Lunch: Big Mac, fries, Hawaiian Punch
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| Shiny. |
There's a 50th birthday celebration happening starting today. No, not mine. That was a couple of years ago. Thanks for not showing up to the party nobody threw. McDonald's is celebrating 50 years of the Big Mac. Starting today, they're giving out Mac Coins with Big Macs that are redeemable for a future Big Mac. Or you could just collect them, like I'm going to do.
The Big Mac was created by Pittsburgh-area McDonald's franchisee Jim Delligatti (today would have been his 100th birthday and he almost made it, living to 98) and was on the menu of every McDonald's by 1968. It originally sold for 45 cents. Locations in my area get $4.29 for it today, which just seems insane for what it is.
As the jingle used to remind us, the double decker features "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame bun." It was far from the first double decker (a brief history here), but it's still their best seller. USA Today claims McDonald's sold 1.3 billion of them last year.
I still eat quite a few Big Macs, probably 30-40 a year. It really is a unique taste. A balance of flavors that just works. Don't hold the lettuce. Don't pay for extra sauce. Just order it as is. It's as successful as it is because they got it right the first time. It has aged very well.
Still, there have been limited time variations offered over the years. The Mega Mac came in two styles...one with four of the standard patties, and one with Quarter Pounder patties. There was the original Mac Jr, which was just the regular hamburger dressed like a Big Mac that occasionally showed up on the old dollar menu. More recently we've seen the bigger in every dimension Grand Mac and the new Mac Jr, which was based on the larger Grand Mac patty and bun.
Imagine not having access to Big Macs. I spent my ten teenage years on a remote island hundreds of miles from the nearest McDonald's. When I would be on vacation trips back home or on school band trips to a McDonald's market, that's all I'd eat whenever I could manage. The group would go to one place, and I'd walk to the nearest McDonald's. One year in high school, one of the basketball players while traveling to a city that had one (our team had to fly to games), bought a duffel bag and filled it with as many Big Macs as would fit. Back in school the next day, he sold every one of them for $10 each. Day old Big Macs that at the time retailed for well under $2 out of a duffel bag.
So happy birthday to Jim and to the sandwich you created. You probably didn't set out to create a true American icon, but that's exactly what you did.
