I had been thinking about posting a question about different international varieties of fried chicken available in Houston when I saw this in Houstonia a few weeks back.
I have had Al Aseel, Dak and Bop (and other Korean versions), and Barbecue Inn, of course. I haven’t had Jollibee but I had a Filipino fried chicken dish at Jonathan’s Pampanga in the Viet Hoa Center while it was in business. And I’ve been to Pollo Campero a few times.
Still haven’t made it to Himalaya. Punta Cana has been on my list for at least a year but I haven’t gotten out there yet. I hadn’t even noticed the fried chicken on the menu but that description sounds worthy. The restaurant pretty consistently gets good reviews and the pictures look great.
How about some of the rest of you guys and gals???
But, ahem, they missed a few.
Ayam Goreng Mama Yu - Indonesian style fried chicken, served with a fermented shrimp paste. Like just about everything I had at Mama Yu, excellent.
And fried chicken is apparently very big in Honduras.
I’ve had it at Coquitos and Las Hamacas. That’s the Las Hamacas on the Gulf Freeway; pollo frito served with refritos rojas with queso duro (hard cheese), a thick, warm flour tortilla, and the cabbage and pickled red onion salad that is ubiquitous in Honduran meals. The birds at both places were very tough. I thought maybe they were using old hens instead of young fryers.
I’ve also had very good fried chicken at a taqueria in Baytown; not floured or battered, I think, just seasoned with, among other things, lots of annato, judging by the color.
So for Fried Chicken Day I thought about going back to Mama Yu but took a look at the menu for Rice Bowl II. They have two ayam goreng (fried chicken) dishes on the menu so I went out to try one of them.
Ayam Goreng Kuning. Uh, what?
The chicken pieces are hacked up. As I understand it, they’re marinated in a yellow curry (turmeric), then braised in the curry to produce what I think would be called a dry curry or a fry - with all the liquid (and seasonings) absorbed into the meat, like with beef rendang. And then it gets ‘fried’ in a pan with shallow oil, supposedly to crisp up the skin. I didn’t get any crispy skin. And what all that ‘debris’ is I don’t know - ingredients in the curry that didn’t get absorbed? And I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
Probably won’t be ordering this one again although I will say the meat was very tender and flavorful, even right out of the refrigerator over the next couple of days - and I don’t usually care for cold fried chicken.
The other fried chicken dish is Ayam Goreng Mentega, described as fried chicken in a sweet buttery sauce.
Rice Bowl II
