[HN Gopher] For the Colonel, It Was Finger-Lickin' Bad (1976)
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For the Colonel, It Was Finger-Lickin' Bad (1976)
Author : sublinear
Score : 128 points
Date : 2024-07-13 08:30 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (kottke.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (kottke.org)
| sublinear wrote:
| > This ain't no goddam Tennessee Fried Chicken, no matter what
| some slick, silk-suited son-of-a-bitch says.
| KingOfCoders wrote:
| Every founder I have met after selling their company.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| Understandable (as in: I could see myself acting like that if I
| had a company to sell), but also, you sold it, what did you
| expect? Did you believe some legally not enforceable promises
| because you wanted the money and were willing to lie to
| yourself?
| KingOfCoders wrote:
| From my own experience - I didn't expect anything. But it
| makes you sad if what you have built and spent so much time
| on it is going down.
| fifilura wrote:
| There are many ways to loose control of your company without
| selling it upfront.
|
| For example if you take money from an minority investor with
| the promise of an IPO (so they can make profit from their
| minority share).
|
| After the company goes public, control is much more iffy. You
| may for example not have your place in the board anymore even
| though you are majority owner.
| nradov wrote:
| You're not making any sense. Unless the majority owner has
| a different share class with reduced voting rights then
| they can absolutely control the Board.
| fifilura wrote:
| Yeah brainfart. What i meant to say that in a public
| company you are expected to choose.
|
| Either you have control of the board or you are the CEO
| having control of the operations. Not both.
| nradov wrote:
| There is no such expectation. Some corporate governance
| experts prefer that the Chairman and CEO roles be split
| in order to prevent conflicts of interest and protect the
| rights of minority shareholders but there are many
| companies where a single person does both.
| bitwize wrote:
| Bill Gates was chairman and CEO of Microsoft for the
| longest. Have things changed since then?
| Etheryte wrote:
| This makes no sense whatsoever. If you're the majority
| holder then by definition you hold more than 50% of the
| stock and can force whatever resolution you see fit.
| Perhaps you meant largest holder, but without a majority?
| SargeDebian wrote:
| Or multiple stock classes, where done have more voting
| rights than others.
| jasonjayr wrote:
| However he sold it; they apparently, to this day have rights to
| his likeness. I would hope that would give him some power to
| call them out if they are making a lesser product in his name,
| all the while passing it off as his 'original recipe'
| fallingknife wrote:
| I love how in the article they just let him go back and walk
| around the kitchen and bitch even though he had nothing to do
| with the company at that point. Who's going to say no when
| you walk into a KFC and you're Colonel fucking Sanders
| davidhyde wrote:
| > "They really gag me, that's what I think of them"
|
| When asked about a new product line, what a quote!
| peanut_worm wrote:
| Miracle whip in coleslaw? Not sure I can trust his judgement
| fifilura wrote:
| Fantastic rabbit-hole for me as an European! I had never heard
| of Miracle Whip (or Miracel whip" (sic!) as sold in Germany)
|
| Maybe it is the secret ingredient to a perfect cole slaw? More
| sweet and more mustard. I would really like to try, but I need
| to find an import shop for this magic paste!
| sublinear wrote:
| I've made this before in a pinch and it's your usual homemade
| mayonnaise recipe except you deliberately add too much
| vinegar and as much sugar as your palate can take. If you
| want to get it even closer to what we have in the USA, use
| the lowest quality "vegetable oil" you can find.
|
| It's only purpose in my life is precisely that: coleslaw.
| astura wrote:
| For some reason it has a terrible aftertaste that ruins
| whatever it's on.
|
| It's definitely not just "mayo but with sugar and mustard."
| brewdad wrote:
| Like everything else in this article and thread, it
| probably used to be. Now it's mostly natural and artificial
| flavors held together by food chemistry from New Jersey.
| mywittyname wrote:
| I also hate MW on sandwiches and whatnot because it's way too
| sweet. However, most coleslaw recipes add a ton of sugar
| anyway. So I don't think the end result is that far off.
|
| The primary reason that I suspect he used MW is that it
| contains a yeast inhibitor (potassium sorbate), which seems to
| keep the yeast from turning the coleslaw into sauerkrautslaw.
| The Colonel probably didn't understand this, but knew the
| results were much better.
|
| I've made coleslaw both ways (mayo and MW) and I do think the
| MW keeps the slaw crunchier.
| sublinear wrote:
| > MW keeps the slaw crunchier
|
| It contains less oil in it than mayo. Corn starch is used to
| achieve this.
| _sys49152 wrote:
| man was a goddamned genius. _love_ the kfc coleslaw. im sure
| the miracle whip pairs well with the tarragon vinegar thats
| called for.
|
| heres a reddit link:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/food/comments/mq5ty/original_kfc_re...
| amiga386 wrote:
| Sanders in 1963 on _What 's my Line?_ -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk4Eq8IcQMk
|
| And a video on the history of Sanders' fight with KFC corporate,
| and what exactly is in the seasoning?
