Breakfast for lunch

Today I’ll ponder an American success story that is also a part of daily life on Saipan. It’s a tale that has been mentioned by Time magazine, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among other big names. It’s high time the authoritative voice of the Saipan Tribune was added to the mix. So we turn our attention to that icon of culinary commercialization, the Egg McMuffin.

The Egg McMuffin, a breakfast sandwich by McDonald’s, has been around for over 40 years. In that regard, then, it’s old news.

It had a second debut of sorts last year when McDonald’s announced that it would offer some breakfast items (including the McMuffin) at all business hours in American markets. This was a big deal in business news because fast food is a major industry and McDonald’s is a major player.

Money, not eating, was the reason for the buzz.

When this business news hit the world, I wondered if Saipan would be considered an “American market” for the purpose of Egg McMuffin availability.

Eating, not money, was the reason for my interest.

Fortunately, the McDonald’s in Gualo Rai does, indeed, serve the Egg McMuffin outside of breakfast hours. The Garapan McDonald’s, by contrast, still keeps the McMuffin strictly in the breakfast slot. Anyway, if you need an Egg McMuffin, now you know how to get your fix.

Although I knew about the Egg McMuffin when I was in high school, I didn’t actually try one until I was in college. I was driving up the California coast one morning and didn’t want to get bogged down eating breakfast somewhere. So I whipped through a McDonald’s drive-through. A matter of seconds later I was back on the road. The McMuffin was easy to eat when driving, it didn’t make a mess, and it tasted good. I since spent much of my career traveling and the McMuffin was often an option on my list. I’ve always liked McDonald’s coffee, so the coffee-and-McMuffin mix had sort of a peanut-butter-and-jelly synergy going for it.

So, yes, I became a fan of the Egg McMuffin.

As for the origins of the Egg McMuffin, the product was not invented by the corporate side of McDonald’s, but rather by a California-based franchise owner by the name of Herb Peterson. As for the name, “Egg McMuffin,” it came from Patty Turner, the wife of a McDonald’s executive.

It is chiefly comprised of a fried egg, an English muffin, Canadian bacon, and American cheese.

Hey, that English-Canadian-American thing just occurred to me. This lends an air of international sophistication to things. If we add some French fries to the mix, well, mon dieu, I’ll have to start calling my beach chair a chaise.

The reported date of the Egg McMuffin’s launch by McDonald’s seems to vary by source, so I just consider it a vestige of the first half of the 1970s.

By the 1970s, car culture was well underway in the U.S. and two-earner households were also becoming common. Fast food meshed with an on-the-go and short-on-time lifestyle. The competition between fast food chains was intense. Their advertising campaigns filled the airwaves like artillery fire.

“You deserve a break today,” said McDonald’s.

“Have it your way,” said Burger King.

“Hot and juicy,” said Wendy’s.

“We do chicken right,” said Kentucky Fried Chicken.

“I want a Big Mac,” said my little brother. A direct hit by the Golden Arches! Dad was an ad man so he’d keep score. We were more than a family. We were a focus group.

Not that the focal-points all coincided. Mom didn’t approve of fast food. So Dad would occasionally fire up the Chrysler on the sly and sneak the kids to McDonald’s for a clandestine burger.

Actually, you can’t “sneak” a 70s-vintage Chrysler to McDonald’s any better than you could sneak a CVN-68 class aircraft carrier through the Tinian channel. Talk about a difficult mission. Welcome to the fast food advertising wars, where coupons were taken, prisoners weren’t, and focus groups were defended at all costs.

I am a sub-par breakfast eater. The few times I do manage to sit down for breakfast the occasion is basically social, since I’m a bigger fan of breakfast meetings than I am of breakfast. Come to think of it, I’m also a bigger fan of breakfast meetings than I am of meetings. If this confuses you, don’t worry, it confuses me, too. \

Still, the Egg McMuffin sometimes has a role in my day, mainly because I don’t have to plan for it to have a role at all. It is, in other words, a big deal because it never has to be a big deal. That’s the hallmark of an enduring product.