43. 快餐 (kuài cān)
The pervasive arm of American fast food reached China way back in 1990, when McDonald's, known locally as 麦当劳 (mài dāng láo), opened their first store in Shenzhen in 1990. Soon after their Tian'anmen branch in Beijing was the largest McD's in the world. By 2020, the company had 3,300 outlets and was planning to double that by today. Covid prevented that rise although new stores did open.
McDonald's first store in Liuzhou - there are now several
肯德基 (kěn dé jī),KFC followed along, opening its first Chinese store in Beijing on Tian’anmen Square in 1993. Today they are everywhere with over 4,000 outlets in almost 800 cities, as it opens a new restaurant almost every day.
One of many KFCs in Liuzhou
It has not however been a smooth ride for either company. KFC had to apologise for including a carcinogenic dye in one product and McD’s had issues with not-for-human-consumption meats. Yet they both remain successful. They mainly cater to children in China, offering birthday parties to the middle classes and awarding toys with every meal, so much so that KFC has recently been criticised by the state for promoting food waste, as parents were buying meals just to get the toys for their brats then throwing them away – the meals. Not the brats or the toys, unfortunately!
YumFoods (terrible name) owners of KFC, also own Pizza Hut (必胜客 - bì shèng kè) which has a presence here serving fake Italian-style food and god-awful pizzas and they even bought out the originally Inner Mongolian hotpot chain, Little Sheep (known in China as 小肥羊 (xiǎo féi yáng) or ‘Little Fat Sheep’. The ‘Fat’ was dropped for the American market. I wonder why.)
One of the Pizza Huts in Liuzhou
All these chains have adapted their menus to local tastes, especially KFC, selling congee for breakfast for example and McDs was laughed out of town by offering what it called Sichuan sauce with its fries. It was as Sichuanese as maple syrup.
But, of course, China has replied with its own versions, often just copying the menus and even decoration of the originals. 开心吧 (kāi xīn bā, Happy Bar), a Liuzhou chain, is the most successful local version, mimicking everything KFC does, but at a slightly lower price.
Happy Bar with Dishonest Slogan. I don't like it!
One street in the city centre, popular with young people in the evenings, is lined with fast food stalls selling grease on sticks. There are two kinds food on sticks here. The first is made over charcoal, mainly by people from Xinjiang, and is wonderful. The second is made by anyone over a metal hotplate swimming in grease and is horrible. Yet they get busy selling bad chicken, overcooked squid and mechanically recovered meat sausage in batter and grease.
Beats me.