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WJYOgzFydc
|
| My takeaway is that Sanders cared about serving quality fast
| food, and KFC corporate cared about reducing costs and doing
| brand necromancy. The upshot is you won't get KFC chicken at KFC,
| just a pale, cheap imitation of the original, meanwhile the
| original recipe is still kicking about out there in other chicken
| takeaways (assuming they cook the chicken properly!)
| saghm wrote:
| > My takeaway is that Sanders cared about serving quality fast
| food, and KFC corporate cared about reducing costs and doing
| brand necromancy. The upshot is you won't get KFC chicken at
| KFC, just a pale, cheap imitation of the original
|
| Assuming that's the case, the anecdote in the article of him
| walking into the kitchen in a random KFC and berating the
| people for making the chicken the was they did seems a bit
| unfair; it's not like the random people working there had any
| choice in the corporate policies or autonomy to choose to make
| the chicken in a different way. I get that he was frustrated
| and that this wasn't the only way he tried to fight the
| changes, but it shouldn't be that hard to have a little empathy
| for the presumably minimum wage workers who are just there to
| earn a paycheck.
| ryandrake wrote:
| > it's not like the random people working there had any
| choice in the corporate policies or autonomy to choose to
| make the chicken in a different way.
|
| I'm torn on this one, and can see both sides. For any kind of
| mega-business, not just restaurant chains: If your goal is to
| correct corporate behavior, protest or "make things difficult
| for corporate" then there really aren't any good options. You
| could annoy the individual stores and/or frontline staff, but
| as you say they are usually powerless minimum-wage drones who
| can't change things, and even might probably be sympathetic
| to your cause. On the other hand, if enough people make the
| businesses unpleasant or do things at those business that end
| up _costing_ corporate, there is a slim chance that corporate
| might make changes.
|
| A big problem with mega-business style capitalism is that key
| stakeholders like employees and the general public are
| powerless. You can only change a business's behavior if
| you're either 1. shareholders or 2. customers via boycott or
| 3. regulators. Unfortunately, the non-customer general public
| cannot vote a corporation out, nor can they walk into their
| local WalMart and "complain to the owner of WalMart" like
| they can for smaller local businesses.
| iftheshoefitss wrote:
| Last fast food gig I had people were smashing stuff against
| the wall screaming haha you may be talking about the Narnia
| branches on bro
| eszed wrote:
| Went there _with a reporter from the NY Times_ , and put on a
| show in the kitchen. One hopes he didn't make a habit of
| "walking into the kitchen in a random KFC and berating the
| people", but this specific incident was not that at all.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| If you want the real thing you have to go to the restaurant named
| after his wife:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Sanders_Dinner_House
| e40 wrote:
| Went there as a kid. Can confirm it was insanely good.
| nunez wrote:
| apparently it burned down in four hours in 1999, but not
| before the Sanders sold that restaurant.
| 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
| "Heublein sued Sanders for this, and Sanders countersued the
| company for $122 million in 1974, claiming that Heublein was
| unlawfully using the Sanders face for products that he did not
| develop."
|
| According to https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1974
| that's approximately $763,222,484 today.
|
| If he was actually worth that much, why sell the company. For
| only 2 million.^1
|
| 1. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/12/archives/col-sanders-
| chic...
|
| "Heublein settled out of court with a $1 million payment to
| Sanders, ..."^2
|
| 2. https://www.tastingtable.com/1446327/colonel-sanders-
| compete...
|
| Seems like The Colonel cared less about the money and more
| about the chicken, gravy and biscuits.
| interpunct wrote:
| I guess he would need an "Extreme Makeover" to go on "Undercover
| Boss".
|
| My dad was the financial controller for a large pizza chain in
| the '70s--they used to send him into the field to do spot checks,
| which was progressive IMO.
| dsr_ wrote:
| It was a well-documented technique of quality control across
| industries by 1940.
| interpunct wrote:
| And still meticulously adhered to, I'm sure.
|
| I guess you mean "management by walking around"? For
| perspective, we had TQM in the '90s, which consisted of
| orders to tell TQM consultants that we knew where the TQM
| manuals were at, if we couldn't otherwise avoid "The TQM
| Bobs".
|
| The corporate headquarters building my dad worked in was also
| considered progressive and employee friendly in the '70s--
| with natural lighting and office noise abatement (with white
| noise piped in, for example).
| the_third_wave wrote:
| From the newspaper article: "I'll never go to India, I don't like
| to see people sleeping in the streets"
|
| The times, they are a'changeing and the Colonel would presumably
| "never go to (insert west coast city)" because of all the people
| sleeping (etc.) in the streets
| gumby wrote:
| Interesting that it only happens on the west coast, eh? You've
| never seen a homeless person anywhere else?
