From exclusive items to portion sizes, we wanted to find all the differences between KFC in the US and China. This is Food Wars.
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00:00 From exclusive items to portion sizes,
00:02 we wanted to find out all the differences
00:04 between KFC in China and the US.
00:06 This is "Food Wars."
00:08 Here in China, we can get KFC in three portion sizes,
00:15 one piece, two pieces, and six pieces.
00:19 In the US, KFC chicken comes in seven portion sizes.
00:23 These first four are one piece a la carte,
00:26 two piece with a combo, that's a side,
00:29 a biscuit, and a drink,
00:31 three piece also with a combo,
00:34 and the four piece also with the combo.
00:37 And of course, we have buckets.
00:41 We have three main core buckets,
00:43 the snack bucket, which contains five pieces of chicken
00:47 and six wings, the family bucket,
00:50 which gets you an extra corn on the cob,
00:53 some mashed potato, and three drinks,
00:56 and the super family bucket,
00:59 where you get dessert and mashed potato,
01:02 more of both on top of that as well.
01:04 And then we have buckets, where you can get an eight piece,
01:08 a 12 piece, or the 16 piece.
01:11 Now, if we're going strictly on just chicken and not wings,
01:15 the US's largest is 166 point,
01:17 repeating 6% bigger than China's largest
01:21 chicken portion size.
01:22 Next, we have fries.
01:24 Now, here in China, we get them in three sizes,
01:27 small, medium, and large.
01:30 We got two fry sizes in the US,
01:31 the individual and the large.
01:34 Let's weigh the large fries in both countries.
01:37 (laughs)
01:41 I never grow tired of that.
01:43 Here in China, our drinks come in three sizes,
01:46 small, medium, and large.
01:49 American drinks come in the following sizes,
01:50 regular 20 ounces, and large 30 ounces.
01:54 But that's not all.
01:55 You can also get a half gallon container,
02:00 goosh, the Jesus piece of any beverage of your choosing.
02:04 Damn!
02:05 Hope you're sharing that, Joe.
02:08 Here's everything you'll find in a KFC in China
02:16 that you won't find in the US.
02:19 And we have a lot to get through.
02:21 Here's everything you'll find at a KFC in the US
02:23 you won't find in China.
02:25 One exclusive that we have here in China
02:27 that you cannot find in the US are wings.
02:31 That's right.
02:32 It's tough times for the US economy
02:33 in just about every sector.
02:35 Earlier this year, KFC laid off several favorite menu items,
02:39 including wings, Nashville hot sauce to anything,
02:43 strawberry lemonade, chocolate chip cookies,
02:46 and pretty much popcorn chicken.
02:47 They still exist in the famous bowls, but not on their own.
02:50 Ah, we still got them here.
02:51 And they're available in two styles,
02:54 the crispy spicy wings and the New Orleans grilled wings.
02:58 Now you might be wondering, what are New Orleans wings?
03:03 Apparently, KFC might've invented the flavor.
03:07 And it's kind of like how General Tso's chicken
03:10 is not actually from China.
03:13 New Orleans chicken is kind of just a misnomer.
03:17 It's a honey-baked spicy wing with a,
03:21 I think a Cajun mix.
03:23 U.S. chicken styles.
03:25 One chicken style you can get here in the US
03:27 you can't get in China is this, the extra crispy.
03:31 That's exactly what it sounds.
03:32 They fry it like twice or with more breading.
03:35 I don't know.
03:35 It gives it an extra crispy crunch.
03:37 Volume up.
03:38 In some parts of the country, you can get Kentucky grilled.
03:45 Grilled chicken, not fried.
03:47 I mean, fried's in the title,
03:48 so I don't know what you're doing
03:49 getting grilled chicken at KFC.
03:51 And for sandwiches, we have a spicy option.
03:54 I just wanted to talk a little bit
03:55 about our chicken recipes here.
03:57 So this is the original recipe,
04:00 but we also have an additional recipe
04:03 called the golden crispy chicken.
04:06 Now you can tell that there's quite a bit of a difference.
04:08 It is significantly more golden
04:11 in that I guess it's lighter yellow color
04:13 than the original,
04:14 but there's also a very healthy sprinkling
04:18 of chili powder on top.
04:20 And the batter is a lot harder and crunchier.
04:25 I guess it's probably more of a localized version
04:27 of the chicken.
04:28 That looks delicious.
04:30 That's like extra crispy and spicy.
04:33 Yeah, I definitely wanna try that.
04:34 Here we have our exclusive burgers and roll.
04:38 We'll get to that later.
04:39 First off, I just wanna draw your attention
04:41 to the rattan pepper flavor,
04:45 Spar chicken burger.
