[lbo-talk] advances in the culinary arts

Andy andy274 at gmail.com
Mon Apr 12 18:03:49 PDT 2010


On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 7:50 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> Also, KFC is not lying. An accurate review of the sandwich is pretty much:
> "This product is so meaty, there's no room for a bun!" In fact, I should
> probably stop wasting everyone's time because that's the most systematic
> description of the sandwich that could ever be written. But you know what? I
> ate both of these things. You're going to sit here as I walk you through
> each component of this "sandwich"/"product" and like it.
>
> So let's get to it and break the Double Down piece by piece....

I'm reminded of one of the funnier pieces of dining criticism I've read:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/av-club-taste-test-special-the-bowl-at-the-howling,2130/

---------------------------------------------- I am writing this under appreciable mental strain, since by tonight, I shall be no more. When you read these hastily scrawled words, you may guess, though never fully realize, why I must have forgetfulness or death.

Would that I could forget that fateful evening in the autumn of 2006 when I first heard the shrieking, beckoning clarion call of Kentucky Fried Chicken's Famous Bowl. I was fast-forwarding through the commercials of a Tivo'd episode of The Venture Brothers. The commercial for the Famous Bowl came on. I thought it was a Tim & Eric sketch.

It wasn't. Kentucky Fried Chicken had filled a bowl with gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, breaded chicken, and finally, cheese. Shut-ins, people afflicted with Prader-Willi Syndrome, and manic-depressives also do this. If you're trying to make a fortune in the food and beverage industry, those are the three demographics to shoot for—the Famous Bowl is one of the bestselling items on the KFC menu.

KFC calls it their version of the shepherd's pie. Shepherds in Kentucky must be full of rage and slathered in confusion. They must hang their fat, skin, and muscles from bones carved with runes of surrender.

I must've watched the commercial a dozen times. It looked like a self-shot (but well-cut and -lit) video that someone would make as they prepared to commit suicide. I couldn't take my eyes off it. I didn't think the implosion of society would be so funny.

So I wrote a bit about the Famous Bowl. I'm a comedian. I'm obsessed with love, crime, America, and the apocalypse. The KFC Famous Bowl is all of these, and it also kind of looks like the future-food you'd see people eating in '70s science-fiction flicks.

I also like science fiction.

[....]

-- Andy



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