Sometimes dinner does not need to make sense to anyone except the person eating it.
Sometimes you want spaghetti.
Sometimes you want potatoes.
And sometimes McDonald’s chops crinkle-cut potatoes into adorable little pieces, puts them inside what looks suspiciously like a tiny pillow box, calls them Poptato, and suddenly regular fries have competition.
At least in our house.
Poptato is one of the newer additions to the McDonald’s Philippines menu, arriving around the same time as the Choco Lava Puff I recently tried.
And unlike the Choco Lava Puff, which left my son and me somewhere around the hmmm, it’s okay territory, Poptato was an immediate hit.
Someone Chopped Up the Fries
I can almost imagine the product-development meeting.
Someone looked at crinkle-cut fries and thought:
What if we chopped these into tiny pieces?
Then someone else presumably said:
Put them in a cute box.
Et voilà.
A new product. 😂
Except it works.
The pieces are tiny and irregular, with all those little ridges, corners and edges that get wonderfully crisp. You get the crunch McDonald’s potatoes are known for on the outside, followed by that warm, soft potato middle.
Just in teeny-tiny form.
Look at the one in my hand.
It’s ridiculously cute.
I realize I am assigning cuteness to a fried piece of potato.
I stand by my assessment.
We’ve Been Choosing These Over Fries
My son and I liked Poptato enough that for the past month, we’ve been ordering it instead of regular McDonald’s fries.
And there is actually a practical reason beyond tiny potato adorable.
They survive delivery better.
Regular fries can be glorious when they’re fresh, hot and crisp, but give them enough time inside a delivery bag and things can get a little… floppy.
Poptato seems much more forgiving.
Those small, chunky pieces retain their texture better, so by the time our order arrives, there’s still plenty of crunch waiting inside that little box.
Then we add McDonald’s barbecue seasoning.
And everything becomes chef’s kiss.
Yes, I just used the words chef’s kiss while discussing fast food.
No, I will not be taking questions at this time. 🤣
And Then There’s the Spaghetti
On this particular evening, my Poptato came with another McDonald’s Philippines classic: spaghetti.
A little note for my international readers who might encounter McDonald’s spaghetti while visiting the Philippines:
Do not expect Italian-style spaghetti.
Filipino-style spaghetti is tailored to the local palate and tends to be sweeter than the tomato sauces you may be accustomed to elsewhere.
And yes.
There are hotdogs in it. 😎
McDonald’s version follows that familiar Filipino flavor profile with its sweet red sauce, sliced hotdogs and cheese over spaghetti noodles.
If you’ve never had Filipino spaghetti before, the sweetness might surprise you.
But that’s part of the experience.
Come to the Philippines. Try the spaghetti. Accept the hotdogs. We have our ways. 😂
Sometimes, It Just Hits the Spot
Is spaghetti with hotdogs and a box of tiny fried potatoes a sophisticated dinner?
Absolutely not.
Did I need it to be?
Also absolutely not.
There are meals for lingering over beautiful plates and discovering complicated flavors.
And then there are meals that simply understand the assignment.
This was the latter.
Sweet, hotdog-laden Filipino spaghetti.
Crispy little potatoes covered in barbecue seasoning.
A fork.
A box.
And absolutely no need to make dinner more complicated than that.
Sometimes, that’s all you need to hit the spot. 😎
Sigh…
—
I’ll set the table again soon.
Lady E
Founder, Lady E Eats
Where food becomes story, and every table holds a moment
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