04:47 I had a really tough time trying to figure out
04:49 what spar meant.
04:51 And I found actually on one advertising poster
04:55 in fine print that spar was not an acronym.
04:58 It just meant that the chicken is juicy and tender
05:01 because this is made of chicken breast
05:04 instead of chicken thigh,
05:05 which you'll remember from another episode
05:08 is the norm here in China
05:09 because Chinese people think that chicken thigh
05:11 is juicy and tender,
05:12 whereas breast is really dry and it's basically chalky.
05:16 So I guess the spar is an attempt to get rid of that stigma
05:20 by saying, "Oh, look, it's so soft and tender.
05:23 Like the chicken's just come out of a massage
05:25 or a spar treatment."
05:26 If you haven't had hot pot or had Sichuan flavors before,
05:30 this might be a really big turnoff
05:32 because the taste of the rattan pepper is so strong.
05:36 The chicken is all right.
05:37 You know, it's tender.
05:38 I can't say it's just come out of a spar.
05:40 The spicy chicken sandwich looks basically the same.
05:45 Well, for one, it's not spicy.
05:47 The chicken is actually not as tasty as the spar chicken.
05:50 I do actually not, you know what?
05:52 I take it all back.
05:53 I do actually feel that the spar chicken
05:55 is a little bit more tender.
05:56 This one does feel drier.
05:58 The crispy chicken sandwich.
06:01 It's pretty much the same as everything else.
06:03 I think they're really just adding different condiments,
06:06 but the gist of it is always lettuce,
06:09 the mayo, and chicken, that's it.
06:11 And the bun, of course.
06:12 And the New Orleans chicken burger.
06:16 Of course they're gonna put this in a burger as well
06:18 if they've gone and invented an entire flavor category.
06:21 That's actually not bad.
06:22 And we have one more chicken option,
06:25 the Old Beijing chicken roll,
06:28 or as listed on their website, the Dragon Twister.
06:33 So they called it Old Beijing style.
06:36 And I now understand that Old Beijing
06:39 means that you're gonna chuck some cucumber in there.
06:41 There's probably leek in there as well.
06:44 There's gonna be tianmian sauce.
06:46 Let's give the dragon a taste.
06:48 It just tastes sweet.
06:52 There is a crunch from the cucumbers,
06:54 but the cucumber's kind of gone a bit,
06:56 it's kind of gone a bit sad as well.
06:58 Now we've got the beef burger options.
07:01 This is the classic American style beef burger.
07:05 Imagine this being like the introductory course
07:11 to American flavors for someone who's never left China.
07:15 They're gonna be sorely disappointed.
07:17 You can also get double beef burgers at KFC
07:20 in your classic American style.
07:23 No thank you.
07:24 Or the smoked pepper flavor.
07:28 If you want a burger, go to McDonald's, go to Burger King.
07:32 There's also a fish burger, the deep sea cod burger,
07:37 which you can get as a double as well.
07:39 I do have my hopes up for this one.
07:41 Not very high, mind you,
07:42 but I do have some hope for this one.
07:44 This is the bacon wagyu beef burger.
07:48 It's a premium burger, as you can tell,
07:50 because it comes in its own box,
07:51 which prevents it from becoming squished
07:54 into sandwiches like these guys.
07:55 No, no, no.
08:02 I don't care if it really is wagyu or not.
08:04 In fact, it actually tastes a little bit
08:06 like the consistency of Spam.
08:08 You can get that as a double or a triple,
08:10 but I just skip it, in my opinion.
08:13 We have one exclusive sandwich to the US.
08:16 It's this, the chicken little,
08:18 which I guess is a bite-size chicken sandwich,
08:21 a little tender in here.
08:22 Also, hey, KFC, if I had one note,
08:26 maybe relax in the mayo on this.
08:28 Are you kidding me?
08:29 Look at this.
08:29 The sauce, whatever this is, like bro, it is dripping.
08:32 Now, pickles, not a fan.
08:34 Get out of here.
08:35 Thank you.
08:36 Why this over the chicken sandwich, I have no idea.
08:42 I mean, unless you have like a kid or a picky eater,
08:46 skip these.
08:47 - We've also got other chicken options,
08:49 beginning with our Hong Kong-style crispy big chicken side.
08:54 If you've watched our other episodes,
08:55 you'll know that Hong Kong-style usually is used
08:59 to denote a sort of a sweet honey-roasted flavor process.
09:04 - The flavor profile would have been oven-baked.
09:07 Look at this glaze.
09:08 That's beautiful.
09:09 Mm, it's sweet without being cloying.
09:14 It's savory.
09:15 It's incredibly meaty.
