McDonald’s Giveth, McDonald’s Taketh Away

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Chad Bonin

Enjoying your seasonal Shamrock Shake and some of the newly-widespread Fish McBites (or even the still-in-testing Chicken Wings?). With some new succesful treats, it naturally falls to the Golden Arches to take away a few items; their menu isn’t limitless, after all.

To keep up with the times and a rotating menu, they’ll be taking out the Chicken Selects and the Fruit & Walnut Salad, while keeping an eye on their Angus burgers. The Chicken Selects are their premium chicken tenders, effectively an adult variation on the Chicken McNugget, while the Fruit & Walnut Salad is just slices of green and red apples, candied walnuts, grapes, and yogurt.

McDonald’s doesn’t seem to be adding anything to the menu, despite the addition of a post-midnight menu. The removal of the Chicken Selects seems to take away a few options from their Australian menu, and the Japanese-led shrimp and pork burgers don’t seem to be stepping up to replace the possible loss of the Angus burgers.

Huffington Post reports that the Angus Third Pounders are currently safe, but they are “evaluating options.”

While these menu items were nice at rounding out McDonald’s menu with some more premium, theoretically healthier options, they never seemed to fully catch on with the fast food populace like the Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets. Will you bemoan their disappearance, or will it just give you an idea to try something else on the menu?

The Big MaK To Destroy Fast-Food Freebies

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Chad Bonin

For many generations, the type of Happy Meal toy you received sums up your childhood. Some might have had simple toys based off the McDonaldLand characters, more recent children may have those themed after current cartoons.

My generation had Power Rangers, Transformer-themed fast-food items, Sonic the Hedgehog, and the like.

The first two shared a thing in common; giant robots will always be loved. The Transformers were known for, beyond having vehicles that turned into giant robots, having a select few combine into one massive robot. A certain line of Transformers-stylized toys featured many McDonalds meals, such as Big Mac containers, chicken nuggets, and milkshakes turning into robots.

The Big MaK brings that concept back, with LEGOs. Creations for Charity, a fundraising project where creators donate projects to charity to purchase LEGO kits for underprivileged youths, has revealed The Big MaK.

Fitted with anti-air fry missiles, heavy Big Mac armor, sniper-fry cannon, and a vanilla frosty with sprinkles, Laughing Squid reports.

McDonalds Reveals Big Mac Sauce Recipe

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Chad Bonin

It’s been a long-standing notion that the Big Mac “Special Sauce” is a closely-guarded secret. Much like the vaunted Coca-Cola recipe and many others, people thought they knew the recipe, but were only off by a slight bit. It was easy enough to say it was Thousand Island dressing… and it largely is.

McDonalds Canada uploaded this video recently showing what goes into a Big Mac. Naturally, three pieces of bun, two hamburger patties seasoned with salt and pepper, onions, lettuce, and pickles are all there (and continuing to be a slight disappointment, a pre-packaged slice of cheese, nothing special).

What the real interest is, and what sparked the video, was a customer’s question about what makes the Special Sauce.

Store-bought mayo, sweet pickle relish, yellow mustard, white wine vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika are all the ingredients. Sure, they’re not giving out specific measurements, but you can eyeball it from the video.

Will you be making your own Big Macs now?

Japan’s Take On McDonalds

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Chad Bonin

Japan likes to put a twist on traditional fast food fare from America, but how would Ray Kroc handle Japanese McDonalds? Can the definition of fast food survive in a world with noodle carts, sushi bars, and vending machines?

Basic Burger, Redefined

We may load our burgers up with some combination of mustard, ketchup, or mayo, but Japan tends to slather their burgers in teriyaki. Beyond the traditional beef-based burgers, they offer a shrimp fillet and pork sandwich. If you want to keep the fast food vibe but don’t want a variation on a burger, just go for a hot dog.

Side Dishes

Of course, you can get the legendary french fries (and a ice cream to dip them in, because everyone does that) and a side salad, but you can also get… a cup of sweet corn? That’s not the oddest thing, with that award going towards the bacon potato pie, which looks to be a carb and meat-filled variation on the apple pie concept.

Check Out The Chicken

The two dishes Japan likes to highlight that actually seem logical for America at some point are the “Shake It, Shake It” dishes of juicy chicken cheddar cheese and juicy red pepper chicken. Seeming to be a chicken patty that you shake a seasoning on, this is something that could easily get a trial run in America, especially given the success of the Mighty Wings for the Atlanta area.

Breakfast Muffins

Using English muffins as a base, McDonalds in Japan advertises the Mega Muffin, a marinated salad muffin, and a tuna muffin. All of these appear to be just a regular English muffin bun with the ingredients sandwiched between them. The Mega Muffin consists of two sausage patties, one piece of cheese, one egg, and bacon, while the marinated salad muffin looks to be bacon and cheese with a fair amount of lettuce with dressing on it. Tuna salad goes with a bit of cheese and lettuce in the tuna muffin, but seems no more better or worse than a tuna salad sandwich in America.

The Aussie Deli

I’ll leave the description of the Aussie Deli up to Google Translate

To steam buns were plump, I sand with plenty of beef pastrami using Aussie beef. Source of potherb mustard yellow and the source is to maximize the flavor of the beef, the taste is the Australian-born.

The concept of McDonalds might have been American-born, and Japan seems to have not strayed too far from the original concepts of the chain. You could easily check out a McDonalds in Japan and get some foods you like, and some foods you might think should come to America.