This week IntraFish Editor Rachel Mutter took a lonely solo trip to her local McDonald's to try out the new addition to its Chinese New Year Prosperity range: the Fish Prosperity Burger. The "sandwich" became available across Malaysian restaurants late last month for a limited time only.

With a large Chinese population and the wealth-association with Chinese New Year, the Fish Prosperity Burger adds to an existing range of Chinese New Year products -- the Chicken Prosperity Burger, the Beef Prosperity Burger, Prosperity Fries and the Prosperity McFizz (naturally).

Available as both single and double burgers, the smaller retails at MYR 15.05 (€3.20/$3.66) and the larger at MYR 20.71 (€4.41/$5.04).

So, what did we make of it... and more importantly, did it bring us prosperity?

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Packaging -- 3

It's a McDonald's burger so it is packaged in a paper wrap. But in a step up from its usual white, yellow and red color scheme, this is a sophisticated reddish brown with gold and white writing, no doubt reflecting the great deal of prosperity parceled within.

Still, it's pretty basic, not exactly beautiful, contains basically no information and barely contains the contents within, but as someone who recalls the days when McDonald's burgers were packaged in polystyrene boxes, today they get points in my book for minimizing waste.

Preparation -- 4.5

Although there is no preparation instructions contained on the packaging, I eventually worked out I needed to carefully rotate the burger and unwrap the paper by skillfully unpicking the fold and peeling back the laminated layer... et voila! The burger is finally ready to eat. Tricky.

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Eating Experience -- 2.5

I have to admit I am not a huge fan of McDonald's. I find their eateries lacking atmosphere and while deliciously salty, fatty and sugary, after the initial energy hit, their food usually leaves me feeling greasy, dissatisfied and with a mild headache.

However, when forced to eat it, the fish burger would always be my first choice, so I was reserving judgement on the Prosperity Fish Burger and entered my local McDonald's with an open mind and empty stomach.

One generally gets the feeling that appearance is not top of McDonald's priority list when coming up with new creations. Rarely reflecting the glorious, voluminous pictures on its signage, their burgers, when slapped onto a plastic brown tray, usually appear five times shorter and about 15 times less technicolor. The Prosperity Fish Burger is no different.

I opted for the double (I'm an all or nothing kind of girl), and while it managed to avoid the appearance of a flattened stress reliever ball that most of McDonald's burgers have, it wasn't exactly beautiful.

The sesame bun had been breached by the black bean sauce in which the burger had been coated (I'll come back to that), and raw onion (I'll come back to that, too) was sliding out of the sides.

As for smell, it was kind of hard to know, since I was surrounded by so many other variances of fried foods. So, well, it smelled... fried.

And taste? Fast food can be a little bland, a little low on flavor... well, that is not something you can accuse the Fish Prosperity burger of.

After the first hit of soft, sugary bread, you crunch through raw onion (why, for the love of God is it raw?) to reach the crispy battered fish fillet. But all of that is sort of irrelevant since the entire time your mouth is awash with the pepperiest, saltiest black bean sauce I have ever tasted.

OK, I'm over-egging it. There are positives. The fish is a substantial white fillet of, presumably, pollock, and its coating is a batter that somehow manages to stay crispy in spite of the sauce.

And this is Malaysia, where sauce and spice is the order of the day on everything you consume. And given that, this burger is actually probably pretty well suited to local tastes.

But raw onion and black bean sauce in a burger? Not for me. Oh, and you need an entire pack of wet wipes at hand if you are to get through this meal unscathed.

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Value for money -- 2

It is easy to come by cheap, substantial meals in Malaysia. The local "banana leaf" -- a traditional Malaysian street restaurant where you eat rice, curry and various accoutrements with your hands off a banana leaf -- serves a filling and nutritious meal for a mere MYR 7.50 (€1.62/$1.84). McDonald's here sells its double cheeseburger at MYR 5 (€1.08/$1.23), its chicken burger at MYR 4 (€0.87/$0.98) and its fillet of fish at MYR 8.45 (€1.83/$2.08). So at MYR 20.71 (MYR15.05 for a single), this fish burger demands a certain willingness to splash out.

Prosperity burger? Well, they do say you have to spend money to make money.

Total -- 12 out of a possible total score of 20

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How does this taste test work?

Welcome to “We Tried It,” a feature brought to you by the editors of IntraFish. As the name implies, our editors taste test new and existing seafood products available. We try them, score them and comment on them.

We’re approaching our evaluation from the perspective of a typical consumer, meaning we will focus on ease of preparation, taste, packaging and value. We’ll utilize criteria developed to evaluate products for the annual Alaska Symphony of Seafood new products contest to measure a product’s packaging and presentation, eating experience and market potential.

Products will be scored on specific aspects in four categories -- packaging, preparation, eating experience and value -- on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score. The product will earn an overall total score based on the average of the judges' scores.

Products enter the 'We Tried It' test kitchen one of two ways: They are provided by the company producing them or purchased at retail markets by our editors. If you would like us to consider your product, please email john.fiorillo@intrafish.com.