09:16 There's also the secret recipe whole chicken.
09:21 Look at that, an entire chicken.
09:24 See, it's about the size of my face,
09:25 and I've got a pretty long face.
09:27 You've done well.
09:28 You've done well, Colonel.
09:29 I forgive you for the burgers.
09:32 - Heck yeah, dude.
09:32 I totally want one of those, man.
09:34 Just bite right into that big leg
09:35 like in that medieval times.
09:37 - This here is the hot and spicy chicken with bone,
09:42 and apparently it's scapular meat, so your collarbone.
09:47 I've never had collarbone chicken meat,
09:51 so this is definitely a first for me.
09:53 It tastes a little bit like a chicken nugget,
09:57 but with a bone inside.
09:58 And we've also got popcorn chicken and nuggets.
10:02 You might be wondering what these are.
10:04 KFC is trying to squeeze in on the pizza business.
10:07 This is KFC's K Pizza.
10:10 This is a chicken and mushroom K pizza.
10:14 Look at that, ultra thin crust.
10:17 That's actually pretty good.
10:18 I think I actually like this more than Domino's pizzas.
10:21 And this one is very special.
10:25 This is the K Pizza Da Pan Ji flavor.
10:30 So Da Pan Ji means big platter chicken.
10:33 It's a Xinjiang dish, which is usually a chicken stew.
10:38 It comes on a giant dish with potatoes and bell peppers,
10:42 and you also get some hand-pulled noodles thrown in.
10:45 In fact, the origin story of the big platter chicken
10:48 supposedly was either invented by a Sichuanese
10:53 or a Hunanese immigrant
10:55 who was serving these dishes up to truckers.
10:58 And they're very hearty, they're super tasty.
11:00 You always eat them in a group,
11:03 but I'm just gonna pick out and eat one by myself
11:06 on a pizza.
11:07 KFC, this is legit good.
11:14 Announcements!
11:16 KFC has recently added nuggets back onto the menu,
11:19 so they're technically not exclusive anymore,
11:21 but I'll show them off here.
11:22 You can get them in eight and 12 pieces.
11:25 Here's the nugget eight pieces.
11:26 Get in there, you only nugget vision.
11:28 Now, remember before when I said
11:31 they didn't have popcorn chicken anymore?
11:32 I mean, this is pretty, right?
11:35 It's a little bit bigger than popcorn chicken.
11:37 When I said nuggets,
11:38 you were probably thinking what I was thinking,
11:39 like McNuggets, right?
11:40 Like nuggets.
11:41 So this being a nugget is very strange.
11:44 Really good, though.
11:45 We also have chicken tenders.
11:47 They come in orders of eight, 12, and 16.
11:50 The crispiness on this, I have to.
11:51 Mm.
11:55 Now, to compliment your chicken,
11:57 we have a plethora of sauces and condiments to offer,
12:02 namely sweet vinegar and sweet chili,
12:05 which we couldn't find today,
12:06 and the Sichuan pepper spicy chili powder.
12:11 You can't eat these dry.
12:13 We have a bunch of exclusive sauces,
12:15 and you know what that means.
12:19 Sauce talk.
12:20 - Sauce talk.
12:21 - Starting off, the Buffalo Ranch.
12:24 Thank you, nuggets.
12:25 Let's go.
12:26 Yeah, the KFC sauce.
12:30 Really good.
12:31 Barbecue sauce, honey barbecue, excuse me.
12:33 Mm.
12:34 Classic ranch.
12:35 I don't know what the ranch situation out there in China is,
12:37 but here, we're doing all right with ranch.
12:40 The ranch situation in America, solid.
12:43 We also have a honey mustard sauce,
12:45 a honey sauce, and a hot sauce.
12:47 All three today, they did not have.
12:48 - Here in China, KFC has something called the DIY Kitchen,
12:53 and they also have stuff from third-party vendors.
12:55 Without further ado, let's dig in.
12:58 First off, we have the chicken nuggets
13:01 and the hot and spicy chicken with bone.
13:04 If I was hungry and I wanted KFC, I'm gonna order KFC.
13:09 I'm not gonna go and cook it myself.
13:11 Isn't that the whole point of takeout of fast food?
13:14 It's cooked for you.
13:16 If you're so inclined,
13:17 you can also make KFC's famous egg tarts at home.
13:22 KFC's also offering secret recipe chicken fillets
13:27 from a third-party vendor.
13:29 The whole cut sirloin steak, also from a third party.
13:33 KFC also selling you pasta now.
13:37 They come in mushroom and black pepper,
13:39 carbonara, and spag bol.
13:41 I'd actually, oh, this is the spag bol.
13:44 You've got your bolognese.
