KFC Famous Bowls

[carpetbagger, esq.]

I want to know who decided this is a "famous bowl".... I mean, it has been on the market for all of a couple of weeks. How is it famous already? Sounds to me like it is going to be infamous. 

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I thought they were calling it famous because it relied on the fame of their mashed potatoes and gravy as well as their all white meat fried chicken pieces.

oh, and This guy at the Houston Chronicle seemed to like it.

[Grub]

This LA Times article is hilarious... The Verdict: Oink! (Registration required, but here's the bugmenot login: Username thribwell@yahoo.com; Password thribinator)

I particularly love the phrase, "transcendently awful."

"Perhaps it's because it so brazenly exposes its own purpose: to economically pack the gullets of the poor. Gone is even the pretense that someone might eat this for its taste. This is gerbil food for the disenfranchised. One KFC marketing exec, in a moment of linguistic clarity I'll bet he wishes he had back, is quoted as saying the meals are directed at "heavy fast-food users." Never was the connection between fast food and addictive drugs made more explicit."

[MissAmy]

Ugh. Thanks for sharing. There are times when I think that being a food critic would be glamorous and fun, but other times, not so much.

[bleachboy]

This thing sounds pretty good to me. As it is, one of my main guilty pleasures is getting popcorn chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy and dipping the chicken into the potatoes and gravy. This thing sounds like that, except with corn (I'm cool with that) and cheese (WTF?).

I'll probably eat one at some point, but minus the cheese.

[ruthcooks]

Eeeewwww! The foods are TOUCHING.

Both the sight and the idea make me sick, not to mention all this talking about mooshing.

To be fair to KFC, I feel the same way about fancy restaurants layering meat on mashed potatoes. They ought to know better.

[ThatGrrl]

I still remember my first viewing of the commercial for this atrocity.

Me: Oh, good lord. Why don't they just go ahead and call the paramedics, whenever someone orders that thing?

ThatGuy: I can get all that, in one bowl? Mmmmm.

Sigh. Much work to do on ThatGuy's palate. Or lack thereof.

[Grub]

Eeeewwww!  The foods are TOUCHING.

Both the sight and the idea make me sick, not to mention all this talking about mooshing.

To be fair to KFC, I feel the same way about fancy restaurants layering meat on mashed potatoes.  They ought to know better.

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Well, not to divert from the topic of transcendental awfulness, but this whole thing about food touching seems just a little odd to me (incidentally, the article does address this very issue: "...if you retain any of your childhood aversion to foods touching, the Famous Bowls will send you shrieking into traffic.") How do "I don't like foods TOUCHING!"-people cope with hamburgers? Wut about gyros, hotdogs, shepherd's pie, salmon coulibiac, beef Wellington, tourines, Jamaican beef patties, Devonshire and Cornish pasties? How bout a simple freakin' sandwich? Touchie-touchie-touchie all over the place, there.

[gus_tatory]

When I saw that commercial, it reminded me of a dish that a friend of mine makes when really drunk at 4AM. It is called a heebie jeebie (he's an Aussie; can any Aussies confirm or deny the prevalence of heebie jeebies). You take a waffle and top it with creamed corn, vanilla ice cream, maple syrup and crumbled bacon.

I have never been drunk enough to try a heebie jeebie.

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no doubt the creamed corn gives it that certain special... resemblance to barf?!

[C_Ruark]

Eeeewwww!  The foods are TOUCHING.

Both the sight and the idea make me sick, not to mention all this talking about mooshing.

To be fair to KFC, I feel the same way about fancy restaurants layering meat on mashed potatoes.  They ought to know better.

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How do "I don't like foods TOUCHING!"-people cope with hamburgers? Wut about gyros, hotdogs, shepherd's pie, salmon coulibiac, beef Wellington, tourines, Jamaican beef patties, Devonshire and Cornish pasties? How bout a simple freakin' sandwich? Touchie-touchie-touchie all over the place, there.

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I'm one who doesn't like food to touch, but it's not really about the complete segregation model like you're thinking. I think of it as "flavor sets"; things that should "go together" do, things that - IMHO - don't, aren't going to touch on my plate. Does that mean I use segmented plates? No. Do I avoid gyros? Heck No! a good gyro particularly one eaten in Crete is a beautiful thing; but I knife-and-fork it, leaving the pita last.

Will I manually segregate? Yep, if it seems right to do so and won't embarass the table company.

