Loving KFC

In Manila, I used to go there for lunch at least twice a week; often ordering its 3-piece wing with a side of green salad.  When famished, I’d sometimes add an extra order of two-piece chicken with rice -- original recipe, all of them.

In New York, I would sometimes buy a bucket on Friday evenings and put it in the fridge.  That would serve as snack for the weekend.  They taste that good even right out of the fridge.  However, make sure you get the freshly-cooked chicken pieces always -- whether to eat right away or to be chilled as weekend snack.  Do not settle for those pieces that had been sitting there for some time because KFC chicken tend to become dry and chewy. Always go for that freshly-cooked juicy and tender meat!

Here in Bohol, I’ve eaten only once at the KFC in Island City Mall at Tagbilaran City.  The pieces I had were surprisingly too salty.  When I talked to the manager about it, she said they tailored the taste according to the local taste preference.  You see, Boholanos love extra salty food!  That was it for me.  I will wait until I go back to Manila to enjoy the KFC that I love; unless, of course. KFC Philippines do something about it.

Incidentally, it was not in the States that I first began to eat KFC chicken.  Way back in the 60s, there was already a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet/branch in Olongapo City in Zambales perhaps, due to the large contingent of US servicemen in that region.

As for its history (originally named Kentucky Fried Chicken), contrary to common belief, Colonel Harland Sanders was not a true US military officer.  His title, first bestowed in 1935, is an honorific conferred by the State of Kentucky.

I have much admiration for the Colonel's dogged determination and perseverance.  He really didn't attain continued success until his 60s.  His earlier life was filled with entrepreneurial ups and down.  

In 1930, according to the Harland Sanders Museum and Cafe, then 40-year-old Colonel Sanders was operating a gasoline station in Corbin, Kentucky, and it was there that he began cooking for hungry travelers who stopped in to refill their tanks. It was not a full-pledge restaurant as of yet.  Patrons ate from his own dining table in the station's humble living quarters. All customers shared that one table.  Subsequently, he developed the "home meal replacement" - offering complete meals to hurried families and lone travellers. He called it, "Sunday Dinner, Seven Days a Week."

Corbin, Kentucky is not a popular tourist destination, but it was there the Colonel eventually expanded his Sanders Café. He was also its chef.  On that site was where he cooked the first batch of Kentucky Fried Chicken. To reduce the cooking time for his chicken, he experimented with pressure-frying methods. 

The cafe is still there, only now it includes a museum.  In its present location, the museum and cafe was born in 1990, the 100th anniversary of Colonel Sanders’s birth. JRN, a Tennessee-based company that operates nearly 200 KFC franchises in the Southeast, was about to open a modern KFC restaurant next to the old cafe. To mark the great birthday, it put out a call for artifacts and memorabilia that would allow it to celebrate the Colonel, his cafe and his fried chicken.

Read more about the efforts that went into building this new museum that would certainly make the Colonel proud.

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Suggested read:

The Colonel's Autobiography Book
(free download)

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Sharing with: Food Trip Friday

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