Henryfry Fried Chicken @ Chinatown in Bangkok [Thailand]

As a faithful lover of fried chicken, it's interesting to realize that I seldom seek fried chicken whenever I am overseas. Things are going to change with this Henryfry Fried Chicken in Bangkok! 

Located within walking distance from Hua Lamphong MRT station, it commanded a high review rating of 4.4 from over 200 reviewers. Since I was staying at the nearby Hotel Royal Chinatown, why not a visit?

The eatery was pretty packed but expected given that we came during the lunch peak on a Sunday. Nevertheless, I was expecting a longer queue which would have appeared better for Alex whom I had dragged along for the meal.

Table setup - hm.... I don't eat fried chicken with knife and fork; you have to eat with your fingers to know if the fried chicken were "finger licking good"! 

Root Beer - friends are usually aware I don't drink carbonated drinks but closer ones would know I have a weakness for root beer! This one from Henryfry tasted herby and the creamy sweet kind that I enjoy.

Fried Chicken - our delish looking chicken parts! The chicken joint sold the chicken parts individually, and there were three sets; small, medium and large giving you two, four, and six pieces respectively, and will include potato wedges, pickles and henry's signature sauce.

Best of all, we could choose the parts we want! We ordered a small set of chicken thigh and wing, and topped up with another chicken thigh. That would have been sufficient to try out the chicken, and leave some stomach room for other eateries in Bangkok! 

Problem was: the portion was huge! Alex's thought was that this one piece would be enough for his stomach even though knowing him; should it fail the taste test, he would discard it aside. 

Thankfully, the chicken meat went beyond our expectation; screaming of fresh juiciness, it was obvious from the swirling steam (or smoke as Singaporeans love to call it) that the chicken parts were deep fried only upon ordering! 

And the chicken skin was so crispy! Don't deny a chance with the henry's sauce; it was adelicious concoction of like thousand island sauce, Thai chilli, paprika etc. Use it to hype up the flavor of the chicken! 

For someone who dislike potato wedges, these were acceptable as they were served piping hot and had a crisp texture without the soft and mushy insides that I dislike. 

As I get older, I grow fonder of such pickled vegetables, especially those that continued to have a crunch that gave way to burst of sourness and sweetness! 

Leaving the crispy chicken skin to the last.

I always believe in leaving the best for the finale. 

Homemade Pineapple Ice Cream - how not to resist a dessert when it was available on the menu!? This seemed the most unique compared to the rest which included strawberry parfait, panna cotta sour jam strawberry, coconut ice cream. 

Well, the texture was more a paste than ice cream. Below the paste was a slice of pineapple sitting on a biscuit base. Not bad tasting but if ice cream lovers would likely be disappointed. 

=====

Strongly recommended and if the fried chicken craving strikes whenever I am in Bangkok, I would definitely pay a visit to Henryfry Fried Chicken! 

Address

747 Charoen Krung Road, Talat Noi, 

Samphanthawong, Bangkok 10100, Thailand

Map

As above. 

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/henryfry.eatary/

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Root Beer - 110 Baht

Chicken Set A - 220 Baht

One Piece Chicken - 55 Baht

Homemade Pineapple Ice Cream - 90 Baht

Talad Thai Banana @ AMK Hub in Singapore

In the past, there were just Chinese style fried bananas and Malay style fried bananas. In recent years, another style is getting to be more common in Singapore; the Thai style fried bananas, and they are going to the heartlands of our little red dot! 

This branch of Talad Thai Banana just opened a month ago and thanks to the information from my elder sister, we decided to check it out after our hair treatment this morning.

Featuring a very open kitchen concept, I am wondering if some of you would be turned off by the huge amount of oil used to fry the bananas. It wouldn't affect lovers of deep fried food though; we are sorely aware of their unhealthy aspects. 

At the moment, the menu was limited to just thai fried bananas and thai yam chips, deep fried using their signature batter! They did look appetizing behind the counter and we got a bag each since my mom was with us and she enjoyed yam.

Good enough for me to secure a second bag of Thai fried bananas to bring back home and let Alex try! p.s. a bag cost S$5 for 8 pieces of banana or S$4 for 6 pieces.

Look at that golden, caramelized sheen from the piece of fried banana that was dotted with sesame seeds! p.s. it's better to eat right after purchasing as the batter lost quite a bit of its crispiness when I reached home about 25 minutes later.

Compared to Bangkok Michelin Bib Gourmand Fried Banana Rama 5, it's no doubt that these from Talad Thai Banana were way better! Banana was juicier, the crisp batter was thinner; overall tastier than what I had in my last trip to Bangkok! 

And I absolutely loved the free additions of batter crispies! Aside from sesame seeds, I think there was another kind of nuts that were added; sadly, my amateurish taste buds can't discern what they were! Whatever the case, I think a pack of Talad Thai Banana shall be purchased after my monthly hair treatment session at Ang Mo Kio in the future! 

=====

Address

53 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, #B2-17, 

AMK Hub, Singapore 569933

Menu

As above.

Additional Information

100% vegetarians; for all races and religions! 

