Toasted Rice Burgers

According to a recent report in the Taipei Times, "McDonald's Restaurants (Taiwan) Co yesterday celebrated sales of its home-grown rice burgers, which topped 5 million units six months after hitting the market, saying the local taste may be available in McDonald's worldwide soon."

The article goes on to quote Shalom Chen (陳家祥), Senior Manager at the Communications Division of McDonald's Taiwan as saying "The fast-food chain started offering two types of toasted rice burgers, with a choice of either chicken or beef sandwiched between rice buns, in February this year. The items soon became one of the firm's best-sellers with a fresh taste."

With the double-whammy of good nutrition and Asian appeal, these products are being celebrated by the company. McDonald's chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific is said to have introduced the rice burgers at a Wall Street McDonald's Analyst Meeting recently.

Keep your eyes open for this possible new choice sometime soon.

Image: Taipei Times

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McDonald's Wiki

Wikipedia.org really did it this time. This wiki offers up more information on McDonald's than you may need.

While negative entries get more than their fair share of space, the site offers up a huge amount of interesting and useful information. This site is highly recommended if you have a little time to kill, or if you are wondering what is unique at the McDonald's in Sweden, Portugal, Taiwan, Fiji, etc.

Maharaja Mac anyone?

Image: Wikipedia.org

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Open Doors

The McChronicles recently posted about a behind-the-counter tour that was going on in Shanghai McDonald's while we were reporting from China. A new MSN news report reveals that this program is now spreading across the globe.

According to the report, "While McDonald's has allowed customers into its kitchens in some European and South American countries before, the so-called "Open Doors" campaign is being rolled out across 30 European countries simultaneously for the first time."

According to Peter Beresford, Europe northern division president at McDonald's, the company is now in the midst of a "a massive campaign" of "trust-building activities" with consumers.

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Hurricane Relief Continues

In a recent news story, it is reported that McDonald's is spending millions of dollars to locate and assist displaced employees affected by Hurricane Katrina.

According to the report in BillingsGazette.com, "With more than 4,000 employees from franchise- and company-owned restaurants still missing, more than half of its 8,000 workers there, it's a full-time effort with no end in sight".

The report quotes Janice Fields, president of McDonald's Central Division, as saying, "These are family members, and we are going to pull every stop to try and locate them," she said of the effort. "There is no place that I will draw a line in the sand. We will be going through some of this for one year, two years and even five years."

Check out the McDonald's hurricane Katrina disaster relief story. We liked it.

Image: Flick'r, posted by starmud

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Whoa! (Part II)

In a previous post, we mused about the source of this (and others) image.

Well, a loyal fan of The McChronicles has let us know that this is a screen grab from a Japanese McDonald's TV commercial. Thanks!

Case solved.

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Ronald McDonald vs. The Burger King

The McChronicles cracks up every time we view the newNFL football Burger King commercials. (view burger king football commercial 1, view burger king football commercial 2)

We were tipped off to these online video clips by our great friends at Fastfoodweblog.nl. The guys at that fast food site are always on top of awesome new events.

Anyway, the Burger King has been appearing in commercials lately. Frankly, The McChronicles felt he had been looking a bit dopey as he stared blankly, never speaking. In contrast, Ronald McDonald has always been quite active, though he leaves a fun yet sterile, too-careful kind of feeling. Perhaps that comes with his 2003-acquired "C"-Level title.

Recently, Ronald has re-emerged as a healthy, hip, athletic dude (retaining the too-careful edge). And the Burger King has now exploded onto the scene as a devil-may-care, super athlete who makes things happen in the NFL - the big leagues.

Yes, Ronald's new active lifestyle has him rubbing elbows with some pretty hip cats, but is he being overshadowed by the dashing and successful Burger King? We shudder to think what might happen if Ronald was playing defensive back versus the new King.

Perhaps McDonald's should consider taking a little risk, having some fun, and training Ronald up to Major League level so he can regain the top position in the fast food empire.

UPDATE 04 October 2005: See our newer posting on a suggested McDonald's NFL ad, in answer to the Burger King NFL TV ad.

Image: Gene Terinoni.com

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McChronicles Around The World

This is a site activity map for the McChronicles. Each dot represents the location of each of our last 100 visitors.

Our records indicate that visitors come to The McChronicles from virtually every country on Earth.
We've hosted visitors from Japan, Mexico, Slovenia, China, South Africa, Lithuania, Tasmania, Mongolia, Chile, The United States, Netherlands, Ukraine, Canada, Qatar, Venezuela, Indonesia, Morocco ... on and on it goes. We thank you all for your time, your comments, and your positive energy.

To everyone who spends time here (even for just a second), WELCOME. No matter what language you speak, or which country you are from, let's share our appreciation and enjoyment of a nice McDonald's experience and continue offering up ideas for continued improvement.

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