13:47 You've got various condiments.
13:49 - Yeah, no to KFC pasta.
13:51 No to KFC pasta, no to their burgers.
13:54 Chicken is your lane.
13:56 Stay in that lane.
13:57 - They've also got rice.
13:59 They come in four flavors.
14:00 The original flavor chicken, Japanese-style fried rice.
14:05 What's Japanese about it?
14:08 I can't tell.
14:09 And this one is the baked rice.
14:11 This one is the French-style
14:14 roast chicken cheese baked rice.
14:17 And probably the most understandable
14:20 of the offerings in the DIY kitchen, the ice cream.
14:23 So KFC have partnered up with Oatly.
14:25 As you can tell, Oatly is just everywhere in China.
14:28 It's so big.
14:30 KFC also has this.
14:32 It's called the Modern Ice Cream.
14:36 Although here in China, we call it the Ma Di Er.
14:39 And it's got a really interesting history.
14:41 This originates from a city in Northeast China
14:44 called Harbin, where they hold the Ice and Snow Festival,
14:46 if you know about that.
14:48 And basically, modern Harbin
14:51 was more or less built by the Russians.
14:53 The modern gets its name from a hotel
14:58 that was built by a Russian,
14:59 which also had a bakery and sold yogurt and ice cream.
15:04 So this has become an institution,
15:06 especially if you go to Harbin in the winter
15:09 for the Snow and Ice Festival, when it's like minus 20,
15:12 people are still queuing up on the street
15:14 to get yourself one of these popsicles.
15:17 It's been a while.
15:19 Let's see if the ice cream is still good to eat.
15:21 (laughs)
15:22 It does feel a little bit soft.
15:24 Oh, it's like Frosty the Snowman once summer's set in.
15:29 You can just have a peek.
15:30 (laughs)
15:33 I'll be able to drink it soon.
15:35 Mm, salvageable.
15:37 What still is going strong in the menu is the pot pie.
15:40 Man, this thing is hot.
15:41 Ay!
15:42 I don't wanna disrespect any of the pot pie heads watching,
15:46 but I've never seen anyone order this.
15:48 I've never seen anyone eat this.
15:50 This thing is gigantic.
15:51 You can't get this as a side.
15:53 So someone in this country,
15:56 assuming lots of people,
15:58 are walking into Kentucky Fried Chicken
16:01 and getting a pot pie.
16:02 I don't know why you're doing this.
16:04 Pot pie is perfectly fine.
16:05 I feel like this could totally go on the menu.
16:08 If you wanna fight me in the comments, go for it,
16:09 but I've never met a person who gets this and eats it.
16:11 And this is kind of my job.
16:13 We'll do a taste test later.
16:14 As for now, moving on to the Famous Bowl.
16:17 I don't think this exists outside of America,
16:19 so let me go ahead and explain it.
16:20 It basically is every side plus popcorn chicken,
16:24 or in this case, nuggets, in one thing.
16:26 Mashed potatoes, gravy, cheese, corn,
16:30 and yeah, bits of chicken.
16:32 Look, it's not that I don't like all these things,
16:34 but together in one dish is kind of, mm.
16:37 So what you're really doing
16:38 is getting a side of mashed potatoes and gravy
16:40 and sprinkling some cheese, corn, and chicken on it.
16:42 I don't know if people are complaining on the internet,
16:44 the Famous Bowl is so good,
16:45 now they have the Mac and Cheese Bowl,
16:47 which is mac and cheese with chicken on it.
16:50 And these are the nuggets.
16:51 Remember I said before the popcorn chicken is still in this?
16:53 I mean, isn't this popcorn chicken?
16:56 Are these too big to be popcorn chickens?
16:58 Is this nuggets that have replaced the popcorn chicken?
17:00 I want answers.
17:02 The nuggets are fine, and the mac and cheese too,
17:04 but together, they don't add anything.
17:07 The only thing it's doing is being like,
17:08 "Why get it in two containers?
17:09 "Just get it in one."
17:11 Speaking of mac and cheese, exclusive sides in the US,
17:13 you can get your mac and cheese
17:16 without chunks of chicken in it,
17:18 just regular mac and cheese.
17:19 Our biscuits.
17:20 Oh, so dry.
17:23 Coleslaw.
17:24 China.
17:27 You don't want this.
17:27 I mean, how do you even explain coleslaw?
17:29 Shredded lettuce.
17:31 Shredded cabbage, excuse me.
17:33 All right, I don't even know what it is.
17:34 We've got mayo and carrots and corn.
17:41 Like McDonald's, KFC also has a late night street food menu,
17:46 but unlike McDonald's, which only has one item,
17:49 the chicken carcass, KFC has four
17:52 and two different types of chicken carcass.