Mel's Western Chicken Chop @ Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre in Woodlands [Singapore] #marsilinghawkercentre

Alex had been talking about a chicken chop from a stall called Mel's Barbecue Western at Marsiling Mall hawker centre for the past few weeks, and given my love for chicken chop; I was finally persuaded to check it out this evening! 

Ordering was a breeze but without a paging system; you literally have to pop over whenever you hear the call bell being hit. Thankfully, it was just a 10-minute wait and we were seated nearby; Alex went over no less than four times though before securing the above plate of classic looking chicken chop.

Attacking the coleslaw first and I wasn't disappointed; crunchy, creamy and sweet, the way I love it! And even the fries were the traditional shoestring kind, fried to a crisp and fresh from the boiling oil. Only issue was that they went soft pretty fast! 

The expectation on the chicken chop was heightened and I happily cut a slice and popped it into my mouth. Drenched in black pepper sauce, the meat was juicy yet its marination failed to impress; most of the taste came from the sauce which was salty and overly peppery. 

I told Alex this wasn't a bad chicken chop; however, it was maybe just a 6.0 for me. After a long day at work, I was looking forward to a good dinner and while I was digging into this chicken chop from Mel's Western; I was thinking of the Western Barbeque's chicken chop at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre!

=====

Address

4 Woodlands Street 12, 

#01-37, Marsiling Mall,

Singapore 738623

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Chicken Chop - S$7.00

Phở Thế Béo at Truc Bach island in Hanoi [Vietnam]

Travelling with the Greatest Kon has many advantages and one of them would be his deep research on what to do and where to eat! If I am the one planning for the trip to Hanoi, I doubt I would travel to this obscure area that's outside the old quarter and appeared to be more a local housing district.

Generally quiet, the main hive of activity came from the surroundings of a street hawker located at a cross junction. Customers were just queuing on the road, without a care for the danger from a possibly rogue motorist. 

Although operating hours were listed as 9am till 5pm on Google Maps; it was said that the stall operates till they sell out and it could be as early as before noon! That's the reason why Kon suggested making this the first trip for the day. 

In case you can't read maps, just note to order from the stall with this painted mural that was according to the likeness of the boss, who would likely be taking order from you.

I glanced at the menu and left the Greatest Kon to order as he had researched before. What he did, from my understanding, was showing the online pictures to the boss to order! The boss was friendly and I guess it's not the first time that tourists had purposely dropped by his stall.

He even gifted us as youtiao after knowing we were from Singapore! Not expensive stuff yet such hospitality warmed the cockles of our Singaporean hearts.

Next up would be finding tables for us to have our pho and it's difficult as the tables were all over the place along the street. How would we know if the one we sat on actually belongs to the stall?! 

Finding our table a bit too small, we were brought to an indoor area that was subdivided with tables and chairs. It felt a bit strange as the back of the space seemed like a living space. Oh well, guess indoor would be better than outdoor. 

Our orders were served within 10 minutes! Even though there were four of us, we ordered only three bowls of pho and that's a good decision after we realized how huge each bowl was, and it was filled with so much meat! 

We were expecting one or two youtiao per person, and shocked to see two full min-baskets! This totally derailed any initial plans to just drink soup, eat meat, and reduce starch intake! 

The full bowl of goodness known as Thap Cham! For a meat eater, this picture made me happy, especially when I am not a pho-lover, preferring the dry bun thit nuong or bun cha instead. 

A disclaimer here; I never like the noodles from pho and hence wouldn't be the best judgment. Soup wise, it was flavorful and in my opinion, tastier than Pho 10 Ly Quoc Su at the old quarter.

There was mix of beef parts within and my dismal knowledge on them means I can only identify beef brisket, slices of beef and beef balls. The slices of beef were alright, albeit overcooked;  maybe I spent too much time taking photos. Beef brisket was delish! 

Minced beef balls were bouncy, tender with a rough texture and inconsistent shape that implied they were homemade. Sadly, there was just one beef ball per bowl.

There were these special Beef Balls with Salted Egg that Kon had read about. I might not be a fan of salted eggs but I do enjoy salted egg lava buns, salted egg chips, and salted egg crabs. Maybe these salted egg beef balls would be nice? 

A large salted egg yolk took off quite a bit of meat from the beef ball and this resulted in a lack of blissful satisfaction (when our teeth bit through one whole meat ball made purely of beef), with added unnecessary saltiness. 

Dip it into the concoction of chilli and sweet paste to for better flavor, and to balance out the saltiness. For me, I would go for extra beef balls and remove this salted egg beef balls! Again, do be reminded I am not a fan of salted egg.

I had high expectations for the youtiao which felt so crispy! Unfortunately, they were super chewy and the soak in the beef broth from the pho failed to improve the taste. As the Greatest Kon rightfully pointed out; looks can be deceiving! 

=====

There's no way I would be able to finish up the pho; there were just too much of the noodles and my focus was to clean up the beef parts, which were already so generous! 

Address

16 P. Trần Tế Xương, Trúc Bạch, 

Ba Đình, Hà Nội, Vietnam

Map

As above. 

Pricing

Thap Cam - 100,000 Dong a bowl

Beef Ball with Salted Egg - 20,000 Dong each

Click here for my Week-Long Itinerary to Hanoi - City of Lakes, Ninh Binh and Halong Bay @ Vietnam