KFC chicken smuggled into Gaza through tunnels
A delivery company is smuggling KFC chicken into Gaza though secret supply tunnels, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.
According to the report by the British newspaper, the Al-Yamama company is running consignments of the Colonel's secret recipe, carried by hand through a network of tunnels under the border with Egypt.
However, the Daily Mail said, the buckets of legs, wings and breasts are not such a bargain, as they come at three times the normal cost...
Aboud Fares, a 22- year-old student who lives in Gaza, told the Xinhua news agency: "It's delicious even though it's not hot."
Y'know, I have been told by a close friend to this blog that we are sometimes lacking in dignity.
I think that this may be one of those moments!
I thought it was something from The Onion at first. It sure could pass for it.
However, now that I know it's real, I'm beginning to think this is a PR stunt by the Arab colonists in Gaza, intended to make the world see Gaza as a prison where food has to be smuggled inside, and of course, the main thing, Israel as the cruel prison warden.
Our stupid government plays into the enemy's hands by letting them abuse our freedom of the press. "Because if we put a lid on this news, people would say Israel is engaging in censorship!" Yeah, the things people say about us now are far better, huh?
Doodad May 16, 2013 at 12:15 PM
All your wings and breasts are belong to them!
Empress Trudy May 16, 2013 at 12:22 PM
Key point of course is that in the cross point between Gaza and Egypt, controlled by Hamas and Egypt, someone somewhere doesn't want to permit goods and services to freely flow between them because the baksheesh extracted from both sides is too lucrative. This is the story that needs to get out otherwise some tool will start screaming Zionist blockade!!! which is clearly not the issue here.
"This is the story that needs to get out otherwise some tool will start screaming Zionist blockade!!!"
It's not enough to tell the truth that it's Egypt doing it, because then the narrative is spun that Egypt is being pressured by USrael (sic) to close the flow of goods.
This is one of the cases where the best way to counter the combined terrorist+media assault on Israel is simply by starving the media. Once they're reduced to rehashes they'll tire out quickly enough.
The saddest thing to me, as I know from experience frequenting numerous halal food carts and sit-down eateries here in North Philadelphia, and also out in West Philly, Paterson, NJ, etc, is that these folks can do miracles with chicken, for much less than a shitty US fast food chain can, and it tastes like 500 times better, too!
I'll take the chicken shwarma from my two regular shops under the Girard and Berks El stations, for instance, over almost any other chicken place I know of, perhaps maybe excepting one or two Korean Fried Chicken places, and Hamifgash...
Ah, but sorry for rambling. Youze must have known I couldn't resist weighing in on this one, though... ;)
Shawarma.
I'm a huge fan.
There's a falafel truck on Saturdays at the Oakland farmers' market at Grand Lake. Sometimes they fry up the chick pea balls of deliciousness and sometimes not.
When they do I go for the falafel and when they don't I go for the shawarma.
But I have to say, from now until forever I will not be able to think of shawarma without thinking of The Avengers!
There's a moment in that movie in which Robert Downey, Jr, as Iron Man, makes a brief reference to his desire for shawarma and then, at the end of the movie after the credits, you see all the super heroes sitting in some shawarma joint enjoying the deliciousness after defeating the bad guys.
It's very cute.
Heh, I'll have to check that film out.
My favorite place here for shawarma is actually Hamifgash, which is a Glatt Kosher Israeli-Turkish restaurant in Center City (downtown Philadelphia). After that, it's Jerusalem Foods under the Girard El in Fishtown, and Liberty Market under the Berks El here in Kensington. Two Arab c-stores / grills.
Also, every lamb & rice / chicken & rice halal food cart in Center City (dozens of them!) does better chicken than that fast 'food' eatery which shall not be named, for the record; and then there's also a number of random places in far-flung towns such as Highland Park and Paterson, New Jersey, which do so as well.
Best falafel I've ever had (and Philly has some great falafel, too), for the record, is at a little Glatt Kosher place in Manhattan called Murray's, on the Lower East Side. One day I'll get back there. It blew the West Village's Taim out of the wooder, at least based upon my one visit to each.