17:57 I feel like the KFC version is maybe a bit bonier.
18:03 So this is probably the Sichuan version then.
18:06 Let's take one of these fellas out.
18:07 I think preferable to the original.
18:09 This is pretty interesting.
18:10 This actually looks like original recipe chicken.
18:14 This in fact is called the Ao Ao big chicken carcass.
18:19 Ao Ao is onomatopoeic
18:24 and it's from the Northeastern region of China.
18:27 Basically it's slang for howling, you know,
18:30 that is gigantic and you're just, you're dying to eat it.
18:33 So Joey, if you come to China and you want to order this,
18:36 you know what you've got to do.
18:38 You just go up to the counter and be like,
18:40 I want the Ao Ao chicken.
18:42 - Got it.
18:43 - And then they'll know exactly what you want.
18:45 You can also get fried chicken feet,
18:46 but we've done one better and gotten the fried chicken feet
18:51 and fragrant bones box.
18:54 This is the chicken feet, obviously.
18:57 There's also chicken neck.
19:00 There's chicken wing tip, scapula meat.
19:05 So all of the fiddly parts of the chicken
19:09 in one convenient box for you to nibble on.
19:12 These are all of our exclusive breakfast options.
19:15 Okay, so first off,
19:16 I just want to draw your attention to this.
19:18 KFC has xiao long bao.
19:21 This is incredible
19:23 because this is a super popular breakfast item.
19:26 If you wake up early,
19:27 you'll see lots of cellars sort of with bamboo steamers,
19:31 about as tall as you are,
19:33 it's filled with these sorts of little bao.
19:36 The KFC xiao long bao.
19:39 Oh, that's even better
19:42 than my neighborhood breakfast place.
19:44 Color me impressed.
19:45 I'm very, very, very smitten with this.
19:48 Plus they also provided a pack of vinegar
19:52 because you can't eat bao without vinegar.
19:54 Next we have the congis.
19:55 In terms of flavors,
19:57 we've got the century egg and pork, a staple congee.
20:01 This would be sour pickle and chicken.
20:05 And over here, we've got the chicken and egg.
20:08 This is the century egg and pork.
20:13 And he goes, "I don't actually like century egg."
20:16 It's stanky, but not as stanky
20:19 as the like authentic century egg.
20:22 And the you tiao, the crispy Chinese cruller or dough stick.
20:27 I mean, there's so many different names for this thing,
20:29 but this is the heart of every Chinese breakfast.
20:34 This goes well with soy milk.
20:35 You can dip it in soy milk.
20:36 You can dip it in congee.
20:38 It's like a churro, but not sweet.
20:40 Bit chewy.
20:42 These things are always best right out the wok.
20:46 Continuing on with our Chinese breakfast.
20:50 This is just super cute.
20:52 This is something that's called a tea egg.
20:54 You get these in one or four.
20:57 And if you're eating a tea egg,
21:01 you're gonna have some you tiao.
21:04 And if you're having you tiao,
21:05 you're gonna have some congee.
21:07 That's a trifecta.
21:11 It's the holy trinity of Chinese breakfast.
21:13 We have the crispy chicken spring rolls,
21:17 although they've lost a bit of spring.
21:21 What is?
21:22 I feel like one of those sausage finger people
21:24 from everything, everywhere, all at once.
21:27 (laughs)
21:29 I didn't realize we were in the floppy,
21:33 crispy spring roll universe.
21:34 There's also a chicken chop and egg Chinese style roll.
21:39 Although really, this is more of a wrap.
21:43 And what do we have in here?
21:44 We've got chicken breast.
21:46 It looks like cucumber leek.
21:50 This is what's known as a bao cui,
21:52 which literally translates to thin and crispy.
21:55 And it's meant to be thin and crispy,
21:56 but it's more like thin and flaccid right now.
22:00 I think this is tianmian sauce,
22:01 which is a sweet bean paste.
22:06 I have to say this.
22:07 The Chinese breakfast at KFC is next level.
22:11 I want all of that.
22:13 Are you kidding me?
22:15 All of that looks incredible.
22:16 Next, let's talk about the non-Chinese breakfast.
22:19 So we've got our panini offering right here.
22:22 We're gonna begin with the cheese and sausage panini,
22:25 just your regular,
22:26 I think this is actually ciabatta bread.
22:28 Now we've got the cheese, sausage and egg,
22:33 the cheese and chicken panini,
22:37 the cheese and thick omelette panini.
22:41 Now this is interesting because this is a rolled omelette.
22:45 I think in Japan, they would call it a tamagoyaki.
