By now, you’ve probably seen the clip of a woman dunking her chicken tender into a cup of what appeared to be cola and then eating it Sunday at the U.S. Open. It is — and I don’t think I’m being particularly hyperbolic here — the oddest thing anyone has ever seen, especially within the genteel confines of a tennis stadium.
So this happened at the US Open today... 🧐 pic.twitter.com/fRDmpd3YWE
— ESPN (@espn) September 3, 2018
There have been a lot of reactions to this clip: Why? How? Think of the child sitting next to you! The cola makes the chicken tender soggy! The chicken tender makes the cola salty! Who does that?!?
Thankfully, Fox 5 in New York was able to track down the culinary wanderer who blazed such an unsettling trail. Her name is Alexa Greenfield, a Long Island resident who was attending the U.S. Open with her nephews.
“It’s not something I commonly do any more. I did it very frequently growing up, and I still do sometimes at stadiums,” she said.
“And I started by saying to them: ‘Listen, guys, I’m going to do something, it’s a really big secret, don’t tell your parents, don’t tell any adults, don’t tell anyone ’cause it’s really weird and I’m a little embarrassed by it. It’s a secret.’ And then they caught me,” Greenfield said.
Alas, Greenfield’s secret shame was broadcast for the world to see, and five minutes later she got a text from a friend, perhaps asking about the whole chicken-finger-in-the-Coke thing.
“I was like, ‘Ohhhhh, no,’ ” she said.
Greenfield didn’t even seem too sure of herself when asked by the Fox 5 hosts whether the combination actually tastes good. Then she threw her poor ol’ dad under the bus.
“I mean, it’s very strange. I’m a very strange eater in general,” she said. “I guess my dad had me doing it when I was younger. … I guess he was like, ‘If it’s hot, you can cool it off.’ He was a strange eater, too. I guess that’s where it originated. I just really liked the taste.”
The reaction, Greenfield said, has been swift and kind of rough, but in the end she’s sticking up for herself and her weird tastes.
“People are telling me I should go to jail,” she said. “Honestly, people should try it; it’s really not that bad.”
Speaking for the people: No.
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