I prefer to eat at home as apposed to eating out in a restaurant. I know that many fat people feel similarly. In my case, it's not simply because I am a fat girl and I hate when people watch me eat because I feel constantly judged, but because the way I eat is peculiar and complex and I can execute the act of eating in a more precise way when I am at home eating alone.In one of our first posts Emily wrote about the art of preparation. She wrote, "Lindsey says I do an excellent job, but I feel she is far superior to me. She takes her time, gets things set up in perfect order, and has precise execution. It's a dance if you ask me. Preparing our food is a time honored tradition. I'm not talking about the actually preparation of the food, the cooking, the cleaning...I'm talking about preparation after the preparation.Take sushi for example. Sushi takes a lot of preparation because the ratio of food to sides is high. Sushi has the soy sauce, the eel sauce, the incredibly amazing spicy mayo and the ginger. Each of these sides must take their place in an assembly line of goodness. Same goes with any feast that includes sauces. Sauces are of most importance. Fries, sandwiches, salads, etc., all need sauces, different sauces, combined sauces, sauces, sauces, sauces. Some sauces are dressings, some are dipping, but all are sauces and all make or break a meal."
I couldn't have put it better myself!
I went out to dinner twice in the past week with friends, and while I love my friends, I know I would have enjoyed the actual meals more if I had eaten them at home. I feel really self-conscious preparing my food in a restaurant, yet I know that my meal tastes better if I take the time to create the perfect bite with the right amount of sauce, meat, carb, veggie, etc.
Which brings me to my point: KFC, a restaurant I loathe and would never eat at has created a genius product...The Famous Bowl. Now, I basically dislike KFC with as much passion as one can muster against a second tier fast food restaurant. Yes, I have a reason, but believe me that's an entirely different post. In general, I don't eat fast food (maybe once every few years), but I still have to give a shout out to my new obsession which I will never try, The Famous Bowl.
The Famous Bowl is, "Freshly prepared with layers of your KFC favorites - a generous serving of our creamy mashed potatoes, sweet kernel corn, bite size pieces of all-white meat crispy chicken, topped with our homestyle gravy and 3-cheese blend. All the KFC favorites you know and love served in a convenient easy-to-eat bowl"!
It's like KFC packaged the way I eat and is selling it to the general public. Their layered bowl of goodness is basically designed to allow one to create the perfect bite with minimal preparation! So, kudos to you KFC, you've won this round!
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33 comments:
Lindsey, I would totally eat there. I love the fast food!
-Emily
kudos to you KFC, you've won this round!
u 2 r funny!!!
Yes. Eating for me is a highly ritualized experience that is best done at home. I love take out, particularly sushi. I also love to eat in my room. Sushi is the most complex of all the foods I feel. With the wasabi and soy sauce alone it takes about 5-10 min to set the whole meal up before the goodness can begin. :)
I really didn't realize that others felt the same.
That being said, I do not agree with the bowl-situation. I am usually one (with the exception of sushi) to de-construct my meals. Like if I get a grilled chicken sandwich with ranch sauce I will seperate the chicken from the bread and cut all up into little pieces which I then individually dip into the sauce. As a result I am a very slow eater.
Clearly the whole bowl situation would be highly frustrating for me as I would want to deconstruct the "bowl" and seperate the foods to enjoy the yumminess idividually.
Please don't judge me too harshly. :)
Hi, Sarah
actually I feel the same as you...I like my food separate. My mother always cooked like that, and I have always preferred my fish separate from my veggies, rice...etc.
I am not much of a fast food eater, and I adore sushi! It is my favorite meal to eat out when Im about the town at lunch.
I think sometimes sushi is more a work of art than just a meal. It is the masterful way they play up flavors and textures that get my attention.
Add to that the traditional green tea and Im all about it
take care
Maybe de-ritualizing your meals will lead to weight loss.
Is this sort of fetishistic relationship with food common among the overweight?
I feel the need to apologize, but that bowl thing is just gross. To have your chicken all mushy with corn and gravy and potatoes. Ewww.. Just too awful for words. I don't like KFC either, though have no good reason (or deep reason like you do it sounds), I am not exactly opposed to fast food per se, but just don't really like KFC.
Hi anonymous who suggested that maybe de-ritualizing the meals would help with weightloss. I don't think that would work for most people with this unique habit. Both my mom and one of my best friends are very ritualistic and neither has ever been over weight. My Dad and sister are both overweight, my sister being in the morbid range and they don't have any ritualistic food tendencys. So from the above examples I have to include that their OCD food behavior has to stem from something deeper than a simple food obsession.
Gloria
I actually found the opposite, Gloria. I was overweight my whole life and off and on bulimic and was very ritualistic about my eating. It wasn't until I was able to remove the ritual from the food - to stop making it an experience or more important than it was and just make it eating - that I was finally able to lose and keep off the 100 extra pounds. And now eating is just for sustenance. It isn't an "experience."
While I could totally relate to what she said about knowing she would have enjoyed the food more alone (because I KNOW that feeling), my thought process has changed.
