KFC... this is how you should do fried chicken

Fried chicken has a certain image in the US. It comes in a bucket and it's made 'fresh' by some man named Colonel Sanders. It's also associated with clogged arteries, high cholesterol, and I'm sure you can make the argument that it somehow causes cancer too. In Taiwan, there is KFC, but it exists almost solely for its sandwiches. Fried chicken done right, is fried chicken from a place like... this. It's called 黃金雞排王 (Golden Fried Chicken King) and it is another place that I probably won't have another chance to visit (a recurring theme... sad panda is sad). It's a small store nestled on the corner of a small road in 宜蘭 (Yi Lan), actually right around the corner from the soup place I reviewed yesterday. No tables inside, a rather uninspiring sign painted on the underside of the ceiling overhang, a giant hot oil vat, and a bunch of fried foods out front... it's not a place that you'd be immediately impressed with. Despite the ordinary appearance, my Aunt assured me that it's as amazing as the ones in 士林 (Shi Lin), which are renowned for their size.

Like I said, fried chicken in Taiwan is different. It's not classified into drumstick, breast, or wing. It's always a chicken breast, bone-in, that is pounded to oblivion (I imagine by a really manly woman) until it's the thickness of a pancake. Followed by a quick breading of spices which I can't identify (and don't care to), it gets fried in the giant vat of oil (which I'm sure has been reused for generations... lol kidding on that) until it is past golden, but rather a light brown. One last question about whether you want it spicy or not, and it's done. As far as taste... it's pretty amazing. It does stack up rather well to the version at Shi Lin, aned since it's 35 NT ($1), it's a much better deal than that at the more famous night market... where each goes for 50 NT ($1.50). Adequate crunch, good flavor, even distribution of spices, and really juicy meat makes for a pretty good snack. Uh... actually, I'm sure it would make for a pretty good meal for most people, but I can eat like a horse, so keep that in mind should you decide you want to get something like this (we supplemented this with some yam fries, but I forgot about pics, and that deserves it's own post when I visit Shi Lin). Again, I wish I could recommend this place, but first off... I don't know the exact address, and since I can't go again, I feel like no one else should get to either haha. Kidding (sort of).

One last thing. I feel like the quality of my posts has been steadily decreasing. I'd like to apologize for that. It's not because I'm getting lazy (well... it is), but it's mostly because I've been wrecked lately in terms of my schedule. The 5 day orientation trip really threw a wrench into things (it was a lot of fun though), and now since I started working in lab (I'll explain what I'm doing in a future post), I come home and I basically pass out. It certainly doesn't help that the food around my office sucks ass. I think I've been spoiled by midtown.

I wanted to do a short run this morning, but ended up getting lost. Another case of confusing street signs, and me being an idiots. Anyway, what was supposed to be a 5k, became 5.46 miles. Oh well, more is always better than less right?

distance for the day: 5.46 miles
distance biked for the day: 0.00 miles

distance on the year: 386.47 miles
distance biked on the year: 142.68 miles