redhead and other fried chicken musings

i've eaten the fried chicken at redhead and i'm now spoilt for life. i will never be able to eat fried chicken without constantly thinking about the wonder that redhead fried chicken is.

the redhead fried chicken is a wonder. its a frank bruni appvoved wonder. the skin so crisp, the meat unbelievably moist, each bite oozes chicken buttermilky juicyness beneath the crunch of the crisp skin which floats in lightness above the meat. each bite brings you sadness - sadness because you're one bite to no-more-fried-chicken-on-the-plate-ness. and it is sad when you've finished the fried chicken on your plate. I suppose you could order a second serve, but that would mean you'd have just polished off a WHOLE fried chicken. each serve of this delectably perfect fried chicken is a half chicken - a quarter dark meat, a quarter white. and the white meat is just magic - fried breast portions usually suffer from the unfortunate consequence of being dried out in the process of deepfrying. not so, the redhead wonder. our breast portion was plumpily plump. almost more juicy than the dark meat. it was almost as if the chicken had a buttermilk breast implant.

the fried chicken was served on a goat's cheese and scallion bread pudding and a spinach salad. both were delicious.

and as if fried chicken wasn't going to be enough. we had a serve of bacon peanut brittle. yes. bacon. because bacon makes all things better. even peanut brittle. and boy were they right. it was salted caramel in peanut form - maple basted bacon bits interspersed amongst golden caramelised peanuts. one could possibly eat bowls of this endlessly while nursing endless beers (and quickly cultivating all sorts of cardio-health problems). it was salty, sweet and extremely moreish. i took some home and it's sitting in the fridge because i want dad to try some of it when he gets here. i've had to physically hide the pack behind the blocks of butter so that i won't see it and grab handfuls of it and stuff it down my greedy mouth everytime i open the fridge.

oh and did i mention our waiter/barman was really good looking? as if you needed any more reason to go to the redhead.

i did eat other fried chicken in the week - fried chicken being the main reason to go to new york (of course, after shazzer, bikesterbud, tuty and per se). they were pretty good too:

Amy Ruths

Chicken and Waffles - Mdme Jackson took me to harlem to eat at the institution that is Amy Ruth's because i had been harping on about chicken and waffles for weeks. it's such an amazing concept - my two favourite food groups on one plate: the fried chicken food group, and the waffle and syrup food group. Mdme Jackson ordered a couple of sides to let me have a taste of harlem soul food - so we had collard greens, mac n' cheese and potato salad. All artery cloggingly good.

Mama's Food Shop

Fried Chicken as a snack - Shazzer and I stopped by Mama's Food Shop on the way home, cos you know, we needed a snack. I know i'm truly mates with someone if they share my complete enthusiasm for, and don't find it strange that you could get fried chicken as an afternoon snack - just to shore up that deadbeat period between lunch and dinner (at Peter Luger's - yes i know i'm mad). We sat on the couch watching the FoodNetwork and ate our fried chicken - and it was GOOD and a sign of perfect contentment in friendship. Extremely crispy, with lots of blackpepper in its crunch. Wasn't as moist as the Redhead wonder, but it was not too bad. We ate it with sambal - fantabulous.