One Last Taste of The World Cup: McDonald's Samba Jianbing

With the FIFA World Cup wrapping up in the small hours of Monday morning, the fanfare of the world’s most watched sporting event will soon fade into the second half of the summer. So as that weekend night gives way to a groggy work day, Brazil and Beijing meet in a McDonald’s breakfast concoction known as the Samba jianbing.

Officially known as the “Asian Pancake Sliced Beef and Cucumber,” Samba jianbing is the bing from McDonald’s normal bacon and egg jianbing — a somewhat thicker version of the local Beijing product with more onions but minus the crunchy fried layer — with two slices of a thin, beef meatloaf, and two slices of cucumber. It’s dressed with the hoisin sauce that adorns almost every single one of McDonald’s localized, “Asian” dishes in China, including the rice wraps we’ve sampled in the past.

It’s an amusing one-off that doesn’t actually make much sense. If local retailers were to add meat to their jianbing, it wouldn’t be beef, it would likely be pork, and other breakfast bings out there do see some sliced hot dogs/sausages/luncheon meet making their way into the mix. The Samba jianbing was pleasant enough, but it’s appearance for a limited time is about how long the product could sustain itself.

The Samba jianbing sells for RMB 12 and includes a coffee or soda, or RMB 13 for the upwell combo that includes a Minute Maid orange drink. For the last few days it remains on sale, it might be an amusing reminder of late-night football watching in early summer of 2014.

Photo: McDonald's/theBeijinger