McDonald's and KFC, these Western-style fast food sister companies from the United States, have dominated most of the fast food market since they entered the domestic market.
My younger sister, Xiao Hua'er, was originally craving for McDonald's burgers, which had just entered the country, but Yao Yuan persuaded her to eat KFC's fried chicken instead.
There is no other reason. As a cook, making a hamburger is a matter of minutes. As long as you have flour and yeast, you can easily bake a soft bun, and the beef patty sandwiched in the middle is even simpler. , mince the beef, season it, and beat it a few times to fry a juicy beef patty.
As for the sauce used in the burger, it's even easier. It's just a ready-made product sold in the store.
The taste of the home-made burgers can easily surpass M's assembly-line products by half, so there is no reason to be taken advantage of.
But KFC's fried chicken is a little different.
As a leading Western-style fast food company, KFC American Fried Chicken was one of the first chain companies to open in the mainland. A few years later, M's burger restaurant saw the huge domestic market and followed suit.
As early as five years ago, the first KFC opened in the Qianmen business district. With the name of Western food, it immediately attracted great interest from the local people. The grand opening after the opening almost shocked foreigners who were new to the mainland market. My jaw dropped.
Restaurants with a business area of several thousand square meters were packed as soon as they opened. For no other reason than our country’s biggest advantage is that there are so many people who love to join in the fun!
In the mainland that had been closed for a long time, a foreign thing suddenly arrived. A mediocre fried chicken fast food was treated as a Western meal by the people of Pingcheng.
People of all ages, both young and old, dressed in formal attire, poured into the restaurant with curiosity about Western-style dining. Regardless of how unreasonable the price of a set meal, which easily cost more than ten yuan, was, they generously donated their money to treat the whole family to a meat dish.
The restaurant was packed, parents insisted for their children, and lovers didn't back down for each other's sake, even if they had to wait for an hour or two!
People waiting for a table patiently line up at the door, and the queue at the restaurant's entrance often stretches out for several hundred meters.
This long and winding queue that occurs every day has become a scene in the business district, and even the local police station has to dispatch police officers every day to maintain order.
What's more, some citizens actually held their wedding ceremony in this fast food restaurant.
Holding a wedding in a KFC fast food restaurant? ! Who would dare to imagine the special things that happened in this special era in future generations.
The main product sold by KFC is fried chicken.
As a chef, you can master dozens of methods of frying chicken.
"Crispy chicken" in Shandong cuisine; "popular fried chicken" in Cantonese cuisine; "tea-flavored chicken" in Huaiyang cuisine; "garlic chicken" in Sichuan cuisine; "eight-treasure gourd chicken" in northwest cuisine... Etc., etc.
Almost every cuisine and every region has one or two fried chicken dishes. Using Chinese cooking techniques, the fried chicken tastes far better than Western food.
However, the fried chicken fast food that came from the food desert Dalaomei suddenly conquered Pingcheng's fast food market, which was unreasonable.
Later, some people were not convinced and began to compete with this foreign fast food. They started a Chinese fried chicken fast food chain near every KFC store. The name of the restaurant was "Xiangfei Roast Chicken".
Although the business of "Xiangfei Roast Chicken" was good after its opening, its size was too small compared to the giant KFC. Although it had developed after several years of operation, it failed to form a successful business in the end. .
There is a characteristic of the catering market, that is, it is like sailing against the current, if you don’t advance, you will retreat! This "Xiang Fei Roast Chicken" finally disappeared gradually and disappeared without a trace.
It’s no wonder that people go to KFC not only to fill their stomachs, but also to get fresh and delicious food. The roast chicken served by Chinese people is almost boring.
As a person in the catering industry, Yao Yuan has also analyzed this problem.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is not a high-end product in terms of production.
It's nothing more than a few processes. The chicken nuggets need to be soaked, flavored, and then battered and fried.
Although the merchant keeps the layer of crispy paste strictly confidential, similar techniques are used in Chinese food. This recipe is not a secret to a professional chef.
It's just that the oil used in Western-style fried chicken is a little special. It's not our common peanut oil, soybean oil, or rapeseed oil, but a special kind of shortening.
To put it bluntly, shortening is palm oil. The biggest feature of this oil is that it is cheap. Using it in fast food chains will greatly increase the cost. Moreover, this oil has another advantage. It has a high smoke point and is suitable for frying. Use it to fry. Dishes will stay crispy for a long time.
This is the biggest secret of Western-style fried chicken. Dishes fried using other oils in Chinese food cannot stay crispy for a long time. Once they cool down, they will soften and taste worse. However, even KFC’s fried chicken is Even if you eat it the next day, it will still retain that crispy texture.
Therefore, KFC’s fried chicken is difficult to replicate at home.
Furthermore, Yao Yuan also grew up eating KFC's original fried chicken when he was a child. The taste has formed his childhood memory. Later, he didn't know whether it was due to the quality control in the kitchen, the change in the breed of chicken used, or maybe It's because of the degradation of my taste buds that I always feel that the fried chicken of later generations lacks some flavor.
