KFC

Great was the day when the Colonel's descendants in all their wisdom bestowed upon us humble Groningers (inhabitants of Groningen, The Netherlands) our very own KFC restaurant. It truly made us wipe away a tear from our eye, we were touched in our hearts by the mere thought of being able to enjoy deep fried chicken goodness.
Well, A and me anyway. Nobody else around us seems to either care or even like it at all. N hates the fries (I guess she has a point, they tend to be more soggy). K doesn't know what's so special about it. Another K and H, whom I once took in the car back on our way home after a long day, found out several important pieces were missing from their order (like, 6 pieces of chicken or something like that). They only found out after I dropped them at the railway station. Of course we didn't ask for a receipt so there was no way of pointing out missing stuff to the KFC employees. H tried mailing the Dutch KFC headquarters, but apparently never got any response.

Well, all the more chicken for A and me! And great chicken it is. Because, let's face it, it's not the sides you're going to the KFC for. Fries? Nah. Drinks? Pepsi, no Coke. Okay, corn on the cob is a great side. But in the end, the chicken is the reason.

Today, N got home sick. I guess she has an ear infection. I made her some ramen with edamame, but then I was left with the question of what to have for dinner myself. Or, should I say, which fastfood joint I'd go to? There are two options if you're by car: McDonald's or the KFC. Since I went to the Mac the last time (see previous post) I decided to go to the KFC this time.
There are some advantages to taking your meal home, over eating at the restaurant itself: you can have your own sauces with your meal! That means, yes, having chili sauce with your chicken, and, no, not paying extra for mayonaise to go with the fries (Yes, we do that in Holland. Get over it). And, in case someone left the napkins out, you can just clean your hands (and face) anyway.

Amazingly, everything was in order this time when I ordered the Variety meal (somewhat different from the Variety box meal in the USA). It even included some napkins (which lately seem to be left out more and more). The Variety box included three hotwings, two strips and one smallish wing-thigh part thingy. There was a small pack of fries, some coleslaw and a 0.4L drink. I ate it all. It made me a happy Kurger.

Corn Cookies

Having more than half a can of tinned corn kernels left, I decided to make some corn cookies. They're originally from Indonesia, where they are supposedly called frikandel. They ought to be made with corn, eggs, flour, a chili pepper, celery and some leeks. I didn't have all those ingredients at hand (and also N doesn't like hot food) so I left out the chili and replaced the celery by some basil leaves and the leeks by a diced onion.

For the batter, I drained off the corn. Then I mixed one egg with the corn, added two tablespoons of flour, added the diced onion and shredded basil leaves and some freshly ground salt and pepper. The batter didn't turn out to bind its constituents that well, so I added another egg which in turn made things a little too soggy - so I added some more tablespoons of flour until the batter was somewhat sticky.

I heated up a generous amount of oil (the cookies basically need to be deep fried). I scooped in three spoonfuls of batter and let them bake on both sides for three minutes each.

A first taste test revealed they were quite tasty. The batter gave 6 cookies, of which I put two in the freezer for later use and the rest in the fridge to be eaten at lunch or whenever I feel like snacking. Downside of it all was that there were these heavy, deep-fry fumes. But who cares, if you get to have these great snacks :)