22:48 Here, we've got the chicken chop thick rolled omelette,
22:53 double panini.
22:55 These three are special.
22:57 We've got them just for you.
22:58 They're new offerings on the KFC menu.
23:00 In fact, KFC has been really good at updating this menu.
23:03 Pretty much every month, they're gonna have new stuff.
23:06 This is their souffle lineup,
23:10 the cheese and egg souffle panini.
23:13 It's basically the same eggy thing,
23:18 but it looks like it's worked out more in the gym.
23:21 It's got a better pump.
23:23 Next, we've got the chicken chop and egg souffle panini.
23:28 I just wanna do a side-by-side comparison.
23:31 Is it not the same thing?
23:32 And I saved the fanciest of them all for last.
23:35 This is the beef filet egg souffle.
23:40 Oh, look at that.
23:41 They even made it rhyme.
23:42 Okay, it comes in its very own special box.
23:45 Okay, so we've got the fluffy souffle,
23:50 and then there's mashed potato in my panini,
23:55 and the beef filet.
23:58 Now we have le French, again, le Francaise.
24:02 That was really bad.
24:03 I'm pretty bad at the French accent, sorry.
24:05 We have the smoked chicken French-style croissant bread.
24:10 It's basically a croissan'wich.
24:11 It's a square croissant with sesame seeds
24:15 and le bacon and egg French-style croissant.
24:21 The bacon and egg French-style croissant bread,
24:24 if my accent was terrible.
24:26 Not as impressed with the paninis.
24:27 And we've kind of got those here.
24:30 And of course, if you can't get enough
24:32 of the Western-style breakfast,
24:34 you can also get single add-on items,
24:36 such as an egg sunny-side up.
24:39 You can also get a nice juicy sausage, hash browns.
24:44 Always a must.
24:46 This is the egg and vegetable soup.
24:49 Here we've got the Hong Kong-style
24:52 big crispy chicken thai rice.
24:54 This section beneath is just literally filled with rice.
24:59 And this is the spicy meat sauce grilled chicken rice.
25:04 Here are two additional non-chicken sides that we have,
25:08 corn and wavy fries.
25:11 Get a whole chocolate cake at the KFC in the US.
25:15 I don't know why they don't sell it by slices.
25:17 Guess it's for the whole family or whatever.
25:19 What can I say about chocolate cake?
25:20 It's chocolate, it's got frosting on it.
25:21 It's very good.
25:23 I'm not gonna bite into it.
25:24 We're gonna donate it, so I don't wanna screw it up.
25:26 Trust me, it's good.
25:27 These are our exclusive desserts.
25:30 Let's begin with KFC's bestseller,
25:33 the Portuguese-style egg tart,
25:35 or just the egg tart for sure.
25:37 And if you can't eat two whole egg tarts,
25:40 then you can go for the baby egg tarts.
25:44 Oh, look how cute they are.
25:46 They're tiny.
25:47 KFC offers a Basque cheesecake.
25:50 And this is the red bean pie.
25:53 That's delicious.
25:56 KFC offers an original ice cream cone,
26:00 but because we got it delivered, that's the cone.
26:04 And this is the ice cream.
26:07 Okay, I guess that's how I'm supposed to take it out.
26:11 I'm just gonna drink the ice cream.
26:13 Here we go.
26:14 This is a first.
26:15 Oh, oh, oh, okay, okay.
26:18 All right, we're gonna put it back.
26:20 Sundaes, we've got four of them.
26:23 Strawberry, brown sugar, and bubble sauce.
26:26 I assume bubble as in bubble tea.
26:29 This here is the mango grapefruit sundae.
26:34 New on the menu, the North American blueberry sauce.
26:38 Here, we've also got super soft mochi sundaes.
26:43 This is the strawberry flavor.
26:46 And this is the one that I guess is basically
26:50 the milk tea version, but with mochi balls on top.
26:54 Following on in the footsteps of the mochi sundae,
26:57 there's also super soft KFC mochi ice cream,
27:01 which comes in four flavors.
27:03 This one is strawberry.
27:05 Ah, no, this one's strawberry Oreo.
27:07 You can also get regular strawberry, Oreo,
27:10 and taro flavor.
27:13 That's actually pretty tasty.
27:15 Drinks.
27:16 We got a bunch of them here in the US.
27:18 Starting down here, something that is new to America,
27:21 a lemon lime beverage called Starry.
27:24 A Sierra Mist is out, Starry's in, and...
27:28 Tastes almost exactly like 7-Up.
27:33 You also get Mountain Dew.
27:35 Oh, yeah.
27:36 A personal favorite, Mountain Dew Sweet Lightning.
27:39 I think you only get it at KFC.
