Cycle 4 – Item 171
25 (Tue) June 2013
1955 Burger
1.5
at McDonald’s
(E-Mart)
-Seongsu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with W and DJ
The 1955 Burger is a McDonald’s product. It consists of beef patty + single bacon slice + caramelized onions + lettuce + tomato + BBQ sauce + sesame-seed bun. 1955 is presumably in reference to the year in which Ray Croc, who would ultimately build McDonald’s into a global fast food empire, joined what was then a small chain of burger stands.
However, as far as I’m aware, McDonald’s did not sell a burger like this in 1955 or at any time in the company’s history. And I don’t believe that the composition – caramelized onions? BBQ sauce? no cheese? – reflects the style of burgers during the mid-1950s. So the whole concept is silly/specious/spurious.
Even more puzzling, the product was developed by McDonald’s Germany for their local market. In the dumbest fast food commercial that I’ve ever seen, a woman in “Chicago 1955” (blonde, pink apron, flowery dress, high heels) makes a platter of burgers in her kitchen and writes down the recipe in a notebook. The notebook somehow ends up in the possession of a McDonald’s employee in “Deutschland 2010” (prettyboy, looks like a part-timer), who recreates the burger from the recipe, right there in the restaurant, just behind the counter while the other employees are busy serving customers, and smiles smugly to himself when he’s done (see McDonald’s 1955 Burger). For some reason, the burger is not yet available in the States, though it may be soon. In Korea, it’s being offered and marketed in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of McDonald’s Korea.
Anyway, the burger wasn’t that great. The beef was dry. The onions weren’t so much caramelized as they were cooked into oily mushiness, still mostly whitish. The single slice of bacon was totally insufficient, covering only about a fourth of the sandwich. While the BBQ sauce was okay per se – even though I detest BBQ sauce on a burger – the disconcertingly bright orange color was deceptive -like all these gimmick items – giving it the promise of novelty even though it’s actually the same old crap. 6,700 won for a set, 5,300 won for just a sandwich. I should’ve known better, but I can never resist McDonald’s promotions.
(See also FAST FOOD)
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)