I picked up my friends and arrived at the fried chicken establishment in the afternoon. The place was called "Crispy Fried Chicken". Now that's some creative naming sense right there! The name made it blatantly obvious what was served there, which I can actually appreciate. It makes life easier when you have less things to think about.
Anyways, my friends and I entered Crispy Fried Chicken and were greeted with a hole-in-the-wall environment. The windows were lined with vertical window bars for security. Being in a less prosperous area of El Cajon Blvd., the bars only made me feel a little more disconcerted than I already was being in the area. One of the friends I brought (let's call him "Habibi") was joking that a person could come into the shop and pull a gun out at any moment. An obvious exaggeration on Habibi's part, but I wasn't overly comfortable with the area myself. One noticeable feature of Crispy Fried Chicken was the viewing window where you can see the fried chicken resting on top of racks. It was honestly a beautiful and glorious sight to see. Other things to note were the addition of gumball and gachapon machines, along with an old-school arcade machine. Overall, Crispy Fried Chicken looked like your typical and understated mom-and-pop shop.
You can see your fried chicken resting on the racks at the viewing station. Neat!
A closer look at the viewing station.
After checking out the shop, I proceeded to order fried chicken gizzards and five of pieces of fried dark meat chicken from the generous Asian lady at the counter. At first glance, the chicken gizzards looked similar to popcorn chicken. However, the texture was far from it. The chicken gizzards had a tough texture that was reminiscent of the cartilage found on the end of a drumstick. Oddly enough, they worked oddly well deep-fried and were wonderfully salted.Now for the main course. The five pieces of fried chicken. After finishing the gizzards, I could not wait much longer to dig in. The first morsel of fried chicken I bite into had a crisp superior to that of your normal fried chicken chain restaurant. The moistness of said fried chicken were up to my standards as well, and was pleasantly juicy. The fried chicken shared the same, salty flavor as the fried chicken gizzards. Dipped into some honey mustard, the fried chicken pieces were even more palatable than if eaten plain.
Overall, the fried chicken experience at Crispy Fried Chicken could best be described in one word: CRISPY! Actually, they can be described better with more words. While the fried chicken was definitely crispy (which is good considering the establishment's name), the fried chicken was also well cooked and well seasoned. In addition, I was surprised but how much I enjoyed the chicken gizzards. They were arguably just as tasty as the regular pieces of fried chicken. Even with my positive feelings regarding Crispy Fried Chicken, I couldn't help but feel like something was amiss. I was very satisfied with the fried chicken, but I wasn't particularly blown away by it either. I felt like there needed to be something added to intensify the flavor profile of the chicken. Perhaps adding cayenne or paprika to the batter would do just that. However, that's my just my opinion. It's not quite on the level of the Crack Shack, but it's hard for me not to appreciate another great spot to experience delicious fried chicken here in San Diego.P.S.
Sorry for the poor quality images! My new phone doesn't take great-looking photos.
P.P.S.
KFC or Popeyes, please sponsor me! I want to eat your fried chicken!
0 comments:
Post a Comment