We did it. We conquered the beauty that is a large plate of KFC (Korean Fried Chicken).
First and foremost I must say that if you have not eaten KFC then you have not lived. If you, like me (until I recently became enlightened) think that fried chicken from the American KFC or any other takeaway is a godsend, you my friend are completely, utterly and outstandingly wrong.
Therefore, as Korean Fried Chicken should really be the only chicken you eat, I am going to make a change. From this day onwards, when I refer to KFC I mean Korean Fried Chicken and not that lousy wannabe that is otherwise known as Kentucky Fried Chicken.
After having seen pictures of a towers of KFC on instagram and never having had the time to make my way to TST (because a twenty minute journey is the equivalent to a trek across the Himalayas in HK), I finally put aside a day and dragged Mike to what we discovered to be
Chicken Hof and Soju is apparently the restaurant that got the whole Korean buzz started and even though we had been made aware of other restaurants dotted around HK that serve this hot and trendy food item, we decided to pay homage to its roots and kick it old school.
The rise in popularity for KFC apparently according to the wise words of my mother and her Chinese gossip magazines, comes from a very popular Korean drama where a girl who is stylishly dressed and also obsessed with KFC falls in love with an alien. Bizarre I know, but what mama says goes.
After walking down streets lines with the most bizarre combination that goes a little like this – Korean restaurant, bridal shop, Korean supermarket, bridal shop, Korean restaurant, more bridal shops (you get the picture) we got to Chicken Hof and Soju to find the door.
Oh my god I thought. Not this again. Luckily we were alerted to the fact that it opened at two so with the half an hour we had to kill, M and I had a drink at Wildfire down the road and then rushed back to fill our empty stomachs.
Considering it is quite small and overly popular, the restaurant has a published policy on its menus that you are only allowed to dine in for a certain amount of time if there is a line at the door, which I gathered must be pretty often considering they took the time to print this waiting policy all over the menus.
Before we were even given the menu we were served with two appetisers of a deliciously tangy pickled radish and shredded cabbage in a creamy salad dressing.
The tarty flavours of the radish really got my appetite going and without hesitation we ordered a plate of their famous fried chicken with spring onion salad (198 HKD).
We wanted to order more but the waiter reassured us that one plate was plenty for the two of us and he wasn’t joking. There were fifteen pieces of chicken topped with a heaving amount of fresh and thinly sliced spring onions in a brown tart sauce. For the amount you are paying, you get a great value for your money – fifteen pieces of chicken!!!
Ignoring all that greenery I dove straight in, grabbed a wing and sunk my teeth into the crispy and seasoned skin. Boy was that good.
There are all sorts of deep fried chicken parts, some of the parts really didn’t look like a part of the chicken – this circle ball for starters. I could be asking all sorts of questions – what the hell is this/where on the chicken did this come from but it didn’t matter to me because the chicken was just so good.
The chicken is flavourful and has a really good contrast in textures. There is a dry crispiness to the outer layer of skin and then a perfect amount of fat under the skin which prevents the chicken from drying out in the frying process. The chicken meat is tender and juicy. This was finger lickin’ good.
Although we were absolutely stuffed by the time we got to the end of the plate, I couldn’t help wonder what the other fried chicken varieties would taste like. A couple next to us had made the mistake of ordering a plate of chicken and chips AND their spicy wings. They got through half of one plate an packaged the rest with M and I sighing and exclaiming that if they had left their food and we wouldn’t be judged for it, we would totally dash over and grab the plate of leftovers. It just looked so so so good.
As we were leaving the restaurant we came across Chicken Hof and Soju’s takeaway counterpart further up the road. They sell this ingenious contraption that allows you to eat your takeaway popcorn chicken and sip on a soft drink at the same time. They devised this cup that has a little plastic catch sort of thing that sits at the top and holds the chicken while a straw perferates the top layer of the catch so that you can sip and munch. Them Asians.
TFIG (thank god it’s fried)
Here is a pic of M looking like he is having the time of his life!
and finally…
hanging with a hung 