Chicken Day: A Damn Good Chicken

Located in the middle corner of a strip mall on Western in Koreatown is Chicken Day.  A Korean style chicken place.  Parking is strictly valet in the basement for a buck.  Free if you can find street parking after hours.  The place is spacious with indoor and patio seating.  Several paintings on the wall with a common theme, chicken :).   There is a counter on the right side when you go in, this is where we made our orders and proceeded to get seated to wait.  There is a large flat screen TV on the wall playing Korean shows, some with English subtitles.  The owner was the one who took our orders and served our food, she was very friendly, conversational and accomodating.  Not afraid to speak English.  Eventhough, I know it was a little difficult for her to do so.  She gave us something in a plate, three, one for each of us, white and small which I thought were marshmallows.   It was the wet towelettes  for our hands :).   

Chicken Day Salad $ 3.45, this is delicious, the sweet pineapple puree was a surprisingly good dressing.  Very refreshing.  It compliments the spicy chicken very well.

Special Spicy Sauce Chicken Boneless $ 14.90,  this is a lot of chicken 22 pieces.  Almost like Bufallo chicken,  it is sweet and sour, very garlicky and a little spicy.  I was expecting to get toasted on the spiciness level like in Kyochon and Bonchon but here it is quite mild.   I wonder if you could ask them to up the spiciness level, maybe next time.  

Fried Chicken Drumsticks $ 13.90, again, this is a lot of chicken, eventhough it is hard to scale with the picture.  This is a huge plate with over 12 pieces of drumsticks stacked on.  This is the one I liked best,  cooked to perfection.  Crispy light aromatic batter and falling off the bone meat inside.  A damn good chicken, reminds me of Sunburst chicken growing up. 

People have been comparing the chicken here with Kyochon and Bonchon, so here is my two cents.  Kyochon and Bonchon to me are so similar in so many ways that even in the name they differ only by two letters.  Both I think are really good chicken, crispy caramel glazed skin and spicy enough to make you cry... for more.   At Kyochon and Bonchon, 20 pieces of  drumsticks will set you back around $ 30.  Their spicy and soy garlic chicken,  are more expensive, but better than Chicken Day.   Of the three Kyochon is my favorite.

In the simple fried chicken area,  you can't really compare Chicken Day's to both places.  I would however, compare it to Roscoe's or Honey Kettle chicken.   Chicken Day hands down is the best.

Chicken Day

301 S. Western Ave. #107, 

Los Angeles, CA 90020

(213) 387-9933

Voodoo Chicken

I went to TiGeorges' Chicken a couple of times with different people and both times it was closed when the website said it would be open. See, George, an overtly friendly guy from Haiti, is "The" man behind this, he cooks, he greets, he takes your order, and he rings the cash register. When George is away or taking a siesta the place is closed. The place is almost always open for lunch, but dinner ... maybe. So call ahead if you are planning to go there specially for dinner or on weekends.

I first heard about this place a few months ago when Huell Howser did a show on this restaurant. When I was there I heard a couple of people saying, "I saw you on Huell's show!" The place is located in a part of LA called "Historic Filipinotown" which is mostly on the way to somewhere. There's the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre nearby and a Thai Massage place.

What draws people to this place is this. Slow roasted chicken on a pitfire grill fired with avocado wood. I haven't seen this type of roasting contraption before and the owner claims to have ordered it customized to his specification.

That grill is just something to watch, imagine having this in your kitchen. Oh the things I could roast... I could just get lost in my imagination. Visions of, not one but, SIX sucking pigs on that glorious rotisserie. Now back to my blog before I drift further into food porn lala land. I have to admit that what drew my interest to this place was the Lambi, a spicy Haitian Conch dish, and the Cabrit Fricasse made with goat meat. There is not a lot of places in LA to get these. But just looking at those chicken on the rotisserie, pure seduction.

So I got the lunch special, a quarter of TiGeorges's Chicken that came with some rice and beans, salad, and a kind of spicy coleslaw $7.65 and I got some Haitian fruity soda to go with the meal called Cola Lacaye $1.75. The chicken was so tender, falling of the bone tender is one thing but eating off the bone tender is another. See, one thing I will never forget about this meal is that the tip portion of the keel bone which is usually hard and cartilagenous was turned gelatinous in texture. Something I didn't think you could achieve by slow roasting. The indistinguishable spice rub on the chicken was really good and the avocado wood fire added some distinct smokiness to the chicken. I could not help but compare TiGeorges' chicken with the Peruvian chicken place Pollo Ala Brasa, both are wood fired. But I still prefer Pollo Ala Brasa's spicy well seasoned chicken. The big difference I think is brining, I don't think TiGeorges brines their chicken thereby the meat is less moist compared to Pollo ala Brasa. The thing is, TiGeorges is not just about chicken, there's Lambi, Cabrit, and Haitian Coffee which the brew fresh. I will surely be back to try the Lambi and Cabrit.

Before, when I thought of Haiti, I thought of the Carribean and Voodoo. But now Haiti to me is this place TiGeorges' Chicken and a very friendly face in George.

TiGeorges' Chicken
309 N. Glendale Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 353-9994

Pollo ala Brasa
764 S Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 382-4090

Chicken and Waffles

I had always been wanting to go to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles for quite some time now, never really had the chance. Last week, I was in Long Beach on my way to San Pedro. It was already past 12 pm and I was hungry with Fried Chicken in my mind. I remembered there is a Roscoe's branch near Atlantic and Broadway which was perfectly along the way to San Pedro. So target was set and I was off. The sign was huge so you really can't miss it, parking was across the street with lots of space. There was some kind of Jazz club on the right side when you go in and the main dining area is on the left.





I got the Scoes #2 Fried Chicken 2 pcs and 2 Waffles $ 10.40 and requested the gravy on the side, I wanted to try the chicken with out the gravy first. The waffles were crunchy outside and soft inside, there was really nothing special about it a bit bland for my taste.




The chicken was very good really crunchy skin and moist meat inside. The gravy added more dimension to the chicken almost like a feeling that the chicken is melting in your mouth. The whole dish made sense the sweetness of the waffles and maple syrup, contrasting with the saltiness of the chicken and gravy. I found myself going back and forth. For days, was thinking about how much I liked the food there that I came back a second time.




This time I tried the Lord Harvey $ 11.90, Half a chicken smothered in gravy and onions, grits and biscuit. I have never had grits before so I wanted to try it and I know biscuits are great with gravy. I didn't ask for the gravy on the side this time.




The grits came with a small cup of butter, I assumed you pour this on the grits which I opted not to. The grits was kind of mushy and bland there was no "corn" taste that I expected. I suppose this was something you eat to fill you up. The biscuits were great when I mixed some with the gravy. After I finished a couple of pieces of chicken the rest were already soggy which was what I was avoiding the first time. Next time I'll keep it on the side.

Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles
730 E Broadway,
Long Beach, CA 90802
(562)-437-8355