McAtlas is going to be a book! Plus a McSpaghetti preview
How the sweet marinara pasta became a staple at Filipino kids' birthday parties
NEW YORK, N.Y. — We interrupt our regularly scheduled jaunt around the world to make a special announcement: McAtlas is going to be a book! It’s scheduled to drop in mid-November, but you can reserve a copy (or two!) on mcatlas.com right now. By traditional publishing standards, this initial print run is going to be quite small and we expect to run out.
Also, that’s right, McAtlas is self-published. More details about how I’m doing that in the coming months, but the short of it is that I’m working with a couple of really smart people with decades of experience in publishing who are now doing their own thing. As someone who has never had a full-time job with a bit of an independent streak, I loved their energy and mission statement, and now they’re part of the team of people that will take this project to the finish line.
You can be a part of that team, too! McAtlas is a completely self-funded work of journalism many years—and hundreds of thousands of dollars—in the making, and it will be printed very soon. All of the pre-orders that we’re currently taking will help to cover the cost of printing and logistics, the final step in the process of making all of this work a reality. If you’ve been thinking of getting a copy when it hits stores or Amazon, now would be an excellent and dare I say better time to hop on the train.
Thank you so much for your support of McAtlas! So much more soon.
McAtlas is already getting press! One of the menu items in the book that’s been teased is the McSpaghetti, which is currently available only in the Philippines. The reason this item exists? Local tastes—and competition.
In 1975, Tony Tan Caktiong opened Magnolia ice cream parlor in Quezon City, eventually renaming the business Jollibee in 1978 as sales of hot items overtook the desserts. More Jollibee stores opened, but soon word got around that McDonald’s was getting ready to move into the Philippine market.
“They will eat you alive,” his friends told him.
Tan Caktiong was urged to sell his business or stand to lose everything to the global behemoth. He instead booked a plane ticket to the United States and returned with a playbook to fend off his future adversary. By the time McDonald’s arrived in Manila in 1981, Jollibee had a cartoon mascot to market to children, the crew members wore kid-friendly colorful uniforms, and Yumburger with a side of french fries were staples on the menu. There was nothing new that the American chain had to offer—in fact, McDonald’s had to become more like the local chain just to survive.
In 1978, Jollibee had introduced the Jolly Spaghetti, an Filipino re-creation of the spaghetti and meat sauce rations that were available to troops on the many military bases that dotted the archipelago. Tomatoes were in short supply, so cooks began using banana ketchup to create a sweet marinara substitute, which also often included chopped up hot dogs. Locals quickly developed a taste for the dish and it became a staple at restaurants and kids’ birthday parties. When McDonald’s arrived, they realized that without such a dish, they would lose out on their main target customer at the time: children.
McSpaghetti was introduced in the Philippines in 1986. Savory versions of the dish were tested in other countries and later removed, but in this market it’s a must. Every major American chain in the Philippines—KFC, Wendy’s, Popeyes, Pizza Hut—offers sweet marinara pasta.
McDonald’s, as it does almost everywhere else in the world, has grown tremendously to over 700 stores, making the Philippines their 10th largest market. But Jollibee has never ceded ground to their main competitor, and today has 1,200 stores across the country.