Another week, another fast food localization going viral. Chinese social media isn’t entirely over McDonald’s controversial introduction of roujiamo just yet, and already it’s having to contend with KFC rolling out Chinese regional breakfast item reganmian (hot and dry noodles) in the dish’s home city of Wuhan.
Predictably, netizens are not all that impressed with the launch, but reactions from the customers are definitely less negative compared to the Mc-roujiamo.
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In fact, some hungry commenters on social media are clamoring for the dish.
“Only in Wuhan? Try other cities, people [in Wuhan] can eat reganmian everyday,” writes one of the most popular comments under an official post from KFC on microblogging platform Weibo.
“When it will be available across the whole country?” adds another.
Reganmian at KFC (Image: Weibo)
“I am not looking for ‘authentic’ regional food items every day, it will work if it doesn’t taste horribly bad,” says another commenter, reflecting a general non-plussed attitude among KFC diners when it comes to such localization attempts.
According to Wuhan Evening News, the reganmian launch is part of a partnership deal between KFC’s parent company Yum China and the Hubei Provincial Government, which aims to support locally-produced ingredients. Their efforts have particularly focused on pushing products from the provincial capital of Wuhan in recent months given its international reputation as the center of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Since October 2020, KFC has also been selling pre-packaged snail noodles, another popular regional dish in China. This Wuhan dish will mark the first time that the chain is offering chopsticks to diners and is also the company’s first eat-in noodle item.
Cover Image: Screenshot from @肯德基/Weibo