Rationale as to why I do it:

1. I pay particular attention to what I eat; because I am a foodie, because I cook, and because I might find something to rip off (like any of Chef Andres food ). I want taste and experience each component to check taste and quality (primary colors) and then mix and match (secondary colors). I want to know what I am eating (even if Fergus made it).

2. I eat in a sequence; most of the time. Side, side, main unless Gramma's green beans are served, then they take precedence.

3. As a kid I was revolted by my Dad's habits of what he calls "throw and go"; piling things haphazardly on a plate, not caring if the beets bleed into the jello or the mash potatoes mixing with salad.

NOW ABOUT THE BOWL: If it had been mashed+"not-creamed" corn (yum) and chicken (dark meat pref). I'd eat it; got lost when the other junk was "fired for effect".

~C

Edited July 18, 2006 by C_Ruark (log)

[ruthcooks]

Of course, I eat things that go together. We're not talking about foods that were never meant to be eaten separately--a bite of ketchup or mustard, anyone?

Some combinations are meant to be, or are a preference of the diner's taste buds. It's that gravy-mingling-with-the-applesauce thing and the cold-mixing-with-the-hot thing I don't like.

I love contrasting foods, therefore I like one bite to = one food when it's on my plate. Then I can eat the foods in the most pleasing order, and savor them separately.

It has nothing to do with two-year-olds. It's having discriminating taste.

[mkayahara]

What I don't get is why so many people on this thread object to the cheese in the Famous Bowls. If, as I suspect, it's the combination of cheese and gravy, I wonder what they would think of poutine?

[C_Ruark]

What I don't get is why so many people on this thread object to the cheese in the Famous Bowls. If, as I suspect, it's the combination of cheese and gravy, I wonder what they would think of poutine? 

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Eh... poutine... eh... I wasn't wholely sober when I had it. BTW, Montreal...

What kills it (the KFC bowl)? The textures:

Squish

Corn

Cheese

Gravy

Breading (when soaked)

Firm

Chicken

Crisp

????????

Edited July 19, 2006 by C_Ruark (log)

[MarketStEl]

Some combinations are meant to be, or are a preference of the diner's taste buds.  It's that gravy-mingling-with-the-applesauce thing and the cold-mixing-with-the-hot thing I don't like.

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The gravy can run into the applesauce for all I care, as long as there's a place where I can taste the applesauce qua applesauce.

The cold-mixing-with-hot thing does bug me, unless it's baked Alaska I'm eating.

Our dining hall served ground turkey soft tacos yesterday. The ground turkey and refried beans were kept barely warm under heat lamps, while the lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, onions and salsa were all in crocks on a bed of ice.

Okay, I get the whole HACCP business that more or less requires these practices. But someone should have taken the crock of salsa off the ice. Ice-cold salsa over warm ground turkey that's not hot enough to at least partially melt the ice-cold shredded cheese just doesn't cut it.

[Kent D]

Okay, I'm not against mixed or layered foods (hot roast beef or turkey sandwich, a Thanksgiving leftover pig-out, etc.), but I'd never buy one of these. Not because of the cheese, not because of the nuggets -- I'd not eat one of these because with the exception of KFC's chicken (extra crispy, please), there is nothing on their menu that I care for. I tried one of their Wednesday $1.99 chicken fried steak dinners (sometimes you've only got a couple bucks in your pocket before payday), and it was one of the singular worst things I've ever forced myself to eat. The chicken fry was tasteless and tough, the corn was just WRONG, the potatoes...eh, they're instant, what can you say. So layering all that stuff into a sludge pile is not going to make it any better.

I AM fascinated with the concept of poutine, having done some research recently after seeing it featured on Tony Bourdain's NR, but so far haven't convinced my wife to eat any culinary attempts I might make. But it's GOT to taste better than a bowl of sodium, pasty gravy and chicken fat...right?

[BarbaraY]

IMHO, the only thing at KFC that's worse than their gravy is the "mashed potatoes". Those are just plain nasty and far worse than most other instant potatoes.

[Kim Shook]

This LA Times article is hilarious... The Verdict: Oink! (Registration required, but here's the bugmenot login: Username thribwell@yahoo.com; Password thribinator)

I particularly love the phrase, "transcendently awful."

