Chicken Monday

Although I swore off fried chicken for a year, I accepted an an offer for a Fried Chicken large format meal at Momofoku on Monday. Here was my chance to try Daisho, the 3rd floor restaurant. Imagine my disappointment when it turns out this particular large format meal takes place in the 1st floor Noodle Bar. I have been here several times, and although it's good, it's not enough to break my vow.

Before the meal arrived, we ordered some appetizers to start. The pork buns ($5 each) came out hot, slightly sweet, with the pork belly being immensely fatty. A sensuous experience and yet oddly flavourless in that the primary experience is the richness of the meat. The jar of kimchi ($7) didn't add much: the spiciness has been dialed down and it was too soft. The typical kimchi spread at your ethnic Korean restaurant is cheaper (free) and provides more variety.

Finally, the main entree came. Two whole fried chicken ($125) done southern style and korean style. It was quite a sight: two mounds of sizzling hot chicken. They tasted great too, at first. Southern style is like KFC dialed to 11, crispy, salty, and greasy. Korean style had the chicken coated in a thick batter (reminding me of the fried prawns you get at a Chinese resto) with a slightly sweet BBQ sauce. Perhaps it was the abundance but people didn't finish, leaving me with several pieces for leftovers. The scallion pancakes to be used for wraps were disappointing: too thick and a bit bland. Oddly, it was the sides that gave me the most pleasure: the subtle combination of pickled veggies, crunchy radish, ginger scallion sauce, and fragrant herbs (basil, tarragon, cilantro) was quite nice. A good meal but not worth the sticker price.