Fried chicken and me

I’ve always been fascinated by junk food. I come from an Asian culture which didn’t have many taboos on eating, where people eat for pleasure, so I had a pretty open mind regarding food and could empathize with people who crave junk food. After all, junk food creates so much more endorphins for the brain than salad ever could. There’s a show on the travel channel called Man Vs Food and that pretty much sums up my fascination. I like seeing how BAD things can be. My stomach for junk food however is somewhat laughable. I don’t have the stomach to finish a 15 inch pizza by myself or even more than 1 krispy kreme donut in a sitting, nor do I want to be filled up with a fast food meal: I just enjoy sampling everything out there.

Perhaps the junk food I have the most affection for is fried chicken. Fried chicken and I go back a long time. My favourite food memory from my childhood is having an original recipe meal when KFC first opened in China in the early 90s. Back then, the chickens used were raised in good condition. They were cooked tenderly and drained well by an army of proud and adoring workers (or so I like to think). The skin coating/batter was extraordinary in taste and created a permanent foodie memory. 

I’ve not been able to experience the same taste in the KFC shops I’ve been to since. I left China in 1991. When I next returned to China for a holiday in 2001 and tried KFC, it was disappointing and no different to the UK standard. Every time I go to a new country, I wonder to myself what KFC would taste like there, whether it would be as my childhood memory. When I eat a chicken from KFC, I’m not actually bothered about the meat (often grey/ bruised), I’m more interested in the zingy skin coating/batter, and quite happy not to eat the meat. The secret batter mix today is probably very different from the original Colonel’s recipe and dominated by MSG. 

I’ve tried eating fried chicken in Southern/Soul food restaurants. I’ve tried Japanese style fried chicken. I’ve tried recreating the Colonel’s recipe in the kitchen. Sure, the meat is better but the taste of the coating just can’t reach satisfy me in the same way as the taste of the KFC skin. I would love to get my hands on the secret recipe (locked in a secure vault at KFC HQ), and start a more upscale fried chicken shack. 

The Doubledown

In 2010 KFC released the Doubledown in the USA: A breadless sandwich consisting of 2 fried chicken breasts sandwiching cheese, bacon and ranch sauce. The UK press had a field day over this – the product had nearly a full day’s recommended sodium intake. Despite this, it sounded so...amazing. I eagerly followed the Doubledown’s progress and hoped it would withstand the media pressure long enough so I could get my hands on one. In the summer of 2010 I took a 3 week holiday in the US and finally got my hands on a Doubledown meal. It was delicious and the best thing I’ve had at KFC for a long time. Ok so yes, salty, but no more salty than a whole bag of Kettle Chips in one sitting. The chicken breast is very lean and well seasoned, and of course breast is much better than leg / thigh meat. There was no chicken skin, and so the fat content was quite low (less than the fat in a serving of McDonald’s chicken salad). If KFC could have made this with less salt, the RDA stats of this meal would probably be no worse than a portion of Lasagne. I’m all in favour of the Doubledown being rolled out elsewhere – and hopefully Europe.

My Doubledown meal (chicken sandwich on right)

Hotstar

When I moved to Hong Kong in late 2010, one of the first things I tried was KFC (an original meal). It was bad, as bad as it was in the UK. I did not expect Hong Kong to produce any fried chicken to my liking. One night, Nena and I were on our way to an all you can eat hotpot place in Mongkok (a vibrant ex-Triad neighbourhood better known these days for seedy massage parlours, night markets and probably the best street food). As we wandered through the humid streets I suddenly caught whiff of a smell: fried chicken with a smell rather like KFC! There was a street stall (Hotstar) making fried chicken.

Hotstar shack in MongKok (G/F, Tat Lee Building, 2Y Sai Yeung Choi Street South)

Hotstar started life in 1992 in a Taiwan street market and has since opened up a second stall in Mongkok, Hong Kong, and is hugely popular in both countries. It is a very small open-front chicken shack selling only a few products: Fried chicken breast (sliced open in butterfly shape) and fried chicken pieces. No effort wasted on chips or salad. Not wanting to ruin our hotpot meal, I decided to go for the smaller chicken pieces option. It was delicious. The batter was very crisp and tasty. The batter mix wasn’t quite the same as KFC, but it was close, and had a stronger chilli/herb taste. The staff would add some extra powder seasoning to the chicken post frying. I believe it was some close variant of Cajun seasoning. This was the best fried chicken ecstasy I’ve had since that first childhood KFC meal.

I was very impressed and came back a week later to get my hands on the house special – the chicken breast. I ordered a mixed seasoning version (Cajun + Chilli powder). The size of the chicken breast escalope was very impressive – and made you wonder what size chicken it came from. It was way larger and thinner than a standard butterfly breast. Maybe they made two butterfly cuts on a normal chicken breast. As you see from the picture, the batter texture is breadcrumb like, and the batter is drained very well and retained little grease. It was a humid day and I was dripping with sweat, but I didn’t care. I took my fried chicken into a nearby park and ate it there in the sweltering heat, gasping from the fire of the chilli and the tongue burning heat of the just-fried-chicken. There were other people sat there, furiously devouring chicken as well. Our eyes met and heads nodded in appreciation. When I was done, I felt great. I felt like I made great progress in my chicken quest, and no longer had to lament the inability to relive a childhood experience. I was free to move on.

The Hotstar chicken breast

So who would have thought it: my best fried chicken discovery of recent years in one of Asia’s more eyebrow raising areas. Do visit Hotstar if you pass through Taipei / Hong Kong, and do try the Doubledown if you are in North America. And if someone wants to join me in burrowing into KFC HQ...do let me know.