How Reweti Kohere’s childhood nightmare became his go-to order.
When I was young, my dad’s favourite McDonald’s burger was a Filet-O-Fish. I’d screw up my face as he unwrapped the seafood blue wrapper, a Happy Meal kid put off by the fishiness of someone else’s fast food preference. There was nothing better than my McNuggets, cheeseburger, fries and small Coca-Cola. It was all the fuel I needed for the playground.
I ditched the Happy Meal as I got older, but remained faithful to the McNuggets and cheeseburger (mainly the single patty, though sometimes double and, for a time in 2016, even triple). The order did what McDonald’s is designed to do, comforting me with its utter uniformity and predictability. I knew what I was getting myself into.
I took a leap of faith recently, ditching the cheeseburger and recklessly ordering as my dad did all those years ago. With the once disturbing Filet-O-Fish burger box before me, I took a bite – and just like that my McNuggets days were over.
The Filet-O-Fish is rooted in inclusivity. Invented by Cincinnati, Ohio, franchise owner Lou Groen in 1962, the burger was his answer to falling hamburger sales on Fridays due to his restaurant being situated in a predominantly Roman Catholic neighbourhood. Many of his customers would abstain from eating meat (which the Catholic church defines as the flesh of warm-blooded animals) every Friday, so a fish burger could shore up lost sales. By the mid-60s the Filet-O-Fish was added to menus across the US.
Since then, the burger has become popular with Jewish and Muslim communities too, as its ingredients are more consistent with their dietary laws and practices. And the wider fanfare is real – in 1996, the Filet-O-Fish was replaced in the US by the Fish Filet Deluxe burger in a quest by McDonald’s to add a sophisticated note to its options. But the blowback was so overwhelming that the original burger was gradually returned to the menu. People don’t like when a tried-and-true is messed with.
Nutritionally, the Filet-O-Fish is healthier than most other fast food burger staples – by comparison, a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder has five times more saturated fat, nearly three times more sugar and double the salt. Taste-wise, the Filet-O-Fish’s subtlety befits its fancy French-sounding name. It doesn’t ooze fat like a freshly made triple cheeseburger. It doesn’t rely on the sweetness of ketchup or American mustard to amp up the flavour, nor the scaffolding of lettuce, tomatoes, pickles or onions.
The New Zealand version’s hoki fish patty, perfectly crumbed, isn’t as fishy as you’d expect; in fact, the tender flesh is sweet. The rich and tangy tartare sauce, flecked with pickle relish, gives a zingy kick, and the (controversial) half-slice of bright orange American cheese completes the burger’s umami-ness, all of which is housed in a pillowy steamed bun. The burger is greater than the sum of its parts.
When I was young, my tastebuds just couldn’t comprehend what I know now – that the Filet-O-Fish is McDonald’s best burger. Now I can enjoy one with my dad too.
