People only go for the egg tarts. They are good because KFC bought that recipe from the original store in Macau.
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What’s your problem with Taiwan KFC again?
I haven’t been there since 2017 or so. Aside from the general garbageness and unhealthiness of KFC, that last time it was the weird Taiwanese crispy coating that made me throw half of the meal in the trash and decide I’d never go there again (six years and counting!).
I did order it a few times in Thailand though (more times than I’d like to admit). They still have the normal coating there, and it’s pretty reasonably priced on Grab etc. and open until 3-4 a.m.
No variety…its just all spicy.
No original recipe.
No decent sides.
No biscuits.
Its all wings and legs.
You cant pick which pieces you want.
Their corn on the cob is nuked mush.
…
it just sucks
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That weird Taiwanese Crispy coating is no different from the Crispy costing they sell at KFC in the US. I prefer it over Original, actually.
Most importantly, no mashed potatoes.
Although to be fair, mashed potatoes and biscuits are rare at KFC’s outside of the Anglophone countries and Europe.
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When I first got here almost 2 decades ago, they had mashed potatoes…but no gravy. It was spaghetti sauce.
They also had buscuits with honey…but looked and tasted more like a scone.
All were dropped from the menu.
The fact that some of them failed here but are successful elsewhere in Asia gets at the original question, though. It’s worth noting that the ones that are successful here have, to varying degrees (with Pizza Hut perhaps being most extreme) adapted their offerings to the local palate.
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I think this thread just proves yet again that the Taiwanese have poor taste in food, especially Western food.
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bingo.
or trimmed their menu significantly
I would rephrase that to be more along the lines of…
Most Taiwanese prefer food other than Western food.
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Interestingly, Pizza Hut is all but dead in the US as it thrives globally. The rest of the world will catch up to better pizza eventually. And of course there’s Mr. Donut, which is literally dead (completely nonexistent) in the US where it started, but still does well in Taiwan.
In terms of non-fast-food chains, Hooters has been dying in the US for quite awhile as it expands in Asia. And I can never, for the life of me, understand why TGIFridays is so popular in Asia. Absolute crap. Chili’s and Texas Roadhouse are tolerable, I guess, and stick more or less to their US menus in Asia. Outback Steakhouse is another one that was here and then gone. These are all places I wouldn’t have been caught dead eating at in the US, but have been desperate enough to hit up in Taiwan.
My wife tells me that KFC used to have biscuits here but got rid of them in favor of egg tarts. I’m fine with this. I’ll never understand people’s aversion to potatoes here. It’s a carb that’s more delicious than brown rice and white rice and goes well with a lot of dishes.
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Quiznos was expanding in Asia for awhile, but I think they died globally when they died in the US. It’s a shame, as they were certainly better than Subway.
The popularity of Haagen-Dasz in Taiwan fascinates me. Maybe the faux-Euro name tricks people into thinking it’s not American. I’d rather have Ben & Jerry’s. I only ever went to Dairy Queen in Taiwan when I needed an ice cream cake, but it was reliable for that.
And Starbucks…Holy hell they are huge all over Asia, despite their prices being high even by US standards. Props to their marketing team, I guess. There are more of their stores near me in Taiwan than anywhere I lived in the US, more than holding their own against the many local chains and far superior independent local roasters.
True. But then they love fries, and actually do them surprisingly well. And every Taiwanese breakfast place has those McD’s-style “hash brown” patties, though the quality varies wildly. Why is it so hard to find tots, though? (Gotta go to Texas Rangers, or better yet to Arkansas Diner in Kaohsiung.) And why no actual hash browns?
And of course they love sweet potatoes, but then they love sweet everything.
Margins, scale and real estate. Those eateries are selling trash that is “yummy” at lip level only.
Quality ingredient restaraunts won’t be affordable to the masses. Or, at least, people won’t think they can be affordable.
Exactly. Taiwanese love potatoes. It’s just that sweet potato and yams grow better here. And they are sweet or have a healthy marketing bias respectively. Potatoes grow here, but not as well as other starch type fillers. And farmers are relatively new to it. Aside from temperatures, we also have loads of diseases of the jiggt shade family, far easier to grow a grass. As the older generation dies off potatoes will grow in popularity. As they have been for a few decades now
If no one’s mentioned it yet, the term is economies of scale for the big chains you mention.
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Al-Baik in Saudi hands down.
That would be true if they didn’t love McDonald’s so much.
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Halal Chicken on Central Avenue in Albany, NY.
This seems to be a K-Town / Tainan shop?
Get thee to this thread, go!
Guy