27:41 It's like peach Mountain Dew.
27:44 I don't know if it's that good for me, but, man, it's so good.
27:46 This is supposed to be a lemonade, but...
27:48 It's, in fact, more sweet lightning.
27:53 Not complaining, but you also get the Colonel's Lemonade.
27:55 And, last but not least, sweet tea.
27:59 Oh, yeah.
28:00 [ Slurps ]
28:02 My sweet tea head.
28:03 KFC's good. Love all these beverages.
28:05 These are all of our exclusive drinks.
28:08 Let's begin over here with the most Chinese of them all,
28:13 soy milk.
28:14 We have Budweiser,
28:16 the Nine Fruits Orange Juice.
28:21 Then you've got your milk tea with a very cute Colonel Sanders
28:26 and a bubble tea, which is just as cute
28:30 and has the little tapioca pearls at the bottom, too.
28:33 Over here, the Three Lemon Tea,
28:36 consisting of lemon, lime, and orange.
28:40 It's basically just lemon juice.
28:42 Yeah, I can see why it's called Three Lemon.
28:44 [ Laughs ]
28:45 The heartwarming Three Black Goji Oat Drink.
28:51 Oh, if you see the --
28:53 If you can see the little bits of red stuff floating in there,
28:56 it's got actual goji berries.
29:00 It makes me feel like a middle-aged Chinese auntie
29:04 with curlers in my hair.
29:05 But in the best way possible, I feel --
29:08 I don't know. I feel like I'm wearing PJs.
29:10 I think was the Snow Top Coffee,
29:14 which is basically an ice latte with a dollop of ice cream.
29:18 And this also would have looked different
29:21 when it first arrived.
29:22 This is called the Cute Bubble Milk.
29:26 Basically, it's just straight-up milk
29:28 with a layer of milk foam.
29:29 And it would have had a smiley face
29:32 dusted in cocoa powder.
29:34 Oh, and I forgot to mention, there's also a hot lemon drink
29:37 that we weren't able to get.
29:38 These are the K Coffees.
29:40 K Coffees come in hot or cold varieties.
29:43 You can get Americano, your standard latte,
29:46 your oat milk latte, your rich milk latte,
29:49 your coconut latte.
29:51 Then you can also get the vanilla latte,
29:54 your hazelnut latte, sea salt, and macadamia nut latte.
29:58 And there's also your regular cappuccino
30:01 and caramel macchiatos.
30:04 Let's talk cultural perceptions.
30:09 In terms of prestige, KFC really is the OG.
30:12 They opened in 1987, before Maccy D's.
30:15 And back then, they would have also been seen
30:17 as sort of a window to the West,
30:19 this fancy cosmopolitan place to be seen.
30:23 But over time, they've really become
30:27 quite entrenched here in China.
30:30 And they're now seen as a foreign fast food brand
30:33 that I would say has a lot of Chinese characteristics.
30:37 For example, the congee, the breakfast menu, et cetera.
30:40 KFC's rep in this country, they're number one.
30:42 They're number one with fast food chicken.
30:45 We got Popeyes.
30:46 We got, I guess you want to put Chick-fil-A,
30:48 but that's more sandwiches.
30:49 As far as like fast chicken and the bone places,
30:54 Wingstop is wings, and Popeyes and KFC.
30:58 Reputation is pretty much like you're going to get
31:00 a decent piece of chicken and a lot of sides.
31:04 In terms of convenience, KFC has its own delivery service,
31:07 but it also uses third-party suppliers like everybody else.
31:11 But unlike in the US, where KFC is very much takeout focused,
31:16 here in China, they're more about the dine-in experience,
31:19 especially with the extended family.
31:21 KFC is incredibly convenient, reliable.
31:25 I wouldn't hang out at one or dine there.
31:27 I would take it to go.
31:28 One thing I should say about KFC,
31:30 as much as they work on having quality control,
31:32 you could tell if a KFC is good or bad
31:34 by like how dark the chicken is when it comes out.
31:37 Like the one that we did today,
31:39 I don't think they changed the oil.
31:41 And in a while, the chicken was looking
31:43 a little darker than it should.
31:44 So that's kind of like a thing you got to consider.
31:48 Convenience, usually the service is pretty quick,
31:51 but it's April 27th.
31:53 So if somebody watching this happened to get KFC
31:56 from Uber or DoorDash on April 27th, around 1130,
32:01 and your meal took longer than you wanted, my fault.
32:05 Our big order pretty much backed everything up anyway.
32:07 So it's usually convenient when you don't live
32:09 in a neighborhood where they shoot a Food Wars.