Hmm, that's very interesting Sue. I guess it us just like the old saying that "Everyone is different". To be honest my love of food hasn't changed all that much since losing weight. I still enjoy the experience of going to a Sushi restraunt and dining on high quality foods. I've just learned not to obsess about it, now I can just enjoy it as an occassional experience with out being "overcome" or "engulfed" by it. My food addiction were more like food lust or food infactuations than cravings. I would become consumed about having a specific food item/items, usually expensive ones to, unfortunelately for my pocketbook. Sometimes I would just eat anything I could find in the house until I allowed myself to have the food I was desiring that day.
I am not sure "The Bowl" is a good thing. Hmmm. Looks kinda nasty.
That being said, everyone has their different quirks on how they like to eat. Me? If I eat fast food, I don't want anyone to know. Get rid of the evidence as soon as possible.
As for the person who suggested fat people have a fetish with food, maybe some do. But I think most of us just enjoy food a lot, and partake more often than everyone else.
It's not always about something making us fat, or keeping us fat. We just are. Get over it.
Im strangely facinated with the bowl too. I want to try it, but am having a chicken aversion lately. I am curious to know why you hate KFC so! Sounds like a story. :)
That bowl thing looks so gross ;(
You better walk/run/swim for an hour after eating that thing or there's no excuse for us being fat! We can't use the 'it's my metabolism thing' while shoveling down one of the unhealthiest things I've ever seen. now a six piece crisy strips is a different story! :)
You know, when I saw that commercial, I thought it looked really good, until they added the cheese. I really don't see the cheese belonging there, perhaps because it’s not melted in the pictures so it looks like it would taste gross to me. Other than that, it just seems like a fast-food version of Shepherd’s Pie with chicken. (Lindsey, you should try Shepherd’s Pie if you haven't yet. The American version is usually ground beef, topped with corn and/or other veggies, topped with mashed potatoes, topped with cheese and baked).
As for food rituals, I myself also like to eat my foods separately. (Which is why it surprised me when I saw this and thought it looked good, minus cheese). I didn't learn until I was about 12 or so that everyone in the world didn't eat one thing at a time on their plates. I also, unintentionally, do the same thing in mixed dishes. For example, if I eat stroganoff, I end up with a bowl full of just meat by the end.
To argue the OCD food issues are stemming from something deeper, I have done this since I was an infant. My mother would, for example, feed me a dinner from two different flavors of baby food. She would feed me some of one, then some of the other, and I would refuse to eat the first one again. Maybe it's hard-wired. Or I’m a freak. :)
I don't know why people insist on making suggestions for weight loss on this blog. It wasn't asked for and for the billionth time, this isn't a weight loss blog or a fat acceptance blog. So stop it with the weight loss suggestions for these ladies. It's just annoying!
I may have found something even more tasty than Taco Bell's Crunchwrap!
i used to separate the toppings from my pizza crust, eat the crust then eat the toppings with a fork and knife.
of course, that stemmed from getting a second degree burn on my chin from pizza when i was young -- yeouch!
ritualized eating doesn't have much to do with being fat or not. i went to a women's college and learned a lot about how women wiht eating disorders eat.
when you're fat, it doesn't matter what you do or don't eat when you're in public. people will judge you on THEIR OWN SHIT, not what you actually do. i ordered mussels and a caesar salad last time i went out because i love mussels and never get to have them. someone else's perception of me "dieting" or "trying to make a good impression" are their own prejudices. i don't people please other people when it comes to food.
Have to have separation. Each type of food in turn. Guess this blows up the fat stereotype of guzzling food indiscriminately! If anything, it's the other way around...
You know, this food totally appeals to me in a binge-out sense, but after I thought about it for a while (after seeing the first few ads), i actually got ANGRY with KFC and the food industry in general. THIS is the reason that America is fat and dying of disesase and that the pharmeceutical company fat cats are getting rich and senior citizens can't afford their medical bills. SEriously. There is not one bit of nutritional value in this load of crap, yet we will all eat it because it's loaded with preservatives and other additives that make us crave it more and more once we've eaten it.
Sorry, totally conspiracy theoryish, but I've been working so hard at losing weight, and while obviously I am responsible for all my actions, it would be nice if we lived in a society where businesses did feel some ethical obligation to not POISON the general public
It disgusts me and at the same time intrigues me. I love mixing mashed potatoes and corn together - that could quite possibly be my favorite food. But, I won't eat KFC either.
www.crazyfatchick.blogspot.com
Well, I broke down and tried it last night. (Saw it here in the early part of the day and couldn't stop thinking about it's delicious goodness all day long).
It tastes like crap. It looks absolutely nothing like the picture, which I know they pictures are always a best-case scenerio, but it really, really didn't look like the picture. It would fit in a normal size cereal bowl, with a little room to spare, yet cost $4 here, $5.29 for the meal (To give a price comparison of my town, a big chicken breast there is $1.69). There was barely any corn, the chicken was a little sparse, and the gravy made the crispy chicken kind of soggy.
I wouldn't eat it again. Two forks down.