Now that I have the opportunity to taste the taste of childhood again, of course I can't let it go.
After waiting in a long line, the two finally got their wish and sat in the restaurant, each with a fried chicken set meal.
In addition to two pieces of original fried chicken, the set meal also includes a mashed potato salad and a small round meal bag.
The package also included drinks and drinks. Xiao Hua'er chose a large Coke with ice, while Yao Yuan chose a can of beer.
That’s right, it’s beer. KFC also offers canned beer at this time, and beer fried chicken is a perfect match.
Yao Yuan secretly estimated the cost of this meal. In a set meal priced at fourteen and a half yuan, the total cost of two pieces of chicken and a salad is no more than four yuan. Adding beer and bread, the cost of raw materials is also It’s about five yuan, which is still the market price. If purchased by a group, the price will be 20% to 30% lower.
What a profit!
No wonder people in the know say that a good catering establishment is a cash cow.
Regardless of the image, Xiao Hua'er tore into the chicken with big mouthfuls, her eyes turned into crooked slits with laughter: "It's okay, it tastes really good!"
"Virtue! Pay attention to your image. This is not much better than the crispy chicken I made for you, right?" Yao Yuan put down his beer and wiped the foam from his mouth with his hand, deliberately teasing Xiao Hua'er.
"Come on, this is the most enjoyable thing to eat!" Xiao Hua'er lifted the fried chicken leg. The whole piece of fried chicken was just bigger than Xiao Hua'er's little face.
Yao Yuan couldn't help but sigh in his heart, another child's stomach was diverted by this kind of foreign fast food.
When companies like KFC and McDonald's enter a new market, they start from the younger market. When a generation of children form consumption habits, they will become their main consumers when they grow up.
Coupled with strict quality control and rigorous standardized processes, such a company can survive for a hundred years.
"Brother, we've finished eating KFC. Should you take me to McDonald's next week? By the way, I also want to go boating in Beihai Park!" Xiao Hua'er must have been happy with the meal, so she rarely called "brother" and proposed again. New requirements.
Yao Yuan nodded indifferently: "Okay, no problem! It's all up to you! Even if you want the stars in the sky, your brother will go to heaven to pick them for you!"
Xiao Hua'er's eyes began to flicker: "Why do I want stars? I can't eat those things. If not, just buy me another ice cream!"
Yao Yuan chuckled, got up and returned to the counter to start queuing.
…
"I'm full, but why don't I feel full?" Xiao Hua'er sighed as she walked out of the restaurant, clutching her stomach.
"Oh! It cost more than thirty for two people, and one of you has not eaten enough. You are so heartless. Over thirty is almost half a month's salary of a worker!" Yao Yuan is still aggrieved by the price of today's set meal. pregnant.
"Look at how stingy you are. If you hadn't lost all the money at home, I could afford to eat fried chicken every day, but eating this Western food doesn't feel as comfortable as eating a bowl of fried noodles." Xiao Hua'er accused again Yao Yuan lost money.
"You just have a stomach for fried noodles. Today you had a full stomach of fried chicken and Coke. It's strange that you can get used to it." Yao Yuan rolled his eyes and replied.
The two of them walked towards the bus stop while talking nonsense.
It gets dark late in the summer, and it's now eight o'clock. The last light in the west gradually fades away, and the lights in the city begin to turn on.
The buses are no longer so crowded.
The trolley bus started with a buzzing sound, dragging its two long pigtails. There were not many passengers on the bus bound for the outside of the city. There was actually an empty seat at the link between the front and rear carriages. Little Hua'er's eyes were quick and her legs were quick, so she sat on it.
Yao Yuan stood next to him, leaning on the armrest and looking around.
Qianjiakou is located outside the West Second Ring Road. The trolleybus from Qianjiakou to Qianjiakou has to go through thirteen stops in total. The trolleybus runs very smoothly. The little flower is sat on the seat with plenty of water and food, and the trolleybus sways rhythmically with the carriage. , and soon fell asleep.
The train stopped at Xisi Station, the door opened with a clang, and a tall and thin figure floated onto the tram.
Yes, that thin man who looked like he would fall over when the wind blew him. He swayed every step of the way and felt like he was floating without roots under his feet.
Yao Yuan couldn't help but be curious and took a second look.
The thin man wandered to the back of the car and sat down on the empty seat. As soon as he sat down, he yawned profusely. As he continued to yawn, snot and tears also poured out of his nose, and his face was covered with it as soon as he wiped it.
The street light shines into the car, and you can see that his face, which has been completely fleshless, seems to be covered with a layer of water, glowing with a strange light.
"Damn, could he be a powder addict?" Yao Yuan secretly guessed.
When the bus arrived at Qianjiakou Station, Yao Yuan called up Xiao Hua'er and jumped out of the car.
The tall and lanky man got out of the car shortly after, with his head sullenly walking towards the dark shadows deep in the alley.
Yao Yuan stared at the thin back, and suddenly woke up, remembering a rumor he had heard...
