Kentucky Fried Candles

Sometimes a product comes along that's just so ingenious, so fantastical and so downright obvious that you wonder how nobody has ever thought of it before. One such product arrived this week in the form of fried chicken scented candles. Made by a company called Kentucky for Kentucky, the candles promise to 'Let the fresh, fried sizzle of savory golden goodness drift into your hearts and homes with one of our most delectable creations to date.'

Made by a lady called Kathy Werking (presumably some kind of relative of the Colonel himself), we found the following explanation of the manufacturing process: 

"To make these candles, she fries chicken in all-natural soy wax and adds an infusion of family secrets"

Note of course that she uses family secrets rather than explicitly listing the presence of the fabled 11 secret herbs & spices. However if our theory about her being a relative to the Colonel is correct, she may well have access to the treasured information.

The candles cost $22 dollars and are available here. But hurry, they're only making 25 and obviously, we've already purchased 24. 

KFB Tries the Double Down

Nearly two years after its US debut, KFB found itself in Miami, ostensibly to go to Wrestlemania 2012 but with the real reason being to sample the incredible Double Down Chicken Sandwich we'd heard so much about. This is a burger that's created  real waves in the fried Chicken world and has appeared in branches around the globe including Japan, Australia and the Philippines.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Double Down, what I am about to describe should astound and delight you in equal measure. The double down sandwich may be a misnomer, for calling this a sandwich implies the presence of bread. This radically bold concept dispenses with the bread and instead uses two fried chicken breasts to 'sandwich' a delicious filling of cheese, sauce and bacon to produce one of the greatest 'burgers' KFB has ever sampled.

Behold the KFC Double Down

For those of you who haven't visited the US or have partners, wives or girlfriends who wouldn't be amused by, let alone tolerate, countless hours of what they would describe as wasted expensive foreign holiday time searching for a KFC, let me explain that the distribution of KFC's in the US is quite far removed from our UK High Street / Retail Park model. Even in a busy American city centre, branches of KFC are hard to come by and so it was only after a long walk that we found the one we were looking for.

I scanned the menu and found to my horror the Double Down didn't feature, with only the measly looking 'Doublicious' burger on the menu. Still holding out hope to the very end I asked my server if they they had the 'Double Down' and she said they did. That answer, far from eliciting joy, produced a nervous wait whilst I worried whether my Queen's English had been misunderstood by someone more used to deciphering the southern Florida drawl and whether or not I would be presented with the aforementioned, closely named but clearly sub par 'Doublicious' burger.

However, the genuine article was presented to me and it was some time before my pleasure at simply seeing it was replaced by the desire to devour it........and I was not disappointed.

And for those of you who didn't believe the Wrestlemania cover story here's my best Hulk Hogan impression:

KFC Offers Edible Reward for Missing Colonel Sanders

As disrespectful as this act was, it's really ruffled some feathers and served up some finger lickin' chicken related puns. (I'm sorry)....

VIDEO LINK

Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering $500 worth of grilled chicken in exchange for information leading to the safe return of a missing ColonelSanders bust.

The 24-inch bronze bust vanished from a Berea, Ky., KFC just before closing time on Jan. 31.

"There were three men in the restaurant, and the employee went to the kitchen," spokesman Rick Maynard recounted. "When she returned, the three men and the Colonel had flown the coop."

The bust has graced the restaurant's dining room since the 1970s, making the outlet one of the few to house expensive KFC-related art. According to Maynard, the bust – depicting a jolly Sanders in his "trademark glasses and string tie" – is worth $1,500.

"Folks who frequent the restaurant kind of miss it," Maynard says. "I think it's been replaced with a potted plant."

Maynard says KFC would like to return the Colonel to his rightful place, watching over an outpost of his fried chicken empire, which got its start just an hour down the road in Corbin, Ky. "The police ran out of leads," he explains, "so we wanted to offer a unique reward."