| spacecadet wrote:
| Yes, but there is significantly more of it happening,
| optically, on the west coast than anywhere else in the United
| States. What is San Diego's unofficial name? "The Home of the
| Homeless". Before you flame, I spent years touring the United
| States, living and photographing homeless people and
| communities. West Coasters should really stop getting
| defensive and take action, if it actually matters to you all.
| All that wealth... So greedily spent... All those people...
| laying in the streets... strung out on cra..."KFC"! Had to
| tie it back to avoid the rule crazies. ;)
| hasmolo wrote:
| imho it comes from western states not simply rounding them
| up. in atlanta, before the peach bowl the cops would
| descend on downtown, arrest all the homeless, bus them up
| to cherokee, and then the time it took them to return was
| greater than the length of the event.
|
| now that's a little less common and the yearly doctor
| conference has noticed the homeless and is complaining
| about it. i think homelessness is a consequence not of any
| one area but of the american way of doing things. we treat
| it as an incurable disease, like addiction, but that we
| don't care enough about to fix.
| spacecadet wrote:
| Thats why I said "optically", I actually agree with the
| sentiment that homelessness is often much worse and
| unseen in other parts of the United States- but! CA could
| do a-lot more given its wealth and desire to be seen as
| "thoughtful".
| gumby wrote:
| > CA could do a-lot more given its ... desire to be seen
| as "thoughtful".
|
| Uhh, what? The state that produced Nixon, Reagan, Prop
| 13; the capital of NIMBYism and the state that had more
| Trump voters than any other?
|
| Sure, California is wealthy and spends a lot on its
| citizens, especially the needy, but it also has strong
| countervailing pressure, more influential than you might
| think given the makeup of its legislature.
|
| A state is a big amorphous group and can't hardly have a
| "desire".
| spacecadet wrote:
| Sure. We are saying the same thing. But from my
| experience actually talking to people, they fancy
| themselves a thoughtful lot.
| mulmen wrote:
| > West Coasters should really stop getting defensive and
| take action, if it actually matters to you all.
|
| As a lifetime resident of the northwest and a current
| resident of Seattle let me say, sincerely, fuck you too.
|
| Your characterization of west coast residents as uncaring
| and inactive is inconsistent with reality. There is no
| shortage of people working on homelessness and related
| issues. Not every person has to spend every waking moment
| on your pet issue for it to be taken seriously. Everyone
| has different talents and homelessness isn't the only issue
| we face.
| spacecadet wrote:
| Classic response. Sorry. And yes, fuck me! I couldn't
| help either.
| akira2501 wrote:
| > living and photographing homeless people and communities.
|
| For your own benefit, or for theirs?
|
| > if it actually matters to you all
|
| You were there for a while, apparently. What did you do
| about it?
| spacecadet wrote:
| There was no benefit to anyone, I chose to be homeless
| and to spend time sharing their stories. I had no
| capacity to help them outside of small ways, food,
| shelter, voice.
| ido wrote:
| Have you ever been to India? I have, and have also visited the
| bad part of downtown San Francisco many times. Homelessness in
| major Indian cities is on a whole different scale - I remember
| taking a taxi ride through New Delhi at night, on some streets
| the sidewalks had people lying side by side (packed so tight
| they were touching other people on both side) for what seemed
| like _miles_.
|
| On the other hand they don't seem nearly as mentally unwell as
| the SF homeless.
| NikkiA wrote:
| I'm guessing he would refrain from going near kentucky then:
|
| https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2018/12/02/PLOU/f9cd1a27-...
|
| (Louisville)
| conception wrote:
| Here's the original seasoning mix -
| https://marionkay.com/product/chicken-seasoning-99-x/
| dylan604 wrote:
| "Ingredients: Monosodium Glutamate, White and Black Pepper,
| Fine Flake Salt, Sage, Coriander, and other natural spices"
|
| So if the first listed ingredient represents the most abundant
| ingredient...
|
| Also, such a cop out that the FDA has allowed "other natural
| spices" to be a legit listing. Supposedly to protect corporate
| secrets blah blah. What if someone is allergic to one of those
| "natural spices". Either we're for accurate food labeling for
| the public's safety, or we're not. This in between state highly
| suggests we're not.
| jajko wrote:
| Same would go for coca cola recipe, and many others
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > So if the first listed ingredient represents the most
| abundant ingredient...
|
| It's seasoning, so it doesn't seem surprising at all that MSG
| would be pretty high on the list. Do you think that's bad?
| dylan604 wrote:
| When some one says "secret recipe of 11 herbs & spices" my
| mind doesn't immediately jump to MSG as an herb or spice.
| Then to see that it is the primary ingredient definitely
| jumps out to me. Does it not to you?
| kemayo wrote:
| It's in the same category as salt, which I'd kinda expect
| to be in the 11-things "secret recipe", but which isn't a
| herb or spice.
