(One of the things I never fully explained about the concept of this blog is how the articles sometimes represent things I would have written about if the internet had been around during the years I was growing up, going to college and my early 20s. This is one of those mundane subjects I likely would have tackled.)
When I was a child, I never got to eat much at McDonald's. The closest one was 40 miles away in Roswell. After being subjected to constant TV commercials during my childhood, my family ate there maybe once every two months. My favorite was the Quarter-Pounder, and this was before they added cheese to it. I enjoyed the sesame seed bun, but I always had to make sure the staff made my hamburger PLAIN AND DRY!
When I was a junior in high school, the man who owned the McDonald's franchise in Roswell decided he'd try to start up his own fast-food chain and opened a restaurant in Artesia called "Jingle-Bob's." He basically made the same food as McDonald's, but gave all the menu items different names with a western theme. I probably ate there once a week during my last two years of high school. My brother Loyd actually worked there for a while before he got fired for grazing.
When I went to college, I ate more frequently at McDonald's because there was one within walking distance of the campus at Eastern New Mexico University. I probably ate there about once every weekend when I had money. I actually considered getting a job there, but all the employees had to wear these really tacky-looking neon green uniforms. I didn't want to do that. A couple of years later, the uniforms were changed to a dark green. I was a little more tempted to apply, but by this time, I was already working at KZZO-FM.
When I moved to Clovis, the closest McDonald's was about 1 1/2 miles from my apartment. I rarely had money, so I didn't eat there very often. I would make exceptions when they had the Monopoly game going. But the main problem with Clovis was that the corporate office never sent enough game pieces. Monopoly was so popular in Clovis that one week after the game began, they ran out of game pieces. The promotion was supposed to last for a whole month and we only got a week to win anything. At least that kept me from spending more money there.
So all of this is leading to my experience with McDonald's in Denver. Pretty soon after I got there in 1988, McDonald's did a limited promotion with its nine-piece Chicken McNuggets. They had a Chinese theme and came with these three new dipping sauces, chopsticks and a fortune cookie. It turned out they were doing this to compete with Burger King's Chicken Tenders, which advertised all-white meat. I never tried this version of the McNuggets, mainly because I rarely got anything larger than a six-piece order.
A few months later, I was really hungry and went to a McDonald's and ordered a nine-piece McNuggets. I did not know this beforehand, but they had a Mexican theme at the time with three new dipping sauces: Mesquite Barbeque, Salsa and Zesty Green Chili sauce. The Mesquite Barbeque was a little less sweet than their regular Barbeque sauce and the Red Chili Salsa was okay. But the Green Chili sauce was AMAZING! The bad thing was that the new sauces were half the size of the regular packets, so there was never enough of the Green Chili for all nine McNuggets. I actually hoarded some Green Chili packets for awhile after the promotion ended. They never had the Green Chili again, even when introducing new sauces.
About a year later, McDonald's added a couple of items to its breakfast menu. They were the Biscuit with Gravy and the Sausage Burrito. They were both pretty good on their own. However, if I dipped the burrito into the gravy, it was an incredible mix of flavors that tasted so good together! It reminded me of breakfast at my Grandma Bend's in which we got eggs with biscuits and gravy and we'd put the gravy on the eggs.
This was the routine: I would order the Biscuit and Gravy and the Sausage Burrito. I would eat the biscuit first, then dip the burrito into the gravy for each bite. The only bad thing was that there was inconsistency in the biscuit to gravy ratio. Most of the time, the staff would smother the gravy and there was always plenty left over for the burrito. However, sometimes, they would just barely cover the top of the biscuit with the gravy. I would always get mad when I came up short on the gravy.
On my last vacation to New Mexico before I left Denver, I went to a McDonald's there. They had the Sausage Burrito, but they didn't have the Biscuit and Gravy. I was a little disappointed, but glad I could still get a burrito. However, when I ate it, I found that there were ONIONS in it. They didn't put onions in the burritos in Denver. I wondered whose idea it was to have a different recipe in New Mexico.
Not long before I left Denver, McDonald's stopped serving the Biscuit and Gravy. It was a real letdown. However, I was glad to see that they kept the Sausage Burrito on their breakfast menu and they didn't put onions in them. I still enjoy eating them to this day, even without the gravy.
You'll see on-line that some people miss the McRib when it's not being served and some people miss the McPizza (which I've never tried), but I'm probably the only person who misses the Green Chili Salsa and the Biscuit and Gravy. It's sad to know that I'll never have those again.
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