"Perhaps it's because it so brazenly exposes its own purpose: to economically pack the gullets of the poor. Gone is even the pretense that someone might eat this for its taste. This is gerbil food for the disenfranchised. One KFC marketing exec, in a moment of linguistic clarity I'll bet he wishes he had back, is quoted as saying the meals are directed at "heavy fast-food users." Never was the connection between fast food and addictive drugs made more explicit."

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Grub, thanks so much for posting this link! My first laugh of the morning, thanks to you! I loved when he wondered why they didn't just put an apple pie on tops and pour coca cola over it all and be done with it!

And, totally off topic, I guess, but what is the deal with KFC's slaw? Has anyone else noticed that it has changed? It used to be the one thing that I thought was really good (not just "I'm in the mood for greasy good junk - good, but actually well made and tasty). It was actually perfect BBQ slaw. Not overly mayonnaise-y and chopped really fine. Now it is just everyone's slaw - longer shreds and gloppy. I am really ticked - it used to be my go to slaw when I had some bbq in the freezer and thawed it on the spur of the moment and didn't feel like making slaw.

[socalbaker]

Boy I remember when I first seen the comercial for the "Famous Bowls" @ KFC. My stomach turned at the thought of all that food piled up in a bowl ready for consumption.

I can remember back when I was in elementary school, I got in trouble for "mixing" all my food together on my tray & had to stay after lunch to help clean up the cafeteria. I never did it again...but I was on to something......who knew.

[dividend]

Haha! I went to a movie last night with my little brother, and he said these things were awesome. In fact, he'd eaten two of them, for lunch and dinner. Of course, he's a 23-year-old, 6'5", 150 pound college soccer player with the metabolism of a race-horse, whose cooking skills consist of having recently learned to make a baked potato in the microwave, so I'll take his opinion with a grain of salt.

That said, this totally seems like something I would order at the tail end of a night of heavy drinking.

[Andrew Fenton]

The comedian Patton Oswalt-- who once referred to the Famous Bowl as "a failure pile in a sadness bowl"-- has decided to man up and review the dish for the Onion.

Worth reading, especially for the appropriately Lovecraftian tone of the piece:

The franchise I visited, on Hollywood Boulevard near my old apartment, looked like it had withstood assault by bullets, flamethrowers, Baseball Furies, and a hundred hook-handed whores. Everything inside the store—including the employees and customers—looked like it had been rubbed with sad ham.  And they were offering a new product for kids—"fun meals" that came in colorful cardboard containers that opened like laptop computers. A generation of children are growing up associating computer use with fun, grease, and food. I will flee to the mountains before I see how porn gets folded into that equation.

...

The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery, living mound lumbering against it. It shall not find me! God, that gravy! The window! The window!

Edited January 9, 2008 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[JimH]

It actually reminds me of a casserole my Mom made when I was young. If I had to choose between the McRib & the KFC bowl, I'd take the bowl every time.

[mollybloom1109]

Really?  I wince every time the commercial comes on because it looks so foul.  I don't have a problem with KFC, even though I don't eat there more than once every year or so.  But piling it all together and topping with cheese...oogh.  Why don't they just be honest and call it a trough?

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Just an FYI, In Anchorage, AK the Hogg Brothers Cafe (formerly 7 tables located in the back of a bar but now moved into a much more upscale bankrupt former Western Sizzlin' Building) serves a dish called the Trough--Hash browns, sausage, biscuits, bacon and eggs smothered in gravy---served in a metal loaf pan.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Now for the truly good news:

The KFC Bowl made the Ten Worst Foods for 2007 .. really!

source of this list

[robert40]

To think I started this thread in May of 06. Guess it turns out the jokes on me as it appears the KFC Bowls are successful. Or at the least I underestimated the KFC product researchers.

[Tim Dolan]

Haha! I went to a movie last night with my little brother, and he said these things were awesome.  In fact, he'd eaten two of them, for lunch and dinner.  Of course, he's a 23-year-old, 6'5", 150 pound college soccer player with the metabolism of a race-horse, whose cooking skills consist of having recently learned to make a baked potato in the microwave, so I'll take his opinion with a grain of salt. 

That said, this totally seems like something I would order at the tail end of a night of heavy drinking.

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Same exact thing with my brother, but only if you add "flat broke" into the description. These things are the top of the food chain for him and his roommates, followed by Top Ramen then condiments.

[CaliPoutine]

I'm glad to see that it took 2 years for this disgusting product to make its way into Ontario( at least in my small town and London).

Even my 9 yr old neice, who loves Mcdonald's thinks these are vile.