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McDonald's Tests 'Gourmet Breakfast' In Australia, Including Avocado Toast

McDonald's Australia has long been interested in elevating perception of the brand through higher-end menu items.
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Editor, BurgerBusiness.com

Editor, BurgerBusiness.com
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Already testing all-day breakfast, McDonald's Australia operation--which developed the Create Your Taste platform, McCafé and other ideas now in the U.S. -- is testing an upscale "Gourmet Breakfast" menu, BurgerBusiness.com has learned.

All-day breakfast, launched July 2 in the Illawarra region south of Sydney and since spread to the Gold Coast region on the east coast, is more limited than the U.S. trial. Just six items from the regular breakfast menu -- Bacon & Egg McMuffin, Sausage & Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin, Hash Brown, Hotcakes and English Muffin (with honey, Vegemite or strawberry jam) -- are being offered 24 hours a day. The U.S. test, which launched in April, includes nine breakfast items.

Gourmet Breakfast, testing in Annerley, a Brisbane suburb in Queensland, is a completely new morning menu, anchored by a "Café Breakfast" platter (shown below in a photo by Lauren Waters) of toasted sourdough bread, bacon, two chipolata sausage (a small pork sausage) links, scrambled eggs, wilted spinach, grilled tomatoes, a hash brown patty and tomato relish.

Also on the menu are Belgian waffles with yogurt and fruit; a corn fritter platter with avocado, grilled tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, tomato relish and spinach; a Bacon and Egg Roll (bacon, egg, spinach and tomato relish on a toasted brioche-style bun); and an Avocado Smash platter with toasted sourdough, mashed avocado, crumbled feta, spinach and sliced tomato.

Point-of-purchase merchandising says diners can customize Gourmet Breakfast items "at the kiosk," presumably the same kiosk used for building Create Your Taste burgers.

McDonald's Australia has long been interested in elevating perception of the brand through higher-end menu items. This has included an "M Selections" menu, tested in 2011, that included an Angus the Great and Grand Chicken burgers plus a NYC Benedict Bagel at breakfast, plus the Chicken Schnitzel & Citrus Mayo, Chicken Schnitzel & BBQ rolls and Angus & Egg Brekkie breakfast burger last year. Last December, McDonald's opened The Corner, a healthy-foods café, in Sydney. Recent additions the The Corner's menu have been a Mash & Lamb Winter Protein Box and a Lemon Lime & Bitters beverage.

Also on HuffPost:

Horrifying Fast Food Items Of 2014
Burger King Japan's Black Cheese Burger(01 of13)
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Go on, sink your teeth into a black cheese burger. You needn't add a thing -- it's loaded with black ketchup, too.

Doesn't that feel good? Now the color of your mouth indicates that you've been eating a bowl of tar for lunch, and you will be judged as such until the end of time. There has never been any reason to eat food blackened with squid ink and bamboo charcoal, but for some reason this is not the first time BK Japan fiddled with the production of a black burger. (credit:Burger King Japan)
Taco Bell's Waffle Taco(02 of13)
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No one should be eating breakfast at Taco Bell, but this year the company released a breakfast menu anyway. This makes my blood boil.

Most disturbing on the menu is the Waffle Taco, which consists of sausage and eggs folded into a soft waffle, topped with maple syrup.

If you eat a Taco Bell Waffle Taco for breakfast, your day is destined to feel similar to a flaccid, defrosted waffle oozing with unidentifiable meat products. Don't do that to yourself. You deserve better. (credit:Taco Bell)
KFC's Chicken Corsage(03 of13)
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This may be the most sickening thing to happen to prom since Carrie left the gym covered in pig's blood. Each KFC corsage kit comes with a $5 KFC gift card, which customers are meant to bring to their local KFC and cash in for the chicken of their choosing. No one should ever experience the smell combination of crispy fried chicken and baby's breath. (credit:KFC)
Dunkin' Donuts Eggs Benedict Breakfast Sandwich(04 of13)
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Do you know what puts the Benedict in Eggs Benedict? Hollandaise sauce. Do you know what hollandaise sauce is? A mixture of egg yolks and clarified butter. It should be light and a little runny.