Maynard estimates $500 would buy about 25 buckets of KFC grilled chicken. "What we're looking for is to catch these chickens," he says of the mysterious men allegedly behind the Colonel caper.

An American Odyssey, Part 5: Utah

The Wikipedia entry for Utah tells us three important and seemingly unrelated things:

1:Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City.

2:According to Walmart, Utah has the fewest number of Walmart stores per capita at .081 per 100,000 people.

3: According to the National Restaurant Association, Utah has the lowest rate of restaurants per capita with 4,691 restaurants at a rate of 0.0017 restaurants per person.

What it fails to do is make the link between these three seemingly unrelated facts. Utah is host to the world's first KFC in Salt Lake City, and so, why would Utahns want to live anywhere else, eat at any other restaurants and even buy food anywhere else?

We arrived from Idaho in the North, bathed in glorious sunshine. If Kentucky was Mecca then Salt Lake City is surely Medina. Tourists throng here ostensibly to see the imposing edifices built by the Mormons, or so the church tells us. The truth is far more simple, they have come to visit 3,890 South State Street, the location of the world's first KFC opened by franchisee Pete Harman in 1952.

The original building was replaced in 2004 by a super KFC cum museum cum conference venue, and is also home to a fabled all you can eat KFC buffet. It is a strange venue, seeming to operate operates quasi independently keeping some of the original Harman's branding side by side with the usual KFC livery.

Inside was large and clean. There were specially designed tables, whose tops feature historical KFC photo's and documents. There was even a conference suite available for hire and a few museum pieces were scattered about here and there, such as one of the Colonels white suits in a glass case, and, most excitingly there was a gift shop.

Outside was a large parking lot with a paved area and some tastefully landscaped borders. the centerpiece of these gardens were the bronze statues of Harland with Harman, a popular attraction amongst the store's visitors. The store also boasted a bucket atop a pole emblazoned with the words " World's first KFC"

The Colonel's all you can eat buffet was the centrepiece of this cornucopia(sadly featuring no boneless chicken items, & so denied to pariahs such as myself) We had seen one or two advertised but hadn't really believed that they could actually exist, to see it for ourselves was just emotionally overwhelming. It brought to mind the scene from Willy Wonka, except this played out in my head as being with the Colonel as he opens a large door with the words, "Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls. . . . . . The Chicken room!" In which everything you see is made of Original recipe chicken.

Satiating our hunger with the colonels offerings we then pressed our faces up against the glass at the gift shop. Many things here had the dual Harman's/KFC branding but two particular items jumped out

1: a Colonel Sanders style long black bowtie and 2: the chance to own my very own relic. The manager Tracy Gingel had saved some bricks from the demolition of the original building and was offering them for sale to the faithful. We clamoured to purchase ours and watched with awe as he diligently packaged our bricks into a chicken box whilst regular diners looked on confusedly. Tracy and I chatted Chicken for a short while before it became time to leave.

And with that we drove off into the desert towards the West.

KFC releases delicious new product!

It is with no small measure of excitement that KFBloggin' announces the (long-rumoured) launch of KFC's newest product range! Firstly, and perhaps most shockingly we have this news straight from the hallowed inter-pages of KFC's American website.

THE LAUNCH OF KENTUCKY. GRILLED. CHICKEN.





Yes indeed, after the products sucess in certain asian countries the healthier food movement has reached even the chickeny walls of KFC's original stores! Lauching april 27th (whereupon dedicated fans can visit any participating U.S branch for a free sample) this new form of kentucky chickenage is rumoured to contain nearly half the calories of a traditionally coated drumstick. Indeed, the website shows happy, faintly ridiculous dancing customers metaphorically EXPLODING with energy after partaking of the golden-grilled goodness.

Readers of this blog might like to visit the website, play the ddr-kfc game, laugh at the dancers/chefs in the videos and, "LOL" at the jokes about coupons (KFC reaching out to an internet based audience - say it ain't so!). But all this show and bluster fails to prevent this blogger from getting to the root of the problem -

Is it any good?

