fried chicken (Page 10)
A South Korean chicken restaurant owner got a rude awakening when he was slapped with a $12,800 fine for ripping off the famous French designer label’s name and monogram design.
See all that mouth-watering Japanese-style karaage fried chicken? It only cost us 100 yen, and we could have eaten twice as much without getting charged any more.
If you’re looking for a new way to make karaage, or Japanese-style fried chicken, how about taking some inspiration from the underground student council vice president of hit manga/anime/TV drama Prison School? We liked how character Meiko Shiraki’s karaage, coated with kaki-no-tane rice crackers, looked in the manga and anime, so we decided to give it a shot!
We visited the all-you-can-eat KFC buffet restaurant in Japan before the official opening day and found more than just fried chicken on the menu. There’re also pastas, soups, breads, sweets, and even an all-you-can-drink beer plan!
If you’re walking into a branch of KFC, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re there to eat fried chicken. You could even argue that the whole process of ordering is partially redundant, since the question isn’t whether you want some of the Colonel’s deep-fried bird, but simply how much.
And if your answer to that query is “All of it,” then head on over to Osaka, where the first all-you-can-eat Kentucky Fried Chicken buffet is about to open.
One of the upsides to being a little kid is that you can get presents even on someone else’s birthday. But like getting your food pre-cut into bite-sized pieces and having older people carry you around when you’re tired, you can only expect to receive bags of party favors up to a certain age.
A rare exception to this, though, is the birthday of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders. To celebrate Sanders’ birthday, KFC Japan is offering all-you-can eat fried chicken, but the unlimited bird is just part of the chain’s generosity on that special day.
Japanese culture has more or less made peace with the fact that the things we eat used to be alive. Part of the reason people in Japan say itadakimasu, literally “I will receive,” at the start of a meal is to verbalize their gratitude for receiving the life of the ingredients that make up the dishes. Sashimi that’s served still moving is considered a delicacy, because what’s fresher than seafood that’s arguable not even entirely dead?
Still, even Japan generally has limits of how much it wants to imagine the former life of the tasty morsels it’s dining on, which is why one startling fried chicken advertisement is drawing a mixture of gasps and chuckles.
Let it never again be said that America is the only country that has an unhealthy relationship with fried foods.
While you may not find such cynically, blatantly unhealthy fare as fried butter and fried Oreos here in Japan, you will find that many square meals consumed in Japan are going to come with some kind of fried food. A lot of times the default is karaage, a dish that is basically the Japanese analogue to American fried chicken, and an item that Japanophiles the world over desperately, vainly argue is somehow healthier than American fried chicken by virtue of its, uh… Japanese-ness or something?
The truth is, karaage is every bit as unhealthy as fried chicken from anywhere else and the Japanese are just as prone to gorging on it to the point of discomfort. Don’t believe us? Exhibit A: This all-you-can-eat fried chicken restaurant we went to for, uh… “research purposes.”
There’s a popular Japanese TV show whose protagonist, a wandering gourmet with a healthy appetite, often finds himself looking over a restaurant menu while trying to make an agonizing decision about which of two tempting entrees to order. Often, he resolves the crisis by following the advice encapsulated by his catchphrase, “When you can’t decide which to eat, have both.”
That also seems to be the philosophy behind Nissin Foods’ newest product: instant ramen with fried chicken.
KFC launched its Double Down menu item in 2010, and after it sunk in that the fast food chain was serious about making a bacon and cheese sandwich with two pieces of fried chicken substituting for the bread, reactions were split between horrified and hungry. All agreed though that the decadent offering was in no way to be mistaken for a healthy dining option, and many commentators declared it the sort of thing that could only have been birthed in response to the extra-gluttonous fast food culture of the U.S.
Except it turns out that Americans aren’t the only ones who occasionally like to go crazy and stuff themselves with as much KFC-cooked meat as their mouths and stomachs can hold. The Double Down was also a sales success in Korea, and this week, KFC launched an evolved version in the Philippines called the Double Down Dog.
The last time we saw the Double Down, KFC’s burger that swaps buns for fried chicken patties, was in the form of KFC Japan’s Kentucky Chicken Rice, which eliminated the burger patty in favor of a disc of rice. Now Korea is taking a stab at the popular chain’s meat monstrosity with the Zinger Double Down King. Get ready for some photos of this burger of fried chicken, bacon, and beef!
Man, doesn’t that pile of Kentucky Fried Chicken look enticing? Sure, it may not be the most sophisticated meal, and there’s really no way you can twist the nutritional facts to call it particularly healthy, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a purer, simpler gastronomic joy than a bucket of fried chicken.
But you know what makes the above image all the more beautiful? The large-font Japanese text smack dab in the middle of it, the part that says tabehodai, or, in English, “all you can eat.”
It’s amazing how much Japan loves KFC. I pass by more locations of the world’s most popular fried chicken chain on an average day in Tokyo than I ever did in Los Angeles, and it’s even the meal of choice for most Japanese diners on Christmas Eve.
Now, just as Japan has embraced KFC, KFC is embracing Japan by expanding the number of locations where you can get your hands on one of the restaurant’s rare Kentucky Fried Chicken rice bowls.
As we’ve declared before, convenience stores are one of the many things Japan gets awesomely right. And out of all the conbini in Japan, one of the greatest things housed within the walls of popular convenience store, Lawson, isn’t found on the shelves, but nestled safely behind the counter. Yes, their perfectly plump, consummately crispy fried chicken dubbed “Karaage-kun” costs a mere 210 yen (US$2.05) for hot, salty bliss. With a heart full of love for Karaage-kun, we could barely contain our jealousy upon learning that Mr. Sato, the most…unique reporter from our Japanese site, was invited to the Lawson headquarters to try out their new grilled Hokkaido corn-flavored Karaage-kun.
And so Mr. Sato marched down to crispy chicken HQ, still rocking his post-apocalyptic haircut, to try our most favorite convenience store snack. Little did he (or we) know that he would also be presented with an ultra-top-secret fried chicken unfit to be consumed by children younger than 15 years of age.
Tis the season for fried chicken, at least it is according to Japanese Christmas traditions. And if you find yourself with leftovers from your delicious dinner from KFC tomorrow, we have an incredibly easy and tasty recipe to keep that holiday spirit going as long as you have leftover fried chicken in your fridge and your trusty rice cooker. We’ve tried some dubious rice cooker recipes in the past, but this one looks like one of our tastiest yet, so click below to see the recipe for KFC rice!
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