One of McDonald’s most divisive products, the McRib, made its return last week. For three decades, the sandwich has come in and out of existence, popping up in certain regional markets for short promotions, then retreating underground to its porky lair—only to be revived once again for reasons never made entirely clear. Each time it rolls out nationwide, people must again consider this strange and elusive product, whose unique form sets it deep in the Uncanny Valley—and exactly why its existence is so fleeting.
The McRib was introduced in 1982—1981 according to some sources—and was created by McDonald’s former executive chef Rene Arend, the same man who invented the Chicken [...]
"Go into the kitchen of a Taco Bell today, and you'll find a strong counterargument to any notion that the U.S. has lost its manufacturing edge. Every Taco Bell, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King is a little factory, with a manager who oversees three dozen workers, devises schedules and shifts, keeps track of inventory and the supply chain, supervises an assembly line churning out a quality-controlled, high-volume product, and takes in revenue of $1 million to $3 million a year, all with customers who show up at the front end of the factory at all hours of the day to buy the product. Taco Bell Chief Executive Officer Greg [...]
Above, a new pro-vegetarian spot from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine that's making explicit the link between fast-food consumption and heart disease. Like, really explicit: The corpse at the center the ad died gettin' his burger on, as evidenced by the Big Mac Of Death that remains in his hand while a woman weeps over his lifeless body.
Did eating the KFC Double Down merely compromise your kidneys? Now you can finally push your digestive system over the edge. Introducing: McRibbles.
Overly aromatic sub chain Subway is getting a little possessive of the word "Footlong," thanks to the success of its "foot-long sandwiches for a Lincoln" campaign and the attendant jingle: Not only is the company is currently petitioning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the exclusive rights to the term, it's getting its legal department to hassle outlets that dare use it — even hot-dog stands that have been throwing around the word "footlong" for some 47 years. Apparently the frank-related harassment was the result of an overzealous worker bee: Hot dogs are safe, according to a rep for the chain. But plain old sandwich shops [...]
The always-number-crunching Nate Silver has compiled a chart of fast-food items' relative unhealthiness to KFC's Double Down. The winner as far as pure gluttony goes: Wendy's Triple Baconator (pictured), a three-patty lots-of-bacon-and-cheeseburger that has 1,350 calories, 90 grams of fat, and 2.78 grams of sodium — the equivalent of two and a half Double Downs, if you want to get mathy about it. If only it came on a lattice of bacon instead of a bun. It would be so much more bloggable that way! Someone get on that, OK?
It is already responsible for our nation's obesity epidemic, and it provides most Americans with the majority of fecal material they unwittingly eat each week, but could fast food also be the cause of our growing impatience? Science says yes!
