He picked up his phone, smiled, stuck his thumb up, and snapped a selfie.

Below the image, he typed, “It’s been twelve years since I started this
journey. At last, I come face to face with my white whale (or is it a cod?).” He
sent it off to his forty-eight thousand-plus followers and then scrolled
through his timeline. Back to the beginning, to 2009, the Roy Rogers outside
of Toms River that still served the Cordon Bleu Gold, discontinued nationally
in 2005. That one had been pretty easy. Just a quick jaunt down the Garden
State Parkway. There and back in a short afternoon. Number nine on the list:
the McSalmon Fritters, which he'd found at a barely functioning McDonalds
outside of Homer, Alaska. That one had required more doing, an online
fundraiser and a series of puddle jumpers.
It had started as a lark, the quest for obscure and discontinued fast food
items. Something to do. To pass the time. Shits and giggles. After he'd
crossed number five or six off the list of twenty-five sandwiches and tenders
and salad shakers, though, the quest had taken over his life, become his
identity.
Frank was there to meet a man about a sandwich. Gordon Warmbacher,
franchisee of sixteen Arby’s restaurants across the upper Midwest and Great
Plains, about the legendary Mahalo King Cod Filet, to be precise. The Mahalo
King was the last on his list that included the KFC Turkey Tender, the Burger
King Ostrich Deluxe, and Taco Bell’s Cool Ranch Gator Taco, served
exclusively in Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. He had dedicated the last
twelve years of his life to tracking these items down and reviewing them for
his ever-increasing number of social media fans and fast food aficionados.
There had been tips. Whispers and rumors of rogue Arby’s restaurants still serving the
sandwich. Frank had followed one dead end lead after another for nearly a year and a half and
had been on the brink of giving up when he received a cryptic Direct Message from Gordon. It
could be arranged, Gordon said, but Frank would need to be discreet. Details needed to be
omitted, a certain degree of anonymity required. Gordon had a lot on the line.

How do you keep making it? The Mahalo King. It’s been, what, more than a decade since it was
discontinued?”

Amazing, isn’t it. Seems like it was only yesterday. I was just starting out with my first Arby’s
back then. What can I say? I just love this sandwich. I couldn’t let it go.

Voila,” Gordon said with a flourish of his hand. “I give you the Mahalo King.”

Frank took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Twelve years. Twenty-three thousand miles. Fifty thousand followers,” Frank recounted. “Can I
ask you, something?”
Shoot

“If you were reading my feed and you knew that I was looking for this sandwich, why didn’t
you call me sooner?”

Well, I supposed I could have done that, but it would have been a little too easy. Don’t you
think? I didn’t want to deprive you of the journey.”

Have you thought about what you’re going to do next