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Where do the Japanese spend Christmas Eve? In line at the local KFC.
JAL used to be my international carrier of choice for flying into Asia. NorthWest, which I’d used to fly the world just kept getting worse and worse culminating with a flight to Bangkok when an old hag hired as a flight attendant started screaming at passengers during the middle of the flight. In coach I’d put up with that. Up front you are supposed to be protected from the riffraff, not exposed to it as part of the in-flight entertainment. My travel agent (remember those?) suggested I try JAL instead. I did, and I fell in love with the Asian version of the friendly skies. It didn’t hurt that they offered great deals out of Honolulu either.
Even back on the mainland I still used JAL for several years. Then I tried out EVA after hearing more and more travellers rave about the airline. They did even better than JAL, and I preferred the SFO-TPE-BKK route over landing at Narita. But EVA too is offering less and less while charging more and more so I’ve been thinking of changing yet again. JAL was once again in the running for my business. Until I heard their latest news this week. The airline has teamed up with KFC to serve the Colonel’s version of fried chicken on flights between Japan and the U.S.
The airline will only be offering the finger lickin’ good treat in coach and premium economy, so it’s not like I’d have to eat the stuff. But just the thought of the smell of a plane load of people chowing down on KFC is enough to turn my stomach. Couldn’t they have just stuck with fermented beans?
Ronald McDonald would never pander to the locals like this.
The good news is JAL will only be offering KFC as its in-flight meal from December 1 through the end of February. It is a special feast for the Christmas holiday festivities. Because nothing says Merry Christmas like dinner at the Colonel’s. Don’t laugh. In Japan, dining at KFC for Christmas in big business and a tradition for many Japanese families. So much so that KFC branches recommend reserving your Christmas Chicken at least two months in advance in Tokyo.
From a Westener’s perspective, the Japanese are known to eat some pretty disgusting stuff. KFC has got to top the list. Out of all of the things you can do to a chicken to make it edible, whatever it is KFC does to theirs has got to be the lowest of lows. I’d prefer dining on balut rather than having to try to gag down what they try to convince consumers is fried chicken. Noom knows he stands a better chance of getting me to eat at a seafood restaurant than at KFC. And when he does, I make him brush his teeth before I’ll kiss him. I don’t know why he just doesn’t stick to cockroaches.
But even as right as trading sushi for KFC seems to be, you have to wonder what in the hell the Japanese are thinking. Sure Christmas is a foreign idea to them, but how did they mix up the fat jolly guy in red with the old man in white who looks like he has indigestion? Never underestimate the power of Madison Avenue. Even if it is the Japanese version.
JAL has managed to make KFC look even more unappetizing.
According to the Colonel, the tradition of eating KFC – or Kentucky as it is known in Japan – at Christmas dates back to the early 1970s, when an expat customer at the chain’s Aoyama store observed that, in a land bereft of Yuletide turkey, fried chicken was the next best thing. The store’s canny manager was paying attention and passed word on to the higher-ups, leading the company to launch its ludicrously successful “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” (Kentucky for Christmas!) campaign in 1974 which centered around a pricey $10 chicken and wine meal. The rest is history. Or at least what passes for a Christmas tradition in Japan.
Company officials say KFC records its highest sales volume in Japan each year on Christmas Eve. The stores are so busy that even back office staff, including the president and other execs, head out to the frontlines to help. At some branches the wait for Christmas Chicken is two hours or longer. And KFC’s annual chicken push commercials are considered the start of the Christmas season in Japan. In Japan, Christmas is KFC.
Today, the traditional Christmas KFC party barrels sell for about $40 and includes fried chicken, a salad, and chocolate cake. But the holiday menu isn’t limited to fried chicken; KFC offers roast chicken, smoked chicken, even barbecue chicken for the Christmas Eve rush (fermented chicken has not yet been included in the offerings). The company says each store is limited in the amount of chicken it can fry, so they expanded the menu to make sure customers don’t go home empty-handed. KFC estimates it will sell more than 240,000 of their Christmas party barrels this year.
Of course the Japanese, not knowing any better, think chicken is what Americans eat for their Christmas meal too. That would only be true if Santa was out of lumps of coal and still felt the need to signal his displeasure with bad little girls and boys. Then again if the Japanese ever saw what the folk in Kentucky do consider as eatable – in Kentucky international cuisine means roadkill trucked in from Georgia – maybe they’d consider finding a new dining tradition for the Christmas holiday.
