Friends Compete for Fanciest Fast Food Meal

— -- This is a tale of two Big Macs: it was the best of times; it was the worst of times for friends Mark Hayes and Jordan Plener.

Faced one night with insurmountable boredom, the two Canadian men dreamed up a crazy plan that quickly turned into a friendly competition.

“My friend and I love fast food – Big Macs in particular – and we were hanging out one night without much to do and thought, ‘Why not make some fancy Big Macs?’” Hayes told ABC News.

The pair set a few rules: they could only use what already comes in a Big Mac combo (meat, cheese, lettuce, pickles, bun, special sauce, French fries, soda), and they had one hour to finish.

“We actually got pen and paper out, and I took the first 10 minutes to draw a blueprint, so I came up with lots of different ideas,” Hayes, 29, said. “And then the tower came to me. I cut them out with an empty tea light candle and stacked them. It worked out well.”

Plener took a slightly different approach, trying to rearrange the ingredients into another familiar dish.

“You sort of think, ‘What ingredients do I have?’ Potatoes, meat and cheese,” Plener explained of his approach to the challenge. “I thought, ‘What dishes can I make with that?’ and obviously a very simple dish is shepherd’s pie, so I went from there.”

It turned out to be a useful strategy, since his faux-shepherd’s pie came out on top.

“The two of us realized there was no one to deem it a winner, so we went to Reddit and asked the community who won,” Hayes said. “Unfortunately he [Plener] kicked my butt, apparently.”

Hayes, head of communications for Shopify, isn’t letting the internet hate get to him, though.

“Who listens to internet commenters? I still think I won. Mine tasted better,” he said defiantly.

Despite who may or may not have “won” the competition, Plener still thinks it was all in good fun.

“I think people out there are spending their time watching YouTube and chatting,” the full-time lawyer joked. “We try to do activities that are a little more productive, like turning fast food into more fast food.”