5.015 2-Piece Chickenjoy Meal

Cycle 5 – Item 15

20 (Mon) January 2014

2-Piece Chickenjoy Meal

1.0

from Jollibee

in my office

-Ermita, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines-

solo

Through mid-April, I am an STC in NHP DHP WHO WPRO. My primary task is to organize OODL, while coordinating with MCN’s PEARL project, perhaps providing some support to TFI for ENDS research, and continuing my work with the on-going RADAR project under HSD DHS.

Through mid-April, I am a Short-Term Consultant in Noncommunicable Disease and Health Promotion Unit, Division of Building Healthy Communities and Populations, at the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. My primary task is to organize a technical consultation on overweight, obesity, diabetes, and law, while coordinating with Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Unit’s Pathway for Effective Action through Regulation and Legislation project, perhaps providing some support to Tobacco Free Initiative Unit for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems research, and continuing my work with the on-going Review Assess Draft Amend Reevaluate project under the Health Services Development Unit, Division of Health Sector Development.

If only because I love abbreviations, I feel right at home.

The Apple Thunderbolt Display, purchased on my very first day, makes work more fun/efficient, being able to review/manipulate so many windows/applications/documents, at once, in crisp clarity; I may get another one and install it to the left, if that’s possible, seriously

Smallest office, biggest white board in the building.

I’m most excited about developing a framework that will help countries implement various legal interventions concerning poor nutrition to combat overweight/obesity, one of the four key risk factors for noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, cancer. The work represents the perfect confluence of the three subjects that I love/know/do best/most: food, writing, and law. I’m the guy to lead the charge against Big Fast Food, because I understand through personal experience the powerful industrial/fiscal/cultural/scientific/gastronomic forces at play. As Ronald McDonald’s lifelong bitch, I understand how compelling point-of-sale marketing can be. Come to think of it, I’d also be a good champion against tobacco. And alcohol. And physical inactivity. This really is the ideal job for me.

This should be a great hit at our department potluck dinner – it’s vegan!

In a prior post on this same item from this same chain , I recognized the ubiquity of fried chicken in the Philippines, especially urban areas like Manila, but mischaracterized it as a side dish. In fact, fried chicken typically and frequently constitutes the meal per se. Deep-fried items – they even deep-fry pork belly – are very popular here in general. Despite such a proclivity for fat/oil-heavy food, most Filipinos remain relatively thin because they don’t eat very much of it at a time. Same with how the French stay slim on a steady diet of cheese/butter/pastry. The notion that Americans are fat because they eat too much sounds obvious to the point of absurdity, but that’s how simple the reality is. Anyway, back to Manila, a very common quick meal is a piece of fried chicken, a ball of steamed rice, and a small tub of gravy.

Jollibee, across the street, visible through the trees, and KFC, next door, to the left, hidden by the trees at this angle – enemy forces laying siege to the castle.

This kind of point-of-sale marketing is the first thing that has to go, if only for my sake.

With the 2-piece meal, I’m eating double the normal portion. That’s why I’m twice as heavy as everyone on the street.

Incidentally, the chicken really sucked. Strange fake butter aftertaste in the skin. Meat’s too salty, overbrined. Ugh. Never again. I went there this time, for a quick snack to hold me over until dinner – I hadn’t eaten lunch, and I was anticipating staying late at work – only because the lines at KFC next door were too long.