On second thought, roadkill might not be such a bad idea after all.
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You’ve successfully ruined my appetite (at least for food) for tonight. Thanks a lot, not!
Time for a little rant! I think the worst part when a Thai guy (to ensure that the Japanese get to share the blame with some others, my version of Fair & Balanced) subjects you to a KFC, Pizza Hut or McDonald’s “dinner” is that he often actually seems to love the food and cannot resist the temptation to praise it, while you’re already being sick in your mouth. Listening to this deluded and undue praise is even harder to stomach than the food itself. 👿
I hear you Alex. At Noom’s economic level, dining at a McDonalds is about face and status – spending the same for a meal for two that would feed a family of ten from a food cart just outside the door gives him a high. And you can see it in his attitude. I always laugh when that’s his suggestion because he won’t eat beef so his menu choices are limited. Being seen eating at McDonalds means more to him than eating a good meal.
Most USA fast food places I’ve pre-nixed (said no-way before the subject ever came up). But after catching a movie at MBK one night he wanted to eat at Pizza Hut. He loved it. I could barely swallow the piece I tried (and I love pizza!). But since it was his idea now I have to try to steer him elsewhere instead ‘cuz if I was honest and said the place sucked it would be a big no-no and the same as if I had called him stupid.
You guys don’t enjoy corn on your pizza or as an ice cream sundae topping? Go figure!
I just love it when Thai friends order a seafood pizza with about twelve different toppings including baleen, shrimp tails, mystery #1, lutefisk, and extra spicy mystery #2.
Sizzler is a favorite restaurant choice of my faan. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Sizzler in the States, but it’s only fair to take turns on picking restaurants. Fortunately, he likes my choices!
Sizzler is to beef what KFC is to chicken.
(But I have to admit corn as an ice cream topping is actually pretty good!)
seems an awfully long post just to show off about flying at the front of the plane …. 🙂
Really?
I’d think anything less than chartering a private plane wouldn’t be showing off. And that, of course, is only for the poor folk who can’t afford their own airliner.
J’accuse! It’s all coming together now. Jet charters, lover of Hawaiian beaches, extensive photo collections, and so many other eerie similarities. YOU are Beachlover!
Fuckstick!
Didn’t thing anyone would notice.
Now if I could just perfect my Aussie accent Beachball can rise again
Only Americans can roll out worldwide brands and ask premium prices for something what is really below par. It never amaze me how strong the brand reputation is. Even in the Middle East, after rioting against the USA, they go to McDonalds, send messages on Twitter and Facebook and listen to their iPods (and hoping for a green card to the Satan State).
Where Starbucks is now the international standard for gourmet coffee, I ask myself what is wrong with the world?
Only you guys didn’t succeed with with your automobiles, they really really suck.
Don’t hate us just because every human on the planet secretly wants to be an American.
And what’s wrong with our cars? What other country produces automobiles that get 8 mpg?
You really need to keep Noom away from Sizzler. It’s a step up from KFC in that the food is edible (but overdone) but it is, by Thai standards, expensive. You’ll drop maybe 1500 baht for 2.
But the whammy as far as Noom is concerned would be that, once you have ordered your main dish, there is a free buffet included – salad bar, cold cuts fruit, puddings and as many visits as you like. I don’t have to tell you about the magic of the word “free” to a Thai (even if you are paying through the nose for the main meal.) You might find yourself eating there every other night.
ROFL
I was gonna mention Sizzler before. I nipped that one in the bud – Noom looked like he was going to suggest it one night and I told him they only have beef (as a convert to Hinduism he now refuses to eat beef). And you’re right: that free salad bar would drive me to financial ruin!
No problem! Noom can charge it!
ROFL
Yes, credit cards are quite magical to bar boys. They don’t understand the part that involves paying for your purchases. But then come to think about it, most Americans don’t either.
How did “Noom, my bar boy friend and current love of my life” turn to simply Noom…?
I take it as a privilege to be part of ‘the family’.
PS: belated happy official birthday to Noom!
‘Noom, my bar boy friend and current love of my life’ is his full name. Simply Noom is his nickname.
🙂
And welcome to the family Oro.
