Fast Food In The Old Days

Wow, I had forgotten all about that sandwich. I guess it got overshadowed by the much more popular McRib sandwich. They did bring back the steak patty for their breakfast bagel sandwiches in recent years though. It was incredibly greasy though and does not taste natural at all.

One of the first things that came to mind was their salads in a cup. The idea was you pour the dressing into the cup, which came with a snap on dome lid, and shake the hell out of it. The problem was the lettuce was so packed into the cups that it just didn't work, and all the dressing and other toppings stayed on top. By the time you got done with it, assuming you didn't spill half of it all over yourself, you were eating a bunch of plain dry lettuce at the bottom of the cup.

The McDLT was actually really good, even though the containers were too big. If you're not familiar with it, it was just a larger sized burger, but the container was split into two parts, one for the hot burger patty and the bottom of the bun, and the other side had the top of the bun with the cool crisp veggies. I think this was also when they started using more fresh veggies on their sandwiches, aside from the usual re-hydrated onion flakes, pickles, ketchup, mustard and cheese.

They have dabbled with burritos over the years, both for lunch/dinner as well as breakfast burritos. I actually really like their breakfast burritos with sausage. The Chicken burritos they had, however, were really bland and didn't have much filling in them. The onions and peppers in them tasted like they were frozen and just warmed in a microwave - they were all soggy and water logged. There was no point in getting one of these at McDonalds when you can go to the Taco Bell next door and get much better and more filling burritos for the same price.

Since the Mid 90's they've been dabbling in more "premium" burgers, such as the Arch Deluxe and more recently the Angus burgers which they also discontinued. The Arch Deluxe was good, I don't know why it flopped so much, perhaps people weren't ready to pay a little more at McDonalds yet. Their Angus burgers seemed to last for a few years, and fared better, but I always felt nauseous after eating one of those. Their burger patties are already heavily processed and loaded with chemicals, it just seems wrong to eat an even larger 1/4 lb patty of this frankenfood. Plus the buns on the Angus burgers always seemed dried out and stale for some reason.

More recently they tested out selling chicken wings, but that bombed big time. Chicken Wings are not good for fast food since they take like 15 min at least to cook from scratch. Unless your restaurant is dedicated to selling only wings, and you can keep dropping baskets of them throughout the shift, only selling a few orders here and there is too hard for a place to sell them and not have the customer get irate about them taking so long. Not to mention they were backing up the drive thru lanes.

They also had a McLean burger back in the early 90's. I actually loved these, since taste wise they weren't too bad at all. Some people complained the patties were too dry, but I preferred them over their greasier counterparts. It just sucked that they cost more than the regular burgers. Plus it felt silly eating a McLean along side a large order of fries, which were loaded with fat. Some people speculate that McDonalds only puts out these healthier products to shut up the critics and get the customers foot in the door, knowing they will bail out at the last moment and get what they really want instead - the full fat stuff.

There was also the Cheddar Melt, which was basically sauteed onions, a cheese sauce, then the burger was served on some weird wheat bun - it had a funny chemical taste to it, sort of like stale Wheat Thins.

 

I remember the McDLT! that was my favorite burger. It has the cold and hot side and you had to flip the provided container to put the sandwich together. The arch deluxe was great but it was criticized for being very high unhealthy and fattening, plus that burger was a little pricey. In other news, Taco Bell had a huge taco back in the 80's called the Taco Grande. I wish they still had that one. Fast food just isn't what it used to be.

 

Back in the mid 90's, Long John Silvers tried selling fried shrimp wraps. What was really peculiar was how much shrimp they put into those things. They were enormous! I have no idea how they were making any money off of them considering how much fried shrimp was in them. My friends and I could only eat half of one in one sitting, and would always have to save the other half for later. Lord knows how much fat was in them though, they were probably like 5,000 calories and 200 grams of fat, lol.

Burger King used to have mini burgers called "burger buddies". I think they came out in the late 80's if I remember correctly, and were meant to compete with White Castle's mini burgers. But since Burger King uses a motorized grill instead of a griddle, the smaller patties kept falling through the grills.

Wendy's dabbled in lunch meat sandwiches back in 2005, to compete with Subway. But considering they were smaller, plus it was just lunch meat, they fizzled out. You could make them at home for a fraction of the cost, and there was nothing unique about their flavor since it tasted like all the lunch meat you could get at any grocery store. At least Subway makes their own bread fresh.

Quizno's was test marketing breakfast sandwiches about 10 years ago. I was on a trip in NY at the time, and one of their stores there had them so I tried one. They were really good, but they took longer to prepare than their regular sandwiches so I don't see how they could have rolled those out on a larger scale for busy breakfast rushes. They cooked the eggs fresh to order along with the bacon. They put them on little metal trays and had to keep pushing them back under the motorized broiler until the cooked through. But they were 1000x better than Subway's pathetic breakfast sandwiches.

 

Fast food has changed over the past couple of decades. Who would have ever thought that Dairy Queen would be selling so much 'other food' as well as ice cream cakes. Then, let's not forget how the iced coffee rage has infiltrated the fast food world. Of course, what I am happy about is the throw back prices. The dollar meal at McDonald's is a lifesaver on days you don't really want to spend them much for junk food.

Old Dairy Queen Ad

 

Quiznos isn't old school but they are disappearing in my area. I used to like those sammies. If a person wanted more than one type of sandwich but didn't want to be greedy then the sammies in different varieties were the best choice.

Not a McD's fan but I used to love the cold breakfast danish they served in the 80s and part of the 90s. For some reason, I like a cold cream cheese item over heated any day.

 

I remember as a kid McDonalds would always do large promotions for special shows or upcoming movies. Rather than doing the simple toy in every Happy meal, they would create a food item for it. For example, for the television series Telly Tubbies McDonalds created a special 'pudding' that was aired on the show. It was delicious! I miss special promotions like that.

 

McDonalds used to have the McRib sandwich which was pretty good. I always liked the Mandarin Chicken Salad they had, it was very tasty but does not seem to be offered up here anymore. After that whole pink slime thing I decided that I did not want to eat the food there anymore. I have been on this whole healthy food kick. Years and years ago we had a Hardee's and a Jack in the Box, these are now no longer around here. I really liked Hardee's they had great hamburgers, didn't care for the fries though.

We used to have Long John Silvers and that's gone now to. I loved the fish filet sandwich with cheese, It was very good. The only think I never cared for was the hush puppies but man people really liked them a lot. The area I am in is funny when it comes to restaurants, we have several chains and regular restaurants but sometimes the chains just all leave. Fried Chicken comes to mind, we used to have good fried chicken, we had Churches and Pop-eyes... now all we have is KFC and one lone Pop-eyes. It is a shame because I loved the gravy they had at Churches.

 

I remember the McRib pretty vividly when I was a kid. It even came back in the US a couple of years ago. They also had this sandwich called the Archer Deluxe in McDonalds that was pretty good. I also remember when sea salt was a big deal in most fast food places. I remember the Rodeo Burger in Burger King as well. I'm pretty sure it's still in a lot of places in the west coast, but it's not in New York or New Jersey.

 

I loved the McRib too - they brought it back for a little while if I remember correctly. If they could bring it back for good and add it to the pound menu, I'd be very happy indeed!

 

I remember when Happy Meals didn't contain the healthy stuff. They used to come with a burger, fries, a soda, and cookies. The apple slices were not an option. Somehow, we all ate the less-than-healthy Happy Meals and survived to adulthood!