Hot Star Large Fried Chicken – where the name says it all

Sydney's fried chicken obsession would seem to be in its infancy still. The fried chicken game has been upped recently with the opening of Hot Star Large Fried Chicken just over three weeks ago in Liverpool Street in CBD south, shortly after the Taiwanese franchise’s first two Australian stores opened in Melbourne.

Hot Star Large Fried Chicken is a Taiwanese chain with more than 40 stores in its home country and an increasing presence in south-east Asia and now Australia, where expansion in Sydney is on the cards.

Large Fried Chicken "Original" from Hot Star Large Fried Chicken, Liverpool Street, Sydney

Famous in Taipei's Shilin Night Market where it originated, Hot Star's signature product is an opened up chicken breast, on the rib bone, deep fried with a flour coating then seasoned to desired spice levels.

The chicken is served piping hot out of the deep fryer in a paper bag, then plastic-bagged by the customer for their taking-away and eating enjoyment.

They're not kidding when they say it's "Large Fried Chicken" – the breast makes for a formidably-sized cutlet that's described as "oversized" and "larger than palm-sized". Each serving portion is 250 grams of chicken breast, approximately 30 centimetres in length.

Chicken in the deep fryer

The fresh, never frozen chicken breast is cooked for 4.5 minutes in a deep fryer that can hold 20 large pieces per fry. The canola oil in each fryer is changed three times a day; ensuring a clean deep fry that tends to range from pale to golden.

Marinating chicken breasts

Flour coating the chicken

The chicken is 100% breast sourced from local suppliers – real chicken with real bones – and is marinated for at least 12 hours before being coated in flour immediately ahead of deep frying to order.

Sydney store front

The Sydney store has been averaging sales of about 700 portions of large fried chicken a day since opening in early March, with the "Original" being the most popular with a "medium spice" seasoning.

The seasoning sprinkled on each cooked chicken breast is imported from Taiwan and comprises salt, pepper and a special chilli powder.

Large fried chicken coating

As the chicken and other vegetable sides are all cooked to order, a small wait for deep fried goodness is inevitable. For the uninitiated, it's hard not to smile when you receive your first Large Fried Chicken: it's golden, it's huge and it's hot. Really hot.

The flour coating is undoubtedly crispy when fresh out of the fryer, though it does soften in the hot, steamy confines of its paper bag. I found the medium spice to be quite mild and would definitely consider increasing that next time.

Insides of Large Fried Chicken "Original"

The insides are probably the juiciest chicken breast you'll come across – definitely in fried chicken land, and perhaps in the breast cut generally. At the top boneless section, you can take big, glorious bites out of it while towards the bottom, it's a case of nibbling off the outer side of the rib bones.

The combination of crunch, seasoning and juicy insides makes for a very happy fried chicken experience. Utterly satisfying for cravings or a large snack, the Large Fried Chicken is actually positioned as a substantial meal unto itself, perhaps embellished with a few side options.

Chicken bites

The chicken bites give my chicken nuggets compulsion a good run for its money. Small chunks of chicken breast, two or three bites each, are coated in the same flour and seasoning and are tossed with fresh sweet basil leaves upon removal from the deep fryer, as is common for fried chicken in Taiwanese cuisine.

The breast meat in the bites weren't nearly as moist and juicy as the Large Fried Chicken, but the basil addition added an additional flavour dimension that's fresh and fragrant.

Sweet potato fries

Hot Star's sweet potato chips are definitely contenders for the best of their breed. Cooked from a fresh, raw state, they were super crunchy in their flour coat, and soft and sweet on the inside; blissful with a light seasoning.

King brown mushrooms

One of the more unusual sides options are the deep fried chunks of fresh King Brown mushrooms. Beware, they're possibly the hottest thing to come out of a deep fryer in terms of heat, given their moisture content, and they go soggy before reaching a bearable eating temperature.

But, they're completely worthwhile, if only as a noble vegetable/fungus side that you probably won't see elsewhere.

Curly potato fries with spicy mayonnaise

Last but not least of the sides are the curly potato fries that would make any kid's eyes light up.

The only processed product on the menu, they are offered with a spicy mayonnaise that's made in-house and only for the apparently mayo-loving Australian market. With a soft crunch, the potato curls are relatively pedestrian but naughtily pleasing nonetheless.

The Hot Star Large Fried Chicken menu

It's all in the name – the star of Hot Star Large Fried Chicken is the Large Fried Chicken. Open till midnight most nights and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, I foresee Hot Star Large Fried Chicken becoming a lunch/snack/dinner/late night name that I'm going to get to know intimately.

Food, booze and shoes sampled products from Hot Star Large Fried Chicken as a guest, with thanks to Harvey Publicity.

A familiar Taste of Sydney

Taste of Sydney, 13-16 March 2014, Centennial Park, Sydney

For its sixth year in Sydney's Centennial Park, Taste of Sydney once again battled with the weather gods to mostly prevail as one of our city's favourite outdoor restaurant and wine festivals.

The parklands were abuzz with stalls on the opening Thursday night with a host of familiar faces and a few new, with the Best in Taste Awards again hosted in the Taste VIP tent.

