Fast food, Asian-style

Monday, February 3, 2014

Asian countries are developing their own take on Western fast food, and the methods the companies are using to draw in customers range from exploiting the familiar to embracing the bizarre.

Even though pork and not chicken is the most consumed meat in China, KFC has held the top fast-food spot for many years. However, the International Business Times reports that KFC has taken a hit in recent years, weathering some unsuccessful marketing campaigns and an avian influenza scare. Enter the McDonald's Spicy Pork McBite.

Done in the style of a Chicken McNugget, these "porky spheres of goodness" got a generally favourable review in local magazine The Beijinger. "The pork seems to be dark meat – we didn't know pork had dark meat. The meat is tender, not chewy. It's easy to eat a lot of these if you're not paying too much attention."

Meanwhile in Japan, Burger King has gone another way entirely. The "Kuro Ninja" (Black Ninja) burger is modeled on a popular black-clad cartoon ninja with, as Quartz website puts it, "an inexplicable protruding tongue." The bun's dough is blackened with bamboo charcoal, and a long floppy slab of back bacon serves as the tongue. BP