Hey, remember the Spam and Oreo burger McDonald’s released in China in December? Turns out McDonald’s isn’t done experimenting overseas, because on January 25, it released a one-day-only ice cream sundae in China topped with chili crisp, complete with bits of garlic and onion. HypeBeast has the details.
Its official name was the Youpo Lazi Sundae, so named because it was inspired by Shaanxi province’s thick youpo noodles, which are tossed in a spicy chili crisp oil. For a short while in 2018, this combination became a popular trending item in China in Sichuan and Chongqing, and now and then you’d see it pop up on menus here in the U.S., too:
I tried the combination at home once, and can confirm it was great. In fact, maybe I’ll grab some in a minute—a perk of working in the next room over from my kitchen. It’s got that salty and savory thing going on with the cold sweet ice cream, and some spiciness at the end tempered by the dairy. You probably wouldn’t expect oil to be a good topping for ice cream, but since oil and ice cream are so rich they work together pretty well. If you’ve ever had olive oil and salt on some soft serve, you know what I mean (I thought it was weird too, until I tried it and lost my damn mind).
It looks like this isn’t going to be the last unusual McDonald’s China release either; the chain has a yearlong “creative menu,” which means you’ll probably be hearing about some of those interesting items from the staff of The Takeout. We love to live vicariously through the internet alongside you.