| tekla wrote:
| Call it celery powder then if it makes you feel better
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Isn't celery powder a 'natural' source of nitrates? I
| didn't think of it as an analog to MSG.
| feerceKitteh wrote:
| Some people still hang on to the flawed science and
| xenophobic belief that MSG is bad.
| mort96 wrote:
| It's so weird to see this completely legitimate critique of
| food labelling standards is stitched on to a nothing-comment
| about seasoning containing MSG
| dylan604 wrote:
| How is it any more of a nothing-comment than yours? MSG is
| fine, but it definitely isn't what I would have imagined
| being the main ingredient. A little MSG goes a long way, so
| if that's the main ingredient, how little is used of the
| actual herbs&spices? I never said anything negative about
| MSG. You read that into it on your own instead of just
| thinking about the rest of what was implied
| mort96 wrote:
| The reason I called the MSG part a "nothing comment" is
| that it doesn't say anything, everything is left to
| implication. Nowhere did I say that you said anything
| negative about MSG, I was complaining about the total
| lack of substance. You just pointed out that MSG is the
| "most abundant ingredient" (meaning it makes up at least
| 17% in this case, I think).
|
| Anyway it doesn't matter.
| ryandrake wrote:
| I think it should go without saying that allowing
| companies to vaguely say things like "our product
| contains a bunch of stuff, trust us, bro" goes against
| the spirit of transparency behind the FDA's rules.
| zamadatix wrote:
| The FDA maintains a list of known allergens and they must
| always be listed if used as ingredients, even if they are
| seasonings/spices. Besides, if I put on a hard hat for safety
| but not a hi-vis vest then it doesn't make wearing the hard
| hat any less for safety. False dichotomies about it don't
| help move safety forward.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I get great amusement from seeing the accounts KFC follows:
|
| https://x.com/kfc/following
| dghughes wrote:
| I remember the day when KFC started "boiling" the chicken it went
| from crispy to soggy.
|
| Here in Canada currently there's big controversy KFC went halal.
| No more bacon!
| crazygringo wrote:
| Can you explain what you mean by "boiling"?
|
| It's very much deep-fried. And I've never had it anything but
| crispy, unless you seal it up in a container for too long while
| it's still hot.
| gruez wrote:
| >Here in Canada currently there's big controversy KFC went
| halal
|
| Source? Was it just the chicken or the entire restaurant?
| julesnp wrote:
| The entire restaurant.
|
| https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kfc-halal-menu-
| boycott-1.7258...
| petre wrote:
| Vote with your Canadian dollars, eat from restaurants who serve
| pork. It turns out that my countrymen love porchetta.
| crazygringo wrote:
| But when has KFC ever served pork or bacon?
|
| They're a chicken restaurant.
|
| Best I can guess is maybe they had a fried chicken sandwich
| that had strips of bacon too? But not really a huge loss --
| bacon is definitely not any kind of classic topping for fried
| chicken, the way it is for burgers. I mean, I _love_ bacon
| but I don 't want it with fried chicken. Bacon adds crunch
| and chewiness to a burger; fried chicken is already crunchy
| and chewy.
| petre wrote:
| Dunno, I never eat KFC food.
|
| I'd rather eat bacon than hormone infused chicken, fully
| grown in less than a month, pressure fried in a crust of
| MSG saturated dough, which is supposedly halal and Colonel
| Sanders actually hates. In fact I just went to the Italian
| store and bought almost half a kilo of porchetta because of
| what I read here. It'll keep us well fed for at least two
| days and has all the collagen my wife otherwise gets from
| awfully tasting expensive supplements.
|
| Praise the lard!
| gruez wrote:
| >I'd rather eat bacon than hormone infused chicken, fully
| grown in less than a month
|
| They're both hormone free.
|
| "Under Federal law, hormones are only approved for use in
| beef cattle, swine**, and lamb production. There are no
| hormones approved for use in the production of poultry,
| goat, veal calves, mature sheep, or exotic, non-amenable
| species"
|
| https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/
| 202...
|
| >pressure fried in a crust of MSG saturated dough
|
| The typical preparation of bacon basically involves it
| frying in its own fat. I'm not sure how pressure frying
| is any more worse. Moreover bacon contains nitrates and
| nitrites, which is known to cause cancer, unlike msg
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curing_(food_preservation)#
| Nit...
|
| >which is supposedly halal
|
| I think you're misunderstanding whether Halal means.
| Halal just means the food adheres to Islamic laws. It
| says nothing whether it's safe or healthy. Unless you're
| a practicing muslim (which seems unlikely), it shouldn't
| be part of your consideration one way or the other.
| lmz wrote:
| > Halal just means the food adheres to Islamic laws
|
| Also ritually slaughtered if that matters to you.
