216 - Vince's Fried Chicken Tier List - International edition 🍗🍗🍗
Yeah, I like chicken - time to update the ol' VFC 2021 with some international flavours!
There have been a LOT of places since 2021, and I'm not gonna go back through all of the entrants from previous times; there's going to be enough content in this already to fill a FULL newsletter's worth of content. You want more info? Just ask :D
Some Australian ones to start...
- Marrybrown: B tier - kinda mid - the chicken is juicy, but the batter was not good texturally. It came off as one whole piece rather than with lots of cracks and fissures - so it wasn't as crunchy as I wanted. The onion rings were surprisingly good though!
- El Jannah: S tier - generous servings, crunchy skin and a different kind of herb blend than I've had before - which I really dig. The gravy they serve is really good, and I actually like the fact that they give you 'mixed pieces' so they don't waste chicken. Nice place - could do better with some of the drier pieces.
- Buza Chicken: A tier- a Korean Fried Chicken place in Melbourne Central that serves this WONDERFUL soy smoke flavour that I've never had or seen before. Thank you to Audrina/Saxon/Lauren for bringing me there because it was honestly such a lovely fried chicken I would never had gone to myself!. I couldn't really tell whether the chicken was okay though, so it's an 8 - I was too enamored by the smokiness from the sauce :D
On to the international entrants...
- Shackfuyu (London): B tier - a korean fried chicken dish that was just normal. Like, I think we're spoiled here in Australia because I feel like I could have got this dish at any decent korean fried chicken place. Sauce was not too bad, but not enough - it sits in the B tier.
- Gymkhana (London): S tier - as soon as I ate this, I was like 'damn you Andrew and Zeeka how could you recommend me somewhere I can't go EVERY DAY'. It was Indian spiced fried chicken cut into these little balls of spicy wonder. It was not like normal fried chicken, but it was elevated off the damn Earth with how wonderfully crackly and crunchy and juicy - it didn't rely on a fried skin for the crunch, it also had little nuts and herbs and spices that gave it that extra oomph of flavour AND texture. Honestly so damn delicious and so inventive in the way it was made - no notes, easy S tier.
- BAO (London): B tier - I had the taiwanese fried chicken bao here - it was, again, only okay. I think that the crunchiness of the chicken was lost because it was slathered in sauce for the bao, and the bao itself has a bit of a soft texture. I wonder if you can just get the fried chicken by itself, but I only bought it takeaway at Borough Market. Meh, B tier.
- Raising Caines (US): A tier by itself, S tier with sauce - Raising Cane's only sells chicken "fingers", but they're the size of your damn forearm. They are monstrously big, and they're fried pretty well. If you had them by themselves, it would be a good, large chicken tendie. HOWEVER, the Raising Cane's sauce is wondrously extra-terrestrial. Honestly, the flavour combination packed with the chicken tenders is ELITE. It has some mayo-like flavour, with the perfect amount of acidity, and some combination of...I don't even know what, that just makes good chicken fingers into SUPERB ones. I hesitate to give this S tier just by itself, because we're usually only looking at the chicken itself...so I think it's at least solidly A tier.
- Popeyes (US): S tier - be warned, your mileage may vary. I had the spicy fried chicken sandwich, as well as a piece of chicken - and by god it was perfect. Fried chicken the way it was supposed to be - crunchy, full of fissures, juicy, spiced and brined. The spice was just right - not too much, and not too little, and the bun worked really well with it. Somehow we just can't replicate the way they do it in the US?? (or at least I've never seen it). This all being said, people on the trip that were a carload after us got some shit, greasy, soggy chicken from the exact same place. So it sounds like there's a bit of variability; for me, though, I can only judge on what I had - and what I had was S tier worthy. I'll only go to Popeyes for fried chicken sandwiches.
- Chick-Fil-A (US): B+ tier - I wanted to give this an A tier rating, but on reflection I think it fits more in B+ if I compare it to Popeyes. It's a solid fried chicken burger - it's spiced well, the service was good, and the chicken was a pretty good portion size. I enjoyed it, but it was not super memorable - I would still prefer to get Popeyes if I could,
- Hattie B's (US): A+ tier - a brilliant fried chicken place I found at the Cosmo food court (which also included Tekka Bar Sushi which Steph recommended to me!) - it was some healthy Southern fried chicken portions with some really nice fries. I appreciated that you could choose white or dark meat (like Belle's) and it was a great spice mix. It didn't blow my mind, but I would definitely go back for more.
- KLG (Taiwan): A tier - essentially it's just a street cart, but it's on the list mainly because of the story of trying to find last minute food in Su'ao when everything was closed, in the rain, pouring down, running back to our hotel laughing and making sure the chicken was safe, sitting on the floor of our room watching the Fellowship of the Ring and playing card games, safe after being told off by naked old men for not being naked at a cold spring. Ah...life.
I'm salivating as I write this damn thing. PLEASE let me know where to go next (I still haven't gone to Bird in Brunswick yet!). I am itchin' for more.
Chat soon :)
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✔️Real Life Recommendations
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In N Out - yeah, it's as good as you've heard. One of the best fast food burgers I've ever had - and the animal fries (which is a 'secret' menu item that you can get) work as a great side dish for the burger. It has a great ratio of bun to burger to cheese to vegies - it's like a quintessential American burger, made really well. Highly recommended!!
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Tacos el Gordo - pretty famous in Las Vegas - a taco place that I enjoyed mainly for how efficient it was? I don't usually like tacos (I think they're kinda overpriced for the amount of food you get), but these were cheap, tasty, and had some real adventurous stuff you could get if you wanted to (beef brain?! waow). The spice mixes were a flavor burst in the mouth, which I didn't expect, but really should have. The Adobada (pork) and the Lengua (beef tongue) were my favourites - please go try if you're there!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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A city experiments with paying people not to be annoying - sometimes, cash incentives do work? In this case, Baltimore is paying young window washers (the ones at intersections) to go get a job, or be on job training. Will it work? Maybe cash is king and is the easiest way to divert people off the streets. Or maybe it's just incentivising people to get those free handouts.
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Underrated reasons to be thankful - yknow, shoes. and washing machines. and toilets. and the fact that "the coefficient of thermal expansion for concrete is 1.1 × 10⁻⁵ / °C while the coefficient for carbon steel is 1.2 × 10⁻⁵ / °C which is close enough that steel-reinforced concrete buildings they don’t crumble when the temperature changes although they won’t last for centuries like ancient Roman pure-concrete structures have."
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Today We're Eating the Winners of the 1948 Chicken of Tomorrow Contest - just like most Asians are related to Genghis Khan, apparently most chickens around the world are genetically linked to this Chicken of Tomorrow contest, and are from the "Arbor Acres" stock of chickens.