OLD FLAVOURITES

Mark Wilson's Weekly Mate Column from inappropriate.co.nz

We humans are a comfort species we get excited by the new and the shiny but when the chips are down or simply when the gloss fades from something new we often turn to the tried and true.

Now as a personal trainer I probably shouldn’t be writing a column on fast foods but like any mere mortal there are times when a feed of Macca’s or a slop box from KFC is not only desired but an absolute necessity. 

There are those hung over days where only the high grease content of a KFC can be relied upon to soak up the lingering effects of last night’s alcohol from the bloodstream (this is pretty much pure myth but we will run with it as folk law dictates) or that late night drive from Invercargill to Queenstown past the new Frankton drive through on your way to bed, nothing else really open and no energy to get out of the car scenario. Of course there is the just got a new country and don’t feel comfortable enough to go straight out of my comfort zone and eat some local cuisine scenario which sends you to the big 3 KFC, McD’s and BK, this also serves as a good price indicator of how expensive the rest of the trip is going to be by giving a a good gauge of local prices verses your homeland 

With the fast food industry one of many defined by fierce competition for the consumers taste buds and pocked gorse the big 3 are always coming up with new food offerings, promotions and meal add ons to keep the deep fryer running and the arteries clogging.

MacDonald’s has had everything from Kiwi burgers to the double double cheese cheese burger burger please and now offers free avocado in its “little bit fancy range” M Selections range of course for a limited time.

But like anything in life these promotional products no matter how fancy they may be are short lived, some may return due to popular demand like KFC’s epic ‘Tower Burger’ and the great old Kiwi classic from McD’s the ‘Kiwi Burger’ most are destined for the waste skip out the back of the restaurant to be picked over by scavengers and hungry students alike. 

More often than not we turn back to the Classics the McChicken, the Fillet Burger, the Whopper. We go back to items that have been on the menu for years that surely we must be sick of by now but yet we are not. How can it be that after two decades or more of rampant competition there has not been a chicken burger to replace the McChicken or a fish offering to go toe to toe and win against the Fillet o Fish?

I put it down to a few things, firstly nostalgia. We were introduced to these burgers as children, ate them in our glory years as teens and now we have some form or nostalgic emotional attachment. Being Kiwis MacDonald’s restaurants were not common pace in the provinces during the 80’s and 90’s and most people will remember the day the golden arches came to their town, remember that first birthday dominating the playground with mates climbing things you shouldn’t. As we got older the late night trips after parties and the how many 95 cent burgers can you eat at the Dunedin MacDonald’s on the way home from water polo trips in Christchurch incidents. We associate these foods with some really positive and important memories in our lives and thus when we need a pick up or its late at night we go back to such nostalgic hunger busters.

Secondly it’s that sauce. How good is the McChicken or the Big Mac sauce? It’s more addictive than nicotine.

So no matter what the Big 3 throws out those base menu items we treasure will always be our favourites in the long run, we may cheat from time to time and flirt with a seared chicken deluxe or a mighty angus but in the end we will make our bed with the old flavourites.

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