Serious Eats
The Culture of Free Food Court Chicken Samples
The voice calls in the distance—"try our Bourbon chicken." Or sometimes, no voice at all, just an aggressive body hawking a toothpick-pierced sample in your face. Like a Hare Krishna proselytizing with devotional books at an airport, the chicken sample reps in mall food courts have an iconic, unavoidable presence. Everyone "samples," as if curious, but fess up. We all know what it tastes like, and we all secretly love it.