I will be trying this. Some things you just need to get out of your system or at least remind yourself every once in a while WHY you DON'T eat there.
never been to KFC. Not entirely sure how i've managed to avoid that one. Think i should probably go there sometime, if only to lose my KFC virginity.
jessiferseabs: THIS is the reason that America is fat and dying of disesase...
After reading your post, I thought at first - well, one won't kill me. But then I was curious enough to actually look at the nutritional information for these bowls on KFC's website.
The mashed potatoes version has an astounding 47% of the daily value of fat in that little bowl. Not to mention that you're getting 9g of saturated fat and 4.5g of the much more evil transfats.
The rice version, which you would think would be somewhat healthy, has 2750 mg (not a typo) of sodium in one bowl. That's 114% of the daily value!
There should be a law against companies advertising this crap as "food"...
yeh but it is finger licking good.
It just makes me ANGRY.
I mean, I have been through the drivethrough and chinese food places more times than I can count, so it's not like I'm a food saint; I have my demons and cravings like mad, just like the next guy.
But lately I've just started to feel ABUSED by the food industry - like, it's this big corporate giant that doens't care what it's doing to it's customers, and in fact, is loading up food with addictive chemicals and preservatives that keep us coming back for more, and then we get cancer and diabetes and heart disease and end up making the pharamceutical companies rich. I know it's dramatic, but that's how I feel - like a pawn who spent 5 years getting fatter by the second, because I had out of control cravings for food that was killing me.
Anyway, off soapbox now.
~J
to jessiferseabs: Instead of getting angry, refuse to give them any more of your money. Corporations don't care (because they are inanimate), but that shouldn't stop you from caring enough about yourself to walk past the door without going in.
I don't. I've only been to KFC once, and I don't typically eat fast food (with the exception of the occasional mixup with Chipotle, Noodles, or McDonalds, which I ate last weekend for the first time in a year).
But while I knew it was BAD for me, it wasn't until I got ANGRY about it that I stopped eating there... trying to instill a bit of that in everybody else, perhaps.
*note: I've lost like 65 lbs in the past three years, a big part of that was cutting out fast food.
However, I will argue with you about corporations not caring "because they are inanimate." WHile the corporation itself is not an animate object, it is run by humans; and humans make those decisions and create those recipes and menus and spend billions of dollars marketing those things to the public.
Somewhere, somebody stopped caring. And I"ve worked (in marketing, to boot!) for a couple of large corporations. The people to drive the ship, define the culture, and ultimately the success and reach of the corporation.
I understand that people are ultimately self-interested and then will therefore act in their own self interest (in the case of a corporation, profitability which equals higher wages and profit sharing for employees), but it would be awfully nice if we could find a way for big business and social conscience to exist, wouldn't it?
okay, I want to know what you all thought about the guy in the KFC Bowl commercial?
You know, perhaps it's because in my old fast food days I was a Popeye's girl, but something about those bowls is just ... I don't know ... overkill?
(I loooove cheese, but I just can't see cheese on top of that particular mishmash. It's like tomato sauce on ice cream.)
Or maybe it's that if I'm going to do overkill, I would rather create my own and not be limited by the restaurant's menu as to what the overkill must be.
Heck, I've been known to order off the menu at Vong (not necessarily a way to endear oneself to the chef unless you are, like, Gisele or something).
I dunno. Just musing.
(Buff, sorry about the rhubarb. I am a wannabe non-fiction author who needs mentoring. I have attended conferences and have published both articles and volumes of poetry, but I still quake at the thought of a whole book. Yikes!)
To anonymous 12:30 above, I think he's a model customer for the consumer society -- someone who has trouble articulating what he wants and therefore wants to be told what to think.
Emily,
This post just left me wondering, where does your food preparation ritual come from? I mean, how did you develop it? Most of us have daily rituals and idiosyncrasies and we have them to make us feel at ease. Personally I love eating at restaurants precisely because I don't have to go through any preparation (of any kind) and because a salad and a sandwhich always tastes better is someone else makes it, imho.
I *now* see food *mostly* as "fuel" and I don't really dedicate much significance to it as long it's a good fuel - does this make sense?
I must admit that I used to indulge in KFC food from time to time. In Dubai I was shocked to find out that the KFC's do not carry mashed potatos, gravy and bisquits. What?! How can you have fried chicken without these? How easy it is to give up fast food when it just doesn't taste the same as back home! (Oh, and Baskin Robbins do not carry root beer floats!).
As to bowls and chicken - nothing beats Pollo Loco! Now they have some hearty bowls, rice and beans and roasted chicken. Their chicken is a lot healthier, I don't know about the side dishes though... :-)
wow well i used to be fat i as 5'0 and 145 lbs and now im 5'6 and 110 and i cant seem to gain weight anymore, this seems to be something of great value, eat on i must for i can eat forever but where it goes i dont knows
so it is true, the internet has finally turned to crap. I thought it was rumors, but my friend Warwick told me that it was still on its downward slope; and slippery it must have been. Me and Al Gore are going to put an end to this monstrosity.
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