G.H. Mumm champagne in the Taste VIP tent

With bubbles on pour all night, it was a jovial forum to see the Best in Taste judging panel - including Gourmet Traveller's Pat Nourse, television cook Lyndey Milan, Time Out's Myffy Rigby and Broadsheet Sydney's Sophie McComas - award their picks of the festival.

The Best Dressed stall was deemed to be Rojo Rocket from the rotating Destination Dining restaurants; with the award accepted gleefully by the Taste first-timers. Another festival newbie, Aki's Indian Restaurant, took out third in the Best in Taste, with their poori offering.

Perennial favourites Porteño placed second with their charcoal grilled wagyu skirt steak, and the Best in Taste award went to old-but-new Taste participant Chow Bar & Eating House, with ex-Claudes' owner and chef Chui Lee Luk's 'Beggar's Chicken'.

Taste of Sydney - opening night

While I managed to taste two out of three of the judges' Best in Taste, my Sunday plans for Taste round two were scuppered by a pretty epic storm that's becoming all to common in Sydney town these days.

Porteño's tent kitchen charcoal grill

Luckily we got to crowd-favourite Porteño on the first night; unmissable with all the "faces of" and a huge, open kitchen tent stall that sent charcoal smoke signals direct to Taste's hungry stomachs.

Charcoal grilled entrana - wagyu skirt steak with BBQ peppers and chimichurri from Porteño

Grabbing silver in the judge's awards, Porteño's charcoal grilled wagyu skirt steak was a smoky-flavoured and tender delight of a cut of beef, sliced and topped with a zingy chimichurri herb sauce and settled upon soft cooked red capsicum.

Charcoal grilled lamb rib with marinated eggplant, anchovy
and rosemary pound from Porteño

But it was the charcoal grilled lamb rib, with crunchy pieces of skin and smoky fat covering soft lamb flesh, that had my attention; perfectly spiced and served with meltingly soft eggplant and creamy squiggles of a sauce of anchovy and rosemary.

Porteño's woodfired asado

The beauty of the Porteño approach is that they bring the restaurant to Taste, not just a festival-friendly sample. Four asado woodfire grills were set up around a pit next to the main tent, just like they have at the Surry Hills restaurant, except all lambs splayed for Taste.

Woodfired lamb from the asado with potato salad and chimchurri from Porteño

Having not tried Porteño's woodfired lamb from the asado before, it was the perfect opportunity to have their Taste Icon Dish, served atop a creamy potato salad with the same chimichurri sauce.

The succulent cuts of lamb (leg?) were tender if not a bit one-dimensional, although I did spy various other cuts of the Icon Dish, as it is in the restaurant, that offered more colour and varied texture.

Crispy pork belly with chilli caramel, aioli and mint slaw from Chur Burger

Over at 'Taste veteran but in a new guise' Warren Turnbull's Chur Burger stall, it was a range of miniaturised burgers, also ubiquitously known as sliders.

The pork belly was a winning combination of a crisp hunk of roasted belly with crackling, cabbage and mint slaw, aioli and a sticky chilli caramel; somehow all balanced within a cute, little burger bun.

Kinkawooka mussel fritter with spiced remoulade and dill pickled cucumber
from Chur Burger

The same buns also held two unique-sounding Kinkawooka mussel fritters; a little pikelet-like and floury but lifted by ribbons of dill-scented pickled cucumber and creamy remoulade as a sauce.

Crispy king prawns, green chilli, lime from Longrain

We moved on to Taste (and festivals generally) long-timer Longrain and their irresistible whole fried king prawns, dressed with a refreshing lime and mild green chilli sauce.

With very well-trimmed heads (no dangerous, sharp bits), it was much like eating whole fried school prawns but better, with a crisp, well-seasoned flour coating and that fabulous, firm texture of large crustaceans.

Hay smoked chicken legs - cured and smoked chicken, corn and local garlic creme
from Biota Dining

We continued on the large, fried things path with Biota Dining's cured and hay smoked chicken drumstick.

It was an impressively large chicken specimen with a crunchy crumb coating and soft yellow cream of corn and garlic that's right up there as one of the most expensive chicken drumsticks I've ever had.

Dahi sel poori - crispy wheat pockets with spiced potato and yoghurt from Aki's Indian Restaurant

I knew I wanted to try the podium-winning dish from Aki's Indian Restaurant: dahi sel poori hollow fried wheat pockets, filled with a mix of fragrantly spiced potato and natural yoghurt, garnished with coriander.

Eaten in one or two mouthfuls, the poori was an intriguing sensation of warm and cold, soft and crisp, spice and sourness that was gone all too quickly.

Ceci e tria alla Pugliese - pasta strips cooked two ways, chickpeas, pecorino mousse
from Popolo

The only pasta offering at Taste this year was Popolo's ceci pasta strips, served as a crisp wafer with sharp pecorino mousse, and more classically with a creamy, not-necessarily-photogenic chickpea sauce.

