Half the Cheese

Miko~! Got a Filet-O-Fish~♪

…it’s morning, nya.

Yep yep! Breakfast hours. But the Filet-O-Fish was right there!

…that’s not a breakfast item, nya.

Huh? But I bought it just now?

…breakfast has a fixed menu. Sausage McMuffin, hotcakes, egg things. Those are breakfast, nya. The Filet-O-Fish is a regular menu item.

Oh wait — right, I couldn’t get a Big Mac this morning. So how come the Filet-O-Fish is fine?

…don’t know, nya.

Miko doesn’t know either!?

…fast food isn’t my domain, nya.

Okay let’s look it up together then(≧∇≦)

My guess: the flavor is light, so they figured it’s fine for mornings?

…that’s the customer’s logic. It’s not a reason for the restaurant to allow it, nya.

Ugh…yeah, fair.

…the breakfast menu is limited because of equipment, nya. Different tools for different times of day.

Oh! You’re right, Miko. That’s basically the answer.

During breakfast, everything runs on a flat griddle — that’s for the muffins, the eggs, the meat patties. The griddle stuff can only run at that time because it monopolizes the setup. But the Filet-O-Fish goes in a fryer — completely separate equipment. It doesn’t compete.

…same kitchen, different tools. So it runs on different rules, nya.

Exactly! The Morning Border-Crosser. When the whole menu switches over, the fryer just doesn’t care.

…Chicken McNuggets are also fried, nya.

…ah.

…McNuggets are available at breakfast too, nya?

…yeah. Same fryer crew.

…so it’s not “only the Filet-O-Fish is special,” nya.

Hmm…the romance deflated a little.

But wait — there’s a different kind of special to it.

…nya

1. Cincinnati, Ohio. A franchise owner named Lou Groen had a problem.

His area had a huge Catholic population. And Catholics, traditionally, don’t eat meat on Fridays. Every Friday, his customer count crashed. The store was gonna go under.

…so he went for fish, nya.

Right. “No meat? Fine, we sell fish.” But Ray Kroc — the founder of McDonald’s — was totally against it. He said selling fish would make the whole place smell like fish.

…that’s…understandable, nya.

So Kroc made a counter-item. A pineapple-and-cheese sandwich called the Hula Burger.

…pineapple and cheese, nyan?

They had a contest on Good Friday, 1962. Sales that day: Filet-O-Fish, 350. Hula Burger, 6.

…6, nya.

6 (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

…but that’s because the religious constraint was there, nya. It’s not like it won on flavor.

…yeah, but without the constraint it never would’ve existed at all. “We can’t eat meat” — that restriction is literally what created it.

…Miko, have you ever made something because of a constraint?

…pound cake, nya.

Oh — the equal-parts-of-everything one.

…the constraint was interesting, so I tried it, nya. That was the order — constraint first.

…constraints come first. And the deliciousness comes after.

Miko, have you ever had a Filet-O-Fish?

…yes, nya.

Did you notice the cheese?

…it’s half, nya.

You already noticed!?

People who cook notice, nya.

I thought at first it was just being cheap. Like, cost-cutting, y’know?

…that’s not it, nya.

Wait, you know why?

…white fish has a delicate flavor, nya. A whole slice of cheese and the cheese is all you taste.

…

…there’s also tartar sauce, nya. If the cheese and the tartar are both going full force, where does the fish go?

…it disappears.

…half a slice. The cheese gives richness to support the fish. The tartar’s acidity comes through. It forms a triangle, nya.

Miko that’s EXACTLY it. I looked it up after and it’s true — Groen made it with half a slice from the start. That was 1962. It hasn’t changed since.

…it’s just basic cooking, nya.

…y’know, I was thinking. Normally I like flavors that come at you. Black coffee, peperoncino, tabasco — the aggressive stuff.

…nya

The Filet-O-Fish doesn’t do that at all. It’s the opposite — it just quietly settles into exactly the right place.

…nya

So why do I like it so much? It’s nothing like what I usually go for.

…

…even when you love spicy things, sometimes you want miso soup, nya.

…yeah.

…even if you love things that attack you — you need something that protects you too, nya.

…

Oh — one more thing I found.

…nya

The Filet-O-Fish comes in a box. Not paper like other burgers. It’s the only one.

…nya

The bun is steamed. McDonald’s only steams the Filet-O-Fish bun — everything else gets toasted.

…steamed, nya.

A steamed bun is really soft. Wrap it in paper and it’d just get crushed. So — box.

…a box to protect the softness, nya.

Half a slice of cheese to protect the flavor. A box to protect the shape. A dedicated fryer to protect its place on the menu. Sixty years, all of it unchanged.

…nya

…the whole thing is made of “protect.”

…sixty years isn’t luck, nya.

Miko, you like things where the recipe doesn’t change, right?

…nya

The Filet-O-Fish hasn’t changed in sixty years~

…it’s fast food, nya.

Fast food or not, sixty years is sixty years(≧∇≦)

…

…well.

Well?

…someone who never hesitated over the cheese amount isn’t bad, nya.

That’s a compliment for Lou Groen!!

…it’s not a compliment, nya.

It totally is it totally is(≧∇≦)

…dinner, nya.

Huh, already? It’s still morning!

…making white fish fry tonight, nya.

…wait?

…cheese is half, nya.

…Miko. That’s literally making a Filet-O-Fish!!

…Miko’s version will be better, nya.