Indie Chicken
(You may recall the first instalment of this all-comers welcome occasional series from a while ago. If not, I don’t care. But I would nevertheless like to see local chicken reviews from strange and exotic climes.)
#2 Perfect Chicken, Junction Road, London N19
Yesterday I went swimming after work (as is my wont of late) and therefore needed to eat something truly filthy afterwards to counterbalance any undesirable healthy effects. I emerged from Archway tube station, crossed the road to the above named takeaway, got my dinner (fresh chips!) and pootled off with it on the short bus ride up to Highgate.
It’s a reliable local chicken shop but I patronise it only occasionally, as there’s generally this spotty teenager behind the counter who leers at me and gives me extra hotwings, producing entirely the opposite effect to that which he presumably intends. However, their Value Box Meal is indeed the best value pile of grease in the vicinity, consisting of two pieces of chicken, three hotwings, fries and a drink for ‘2.99. The chicken was moistish and the seasoned skin is disgustingly and deliciously gooey, so that takes care of that. The hotlegs (one of last night’s was kind of ball-shaped – goodness knows what the fowl/cat it came from looked like) were a bit too crunchy and kind of meh in the hottness stakes, and the fries were fine. The drink selection is what endears the place to me over and beyond the pimply youth’s complimentary filth: a can of 7-up, Pepsi, Dr Pepper or Cherry Coke, and it’s always one of the wacky latter pair that I go for, in this case Cherry Coke. Mmmmm teeth-rotting fingerlicking fun.
There was no refreshing lemon towelette included in the bag (although there was a sachet of salt and a shiny paper napkin), but there sometimes has been in the past; this unpredictability is kind of attractive/annoying depending on the mood I’m in. Additionally, the hubris of calling a poxy fry-kiosk ‘Perfect’ puts me in a good mood as I pass the establishment on my way home. There’s definitely a ‘meaty’ project somewhere in documenting/analysing indie chicken names, but I’m too lazy to kick it off just at the moment.