Rest assured, we here at KFBloggin' HQ will not rest until a proper taste test has been carried out. And on the off chance that the product IS sucessful - will we be seeing it soon in English stores? Our sources say - probably!

What do you think KFC fans? Delicious innovation or disgusting mistake that would make the Colonal roll over in his grave?

High-speed chase ends in crash into KFC restaurant

Published: March 26, 2009

The Tribune-Star (Texas Newspaper)

TERRE HAUTE — A high-speed chase Wednesday night ended with a pickup crashing into a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet and left a man hospitalized and the restaurant manager thankful no employees were hurt.

The chase ended when the Chevy S-10 to avoid stop sticks placed by police on Lafayette Avenue, and the truck tumbled several times and deflected off the southeast corner of KFC, police said.

The impact shattered two storefront windows and left structural damage to the corner of the building.

“We’re just lucky he flipped a few times before he hit the building,” said KFC outlet manager Theresa Watts, while she surveyed the damage Thursday.

A hit at full speed could have been catastrophic. When the truck smashed into the building, one of the KFC’s five stunned employees was standing near a soft drink machine on the south side of the seating area.

“A tire landed right behind her,” Watts said. “She’s still digging glass out of her hair.” That employee’s only injury was a cut lip.

The KFC store was closed Thursday while workers repaired the damage. Watts, the manager, said she did not know when it would reopen.

It is the second time in recent years an errant motorist has closed her store down. A few years back, someone threw a cigarette from a car that ignited landscaping mulch and sent smoking billowing through the building.

“We don’t need anymore bad luck,” she said, “especially the way the economy is. We don’t need to be shut down.”

An American Odyssey, Part 4: The Road To Utah

The Road to Utah, 3,064 miles. Relentlessly we drove, sometimes not seeing a KFC for hours at a time. For endless days we strived to reach our goal. Crossing the great desserts of Colorado, journeying through the Badlands of South Dakota, traversing the barren wastes of Wyoming and braving the beautiful but treacherous wilds of Yellowstone.

This leg of the journey would see us enjoying KFC's in a further 9 states. We would encounter new menu items, visit one of humaity's most impressive achievements, be duped, find some KFC curios and end on a high when seeing evidence that our allies were active in this area of the USA, far from the liberal coastal areas.

The journey began and we took in as many branches as possible along the way. The first 2000 miles melted away uneventfully although our car was beginning to smell a little like a rotisserie.

One branch in Oklahoma state offered an interesting menu item seen nowhere else and sadly not one I was prepared to try: Kentucky Fried Chicken Livers. Instead I opted for the $3.99 original recipe strips deal which was a welcome treat after hours at the wheel.

The highlight of the journey was in South Dakota. Until 1980 this was a quiet little backwater with one small attraction known as Mount Rushmore. During the 1940's this mountain was transformed by the carving of the likenesses of four previous president's into its south face. This first picture shows the mountain as it existed up until 1980. It attracted only a small trickle of visitors and did little for South Dakota's tourism industry. In 1980 all of that was about to change.

In the December of that year Colonel Harland Sanders passed away and was lost to us forever. A week of official mourning was declared in many countries around the world and what looks like a small blip, actually representing a large drop in the world's GDP can be seen to this day on financial graphs of the period. Following the death of the Colonel an idea first muted by the press was seized upon by congress and gained much public support. Fedral funding was to match public donations which poured in firstly in their millions but soon in their hundreds of millions from not just Americans but from people all around the world.

The plan was to replace one of the busts carved into Mt Rushmore with a likeness of the Colonel and rename it Mt Sanders. By public concensus it was decided to replace the image of President Abraham Lincoln. He was an obscure choice when the mountain was carved, and having achieved little during his time in office it was decided he should stand aside. It was originally planned to be like the other carvings, but with so much money available and with the advent of new technology and carving techniques it was decided to make the Colonels likeness larger and to carve it in full colour. Something never before done. The result: an overwhelming success, with visitors flocking there in their millions.