| redeeman wrote:
| it also implies paying protection money to be halal,
| which goes to spread islam in the west
| brewdad wrote:
| They must be doping them with something because I've
| encountered chicken bones that aren't even fully formed
| inside of chicken thighs that are above average in size.
|
| My MIL used to be a food scientist and spent a few years
| working with Tyson. She hosted a party once with chicken
| wings twice the size of my hand. I refused to partake of
| them especially since she wasn't allowed to tell me how
| they got so big.
| crazygringo wrote:
| You realize that KFC chicken is just the same chicken you
| buy at the supermarket?
|
| It's an urban legend that KFC somehow raises its own
| chicken that is somehow different, whether genetically,
| chemically, or speed of growth.
|
| I mean, if you prefer the taste of pork over chicken then
| great.
|
| But the idea there's anything uniquely bad about the
| chicken supplied to KFC is just factually untrue.
|
| Also, since you really like Italian food, you might be
| surprised to find that Parmesan cheese is chock-full of
| MSG. Which is a major reason why it's used so much in
| Italian cuisine to impart flavor. MSG isn't bad -- it's
| umami, just like NaCl is salt.
| petre wrote:
| We don't buy chicken at the supermarket. Our parents
| raise chickens.
|
| Fake supermarket parmesan? Probably. Parmigiano Reggiano
| DOP, not really.
|
| "The only additive allowed is salt, which the cheese
| absorbs while being submerged for 20 days in brine tanks
| saturated to near-total salinity with Mediterranean sea
| salt."
|
| > Moreover bacon contains nitrates and nitrites, which is
| known to cause cancer, unlike msg
|
| We don't buy bacon treated with nitrates and nitrites.
| That's 95% of supermarket bacon. We mostly end up buying
| prosciutto, which is just dried, salted and nitrate free
| or use home made bacon, which is basically 100% pork fat
| in my country. The Italians also make it, it's called
| lardo and it's cured with herbs. We only cure it with
| salt and smoke it. I'm not much of a fan of 100% pork fat
| or lard, but it does make good fries.
| gs17 wrote:
| The glutamate they're referring to is naturally a part of
| parmesan cheese. It doesn't need to be added.
| ejj28 wrote:
| I used to work at a Canadian KFC and it's just like you
| guessed, occasionally we'd have a special sandwich for sale
| for a limited time that had strips of bacon on it. Normally
| we wouldn't have any pork products on the menu, and when we
| did have bacon I'm pretty sure it was microwaved.
| PorterBHall wrote:
| Seems like an early example of "enshitification."
| nunez wrote:
| enshitification is just a convenient name for a thing that's
| happened to every company that goes public/gets acquired by PE
| since the markets cared about "growth, growth, and growth,"
| which started in the 1960s.
| nunez wrote:
| I would have loved to see him write a "I will fucking piledrive
| you" style blog post on modern KFC.
| dzink wrote:
| The first and second times I visited KFC in the US I was shocked
| there were no vegetables in their sandwiches. Other than the
| corn, and coleslaw, no lettuce or other ingredients in the
| sandwiches. In europe, and China and any other country I've seen
| KFC they have amazing Zinger sandwiches with lattice and sauces
| and grea flavor. We make it a point to never go to KFC in the US.
| infotainment wrote:
| One thing I find utterly depressing is how literally every
| American fast food chain has infinitely better quality and
| taste in their overseas locations.
|
| Evidently they save their absolute worst products for their
| home market.
| spywaregorilla wrote:
| well the flip side take is that other countries put a premium
| on the american brands we consider trashy
| CrazyStat wrote:
| In Managua, Nicaragua ca. 2000 McDonalds was a sit down
| restaurant with waiters.
| JackMorgan wrote:
| It was the same growing up in San Jose, CR. My friends
| would always meet up on Saturday nights at the Burger
| King next to the San Pedro mall. It was so fancy!
| American fast food wasn't cheap either, probably 2-3x
| more expensive than most other places you could eat in
| town.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Was it the same food as we get in the US, just with
| better service/setting?
| SoftTalker wrote:
| In my experience, yes. A Big Mac is a Big Mac pretty much
| everywhere. The non-US stores do often have some menu
| items that are targeted to local tastes, that you would
| not see in a mainland US store.
| podunkPDX wrote:
| The McDonalds in Rome near Termini had an _amazing_
| desert bar!
