If the Kentucky Colonel only knew

While sweetie pie junior was visiting sweetie pie senior and I, he was fascinated by many things here. One of the things that really got away with him was the status that KFC holds in Indonesia.

Now when you think of fast food places, especially chicken places, you don't think of grandiose things do you? Well, you need to come for a visit so you can see how it is done on this side of the world.

The KFC that is in our little kampung is a huge affair. It has live music, it is twittered about, has a fan club and they deliver your order to your house on cute motorcycles with bright red boxes on the back with their logo plastered all over.

We decided to give the delivery service a whirl just so we could get a picture of the delivery guy on his motorcycle. Sweetums senior thought that it would be fun to order a Super Kombo Meal for us and for the housekeeper and jaga. That was a very wise move on his part. There was joyous squeeling and big smiles from the staff when we asked "Anda suka KFC?" (You like KFC?)

Since this was honey bun seniors idea, I opted to let him place the order. That didn't work too well. I could see his face going from confident to perplexed during the ordering process. You could see that as they were speaking to him, he was having trouble figuring out what they wanted. He handed the phone to me. Oh brother! I was suddenly in charge. Finally, I figured out what the guy was saying. He wanted my hand phone number right off the bat. This was not at all what hubby was expecting and it just totally threw him off his game.

Once we got over that hurdle, I tried to place the order. I needed five(lima) Super Kombo Meals, spicy. Seemed to have lots of struggles with that and then the nice, very soft spoken young man handed me over to a very nice, more mature sounding man. After a little repeating he got it. That is a good thing because up to this point I think I was going to get lima pieces of chicken of unknown distinction.

We got to the address phase and things were good. I was told "35 minit, Mrs." So all we had to do was wait for the delivery guy to show. They were in fact, early. This is highly irregular in the US. Guess those agile motorcycles give them a leg up on that function. I had given the money to the housekeeper and thought we would hear the guy arrive. This was not true so we missed our photo op. Rats!

Our housekeeper had set the table and was all prepared for the feast. Little did she know that usually if we want something like that, we go pick it up, return home and eat it out of the container. What heathens!

Honey pie junior had been a little disappointed when he asked if it came with fries and I told him no, it comes with nasi (cooked rice) wrapped up in a paper wrapper. At first he was not sold on the idea. However, once the wrapper came off the nasi he declared it a good thing because it gave him an additional opportunity to consume sambal on something else.

Sambal is kind of like thicker version of Texas Pete, if you are from the East Coast or Tabasco if you are from the Gulf Coast and I don't have a clue what it is like if you are from California or Ohio. It is tasty stuff and can be very, very hot or hot/sweet at the same time. Each maker has his or her own way of making it. It can be thick and chunkey at times. Sort of like Picante Sauce. However you make it, saya suka!

Since we missed the delivery guy on the first try, we ordered chicken again on New Year's Eve. Thought it would be fun. This time I held on to the money so I could pay and also request a photo. Since we don't use the phone in our house very often, KFC was on redial. Hip Hip Hurrah! This time we just gave our hand phone number to the person on the other end and wonderful things happened. In less than 30minutes, our delivery guy arrived.

I paid for the chicken and asked if he would mind if I took a photo. Indonesians love to have their pictures taken so he was most agreeable. All the men-folk gathered around the motorcycle with the happy little delivery box on the back and I snapped away. Of course I had to show the driver the photo. He smiled and gave a thumbs up. I imagine he was hoping to wind up on the KFC fan site under the category of "Our favorite KFC Delivery Guys." Unfortunately, that will not be but he will be forever immortalized on my blog and in our hearts.