From here, things took a turn for the worse. A low point was Cody, Wyoming. Whilst working my way through the menu I stopped upon this monstrosity: The Honey Barbecue Chicken Sandwich.

Shredded chicken absolutely smothered in honey barbecue sauce. No lettuce, no cheese, in fact absolutely no ancillary items whatsoever. Is this KFC USA's worst product!

At the same branch another of our missionaries was suffering from the drinking sickness and had speculated about not eating chicken at this particular juncture. Roused by the threat of Harland's wrath he succumbed to the original recipe, a moment gloriously captured on film.

We continued our journey, crossing Wyoming to the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. At first everything appeared normal, quaint in fact. From the outside this branch promised a lot, spinning bucket on a pole, and this exceedingly rare example of classic wooden signage featuring the Colonel sporting a fetching cowboy hat.

Maybe it had been left alone here in the wilderness for too long and had gone mad, for the inside was a hideous nightmare. Tired and tatty decor, staff with no uniforms and an abomination on the menu.

Again what I thought was a new product. . . . Kentucky Nuggets were on the menu. I ordered them, eager to try yet another of the Colonel's many facets and was greeted with a nugget of such poor quality that I doubt even McDonald's would sell it. Concensus ruled that this was not an official KFC product, this was made using chopped and shaped Chicken maybe even MRM. I've heard of fake designer clothing but I never though I'd see the day when I would be duped into eating fake KFC.

I determined to research this and discovered that the real Kentucky Nugget was discontinued in 1996 a whole 13 years before I encountered it in Montana. (However as I go to press new evidence has emerged of a relaunch.)

West Yellowstone had one more surprise in store for us however. Here we were away from the populated coastal areas that pander to faddists. Here in Montana there were no vegan supermarkets. People in this part of the world want meat and a resistance movement has sprung up to counter the threat of those who believe that animals are "not ours to use for food". We here at KFB disagree as did our friends in Montana who've formed a rival organisation of their own and are even selling merchendise.

Knowing we were in friendly territory, we set off on our way to Salt Lake. . . . where it all began.

An American Odyssey, Part 3: Kentucky

Kentucky, we had arrived. Our trip to Louisville was one more stop on our Chicken Hajj. The trip that the colonel expects us all to make once in our lives.

Kentucky as a state holds a number of important religious sites, notably Corbin, where Harland ran his gas station and restaurant 'Sanders' Court' and of course where he developed the recipe. And Louisville, home of some some more sombre relics, the Colonel's grave at Cave Hill Cemetery, world HQ for Yum brands, Don Decker and the Louisville Visitors Centre KFC Experience. Contrary to popular belief however, Kentucky was not home to the World's first branch of KFC, that much coveted honour goes to Utah.

Our trip to Kentucky was sadly not taking us to Corbin which as you can see from the map is quite some distance from Louisville. Today Corbin hosts a small museum at the place where it all started.

We arrived in Louisville at roughly 4.30pm on what was a hot and sunny afternoon on Saturday 13th September 2008.

We entered the city along the thoroughfare of Baxter avenue, bringing us right to the Baxter Ave/ Bardstown Rd branch which was a fine example of a new restaurant that would be seeing our patronage the following day. More importantly however Baxter avenue took us right past Cave Hill Cemetery, the final resting place of our lord Sanders. (before the Resurrection)

As we arrived at the gates they were being locked for the day and there was little we could say and resolved to visit the grave the following day.

We wondered around in down town Louisville and I saw Colonel Don Decker, Harland Sanders impersonator extraordinaire available for weddings, christenings and Bar Mitzvahs who also happens to ply his trade on weekend evenings at 4th Street live, the epicentre of Louisville's chicken fuelled night life.

