• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 12, 2010 10:49 AM

McDonald's McRib sandwich -- a boneless pork patty molded into the shape of a rib slab and garnished with pickles, onions and barbecue sauce -- has been around since 1981, but sparingly. It's almost never available at all McDonald's restaurants at the same time, Julie Jargon and David Kesmodel report. And that, of course, means that some people out there track it down with the zeal of French black-truffle hunters.

"It has a ghostly quality," says one devotee, a 30-year-old graphic novelist named Ryan Dixon, who has driven 10 hours to imbibe one. "You don't know when it will appear. It's the girl who you are in love with who has always been a tease to you." The McRib has its detractors, however (as do truffles). Says one, who once saw a dog turn up its nose at the "mystery meat": "That's all I need to know."

There are almost 300 Facebook groups devoted to the sandwich, but McDonald's says it has nothing to do with them. It does say it has sold more than 60 million McRib sandwiches during the last three years, compared to about 1.5 billion Big Macs. And for about six weeks starting Nov. 2, it will be available at all of its U.S. outlets. "It doesn't sell well all year long because people get tired of it," says McDonald's USA president Jan Fields.

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