I’ll be forwarding an invoice for your share of the cost for ‘our’ new buffalo.
Hey! I like KFC, Wendy’s and Pizza Hut. I also like MacDonald’s fish and chicken burgers (as a Toaist, I don’t eat beef either) but I can’t stand Starbucks (or any of the coffee ‘restaurants’) for all that every Malaysian below the age of 35 and who aspires to be trendy must be seen once a week at one of their outlets.
Perceptions of what’s ‘proper food’ has nothing to do with why so many Asians like KFC, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut and MacDonald’s or any of the other fast food places, I suspect. We’re pretty catholic eaters in general and simply enjoy the difference in taste from what we’re used to at home. Besides, we invented fast food so a few new varieties are just more things to try for variety, even if American ones cost that much more than our own. When it comes to what we put in our mouths, we Asians are completely non-discriminatory (ask any barboy who’s got a string of old fart ATMs if you don’t believe me!) LOL.
Yes, Starbucks is to coffee what Sizzler is to beef and KFC is to chicken.
(I just thought it’d be fun to see how far we could take that list)
People who love coffee do not go to Starbucks, that’s for those who don’t really like the stuff. That it is still considered trendy even in the U.S. says a lot about the average consumer. But I give the corporation, if not their product, major kudos. Krispy Kreme almost duplicated their success – Krispy Kreme is to donuts what Starbucks is to coffee, what Sizzler is to beef, and KFC is to chicken – but made the mistake of thinking they had a good product instead of a good trend. Soon their donuts were available at grocery stores and gas stations – bye bye Krispy Kreme! (Except in Bangkok – have you seen the lines at Siam Paragon!)
Guilty as charged, I don’t really like coffee and I only drink it about 3-4 times a month, but when I do so, I head straight to Starbucks. If for no other reason than the male Starbucks staffers at the Starbucks nearby my office being really hot and sweet.
Krispy Kreme’s appeal seems to be fading quickly in Bangkok as well, now that they have several branches. More often than not, the queue isn’t that outrageous anymore, and sometimes there isn’t any queue at all.
As Thailand’s first H&M store just opened at Siam Paragon, let’s just say that H&M is to clothes what Krispy Kreme is to donuts what Starbucks is to coffee what Sizzler is to beef and what KFC is to chicken.
ROFL
Well now you wouldn’t expect the Brits to join in with food now would you?
🙂
As for Starbucks, hotties aside, you are their targeted consumer, someone who really doesn’t like coffee. Actually I’m surprised they are not even more successful in Thailand where the idea of coffee without sugar and milk in it is an aberration.
so much good food .. and yet so many people just wanna eat shit !!
no wonder the western world weighs more than the east.
I know, it’s like, “Oh, chicken. Well that’s healthy for you. We need to put an end to that right now.”
How interesting Americans refusing to eat their own national dishes…hmmmm.
The south really isn’t part of America Al, we just let them think they are.
Some comedian joked recently that all of those red states that want to secede will get together after secession and they’ll call the new country “Mississippi.”
I heard the senate in Mexico voted to not accept Texas back.
Ahhh the deep south, creole country, Po’ boys etc. Yes I’m with you now.
(I still wanna try one of them too, maybe when I ever get to Louisiana, that where ya get them po’ boys ??
Yup Al, try New Orleans – for some odd reason they still have teeth there unlike in the rest of the South.
I used to have my opinion about KFC, MacDonald’s and all the other American style fast food joint… Just not a great fan of them.
UNTIL one fine day I came across on youtube a clip about how in the Philippines where leftover chicken pieces/bones were put into huge plastic bags and sold to the poor families for a few cents per kilo.
The look of delighted children from the poor families when they were served the leftovers and the soup (made from the same)…
Oh my heart just bleed!.
NOW I just do not want to make comments about food. Be grateful we have never been hungry and fortunate to have food on our plates.
So if I do have to occasionally “dined” at KFC, MacDo… I will
I thought you were going to say the kids getting the bags of chicken bones and pieces said it tasted like KFC.
My bad.
Surprising! Thought you’d fly Thai Airways 🙂 You haven’t tried Cathay Pacific or SIA?
I’ve flown all 3 but not on the long haul flights. I’m considering Cathay, have always heard good things about them and I like the idea of a stop-over in Hong Kong too.