Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’
“I ate where it all began …” October 22nd, 2008
Corbin, Kentucky
The Sanders Cafe, Corbin
The first word I heard in Corbin, Kentucky, (population 8,000) was ‘deerekson’. This is Gujarati for ‘directions’, as articulated by the clerk at a gas station on the edge of town, from whom I wanted to know how I could get to one of the roots of American global dominance. That I should have to do this through a Gujarati is ironic but not unusual; it happens all the time in the USA. No matter what it is you are looking for there’s usually a Gujarati middleman (or shall we say facilitator) handy.
It is ironic, nevertheless. Because it is a little odd to ask this particular species of vegetarian how to get to the place that began the war against chicken–a bird he probably has no quarrel with, unless it owes him money.
I had bet on his general awareness when I asked. This is the only recent war that America has won outright, so I assumed it must be common knowledge.
Well I was wrong, but not entirely. ‘Deerekson’ pointed me to a bona fide consumer of Kentucky Fried Chicken. This man was very helpful. So we went north, past main street with its little nail salons and florists, to where it all began. It was just about lunchtime.
Inside the Colonel's kitchen
Sanders Court and Cafe opened here in 1930, during the Depression. By 1936, Harland Sanders was made a ‘colonel’ by the Kentucky governor, for his services to Kentucky cuisine, which one would presume was in dire need of recipes and role models at the time.
By 1940, the colonel had worked out a way to pressure fry chicken so that it would be ready in 9 minutes making it possible to serve real fast.
But the big step forward, was prompted by adversity. In 1955, a new interstate highway bypassed Corbin, hurting business brutally. Sanders packed it in, collected a $105 social security cheque and hit the road trying to franchise his original 11 herb and spice recipe.
By 1964, he’d sold out for $2 million, but remained the face of the business. Recent surveys have shown that 98% of Americans recognise him. What McCain or Obama would not do to get that rating. (Sanders, however, ran for the state senate as a Republican once–and lost.)
KFC's rates in the 50s
KFC is now owned by Pepsi (do not ask for a coke at KFC) under the umbrella of Yum! Brands, which also owns such fine dining offerings as Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. They sell over a billion portions of chicken annually. Statistically, this means every sixth person in the world has been subjected to KFC once a year.
At the restored Sanders Court and Cafe in Corbin (also a museum of sorts, with Sander’s kitchen in original condition), a middle-aged couple say grace before they settle down to their fried chicken. I try and work out why they are thankful (even given faith, the food crisis and all). Maybe its because they do not have to eat at McDonald’s. This is the only reasonable explanation.
I can knock KFC from this safe distance. I would not dare do this at home. There are KFC maniacs out there, like my wife Suparna, and my friend and former colleague Sonal Nerurkar (who would queue up at the Bandra outlet for her fix. I am not making this up.) such is the power and global reach of the original recipe.
When they hire employees, for instance, they try and avoid the free-range variety. One of the service staff at Corbin told me her favourite word was ‘chicken’. And that what she enjoyed most was ’serving customers’. She’s been in the coop for 18 years.
The t-shirt says it all
The assistant manager (26, 9 years in KFC) did not have a favourite word, which was because he didn’t ‘have much of a vocabulary’. They were both Corbin locals.
The staff was extremely courteous, however. And served us an awful meal through no fault of theirs. Shrivelled, depressed chickens that would have probably commited suicide, had KFC not offered the humane euthanasia option, fried in oil that should have been carbon dated, with coleslaw which was sugar-bombed to disguise the many failings of Walmart cabbage.
Had KFC had won the war with just these weapons? Yes, and no. Most of the civilised world has recognised its suzerainty, but Iraq holds out.
In late July, the excitable (and stupid) right-wingers at Fox News celebrated that the recipe had worked in that country, too. They reported that a KFC outlet had opened in Fallujah. General Tommy Franks, who oversaw the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, could hardly hide his satisfaction in his interview to Fox.
Alas, this was not a bona fide KFC joint. Adventurous Iraqi entrepreneurs had opened such an obviously fake outlet that anyone who wasn’t blind could have told the difference. But it didn’t matter. U.S. Soldiers were paying $3.50 for dinner any way. This is a cause for worry. If the Arabs could get a hold of such a well protected secret, then nuclear bomb weapons blueprints may mell be in danger.
A recipe from the cafe:
The colonel’s secret 11 herb/spice recipe is protected against proliferation, but here’s a hand-written 1950s vintage recipe from the cafe at Corbin. Cook at your own risk:
Colonel’s mock oyster:
Peel and dice eggplant. Soak overnight in salt water. Next day, boil till tender. Alternate (i.e. put one after the other) egg plant, crumbled crackers, oleo, salt and pepper, finishing off with crackers.
