Did you miss the McRib?

It's been 16 years since the McRib has been available in McDonald's nationwide. This week it returns for a brief 20-day appearance that ends on November 22. That kind of multi-decade separation and brief reunion is the stuff of tragic love stories. For the McRib's cult of followers, it's a drama they know well. The McRib is a wanderer, a sandwich that can't commit. It does make quick surprise appearances in one section of the country or another, but then disappears for years at a time.

This is only the third time that the sandwich has appeared nationally since its debut in 1982. Last time it was lured out by a promotion with The Flintstones live-action movie. (Yup it's been that long). Since then this pork sandwich has been so difficult to keep track of in America that one fanatic opened an online McRib Locator.

As with many semi-dysfunctional relationships, it's hard to explain in words why people feel so strongly about the McRib. Eater.com describes it as "a boneless pork product conglomeration pressed into a rib-cage shaped patty and slathered in barbecue sauce." But to fans it's so much more.

Esquire magazine preyed on the saucy sandwich's shortcomings by asking McDonald's executive chef, Dan Coudreaut, how the rib shape is created since there are no actual rib bones or meat in the sandwich. (The patty is comprised mostly of pork shoulder and loin.) Chef Dan explained it like this:

It's a process called "chopped and formed." So they take these big cuts of meat, they chop them up into smaller pieces, and then they press it together and put it into a mold that looks like that rib shape. It's frozen very quickly, then when it goes into the restaurant, it's put onto our clamshell grills and cooked, and then helped with the sauce in the restaurant, and then voilà.

"Voilà?" OK, I guess it is a sort of magic that something that sounds so weird could be loved so desperately. I mean this sandwich deserves some respect. It has its own consumer-run Facebook pages, one of which is subtitled: "The best f----n sandwich at McDonald's."

Do you agree? If you heart the McRib, please tell us how you fell in love!

For more:
The most gag-inducing items ever found in fast food
Taste test: Burger King's new fire-grilled ribs
Oddball foods from favorite chain restaurants