9/19/07
For those few loyal readers I have of my blithering ramblings posted here, I appreciate your attention and trust that by now a recurring theme in my subject matter has been noticed. I write a lot about food and living in K-town. Fear not, I intend to continue that trend on both fronts here.
I've done a little here in previous posts to elaborate on the food situation in my little corner of heaven called Koreatown. Today my intention is to explore the chicken situation in east Koreatown. I find it frightening. This is being written as an exercise in healing. I need to get this out. Afraid? No? Keep reading…
Chicken, chicken everywhere. Within walking distance of my apartment there are more chicken joints than one might think possible. By chicken joint, I mean establishments specializing in chicken and not any of the Mexican restaurants, taco and/or burrito stands in the neighborhood (unless they have the word 'chicken' or 'pollo' in the name of the business). Still, by excluding all the Mexican restaurants, I am not doing much to thin out the glut of suspect chicken in my part of East K-Town. By "SUSPECT" chicken, I mean chicken that when waved under your nose, your immediate reaction isn't to just eat it.
If I want fried chicken, and for those of you that know me even a little bit, you know I usually want it… bad, all I need do is walk a few short blocks in any direction and I can have chicken from either of two Kentucky Fried Chickens, Jollibee or the deli counters at Ralphs or Vons. None of these options are really appealing to me. KFC is just straight nasty in my book and I don't know if I trust their new synthetic healthy oil loading their deep fat friers. Is that the same stuff they make those potato chips with that makes your poo like soft candle wax? Gross. Jollibee is SUSPECT by nature (see my previous post) and they use heat lamps just like the deli counters at Ralphs and Vons. The Ralphs is pretty ghetto and their prepared food just can't be trusted in my book. The Vons, isn't nearly as ghetto (I know I've mentioned they have a Starbucks in there), but it is definitely cult-ish. It freaks me out….and because I don't what other additives they put in their prepared food I'm just not comfortable asking for chicken from under their heat lamps. I'm not taking any chances on unwittingly drinking the Vons kool-aid. No thank you Bob Davila.
If I expand my focus beyond the fried chicken to just any sort of chicken in the neighborhood, my choices really don't get all that much better. If I cross the line into S. Hollywood (yeah, that's about 6 blocks) I could try Romeros Rotisserie Chicken and Donuts. Yes, non-fried chicken and donuts cannot compete with fried chicken and waffles. I find the roto chicken and donut combo just bizarre. Wouldn't fried chicken and donuts be a more natural match? They could be cooked in the same fat friers, right? I could point you to places that have that combo, albeit not in K-town. Still, there is more about Romeros other than the name that strike me as SUSPECT, so I'm not eating there. Plus, they don't have a pink bee mascot to lure me in (thank you jeebus).
My other chicken option within walking distance is the chicken specialty market on Virgil. I haven't visited this place yet either because, well, it smells sometimes when I walk past and the sign out front advertises LIVE chicken. I know the chicken I buy in the market was once a living a thing, or collected parts of a living things, but I just don't like to smell its death. Yeah, I need to just get over that. It's fresh. I'm sure it's wonderful. I just feel too close to the food chain when walking past there. I'm sure I'd find it comforting to learn that all these so-called SUSPECT chicken places in the neighborhood got their meat from the bird butcher on Virgil. At least we'd know it was fresh and so long as the wind keeps blowing east I won't have to smell it.
So, let me break it down… here in east K-town, my chicken choices are KFC x 2, Ralphs, Vons, Jollibee, Romeros Chicken and Donuts or still clucking. When I lived in west K-town, my choices weren't as plentiful, I had an El Pollo Loco and the Pollo La Brasa (if you know this place then you just know and you're happy about it), but neither were suspect (or fried, sadly).
If you've been reading my blogs and were beginning to think that K-town had it all, then I hate to burst bubble. If you like your chicken fried, then you're better off looking elsewhere.
I've done a little here in previous posts to elaborate on the food situation in my little corner of heaven called Koreatown. Today my intention is to explore the chicken situation in east Koreatown. I find it frightening. This is being written as an exercise in healing. I need to get this out. Afraid? No? Keep reading…
Chicken, chicken everywhere. Within walking distance of my apartment there are more chicken joints than one might think possible. By chicken joint, I mean establishments specializing in chicken and not any of the Mexican restaurants, taco and/or burrito stands in the neighborhood (unless they have the word 'chicken' or 'pollo' in the name of the business). Still, by excluding all the Mexican restaurants, I am not doing much to thin out the glut of suspect chicken in my part of East K-Town. By "SUSPECT" chicken, I mean chicken that when waved under your nose, your immediate reaction isn't to just eat it.
If I want fried chicken, and for those of you that know me even a little bit, you know I usually want it… bad, all I need do is walk a few short blocks in any direction and I can have chicken from either of two Kentucky Fried Chickens, Jollibee or the deli counters at Ralphs or Vons. None of these options are really appealing to me. KFC is just straight nasty in my book and I don't know if I trust their new synthetic healthy oil loading their deep fat friers. Is that the same stuff they make those potato chips with that makes your poo like soft candle wax? Gross. Jollibee is SUSPECT by nature (see my previous post) and they use heat lamps just like the deli counters at Ralphs and Vons. The Ralphs is pretty ghetto and their prepared food just can't be trusted in my book. The Vons, isn't nearly as ghetto (I know I've mentioned they have a Starbucks in there), but it is definitely cult-ish. It freaks me out….and because I don't what other additives they put in their prepared food I'm just not comfortable asking for chicken from under their heat lamps. I'm not taking any chances on unwittingly drinking the Vons kool-aid. No thank you Bob Davila.
If I expand my focus beyond the fried chicken to just any sort of chicken in the neighborhood, my choices really don't get all that much better. If I cross the line into S. Hollywood (yeah, that's about 6 blocks) I could try Romeros Rotisserie Chicken and Donuts. Yes, non-fried chicken and donuts cannot compete with fried chicken and waffles. I find the roto chicken and donut combo just bizarre. Wouldn't fried chicken and donuts be a more natural match? They could be cooked in the same fat friers, right? I could point you to places that have that combo, albeit not in K-town. Still, there is more about Romeros other than the name that strike me as SUSPECT, so I'm not eating there. Plus, they don't have a pink bee mascot to lure me in (thank you jeebus).
My other chicken option within walking distance is the chicken specialty market on Virgil. I haven't visited this place yet either because, well, it smells sometimes when I walk past and the sign out front advertises LIVE chicken. I know the chicken I buy in the market was once a living a thing, or collected parts of a living things, but I just don't like to smell its death. Yeah, I need to just get over that. It's fresh. I'm sure it's wonderful. I just feel too close to the food chain when walking past there. I'm sure I'd find it comforting to learn that all these so-called SUSPECT chicken places in the neighborhood got their meat from the bird butcher on Virgil. At least we'd know it was fresh and so long as the wind keeps blowing east I won't have to smell it.
So, let me break it down… here in east K-town, my chicken choices are KFC x 2, Ralphs, Vons, Jollibee, Romeros Chicken and Donuts or still clucking. When I lived in west K-town, my choices weren't as plentiful, I had an El Pollo Loco and the Pollo La Brasa (if you know this place then you just know and you're happy about it), but neither were suspect (or fried, sadly).
If you've been reading my blogs and were beginning to think that K-town had it all, then I hate to burst bubble. If you like your chicken fried, then you're better off looking elsewhere.
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