I’m guessing Flip probably means ‘Laksa’ - as in the malasian curry-style soup with noodles. What that would have to do with ‘Tandoori’ eludes me, since Malaysia is a reasonable distance from India, but then I don’t pay much attention to McD’s advertising.
Here’s a question in return: What’s the difference between a ‘sandwich’ and a ‘hamburger’. Here in Oz we would call all the things McD’s sell ‘hamburgers’ - to be a ‘sandwich’ it has to come between two slices of bread, not a bun. Are the two terms interchangeable in Forn Parts??
Thank you, Aspidistra! Long may you keep flying! I did search for “Laxa” and got even **more **lost.
As for your return question, well I would not call it a sandwich unless it were encased in slices of bread rather than a bun, but then in my Forn Parts (U.K., Scotland to be precise) a “bun” more often means something sweeter - between a bread roll and a cake, and I’d call the bread buns “rolls”.
Are you getting confused yet? Oh well, several nations divided by a common language!
–The McLobster of Maine got noticed by Top Secret Recipes in 1996. This was their introduction to the recipe:
Yes, this actually exists. On an excursion through some New England states I practically drove off the road when I first saw a sign advertising lobster at this fast food chain… That’s when I discovered that this unique sandwich is served only at select McDonald’s locations, mostly in Maine, for a limited time only during the summer months. It’s basically a lobster salad served on a hoagie roll with some lettuce, but with fresh Maine lobster.
Not interchangable–we would never call a sandwich a hamburger. But in situations where repetition demands a synonym for a bunned hunk of beef, “sandwich” can suffice. It is simply a nod to the fact that “sandwich” describes a partition of meat surrounded on two sides by a leavened flour product.
Further:
(1) Deli meat served on a bun (or roll) is still called a sandwich.
(2) A homemade burger in which cooked ground beef appears between two slices of bread (due to a lack of buns) is still referred to as a hamburger.
As everyone has said, it looks as though the sandwich is limited to the Cleveland area only. I know they aren’t featuring it out here in the Pacific Northwest.
What I wonder about though is Thome is rumored to be on the trading block. What happens if the Indians trade Thome before McDonald’s promotion ends? Will they suddenly start running it in whatever new city Thome’s traded to?
The trade rumors are rendered moot by Thome’s no-trade clause, which he has promised to invoke if necessary. Perhaps the taste of the Thome Triple has invaded his senses so, that he is unable to leave fair Cleveland.
Last summer while driving through New Mexico en route to Carlsbad, we stopped at a McD’s for breakfast and that particular store was doing a German promotion – bratwurst, hot dogs, and a cheeseburger with sauerkraut and meunster cheese. German themed McDonalds? In the middle of New Mexico? Weird.
I would say that “hamburger” refers to the ground beef. You could call a hamburger on a bun a “hamburger sandwich,” although nobody does these days. If you watch old 1950s teen movies you might notice them referring to “hamburger sandwiches and french-fried potatoes” – what we would call burgers and fries.
At a restaurant, your burgers and dogs (frankfurter sandwiches?) will usually be listed under “sandwiches” on the menu. But if your plan is to go out for a burger, you’re more likely to say you want a burger rather than something like “let’s go out for a sandwich.”
Burgers are a subset of sandwiches, but you usually go to a different kind of joint depending on whether you want a burger or whether you want a sandwich.
Here in Washington, D.C., of course, there are many good places to get a hamburger. There are, however, apparently no good places to get a sandwich.
Believe it or not, there is a sizeable German population in southern MN and El Paso. The Luftwaffe trains at Holloman AFB, near Alamogordo and at Ft. Bliss in El Paso. You can even see billboards in German outside Alamogordo!
Oh well, several nations divided by a common language!