Monday, July 27, 2009

KFCs outside the States

We saw McDonald's in many city centers in Europe. In Milan, for example, there is a McDonald's right opposite to the grand Cathedral. While we were driving in Germany and Austria, we loved to stop by McDonald's, not because of the food but because of the free high-speed internet it offered. But we didn't see a single KFC in the European places which we visited. In contrast, KFC has flourished in China, and has become seriously localized. The Chinese KFCs sell, among others, boiled sweet corns, (Catonese style) rice soup with cured eggs (known as the thousand-year-old eggs) and pork (皮蛋瘦肉粥), and fried twisted dough sticks (油条)。The KFC versions of these things are pretty good. Even the traditional KFC stuffs like the spicy chicken wings and fried chicken legs taste way better than those in the American KFCs. The Chinese KFCs are not cheap at all, but cater to the (upper) middle class families and the trendy youth. The dining atmosphere, therefore, feels quite different.

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