KFC and Me

I had only one thing in my mind when I left work- buy KFC. Two pieces, a bucket...it didn't matter. KFC recently opened it's first outlet in Chennai at the Ascenda Techno Park, Taramani. Considerably late.

Pity, Bangalore has two outlets, as far as I knw, the last time I eat in a KFC outlet there was in 2003, I had a burger. I remember seeing a PETA ad featuring the ever busty Pam Anderson exhorting people not to eat KFC. And Bangalore is not a metro. What's this with a lot of the major brands choosing Bangalore over Madras? The same goes for music bands. Ok enough ranting, back to the point.

So I waded through rush hour traffic from Mount Road to Taramani and finally got to the Ascenda park. The taste of some food products is so amazing that they stay in your taste glands for a long long time. They are hard to forget. Just like the movies, you will have a favorite movie you keep seeing even if TV channels telecast re-runs.

KFC is one of them. I can't forget the crispy, crunchy fried chicken, that smell from over 17 years back. My folks used to buy KFC every Friday when my dad was working in Kuwait. They had these freebies with every meal, the taste was so good you could keep going back for more.

Keeping all of this in mind, I entered the Planet Yum food court in the Ascendas IT park, a veritable selection of foods from major food chains, from pizzas to chat from Movenpick ice creams to Qwiky's espressos. I decided to go for an order of large fries for my sistah. Me, being a newly converted gym rat with more preference on protein and less carbs opted for a bucket of chicken, 8 pieces@250with plans of peeling the skin before sinking my teeth into the soft juicy flesh.

The smell was the same, it was the original fried chicken. Satisfied and armed with my treasure, I set for home. My head was reeling under that familiar sweet aroma of KFC's special fried chicken. I got home, got into my pj's, sat on the dining table, opened the bucket, took out a leg piece, poured some sauce on the plate and peeled the skin off the piece. I sank my teeth into it only to discover that there was limited flesh on the bone. More skin and less of the juicy flesh I had expected. What a disaster. All 8 pieces of it. Disappointing. I was used to the sight of KFC advertising whole chicken pieces with plenty of flesh. This was a shame. (BTB I didn't gobble 8 pieces in one night. I kept 4 for next day, satiating my appetite for protein)

Same smell, smaller chicken. Honey, KFC has shrunk the chicken. Buk buk bakaw.

I recalled reading a post on Rashmi's blog where Rasmhi posted a guy's rant about the KFC he had in India and charging a bomb for inferior quality food:

"When you bite into the chicken leg you would expect a certain amount of meat to be seen, the white fleshy part but no, instead you hit the bone. THERE IS NO FLESH ON THIS ONE..."

I did remember seeing veggie meals. Veggie meals in a chicken outlet? Gimme a break. Is KFC going the McDonalds way with their veggie Mctikkas and veggie burgers? Blech.

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