Taco de Cochinito - pulled pork taco, corn puree, salad and salsa rojo from Rojo Rocket

The Avalon-based Rojo Rocket put up tacos, including a pulled pork one that didn't quite look like all the other ones around town.

With a puree of corn, watercress leaves and tasty namesake salsa rojo, the tortilla didn't get a chance to go soggy, scoffed within a minute or so.

Suckling pig on the spit at 4Fourteen / Four in Hand

Otto Ristorante's head chef Richard Ptacnik in the Taste Kitchen

Country Kitchen seating area

The usual Taste features - Taste Kitchen, chefs' talks, wine masterclasses, cocktail classes - were all present as too a few cooking class demonstrations and the new Icon Park restaurant/bar crowdfunding concept, making it an increasingly familiar Taste, with an annual twist. See more photos on my Facebook page.

Food, booze and shoes attended Taste of Sydney as a guest. All food and Crowns were paid for independently.

A taste of St Paddy at the Cat and Fiddle Hotel

Posted by Nik - keen eater and part-time writer; providing an Irish perspective.

In Ireland St Patrick's Day marks the end of winter. It is a day for putting on the green and tasting a few pints of the black. Like my birth, it is a day that I know I have been to but don't remember.

In celebration of the day recognising Ireland's most commonly-recognised patron saint, the Cat and Fiddle Hotel in Balmain are putting on their own long weekend, from Saturday through to Monday's St. Paddy's Day (17 March).

Dining area at the Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Darling Street, Balmain

A specially-designed Irish menu by Irish-born chef Padraic Kielty is on offer just for the weekend, with new versions of Irish classics as well as some inventive new dishes.

In the completely newly-renovated pub with an indoor Garden Room, we were seated in the middle of the large dining area behind the bar, where a vast skylight let in the last of the day. Punters came and pints and food were ordered.

Fried seaweed snack

While a half-poured Guinness rested on the bar, waiting for the top up, we started with a snack of fried seaweed. Picked from the bowl like chips, the sea grass was fresh and crunchy, like lettuce and seawater without the salt.

Pint of Guinness

The Guinness was rich and well formed. We are a long way from the Liffey, but this antipodean cousin is worth a nudge. Choosing our mains from the Irish menu was tough. More pints were required to fully evaluate the options.

Crispy spud skins, Red Leicester, 100-year old brown sauce recipe

Next to arrive were potato skins with melted Red Leicester cheese and a brown sauce that has been in chef Kielty's family since his grandmother "borrowed" the recipe from her time in the Queen's kitchens at Buckingham Palace.

Crisp but not greasy, the generous skins cupped the melted orange cheese; both lifted by the fruity, chutney-like tang of the sauce which is one of the best brown sauces I've ever had.

Irish boxty, pickled eggs, black pudding, whiskey and pear

Boxty is an Irish potato pancake that is often served in place of bread. Here, it was matched with a just-sharp pickled egg, a puck of creamy black pudding and sweet whiskey pear puree in a subtle and sophisticated layering of flavours, which was consistent throughout the rest of the Irish menu.

Corned beef, Irish soda bread, pickles and West Cork feta

With a modern plating, the richness of the corned beef was unexpected. Infused with cloves and clementine, the beef was sweet, spiced and salty on its own.

It was served with a light, soft soda bread with flavours balanced by crunchy pickled vegetables and moist, salty West Cork feta cheese which is no doubt, rightly, a little bit fond of itself.

Dublin Coddle, white pudding, salt and pepper spud

Dublin coddle is traditionally a pot of leftovers boiled in a pot. The dish at the Cat and Fiddle has been somewhat polished and updated, served dry atop a pastry base with broth on the side.

The sausage was a perfectly spiced Irish breakfast sausage, while the pancetta added salt and crunch on top of buttery mashed potato and prettily presented vegetables.

Mini chips with Irish curry sauce

Curry chips are the 2am kebab of Ireland. The side of chips were perfectly cooked - crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside - while the curry sauce was honest and peppery. These were easily the best, if not the only, curry chips I can remember eating.

Irish railway cake, clotted cream, butterscotch

Dessert maintained the subtle and thoughtful approach to Irish flavour. The Railway Cake with a faintly citrus clotted cream and shards of crunchy butterscotch was airy, luxurious and just a little bit sweet.

Chocolate Guinness cake, Bailey's jelly

The Bailey's cream whiskey jelly in the bottom of a cute jar was a creamy softener for the richer, moist square of Guinness chocolate cake which sat atop a crumble with pastry flags sticking out the top.

Front bar

The Cat and Fiddle is like a good pub straight out of Ireland, but the food is infinitely better. In keeping with the kindness of the welcome, the food is quietly and confidently Irish, and come St Paddy's Day on Monday, will probably be a little louder and patriotically Irish.

The Cat and Fiddle will offer the St Patrick’s Day Culinary Irish Menu from Saturday 15 to Monday 17 March, lunch and dinner. Irish Breakfast will be served Sunday and Monday. On St Patrick's Day there will be all-day live Irish music and entertainment along with a pub filled with Irish craic.

Food, booze and shoes dined at the Cat and Fiddle Hotel as a guest.