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I wonder if the international franchises have more
| freedom to vary the menu? I'd guess the standard
| signature items like the Big Mac and fries are pretty
| much mandatory though.
| rdedev wrote:
| This was a shock to me. During college back in India I had
| a friend who used to live in Canada. When I suggested going
| to McD for food, he was like no it's too trashy and the
| food is bad. I couldn't believe that cause the lines at McD
| were long.
|
| After coming to the US I understood what he meant. Burger
| king in India is almost gourmet compared to what you get in
| USA
| adamomada wrote:
| And Burger King in Italy IS gourmet. You have to compete
| with your competitors, in North America it's a corporate
| franchise fast food wasteland and the bar is set
| exceptionally low.
| m463 wrote:
| sometimes. I remember trying a pizza from an US chain in
| mexico and it wasn't like the US version (not as good).
|
| Of course it was fast food pizza, so you get what you get.
| brookst wrote:
| I'd say they're responding to different market demands.
| TehCorwiz wrote:
| Yeah, the rest of the world has laws that demand minimum
| product quality.
| daseiner1 wrote:
| I'd love to hear the inside baseball on how a committee
| determines "minimum product quality" for a fried chicken
| sandwich.
| UberFly wrote:
| Right, or they force you to order lettuce and tomato to
| peel off or no sandwich for you.
| ryandrake wrote:
| There is probably a valuable formula hidden in a safe at
| KFC showing how little chicken and how much
| breading/sawdust they can get away with using, to
| optimize profit.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Definitely. Dining out regularly, even at fast food places,
| is not necessarily a usual, or normal thing for lots of
| Europeans. Most "middle-class" people I know, like teachers
| or so, dine out probably a few times a year to celebrate an
| event. Groceries are cheap and fresh and people have less
| disposable income in Europe, generally. Fast food's biggest
| competitor is home cooking. It's also the reason why we
| prefer (or preferred) diesel vehicles here.
| opo wrote:
| This likely varies by country in Europe and even what
| part of the country (rural vs urban). For example, a
| survey done in Germany found the following distribution
| of how often people went to a restaurant:
|
| Once a month: 44%
|
| A few times a month: 34%
|
| Once a week: 13%
|
| Several times a week: 7%
|
| https://www.statista.com/statistics/1085317/dining-out-
| habit...
| flenserboy wrote:
| That's because the US is a profit farm for US corporations (&
| a tax farm for those making bank on US foreign policy) so
| they can subsidize the rest of the world. Food, medicine, you
| name it -- bottom-of-the-barrel service & quality for the
| average person & below in the US at top-dollar prices, & the
| people in the middle & below classes think they're doing well
| because it's all they know.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| >That's because the US is a profit farm for US
| corporations....so they can subsidize the rest of the
| world.
|
| Do you mean the corporations subsidise the rest of their
| corporations (ie cheap usa kfc supports mmm-lovely jpn kfc
| etc), or the subsidies extend to 'the rest of the world' in
| general?
| ryandrake wrote:
| I think what OP is saying is that corporations can charge
| USA people absurdly high prices for terrible quality
| stuff (reaping huge profits) because we allow it, whereas
| overseas, the same corporations have to accept lower
| margins and provide better product/service because non-
| Americans _wont_ accept it. Not sure I 100% buy that, but
| it does sound kind of truthy.
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| The McDonald's I went to in Vienna Austria was horribler on
| every level.
| dzink wrote:
| In the US they aim to become a local monopoly through rock
| bottom prices, while abroad they are an upscale location with
| premium prices where people go to treat mostly their kids.
| McDonalds abroad I've seen had Hollywood theme or Elvis
| theme, etc. It's a piece of US culture with the same big macs
| but broader menu.
| m463 wrote:
| I think in-n-out is pretty good. It seems when the founders
| died, the formula wasn't changed afaict.
|
| That said, they haven't spread far from their original
| locations.
|
| I also remember going to five guys and there was something on
| the wall about the ingredients never frozen. Five guys is
| lots more expensive though.
| bsder wrote:
| Other countries often have much stronger regulations about
| what is considered to be "food".
|
| For example, McDonalds often has to use _actual beef_ in
| their overseas hamburgers as opposed to the "beef sludge"
| that they use in the ones in the US. McDonalds in Italy
| served a hamburger like I remember from back when I was a
| child.
|
| This is not universal, however. Hamburgers in the UK seem to
| be uniquely terrible, for example.
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| > McDonalds in Italy served a hamburger like I remember
| from back when I was a child.
|
| Also they sometimes have _really good_ espresso bars right
| there in the restaurant.
| alexjplant wrote:
| I live in the US and am constantly disappointed by the fact
| that I have to pay extra to add onions to my Taco Bell burrito
| or lettuce and tomato to a McDouble (typically when on a road
| trip with friends). As it turns out this might be attributable
| to companies optimizing for consumers' dollars instead of
| flavor preferences [1]:
|
| > "They liked flavorful foods like turkey tetrazzini, but only
| at first; they quickly grew tired of them. On the other hand,
| mundane foods like white bread would never get them too
| excited, but they could eat lots and lots of it without feeling
| they'd had enough."
|
| > This contradiction is known as "sensory-specific satiety." In
| lay terms, it is the tendency for big, distinct flavors to
| overwhelm the brain, which responds by depressing your desire
| to have more.