The following day we awoke, checked out of our fine motel and went to the Louisville Visitor Centre KFC Experience featuring wall displays, glass cabinets containing relics such as an original pressure fryer, an authentic white suit and other paraphernalia. There was a life size model of the Colonel with which to be photographed. There was an electronic touch screen quiz (100% needless to say), and my favourite, a telephone which when you lifted the receiver relayed to your ears the sweetest sound you ever did hear, a voice from beyond the grave, a selection of the inimitable wit and wisdom from the mouth of Harland.

When we left the experience (having purchased one of every KFC themed item from the gift shop) the wind outside had picked up noticeably and it continued to get worse. As we drove towards the cemetery our car was struck by a flying branch. Getting closer still there was near gridlock, power lines was down, lights were out and branches and even whole trees littered the roads and sidewalks crushing houses in their wake.

It was these treacherous conditions that the city authorities deemed so dangerous as to warrant the closure of Cave Hill Cemetery on safety grounds and so our visit to the grave of the Colonel was denied by the tail end of Hurricane Ike.

We retreated to lick our wounds to the nearby branch. For some reason the staff in there thought flying 3000 miles then driving a further 2000 to visit the grave of a man who you've never met but happens to cook tasty chicken was a crazy thing to do. Go figure.

Nevertheless the experience was a great one. We were the last people allowed into the darkened branch. With no power, no chicken was being cooked. We ate the last chicken in the place and had maybe the worlds first KFC lock in as the staff busied themselves with cleaning. They did however deign to dine with us. In these magical moments it seemed that the Colonel had seen our plight and intervened to make sure that Kentucky offered us a true taste of its soul food.

An American Odyssey, Part 2: Deliverance

The Engine of our 1.4litre Chevrolet Cobalt neither roared nor purred but occasionally if you put your foot down it could be made to meow. When Leaving Washington DC we decided to take scenic route 50. After four hours we were beginning to regret it, we were deep in the Appalachian mountains and it looked like we somewhere close to where the events described in the book Deliverance occurred.

Unlike the America we see on the television this wasn't the land of rampant consumerism, businesses seemed few and far between let alone billboards which were thus, offering only accusation and damnation.



I hoped beyond hope to see something like this:


But it never came and after 8 hours of driving it was getting dark, we were tired, hungry and I was getting worried about running out of gas.








Just then. . . . something that seemed insignificant happened, we passed over the state border, leaving plain old Virginia for 'Wild & Wonderful' West Virginia, and wonderful it turned out to be

Dont just take my word for it, ask this chap:

John Denver is thought of as one West Virginia,s greatest advocates, but that is a fallacy. His famous song 'Country Roads'' had its original chorus altered at the behest of a tyrannical record executive insistent that the track appeal to a wider demographic. When I interviewed a bitter John regarding the whole unfortunate incident he told me:

"I was just a country kid back then, I knew what I loved and that was chicken, so I wrote a song 'bout it. I just figured back then that if I got that record deal and made me a stack o' money, that I'd be able to get me as much of that finger licking chicken as possible. And yeah it paid off, I've eaten me a whole lotta chicken since that day. When Harland died I realised I'd never had the chance to say sorry for turning my back on the man who was like a father to me. Well thems was real hard times. I don't know what I'd have done if I didn't have chicken at that time, I'm not even sure if I'd still be here. I musta eaten me damn near a thousan' buckets, Sad days man, sad days."

John agreed to let me have a copy of the original lyrics (in red) as opposed to the filth that was released (in blue.)

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I be-long
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Country roads, take me there
To the Chicken, I adore
Colonel Sanders, Chicken Popa
Cookin' Chicken, on the bone

It was this story that made finding a KFC in Grafton in the back waters of West Virginia so magical. Nestled as you can see amidst dense forest on route 50 as it langurously winds it's way across the country Grafton KFC reached out of the darkness like a reverse chicken lighthouse drawing modern day land mariners towards its enchanting warm glow.
And what a KFC it was, this was the paradigm, the bar against which others should be judged. This wasn't just a fast food chicken restaurant it was a dining experience. Pictures of the local football team adorned the walls, charity was prevelant but not intrusive, there were tasteful Haloween decorations (perhaps slightly premature) and many homely touches. A cruet set for example adorned each and every spotlessly clean table and there were mints along with the other condiments. Why anyone would want to purge their mouth of the flavour is beyond me but I appreciated the gesture.

