Among the famous snacks of the Shihlin night market(士林夜市) you can see a big blue signboard of this Hot Star Fried Chicken with a long queue of people each of them holding a plastic bag given by the shop waiting for the fried chicken which cost NT$55 a piece. I was in the queue for about 15 minutes before I could get my shares, beware of the blistering heat through the little paper packet holding in your hand.
The smell you may get even as a passer- by of the shop entrance is not a big difference from that of the KFC or McDonald’s also ubiquitously found in Taipei streets, the batter outside is crispy enough, but rather thick and fully soaked with oil, pepper are sprinkled onto each piece of chicken out of the wok, a lot of them I tell you, and sadly the tastes you would get in your mouth are those seasoning more than the real taste of chicken, the meat is tender enough and as usually those adhere with bones are even more tender. A piece of fried chicken is bigger than a man’s palm, and more than enough to feed that man, but as I’ve said most of the piece is batter rather than chicken meat.
More inclined to the youngster’s palate, if you are used to Cantonese style SiuMei you will find the taste of the ordinary soya sauce chicken a reproach to this Hot Star Fried-Chicken. Not a very auspicious start in Taipei to tell the truth though definitely I won't give up and see what's coming on tomorrow.