck happened? I apologized to my poor spouse and we went home after he ate all the fries.
This Is Totally McDonald’s Fault
I’ll be the first one to say that I don’t know much about BTS. However, they typically do really good collaborations and I can’t help but notice how durable their merch is. They love their fans and do what they can to make stanning easier than ever.
Since then, the BTS meal has gone the way of the dodo—at least stateside. I was unimpressed. I know McDonald’s does better work than this. I want to believe it can. Mackey D’s, how could you do this to an innocent boy band?!
The Verdict
My verdict can be summed up in four words: Thanks, I hate it.
