McRib I missed you, but I won’t be missing you again

McDonald’s has fallen on relatively hard times recently.  Sales in the US are down and the UK middle classes are flocking to overpriced burger chains such as Byron – where they mistakenly think paying more means they’re getting better burger.

Its banker is the McRib. This sporadically appearing pork-based patty has somewhat of a cult following – myself included – who consider it to be the best ‘sandwich’ McD’s produce[1]. So when it’s back on the menu us fast food fools flock to their doors and buy more than are strictly necessary.

This last time was no exception. I was there salivating excitedly.

Except… what I found was not the beloved pork, onion and barbeque sauce concoction of old, but a shadow of its former self. At first I questioned myself, ‘Am I just getting old?’, ‘Were they always this bad?’, ‘Surely that’s just the breakfast sausage in a different shape?’.

Then I realized it wasn’t me who hadn’t grown – it was the McRib!

Whilst McDonalds spend most of the year trying to convince us that changing the bun means they have launched a brand new burger, their lack of changes to the McRib has revealed a product rooted in simpler times, before we discovered the taste sensation of a burrito, before there was a pseudo-authentic US BBQ joint next door to every Wetherspoons – a product that doesn’t sit well in today’s pantheon of menu choices.

Fashions change, and whilst classics such as cheeseburgers and Big Macs can stand the test of time, the 80s McRib feels as dated as watching a John Hughes film wearing fluorescent leg warmers and roller boots.

They say never eat your heroes. Wise words indeed.

 

[1] Outside of the double cheeseburger obvs