Our nation of speed-eaters has come to a milestone along the ever-sloping standards of our food. There are always such moments in history wherein it is finally plain to see the state of affairs by one defining icon. In the summer of 2006, Kentucky Fried Chicken produced the “KFC Famous Bowl,” and I’m sure someone, somewhere in France, died.
Some how it has persisted. It is, in fact, a bowl. “We start with a generous serving of our creamy mashed potatoes, layered with sweet corn and loaded with bite-sized pieces of crispy chicken. Then we drizzle it all with our signature home-style gravy and top it off with a shredded three-cheese blend” says www.kfc.com. It takes that many words to say “We took what we make and threw it in a Styrofoam bowl.”
Kentucky Fried Chicken does not yet make a family size version of this confection, and here’s a commercial that would illustrate why:
“New at Kentucky Fried Chicken! You loved our “Famous” Bowls so much, but there just wasn’t enough for the whole family! Next time you sit the family down to dinner be prepared with the new family-sized Famous Bowl! The KFC Famous Trough! No flatware needed.”
The widening waistline of America isn’t news. Books such as “Fast Food Nation” and documentaries like “Super-size Me” have already poignantly exposed all we didn’t want to know about the food industry. It’s not as if there is anything specifically wrong with the material of the Bowl (that we know of), it’s what it implies about American food.
Sure, the burger has seen hundreds of permutations, as has the pizza, but you don’t see anyone literally throwing three hamburgers on a pizza or three hotdogs on a hamburger and calling it a “famous” new item on the menu. It’s enough to make us pine for the days when fast food vendors were crafty and clandestine about repackaging the same menu over and over. Taco Bell has found the energy to resell “meat,” beans, cheese and tortillas with flashy new names that end in “-ito.” Shifty marketing at least says they think we’re just smart enough to have to fool.
So as we look down into this heap of food (which, by the way, they’ve now crammed a biscuit into the side of it like some kind of errant meteorite), do we just accept it as a good idea? Can’t we rage like they did against “New Coke?” If we don’t where will this lead? McDonald’s will release the bigger sized fries, the “McFeedbag” for “When you can’t keep your hands off our fries, but you can’t take your hands off the steering wheel.”