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Journalism of Courage
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Since the jury is out on that one, let8217;s go to the next question. Which came first, the chicken or the palate? The palate, stupid! At least, in the land of chicken tikka and murgh ma-khani, can there be a shadow of doubt on that? Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC with its fried birds-in-a-bucket clearly found it difficult to gain a perch in a truly crowded market. The chicken chain, which had spiritedly resisted old birds like Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha8217;s Nanjundaswamy and his army of protesters, finally decided to hand itself over to the butcher.
Apart from its Bangalore outlet, which continues to attract good business perhaps because of the high-profile campaign against it which included serious attempts to set it on fire KFC has called it a day. It is to suspend operations in the rest of the country. At least for now.
Indians, having stuffed themselves silly on fried chicken redolent with the all the spices of the east, could surely not be expected to get wildly excited at the thought of ingesting a bland bird in a coat of deep-fried batter even if the display board claims that it is both 8220;hot8221; and 8220;spicy8221;. After all, anyone familiar with north Indian cuisine should know that chicken is big, pretty gigantic, actually, on the gourmet8217;s map. From the strings of birds, garishly dressed in their coats of tandoori masala, which adorn the most humble market, to the succulent bits of chicken, nicely tenderised in curd, that finally land on the table as chicken tikka; from the rolls of chicken kebab expertly chopped up by the boy at the counter and handed over with generous helpings of onions rings not slices, to the rich gravy of butter chicken downed with snatches of roti, chicken absolutely rules the roost out here.
But KFC in not willing to go quietly into the night, it seems. It still hungers to satiate India8217;s obsession with chicken and is currently engaged in researching into such fundamental issues like whether Indians prefer their chicken with their skins on or off. The market has it that it plans to reinvent its products and return with a third range of non-fried products. With this magic ingredient under its belt, KFC the hopes to leave the neighbourhood tandooriwallah without a leg to stand on. But what would old Colonel Saunders, whose secret recipe of fried chicken made KFC the all-American phenomenon it was for decades, have thought of all this chopping and changing?
