Five Irrelevant (but interesting) Things I learned at McDonald’s International Media Days

I am currently overwhelmed by information. The last few days were spent listening to leaders from McDonald’s and learning about all of the cool things happening around the world. We visited the Innovation Centre, were lucky enough to sample some of the unique menu items developed for different local markets, visited McDonald’s first "Green Restaurant" and spent time with Chef Dan in the test kichen.

More to come on some of this after I get a chance to sift through everything. In the meantime I thought I would post on some of the interesting and odd things I have learned over the last few days.

1. Chicago is very windy but this may not be why it is called the Windy City. The wind is a constant here. It is cold but even colder because it is so windy. I commented that the city’s nickname was well earned when I was told that in fact it may not be called the windy city only because of the weather but because of its reputation for long winded politicians.

2. I like Shaka Shaka Chicken.

Don’t worry. I didn’t know what it was either and even when I found out I was intrigued only because it sounded, well, a bit gross.

Shaka Shaka Chicken is on the McDonald’s menu in Japan and is a breaded chicken breast in a bag. You choose from one of 4 flavour packets (I chose cheese although I wish I had picked Hot & Spicy), open the bag and sprinkle. Then close the bag, shake it around, tear open and eat. Strange but actually not bad. It is part of their 100Yen Menu or Value Menu.

Also pictured here is the Southwest Salad from the U.S. which was a nice change with beans and corn and a fresh mix of flavours and the CBO (Chicken, Bacon, and Onion) from France which was quite good too.

3. A lot has changed since 1985.

Ah, yes. Remember the days of brown polyester, "time to lean is time to clean!", and employee of the month? Then you must have been a McDonald’s crew member in the ’80s too.

Visiting the "Top Secret" McDonald’s Innovation Centre today proved that a lot has changed since I had my first job there in the ’80s and technology has played a huge part in that. McD’s is launching a new global kiosk ordering system that we got to test out (sorry, no pics allowed). I love this because it means you can order at your own pace and the system was really easy to navigate. I was also happy to see that this technology is being used to launch a new system at the cash. Now images are used to make the ordering process more straightforward. No more sweating trainees trying to figure out what the tiny abbreviated buttons stand for.

4. There is, apparently, an overuse of cinnamon in North American.

I have to admit that this was not completely new news for me. I have heard it from many of my European friends but am surprised none the less every time it comes up. Today it was related to the McDonald’s Cinnamon Melt. Which, in my opinion, is about 4 times the size it needs to be but otherwise a delicious treat.

However, almost all of the European journalists found it too sweet and too, well, cinnamon-y.

5. Decomposing whales will explode.

Got your attention now, didn’t I? And this one’s a doozy. I heard this story from one of the international folks over dinner last night (and, yes, much to my chagrin there was food on the table at the time).

So here are the facts, in 2004 a 56 foot 60 ton sperm whale carcas was being transported through the streets of downtown Tainan, Taiwan when it blew up and splattered its inards all over the place. Why, you ask? Because gasses from internal decay caused it to explode showering shops and cars with rotten blood and guts. Yup. Needless to say it was an interesting meal.