肯德基(KFC)特色烧饼新鲜出炉

音频下载[点击右键另存为]
在油条上市一年之后,昨天起,让中国人倍感亲切的“烧饼”也登陆肯德基早餐。肯德基证实消息真实。这款新品仅在早餐时段供应,6月15日全国隆重登场。消息一出,网友们的好奇心空前膨胀起来。网友说,去年肯德基卖油条,今年又要卖烧饼,这可是新闻。

Starting Monday, Shao-bing, or Chinese-style pancakes, is being sold at KFC. It's the newest item being offered at KFC aimed specifically at the Chinese market.

Ms. Xu is buying for her family the new Shaobing which is a puffy sesame pastry stuffed with pork, egg, veggies and mayonnaise. The original Shaobing doesn't have the above ingredients, but Ms. Xu likes the new kind anyway.

"Pretty good. It's crispy. Not bad at all. Kind of like thousand-layered pancake."

Alex is an international kind of guy who is enjoying his breakfast in a KFC chain store in central Beijing.

"They have a kind of spicy shrimp burger, which is not something you can find in KFC in London or Paris or in New York. They have some kind of salad, like corn. I don't think they would have that locally back in the States."

KFC's country-specific menu also includes porridge and You-tiao, or fried dough-sticks, which you've never seen before in other KFCs around the world.

Some customers say they prefer the well-known overseas brand to local restaurants for its clean environment and fresh materials.

"This is fried dough-stick. Yes, it's about right."

"I feel safe. The oil KFC uses is not like the kind used by street vendors."

And KFC is not the only enterprise to approach this strategy of localizing its set menu. If you visit a Starbucks in China, you will find red tea during Chinese New Year and Zongzi, or a type of sticky rice dessert, during the Duanwu or Dragonboat Festival, all typical Chinese food passed down from thousands of years ago. Even Papa John's came out with pizza using traditional Chinese ingredients.

As long as there's demand, overseas fast-food chains plan to roll out even more Chinese-style menu items.

Here is the manager of a KFC chain store.

"We often come out with new products, pretty much once a month. They sell well."

However, some customers complained about the high price of the new products. For example, each Shaobing costs 10 yuan, or almost 1. 5 US dollars. That's five times more expensive than local products.

Here is Ms. Xu again.

"Of course it tastes good. But it's not cheap. I have a coupon here. If I didn't, I wouldn't be eating this."

One the other hand, KFC's biggest rival McDonald's maintains an essentially uniform menu everywhere in the world, while giving a discount to the price.

Experts say the Chinese market is huge and it welcomes new attempts. But it never changes the nature of the western kind of food.

Duan Fugen is the secretary general of Shanghai Restaurants Association.

"I believe that adding some variety won't change the main items offered on the menu. There are risks involved. It's not a certainty that the new item suited to China's taste will be popular. Only time can tell which business strategy will succeed."

Duan Fugen says Chinese restaurant chains are also learning from foreign fast-food groups. They are improving service quality and management method to face the fierce competition.