Though I'm sure Israel has better. On the falafel and shawarma counts. One day I'll get there. ;)
Laurie is a huge fan of superheros, which I have to tell ya, is perpetually entertaining.
She was reading the X-Men in comic book format (graphic novel format?) as a little girl.
I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I have to say that Watchmen was pretty terrific, I thoughe. But, then, those were anti-heroes...
Shirl in Oz May 16, 2013 at 7:13 PM
Sorry Mike, this is better
Delivery workers tramp through tunnels under Gaza — carrying bags and buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The famous fast food has gone underground as Palestinians order the takeaways from Egypt.
Boxes and bags emblazoned with Colonel Sanders famous red and white logo move swiftly through the smuggling tunnels that run beneath the border.
The fried food has to make its subterranean journey across as there is no KFC restaurant in the Palestinian region.
Israeli restrictions on Gaza crossings make it difficult to open an international fast food branch in the area.
But now ordering fast food from one of the world's most popular restaurants has been made easy after delivery company Al-Yamama started to bring the food from the Egyptian North Sinai, which borders Gaza.
Mohammed Al-Madani, an accountant at Al-Yamama company, revealed they started their new business by chance.
He said: "We ordered and arranged to bring some meals for us and they arrive after four hours."
He added that they followed up by posting a picture for the fast food on their company's website and soon got more orders from people in Gaza.
And since late last month, they have made four deliveries of KFC food to Palestinians, with every delivery including dozens of combos.
However, there is a price to pay.
The price of a KFC family meal is about 80 Egyptian pounds, which is just under £8, at the at el-Arish restaurant.
But getting it in Gaza bumps up the cost to as much as 100 Israeli Shekels — around £18.12.
The delivery company said the higher price was due to transportation and smuggling fees.
Al-Madani said that although they did not face a lot of obstacles while bringing the food to Gaza, the delivery could be delayed due to various reasons.
He said: "Sometimes Hamas checks the meal boxes and sometimes the taxi that picks up the orders from Sinai is late."
But it's all worth it as student Aboud Fares, 22, declared as he bit into a chicken breast: "It's delicious even as it's not hot."
Here's the company's Facebook page.
While some are using this story to illustrate the hardships caused by the so-called Israeli "siege" of Gaza – those poor palestinians can't even get their fast food "fast" and cheap – I want you to consider another angle.
Palestinians are willing to pay £18 for a KFC family meal! ($AU 28)
I can't remember the last time my family ate KFC, and we don't eat takeout food much at all. We certainly would think twice about spending that much for a meal, and we are not considered to be impoverished like many portray the palestinians of Gaza.
One has to consider that if many palestinians are willing to spend that much on one meal, those palestinians are not struggling to keep afloat.
But I guess this just reinforces what we already suspected.
Update: A telling section from another report of this story.
With Israel relaxing the embargo and allowing more goods to reach Gaza cheaply, the premium that smugglers could once charge for some goods has gone down, according to Abu Iyad.
"Bringing some meals like these would cost $200 or more three years ago, but now they don't even cost $20. The Egyptian and Hamas police are not giving us the chance to work freely and the business may shut down if things continue to be this bad."
At the Gaza side of the tunnel opening, a Hamas policeman was waiting to check if the buckets contain any forbidden materials. Apparently greasy chicken is not on his list. Abu Iyad is given a green light to deliver the food to the Al-Yamama delivery guy who will take the meals to customers.
"I wonder why people pay a lot of money to buy a small meal of chicken," asks Abu Iyad wryly. "I can buy four chickens for the price of one meal."
http://www.israellycool.com/2013/05/16/poor-palestinians-forced-to-wait-for-finger-lickin-good-food/
Heh, but yeah. Back on topic. ;)
I also tend to feel that the reasoning behind this is likely as Zion claims -
"However, now that I know it's real, I'm beginning to think this is a PR stunt by the Arab colonists in Gaza, intended to make the world see Gaza as a prison where food has to be smuggled inside, and of course, the main thing, Israel as the cruel prison warden."