Place: KFC
Lunch: Three thighs, biscuit, MUG Root Beer
My Twitter feed has been full of ads for KFC's new Nashville Hot chicken. What's the correlation between Nashville and hot food? Beats me. The one time I drove through Nashville I didn't eat anything not readily available at the Mapco Mart, and the only chicken they sold there was Chester's.
As near as I can tell from the available signage, the Nashville Hot is available in a two-piece leg-and-thigh combo, and in strips. They don't seem to be making breast or wing pieces, which seems silly since you'd think Nashville Hot Wings would be a natural.
When I go to a dedicated KFC (as opposed to Kentacobell), I usually order two or three thighs, a combination of original and extra crispy. No sides. So I figured I'd order three thighs...one of each kind. Naturally, this caused a counter help brain meltdown. She had NO idea how to input this. Fortunately, two employees were available to back-seat drive and shout random guesses.
"PUSH THAT!"
"NO, NOT THAT!"
"BUT HE WANTS AN ORIGINAL AND AN EXTRA CRISPY"
"I KNOW! PUSH AN EXTRA THIGH"
"WHERE'S THE SPECIAL? WHERE'S THE SPECIAL?"
Guy Who Gets the Food has already produced the requested plate of food and is standing there laughing.
Finally, a receipt is generated and the language on it actually makes sense. Everybody's happy.
The Nashville Hot piece is sort of orange and drapes orange oil on your fingers and hands. (Not an exaggeration...I had oil dripping down my wrist.) It's similar to Extra Crispy in texture. They've pasted a couple of pickle slices onto it, which totally works with the flavor. The flavor itself? It's almost sort of Asian-inspired. It's not too spicy, though that builds in your mouth. Almost sort of a barbecue-ish kung pao. Good? Yeah. I really like this.
I wonder if KFC is rolling this out in China, and how that market will accept it.