Our Hostess, for that I what I would call her was knowledgable, helpful and understanding to the point of perfection. She could knock a few of those big city branches into line I thought to myself. And the food? well this was my introduction to the 'Plated Meal' Original recipe strips (great) a side of mashed potato and gravy, (good) soda (standard) and the curious american 'biscuit'. This was something akin to a plain scone which one can cover with the contents of a sachet of the Colonel's buttery spread (not to my taste).

And so we ate, said our goodbyes and went on our way into the night,revived not just by the food, but by the thought that tomorrow we'd be in the promised land. . . . Kentucky.

Coming Soon. . . . An American Odyssey Special Report~:Kentucky

An American Odyssey, Part 1: The Eastern Seaboard

Our flight landed at roughly 3 in the afternoon, we had touched down in United States of America. Land of the Recipe & Home of the Chicken.

The itinerary of the trip had been planned specifically to take in some of KFC's most ancient temples and revered monuments and relics. Along the way we planned was to seek refuge and revictualing in any of Harland's houses that we passed. Little did we expect to be so rigorously tested in the first three days.

Boston, our first port of call suffers a dearth of KFCs, we passed none during our idle wanderings around the city and resolved to use electronic means. But Google was a false prophet merely leading us astray. We walked for an hour towards what we thought was our goal but there was no chicken in sight. Defeated, we retreated to the scant comforts of base camp before the following day's outing to Salem, would this offer up the prize we strove for?

Salem is of course famous for its witch trials in 1692 in which 19 people were put to death. Had Harland Sanders been one of the pilgrim fathers and introduced his recipe at about this time the world would be a very different place indeed. I am sure that he would have been accused of black magic (for I think that the unearthly tastiness of the secret recipe is a mystery that even modern day science will never explain) but I have no doubt it would have been embraced and the USA we know today would have a distinctly different 3 letter acronym for its name!

Salem though yielded a blank and we were forced to seek pastures new on Manhattan island where our patience was rewarded as soon as we alighted from our coach by a KFC at Penn Station and my first foray into the world of The Famous Bowl.



This dish has been described by blogger Louis Fowler as

"One of the most delicious concoctions man has ever come up with"

Imagine, creamy mashed potato, rich and thick chicken gravy, sweetcorn kernels, crisp Popcorn Chicken and 3 types of grated cheese. It was good, not that I'd go as far as Louis but this was just my first foray into an exciting and exotic foreign menu.

Manhattan's KFCs however were not competition standard. Given that not many tourists make it away from major cities on the US' East Coast it seems a shame to leave them with such a poor memory of one of the US' best loved exports. Seating areas were graffitied, dips were out of stock and air conditioners dripped ice cold water onto the faithful below. We were still a long way from Kentucky though and I knew things would improve.

Whilst Philidelphia yielded no KFC, Washington DC offered a fine establisment boasting both KFC and TacoBell under the same roof a phenomenon seldom seen but that I have been lucky enough to witnessed also in Australia and Canada.

To ability to mix and match from the two menus really adds an entire new dimension to the whole dining experience.




What Washington DC also introduced to us was KFCs rival: Popeyes Chicken. A chain that worryingly commands the kind of fan loyalty seen below.


Sun Tsu in his two thousand year old tome 'The art of war' told us to

"Know your enemy"

and Popeyes in terms of food quality appeared to be a formidable opponent.




.

What both the Capital and arguably the US' most important city were lacking was a flagship store on a par with London's Leicester square branch, nothing it appeared thus far was up to competion standard.

From here however our journey began across country through the Virginias towards the greasy heart of chicken country.

Coming Soon. . . . Part 2 The Road to Louisville