In the sterile language of Google’s search algorithms, the McRib is what they classify as an “entity”, a distinct, well-defined node in a vast knowledge graph, sitting right alongside the Big Mac, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Roman Empire. I’m not kidding! This sandwich is huge. But to millions of fast-food devotees, it behaves … Read more
There are two fundamental truths about Cheerios. It’s an iconic, wholesome breakfast staple so trusted that parents feed it to their toddlers as finger food, and there are seemingly endless flavors of it. Alongside the classic yellow box, grocery shelves host a perpetual carnival of permanent spin-offs and limited-edition flavors: Honey Nut, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate … Read more
The internet is drowning in breathless retrospectives of discontinued junk food, most of them treating the demise of every short-lived novelty snack, from 3D Doritos to green ketchup, as a tragic cultural loss. In reality, most forgotten snacks earned their demise. The novelty wore off, sales plummeted, and food conglomerates pulled the plug on products … Read more
To anyone who watched television in the 1970s, Fred G. Sanford’s favorite drink needs no introduction. During the six seasons of Sanford and Son, Redd Foxx’s cantankerous yet loveable junk dealer made his favorite drink Ripple as famous as his faux heart attacks and his threats to send people across the room with one knuckle. … Read more
There is an unspoken conspiracy in popular food history that requires the ancient Romans to be credited with inventing everything we eat. If a food exists in modern Western culture, an internet article somewhere insists a Roman legionary carried it in his rucksack or an emperor demanded it at a banquet. If the Romans can’t … Read more
From a culinary culture and business perspective, the cupcake boom of the mid-2000s to early 2010s was undeniably weird. Food trends come and go, but this one was a bit oversized, for lack of a better term. The narrative surrounding this big boom of tiny cakes often gets treated like a harmless curiosity. Nothing more … Read more