I really relate to this story:
A student who found what appeared to be a chicken brain in his KFC meal has vowed never to eat there again – despite being offered vouchers for free food as an apology.
Ibrahim Langoo was left nauseated after spotting a ‘wrinkled brain’ inside a piece of chicken while tucking into a Gladiator box meal at a branch in Colchester, Essex.
The 19-year-old took a photograph of the three-inch piece of offal – later judged to be a kidney by KFC’s experts – on his mobile phone and complained to staff.He was so repulsed by the stomach-churning discovery he vowed never to eat at the Colonel’s famous diner again, but apologetic bosses nevertheless offered him vouchers for free meals.
Mr Langoo and friend Laura Canning, 19, had popped into the Colchester, Essex branch of the fast food restaurant – known for its ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ slogan – for lunch between classes.
The pair – both musical theatre students at Colchester Institute – shared a £6.79 Gladiator box meal.
Miss Canning ate the fillet burger, while Mr Langoo went for the two chicken pieces.
‘The first piece was absolutely fine – I was hungry and polished it off,’ Mr Langoo said.
‘I have a habit of picking the chicken off the bone with my fingers, and as I pulled the second piece apart I saw this horrible wrinkled foreign body.
‘I threw it down onto my tray immediately. It looked like a brain.
‘I suddenly felt grim and really sick.
‘I couldn’t bring myself to pick the lump up so I went to the serving counter to complain.
‘It was about 1pm and pretty hectic in the restaurant and as it was so busy none of the staff helped me.’
Repulsed, Mr Langoo left the takeaway and later submitted a complaint online, along with a photo of the organ taken on his mobile phone.
‘I didn’t want to pick the “brain” up as I couldn’t bear to look at it,’ Mr Langoo said. ‘I was grossed out by the fact that I could so easily have eaten it without realising.
‘I just wanted to get out of KFC as quickly as I could. I still feel really sick and disgusted by it all now.
‘KFC say they are sorry and are concerned to hear of my experience as they have “rigorous standards” but I’m still not impressed.
‘I never want to eat KFC again – in Colchester or anywhere else. I’ll eat chicken at home, where I can see how it’s been prepared.’
Experts at KFC have examined the photograph and believe the unsightly organ was a chicken kidney.
In the Daily Mail story, KFC notes that they do quality control and that this apparently was a kidney that by mistake wasn’t removed in the preparation process.
Two reactions:
(1) It couldn’t be a chicken brain. Members of Congress are located in Washington, D.C., not England.
(2)I had an experience somewhat similar to this. In March 1972, while on an independent study project living in India as a senior at Colgate University, I visited the home of an Indian professor in Chandigarh. He and his wife made me a wonderful dinner. They told me it was goat curry.
At one point I ate something and shuddered.
It had nauseated me in a way only that one thing does: liver.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I think I just swallowed a big piece of liver. I can’t eat liver.”
“Oh, that wasn’t liver,” the sociology prof told me. “You just swallowed the goat’s testicle. It’s a real delicacy..”
I later had an urge to head butt someone..
(FOOTNOTE: Yours truly is a huge KFC original recipe fan and I’ve never found anything but great chicken at KFC.)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.