|
| It probably also has something to do with the fact that people
| often equate "vegetables" with unseasoned, boiled slop like
| spinach and broccoli instead of more delicious preparations
| like grilling, broiling, roasting, or sauteeing with a liberal
| amount of seasoning. Brussels sprouts, for instance, are
| incredible when broiled and tossed with olive oil (or, even
| better, bacon fat!) and carmelized onions but are nigh-inedible
| if scooped out of a stock pot full of hot tap water.
|
| [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-
| extraordinar...
| qingcharles wrote:
| The sad thing is, whenever I would land back in the UK for a
| visit I would always go straight to a KFC and grab a British
| Zinger because they were so much better than anything sold at
| the American restaurants.
| gramie wrote:
| I remember eating KFC in Japan, about 15 years ago, and it was
| markedly better than we get in Canada.
| jasoneckert wrote:
| Fun fact: After selling out in the US, Colonel Sanders moved to
| Mississauga, Ontario, Canada to oversee the Canadian operations
| to ensure that the quality was of his liking.
|
| When I grew up in the 80s in Canada, KFC was incredible, as were
| all of their items. At age 12, I scored a job working there too.
| During that time was when they announced their crispy chicken
| variant in Canada and "new taste" - but what we saw were new
| flour bags (we had to throw out the original flour bags), new oil
| in the cookers, new processes (no more soaking the chicken for 15
| min before frying), and gravy that was made from a soup packet.
|
| And while the chicken tasted the same, it was far more greasy and
| disgusting to handle compared to beforehand - and everyone
| noticed. I remember our manager telling us "Well I guess we now
| have to make it US style. But our prepared cost went from 11
| cents per piece to 8 cents per piece after all bills are paid."
| elchief wrote:
| KFC has been garbage for decades, at least in Canada. I hope
| Popeye's eats their lunch
| sublinear wrote:
| Not sure if this is also true in Canada, but Popeyes now sells
| some of the worst quality fried chicken since 2020.
|
| They haven't even been anything close to "Louisiana inspired"
| in years. This is supposed to be their brand differentiator,
| but I haven't seen jambalaya or gumbo on their menu in over a
| decade. Most locations in my area haven't brought back the
| seafood since 4 years ago despite being on the menu (always out
| of stock).
|
| I don't see any of these legacy brands ever being on top again.
| Their most recent idea is selling some nasty soggy wings that
| are now routinely given away for free with any order. It's
| about as ironic as it gets that these wings didn't take them to
| new heights.
| astura wrote:
| >I haven't seen jambalaya or gumbo on their menu in over a
| decade.
|
| Probably because nobody wants it?
|
| I worked for Popeyes 25 years ago. We never had gumbo and
| people would order jambalaya like every other day, if that.
| Literally everything was more popular than jambalaya.
| sublinear wrote:
| It was probably true back then for the same reason nobody
| wants wings from pizza hut today either :D
|
| All I was saying is that it was on the menu in the past and
| the decline in quality has been steady for a long time.
| It's as if it's built into their long term strategy for the
| business.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > Most locations in my area haven't brought back the seafood
| since 4 years ago despite being on the menu (always out of
| stock).
|
| I don't know, I'm kind of okay with that. Seeing seafood
| offered in very land locked locations has always been suspect
| to me. In a fast food place, I'd doubt it was actually
| anything other than imitation version anyways though so
| what's the point?
| Yhippa wrote:
| I feel like Popeyes had a random moment during the pandemic
| when the released their dark meat fried chicken sandwich
| which was initially good, but when the hype died down, they
| regressed to their normal fried chicken quality: bad.
| alsetmusic wrote:
| I used to have a photo of a man who owned a KFC with The Colonel
| on my fridge. Shot in the 70s, from his appearance. The man was
| our customer when I had a retail gig and gave me the photo. I
| wish I still had it. Here's to Bernard.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| A 1970s KFC franchise was a profitable thing to have .. lots of
| people who come from working class background had a chance to
| connect to "big business" and get a real economic lift. After
| seeing how some people genuinely struggle about money, it is
| hard for me to be wholly critical of the business, major flaws
| and all...
| Mistletoe wrote:
| The real Colonel sounds amazing. Every time you guys exit your
| company to private equity, or sell it to some huge conglomerate,
| realize this is what will happen to it.
|
| > My God, that gravy is horrible. They buy tap water for 15 to 20
| cents a thousand gallons and then mix it with flour and starch
| and end up with pure wallpaper paste. And I know wallpaper paste,
| by God, because I've seen my mother make it.
| LiquidPolymer wrote:
| As a kid in the early 70's my dad would bring home a bucket and
| it was an amazing treat. As an adult near 60, I cannot eat
| Kentucky Fried Chicken. The few times I've tried the crazy level
| of salt* is repulsive and I feel awful afterward. I don't know if
| this a change in my sense of food, or change in the KFC product.