32:11 So in terms of adaptability, KFC, as we mentioned before,
32:15 was the first to offer congee and Chinese kruller,
32:19 soy milk on their breakfast menus.
32:21 Also, unlike McDonald's,
32:24 which kind of played up its foreignness a little bit,
32:27 KFC, when they came to the China market,
32:29 had high-level managers who actually spoke the language.
32:33 And so they adapted very quickly.
32:34 For example, there are lots of regional differences
32:37 in terms of how much spicy people can eat.
32:41 Like people over in Shanghai were complaining
32:43 that the spicy chicken was too spicy,
32:45 but people over in Hunan in Central China
32:48 were complaining that it wasn't spicy enough.
32:50 So they were very quick to react.
32:52 And in KFC, Kentucky fried chicken,
32:54 Kentucky, Kentucky's in the United States,
32:56 so pretty much is local country tastes.
32:59 Yeah, they do the Nashville hot thing.
33:01 They occasionally bring sauces in and out, but.
33:04 Rivals, KFC basically has none.
33:07 I mean, it's numero uno.
33:09 Over 9,000 stores, double the market share of McDonald's.
33:13 Way, way, way far ahead in the distance.
33:16 Unless they sit on their laurels,
33:18 they're probably gonna be cruising
33:20 at number one for a while.
33:22 KFC versus Popeyes, I would say KFC has,
33:25 in America, at least four times as many locations.
33:30 Yeah, I think Popeyes tastes better, but.
33:34 You know, as far as business is concerned,
33:37 KFC's not sweating it.
33:38 In China, this spicy chicken burger is 19.5 yuan,
33:44 or 2.83 US dollars.
33:47 A US spicy chicken sandwich is $6.99,
33:50 or 48.10 yuan.
33:52 That is a 147% price increase.
33:56 Make it a meal, add a medium fries and a medium Pepsi,
34:01 and the cost goes up to 42 yuan, or $6.10,
34:05 still less than the cost of a sandwich in the US.
34:09 Our US combo with tax is $13.75,
34:12 or 94.61 yuan.
34:15 That is a 125.4% increase compared to China.
34:20 Our most expensive single menu item
34:22 is the fried chicken bucket and Budweiser meal,
34:26 which is 146 yuan, or $21,
34:29 and it gets you eight spicy wings,
34:32 eight New Orleans wings, and four Budweisers.
34:36 I mean, I don't know where the other three went, honestly.
34:39 They must've just gotten lost on the road or something.
34:43 In the US, we have two menu items
34:45 costing $49.99, or 343.97 yuan.
34:50 That's either the 16-piece chicken meal
34:53 or the 16-piece tenders meal.
34:55 Both come with four large sides and eight biscuits.
34:58 Unfortunately, KFC doesn't share
35:02 its nutrition data with the public,
35:04 but what we do know is that in 2020, Yum! China,
35:08 which owns KFC and Pizza Hut here in China,
35:11 partnered with the Chinese Nutrition Society
35:14 to research and apply best nutritional practices
35:16 for the brand.
35:17 KFC in the US does have nutrition info available.
35:20 Here are a few stats.
35:21 All right, if you get the Kentucky
35:23 grilled chicken drumstick, it's 80 calories.
35:26 Crisp it up a little bit with the original recipe
35:29 or the spicy, now it's 130 calories.
35:31 Wanna make it extra crispy, like this one in my stomach?
35:35 Now you've increased the calories to 170.
35:38 That's 112.5% more calories than the Kentucky grilled.
35:42 Get real, though.
35:43 It's Kentucky fried chicken.
35:44 If you want grilled chicken,
35:45 go dust off your George Foreman.
35:47 Speaking of calories, what menu items have the most?
35:50 If you're going with the chicken, the extra crispy,
35:52 a breast is 530 calories.
35:54 Sandwich, the recently discontinued Double Down
35:58 has 950 calories.
36:00 For reference, a Big Mac has 550.
36:03 And besides, the fries are the top of the list.
36:05 An individual has 320 calories,
36:08 and then the family size, which, let's be honest,
36:09 it's for one person, has 840 calories.
36:13 I have been informed that my fellow producer,
36:15 Uli Song, said that their favorite thing
36:18 on the KFC menu is, in fact, the pot pie.
36:21 Wouldn't it be nice if you said something
36:22 while I was going off about it?
36:24 Oh, God, is peas in it?
36:25 What else is in here?
36:27 What is this?
36:28 It kinda tastes like chicken noodle soup.
36:32 This is just okay.
36:35 Who is getting this over fried chicken?
36:38 Are you just booing me, Uli?
36:40 Ah.
36:41 I'm not being a hater.
36:44 Hey, people, tune into this show,
36:46 'cause they know Joe keeps it real.