Before placing in the oven, fill with 1/2 and 1/2 cream (somewhere between milk and cream). Bake at 350 degrees, till brown.
Voila.
Tags: Colonel Sanders, Corbin, Fallujah, Iraq, Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC, The Colonel, US Elections 2008
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What the ‘red hatters’ are thinking October 16th, 2008
Dayton, Tennessee
The Red Hatters vote for joy, and this time around joy is the McCain-Palin ticket
“I’m a red hatter”, says Mrs Karen Black, talking about a constituency that I had not heard of as we sip sweet tea in the Dayton coffee house. Then she explains.
“There is a poem that says ‘When I grow old I shall wear purple/ With red hats that do not match and do not go/ I’ll learn to spit on the sidewalk and send the grocery money for brandy/ And tell the family that we have no money for butter..’ And the poem goes on, all these things that we’re never allowed to do as proper ladies. And then at the end it says, ’so that my family won’t be too surprised, I think I’ll start practicing now.’
“And so–and you will see this throughout the United States–there are gatherings of ladies fifty and older, who, regardless of what life has thrown at them, whether it’s widowhood, cancer, loss of a child… Regardless of what life has done to them, they choose joy. The red hatters are all about choosing joy. And you will see them with feathers and glitters and red hats and purple outfits.”
Mrs Black is 58, she is wearing a green floral outfit, without any sort of hat, but I have no reason to believe she is not a red hatter. She has the primary requirements to be one: in this election, choosing joy, would mean going with the McCain Palin ticket; she’s also a good Christian.
I ask her what denomination she belongs to and she laughs and says: “I’m a ‘methabaptapristacostal’… just a Christain. Then, assuming the air of someone who’s about to say something really important. She looks me in the eye and says: “The main things are the plain things.”
She begins counting the main things on her fingers: “Was He born of a virgin; was He crucified; did He die; was He raised from the dead; has He ascended to the right hand of the father… the main things are the plaayne things. And you can put any label you want to put on it, but the main things are the plain things. And they are true. They are true.”
Faced with these profound, and totally sincere beliefs, I can’t help turn the conversation towards other countries and other faiths. We begin in Iraq, where it’s difficult to tell either main or plain.
Mrs Black pauses a bit to take in the question. “I think about the bigger picture, I think that politicians will come and go and do whatever it is that they have to do. I think the truth is that God is in control. And the truth is that this is going to play out how He wants it to play out.”
She continues: “Things that are meant for evil, God has a way of turning them into good in the bigger picture that we don’t even see. I do know that the end-time war, Armageddon in Revelation, is going to be somewhere in the east. Somewhere, Iraq, Iran… somewhere there. I think it’s a fool’s game not to keep that firmly in mind.”
Right there, I thought, in succinct, easy language, was Bush’s foreign policy. Had Mrs Black ghost-written it?
But what about good young American kids going out there and dying, I ask.
“Good young American kids died for the revolution. Good young American kids died in World War 1, for World War 2, for Vietnam. Do I like good young American kids going to die? Absolutely not.”
Wouldn’t you want to stop the war right now?
“All wars. ‘The-o-ret-ically.” She draws the word out deliberately. “In a perfect world… that would be wonderful.
“In a perfect world, there would be no sorrow. In a perfect world we wouldn’t have people trying to come over and kill us. In a perfect world we wouldn’t have to have a bigger stick than the other guy to make them… behave. In a perfect world…”
She was clearly not ghost-writing Dubya’s speeches: they had nothing of the lyrical quality of her extempore.
“People have died for the rights that we have. To go to the churches we go to–or not. To pray when and where we choose… people have died for these rights that we have to make this country what it is.
“We have more a sense of ‘I appreciate that’ and clearly the rest of the world thinks that because they’re pouring in our shores legally and illegally by the millions. Clearly, other people think, ‘we see that, we like that, we want a piece of that’. We think that’s good. And our boys think that’s worth dying for. And the mothers send them off… To die for it.”
Two teardrops roll down Mrs Black’s pink cheek as she says this. She looks away, her lips quivering. I ask if I’ve upset her.
“No, no, no, no, no! Honey I’m southern, we cry as easy as we laugh. We’ll probably hug when we’re through” she says, wiping her tears.
“I was saying that if a ship is moving then God can turn the rudder change the direction of the ship, but if it’s just sitting there stagnant then ain’t nothing gonna happen. So we’re moving, and if we’ve made mistakes, then God can alter and change them. Whether its through who gets in office or whatever he uses.
“Yes I vote–but I also pray.”
Tags: Christian, Dayton Coffee House, Dayton+Tennessee, Faith, George W Bush, Iraq, John McCain, Red Hatters, Republican, Sarah Palin, US Elections 2008, US Foreign Policy, War
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