Dunkin' themselves knew they weren't going to be able master this, so they whipped up a sauce with a cream cheese consistency. DD's Executive Chef Stan Frankenthaler said he made this choice because, "Our employees are used to putting cream cheese on bagels very quickly, so this is no different." Frauds. (credit:Dunkin' Donuts)
Burger King's Yumbo Breakfast Sandwich(05 of13)
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In 1974, the "Yumbo" was retired from Burger King's menu. For some inexplicable reason, the chain decided to bring back the sandwich in December of this year. Deli meat is gross enough as it is, but now you can get a HOT HAM SANDWICH with AMERICAN CHEESE and MAYO from the BURGER JOINT. Yumbo should have been kept inside the vault... forever.
Pizza Hut's Cock-A-Doodle Bacon Pie(06 of13)
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WTF? Just the name of this menu item is heinous enough to make me want give up pizza forever. Is it a pun about waking up or about roosters? Is one supposed to eat this pizza for breakfast?

The pie is made of garlic, Parmesan sauce, grilled chicken, hardwood smoked bacon and diced tomatoes with a Parmesan crust. That all sounds innocuous enough, but the way this pizza's been branded puts it in the "horrifying" category. (credit:Pizza Hut)
Wendy's Entire BBQ Pulled Pork Menu(07 of13)
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The process of making pulled pork is typically slow and earnest: The meat is shredded with a fork, thoughtfully seasoned and smoked for 4 to 5 hours until it's tender. It is bewildering, then, how Wendy's transformed the labor-intensive dish into a fast food item. If asked how they did it, Wendy's would probably answer with, "Amurrica."

Wendy's offers a bbq pulled pork cheeseburger, sandwich and cheese fries. Each item can be customized with three sad sauces. (credit:Wendy's)
Burger King Japan's Breakfast Spam And Cheese Burgers(08 of13)
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Burger King Japan makes the promise that "It's gonna be a great day," so long as you eat a slice of Spam, topped with pickles, cheese, mayo and lettuce. Their sentiment is offensive. (credit:Burger King Japan)
Sonic's Cheesy Bread Dogs(09 of13)
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Fact: Sonic Burger is primarily a "drive-in" restaurant. Other fact: No one should eat a greasy hot dog smothered in bacon and cheese inside of a vehicle. Your car's upholstery is doomed. (credit:Sonic Drive In)
Burger King Canada's Poutine A La Burger(10 of13)
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This is crude. Poutine is a staple comfort food in Canada. Fries are topped with gravy and a bit of cheese curds. Burger King made an attempt to capitalize off this with poutine à la burger, a spin-off that uses ingredients mostly found in the standard BK kitchen. Their version uses BK fries, cheese curds, gravy, mustard, ketchup, pickles and chopped Whopper.

This looks heinously difficult to eat. Just imagine ordering it on a road trip. The steering wheel would be smothered in gravy.
KFC Korea's Zinger Double Down King(11 of13)
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The Double Down, made of two slabs of fried chicken, bacon and some cheese is practically diet food compared to Korea's addition of the "zinger." The zinger, you see, is the addition of a meat patty inside. It is a sandwich made of fat and it is a crime against digestion. (credit:KFC Korea)
McDonald's Japan Crab Croquette(12 of13)
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Think for a moment: Where is the last place on earth you'd want to consume a crab sandwich? Yes! The answer is at McDonald's.

According to RocketNews24, this dusted "croquette" consists of snow crab meat smothered in "Sauce Américaine" (what?), topped with lettuce and tomato sauce. Please, no. (credit:McDonald's Japan)
Burger King Japan's Mush'N'Cheese(13 of13)
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Excuse? Mush'N'Cheese? Pronounced masshu ando chiizu in Japanese, this vulgar creation features a black pepper beef patty and is topped with four types of mushroom and a variety of cheeses. It sounds like a pretty standard fast food item, save for its name, which manically thrusts the body into a gag-reflex mode. (credit:Burger King Japan)

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