|
| *My wife's family salts everything to hell and back. I think this
| is because their sense of taste is declining. So perhaps I've
| been gifted a sensitive palette that has not lost much with age.
| Its worth mentioning that my in-laws struggle with obesity,
| diabetes, and high-blood pressure. I'm thankfully afflicted with
| none of these things.
| crawfishphase wrote:
| Sanders might sound A LOT like Gordon Ramsay in this article, but
| I doubt Gordon ever shot and killed a man over a turf war and
| beat up one of his legal clients. I think I remember hearing the
| Colonel beat down at least one of his bosses. He must have coated
| himself in restaurant-grade teflon as he seemed to get away with
| it.. Should have called it Gangster Fried Chicken.
| zamadatix wrote:
| Sanders never killed anyone either. He was involved in a
| shootout where the other guy shot and killed the gas station
| manager, Sanders' involvement was shooting said guy who lived
| and later went to jail as a result of killing the manager.
| crawfishphase wrote:
| ahh my bad, all these years I was wrong- I see now that The
| Colonel rode up with two of his armed employees and got one
| of them killed and his competitor (Stewart) jailed who died
| by gunshot about 2 years later. Some say the cop that shot
| him was payed off with white buckets full of cash. Soon after
| the Colonel's gas station started selling white buckets full
| of addictive fried chicken infused with herb and spice and
| the Colonel married Stewart's daughter-in-law. Later,
| Stewarts daughter became the Colonel's right hand, and
| managed a big operation for him. She is quoted as calling the
| Colonel "a straight shooter". One big happy family style
| story. Someone should make a movie
| zamadatix wrote:
| It's Kentucky in the early 1930s, driving up unarmed would
| be noteworthy in itself. It's tempting to make the story
| more interesting but is "local gas station owners get into
| a gunfight and one goes on to make KFC" not interesting
| enough without feeling the need to turn it into a
| blockbuster plot about a fast food gangster?
|
| I hadn't heard Claudia was Stewart's daughter-in-law before
| though. I mean I'd believe it, if you've never been there
| Corbin isn't a particularly large town, but I also can't
| find any actual reference to it either.
| crawfishphase wrote:
| the other details are also relatively true. The Colonels
| employees were armed and yelled at Stewart. Stewart was
| killed by a cop and rumors say he was paid to inflict
| retribution. Sanders married Claudia, who was Stewarts-
| daughter's-husband's-sister (Ona May Stewart married one
| of Claudia's brothers) and Sanders later co-owned a
| business with Stewarts daughter , Ona May. Straight
| shooter quote is true. KFC was born in the gas station
| near where it all shot off. Many do not know- To become a
| Kentucky Colonel, the Governor of Kentucky needs to sign
| off on it. They have a handshake and a song.
| zamadatix wrote:
| Relatively true in that most of these things are
| somewhere between a slightly off base and completely
| false. E.g. Ona May said "I always knew I could count on
| him" but "a straight shooter" was written in 2022 as an
| article ending pun for
| https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/kfc-colonel-sanders-
| shoot-..., not part of the Ona May's quote. The book
| referenced is actually a decent read.
|
| Another interesting note on Kentucky Colonels is the
| title largely turned into a joke due to being over
| assigned for political preference, e.g. Sanders ended up
| getting his during such a wave in the 30s. There have
| been about 350,000 assignments and the governor no longer
| even bothers trying to hand sign them anymore. One guy I
| know got the title for filing a patent that hasn't even
| been commercially used.
| crawfishphase wrote:
| "One guy I know got the title for filing a patent that
| hasn't even been commercially used"
|
| Make him sing the song for you. Also, who do you think
| would win in a cage-match? The Colonel or Ray Croc?
| COGlory wrote:
| Sanders killed anyone. He was involved in a shootout at a gas
| station, and a gas station employee got shot by his shootout
| opponent and killed, which effectively won Sanders the turf
| war.
| paradox460 wrote:
| Amusing that he griped about Tennessee fried chicken when the
| original restaurant was in Utah
| pseingatl wrote:
| Here's the recipe for the Colonel's original herbs and spices
| seasoning:
|
| https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/08/19/kfc-recipe-reveale...
| oe wrote:
| Could someone copy and paste it here for us lowly EU folks?
| nanoxide wrote:
| https://archive.ph/jzgsP
| detourdog wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYSo8zTrTAs&list=PLgOb3zseg1.
| ..
|
| These Glen and Friends Cooking videos of North American
| cuisine development are top notch.
| crtified wrote:
| I cook versions of this on the regular. I say versions, because
| simply having The Official Recipe is only half the battle. The
| actual flavours and strengths of the individual herbs and
| spices can vary a lot by brand, and by country, and by source,
| and other factors.
|
| My main takeaway (PNI!) is that the white pepper and the smoked
| paprika together are the heart of the KFC flavour. The rest
| just augment, refine the flavour. And of course, the salt
| and/or MSG go a long way.
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