Reading nonfiction, I don't generally have an agenda in the ideological sense. I just wander to what interests me. And sometimes I take an interest in the mundane things of this world and how they work. Recently that's led me to Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age by John A. Jakle and Keith A Sculle. There's some good stuff about the trial and error, the unexpected successes and educational failures of the fast food industry.
There is, as you might expect, a whole chapter on Ray Kroc and his wildly successful franchising of McDonald's. But it's not victories all the way through for him. Biographical notes on Kroc have to deal with the Hula Burger. The Hula Burger was...well, you can see it.
The thing is, I know people who are violently against pineapple on pizza. It's not something I'd get every time, but it's in the open air. That seems to work a little better for it than being squeezed between two halves of a hamburger bun, slathered in American cheese.
I'd guess it only lasted as long as it did because marijuana was coming into wider use.
There is, as you might expect, a whole chapter on Ray Kroc and his wildly successful franchising of McDonald's. But it's not victories all the way through for him. Biographical notes on Kroc have to deal with the Hula Burger. The Hula Burger was...well, you can see it.
The thing is, I know people who are violently against pineapple on pizza. It's not something I'd get every time, but it's in the open air. That seems to work a little better for it than being squeezed between two halves of a hamburger bun, slathered in American cheese.
I'd guess it only lasted as long as it did because marijuana was coming into wider use.
2 comments:
hah! I've told a few people I'm so old I remember when MacDonald's signs said '100 sold'. Of course they had to limit the book to the automobile age or else they could have got really bogged down with chuck wagons and stagecoach stops. Hard to imagine what things were served and eaten that far back, but likely enough much of it was far healthier than what gets consumed today.
Speaking of which, I'm glad I never ran into a Hula Burger - that picture did indeed say it all. While I'm not averse to slices of pineapple by themselves or as part of a fruit salad I'm one of those who wouldn't choose it as a pizza ingredient unless I was very hungry.. and then I might pick the bits off to save as dessert.
It seems to be a double edged sword. Back in olden times there was no refrigeration, and there wasn't as much in the way of preservatives. So if certain things weren't eaten right away they'd go bad, or maybe be tainted in a way you could miss. Maybe we rely too much on refrigeration now. In the end you sort of play the hand you're dealt.
"100 sold." Hell, that was a pretty important milestone to the McDonald brothers, I'm sure. Meant they just might be viable.
Pineapple's a good fruit. Yeah, maybe you could pick the pieces off the pizza to reconstruct a whole pineapple, minus the rough skin.
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