Blending local cuisine with its American-style fowl fare, KFC is now offering its increasingly sophisticated Chinese customers an even broader selection of tastes: regular, extra-crispy -- and Peking duck.
And here's the kicker: The new entree based on the Chinese capital's ancient flagship dish tastes like chicken -- because it is.
"Chicken Roll of Old Beijing" debuted Wednesday at KFC outlets in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Rolled in a thin pancake with scallions, cucumber slivers and traditional sauce -- typical accouterments of roast duck -- the new item contains not duck meat, but fried chicken.
"We have always been looking for new tastes which fit Chinese customers, and we found Beijing roast duck is very nice and favored by Chinese people," Chen Guangquan, general manager of KFC in Beijing, told Xinhua.
KFC marked its 50th anniversary last year, and Chen said it would have more difficulty continuing its global success "if it only stuck to American tastes without giving any due consideration to the diversified cultures and customs of local consumers in other countries," Xinhua said.
The chicken chain has opened scores of outlets in the Chinese capital since its first in 1987, and today there are more than 700 across the country as it competes fiercely with McDonald's for a growing market of increasingly prosperous, fast-food consumers.
The chain's name in Chinese is simply Kendeji (kun-duh-jee) or "Kentucky."
While a deft marketing ploy, KFC's new fare is also part of an ongoing evolution of the Peking duck tradition as the always food-conscious Chinese populace seeks out more modern -- and more convenient -- ways of dining.
Many companies -- including Quanjude, the old Beijing restaurant that once roasted ducks for the imperial Qing court -- now sell microwaveable "duck in a bag" in streetside kiosks and department stores. Quanjude also offers delivery of hot fresh ducks, and one local sushi restaurant, Hatsune, serves Peking Duck hand roll.
Peking duck, a recipe that involves roasting a whole duck in an open wood fire until its skin becomes smoky and crispy, then slicing it thinly and wrapping it up in gossamer pancakes, is the Chinese capital's best-known dish. There's even a local basketball team called the Beijing Ducks.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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