KFC has come out with the KFC Nyonya Chicken, and everyone in Singapore should know what Nyonya cuisine, or Peranakan cuisine, is.
No?
Okay, I admit: I didn’t know anything about this cuisine either. Jeanette Aw comes to my mind whenever the word “Nyonya” is mentioned, and I’m 95% sure KFC isn’t releasing a chicken that looks like the ex-MediaCorp actress.
So, according to my friend Mr Wiki, Nyonya cuisine are foods made by Peranakans, who are early Chinese migrants who settled down in Singapore, Penang, Malacca and Indonesia and marrying local Malays.
And just like the people, their food is a marriage of Chinese + Malay ingredients, and so they’re usually a tad more tangy, aromatic, spicy and herbal. Just think of a Chinese hawker trying to cook Malay food lah and you get the idea.
For some reason, KFC has decided that it’s a good idea to start 2020 with yet another fusion item: and this time, they’ve brought the Nyonya flavor into their western menu.
It’s not the first time the creative people in KFC have been this drunk: they’ve come out with mala chicken that tastes more like Curry Maggi Mee powder chicken and Szechuan chicken that’s so spicy, our office toilet was clogged that evening.
Now, is this latest addition going to be a hit or miss?
Let’s find out.
High Expectations due to the Word “Nyonya”
I kid you when I mentioned earlier that I didn’t know anything about the cuisine. I do know one thing: it’s supposedly very goody.
Since young, I’ve been conditioned to think that Nyonya cuisine is one of the best cuisines in Singapore, though I’ve no exactly tried them regularly.
Which means KFC’s threading on a very thin line: people would have high expectations and KFC has to deliver.
Before that, here’s how it looks like:
It’s just chicken.
Unlike its truffle chicken, you can’t smell anything, and on first bite, it tastes just like its crispy chicken.
In fact, after taking a bite for this photoshoot, I took a look at the receipt to confirm that we’ve ordered the correct item.
And that was when I washed away all my expectations and decided it’s a job hazard to be working in a place like Goody Feed, whereby we down calories just to review an item that’s been on the menu for over forty years.
But boy was I wrong.
KFC Nyonya Chicken: More Bites, More Taste, More Better-er
KFC claims that it’s “drenched with an aromatic sauce made of coconut, chillies, dried shrimps, curry spices and laksa leaves”, and it shows in its skin.
While the skin is unbearable dry, it packs an array of tastes: from sweet to sour to spicy to just almost everything. It’s akin to a blend of tastes that’s married to perfection.
None of the taste is too overpowering; each of them complements each other well, and it’s almost like a metaphor for Nyonya cuisine: the perfect marriage of different cuisines.
But why didn’t I get that vibes on the first bite?
Maybe it’s all about the skin: on the first bite, I’d had just a small piece of the skin and that wasn’t a good representation of the chicken.
So if you’re getting it, please do the Food Gods a favour: don’t deskin it. It’d be like having chicken rice without the chicken.
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Would I have it again? A resounding yes: though, for our order, the chicken breast looks grossly oversized. If it’s the same for all orders, then please remember that we’re still on the war on diabetes, so have it in moderation.
If not…
Rating: 5/5