Bucket Guy

I’m not sure at what point this blog became devoted to fast food and binner culture, but here we go. KFC have taken a lot of flak recently with the KentuckyFriedCruelty campaign (Pamela Anderson Lee amongst others narrate chicken maltreatment vids). The animal rights guys are doing well – if you Google ‘KFC’ they’re the 2nd or 3rd link, right under the official website. Terrifying if you’re the KFC bosses. Chickens rights are also the subject of the no doubt expensive www.mailorderchickens.com, starring Helen Baxendale and other Brits trying to, well just check it out. It’s a very nicely done site, by the sofake guys, but the chicken thing gets a little thin after a while.

So I went to KFC to see if I could taste any evidence of mistreatment in the chicken. Got the usual of Colonel’s Meal (3 pieces of original recipe chicken, Pepsi, chips, coleslaw).

I guess I’d better stop here to explain that I love KFC. It forms part of the food triangle (McDs, KFC and Burger King) that you need for a culturally balanced fast food diet.

Of all the big 3, it’s the most socially niche. I’ve keep on meeting people who have never set foot in a branch of KFC (posh people). It’s difficult and messy to eat, so it isn’t the ideal thing to have before going out (that honour goes to the Burger King Bacon Dbl Cheeseburger), and you can’t even type or surf the net at the same time – eating KFC is an “eating occasion” more than any other fast food on the high street. It’s also the only one of the big three that has the element of sharing, and the fun of identifying your favourite cut of chicken as they come out the Mega Bucket. And to top it all off, they have the best music in their restaurants. During the course of meal I got Otis Redding – Hard to Handle and Carla Thomas – B-A-B-Y; two classic soul tracks which both brought a big smile to my face. So I like to sit and really take my time over it. The Queensway KFC has the added bonus of being underground so my phone doesn’t end up covered in grease when I have to answer it.

On with the meal. Chips now unsalted – why? It can’t be that they needed to get the official salt figure on their meals down, so just stopped putting salt on the chips? Can it?

Now Unsalted


So I had to try adding the salt myself, which I massiverly overdid. Nice though.

Now Salted


Chicken was sublime as usual. Really crispy outside.

On my way out Add it! Add it! Add it! Go on… why not? This sign is just in the wrong part of the store. Plus I’m a purist – hot wings and beans never did it for me.