Archives for “chicken” tag

Don’t be turned off by the sparse menu. After all, if you do three things really, really well, why do anything else? This place is called Henne (Hen) and let’s be honest, it really is all about the milk broiled chicken here. Well, and the beer. And maybe the potato salad.

Actually this place could win a prize for nicest pub in Berlin. Though perhaps that’s not saying much: Berlin isn’t especially known for its local pub scene. Most pubs, or kneipe, here seem to be the last refuge of men you who have nothing better to do than to smoke and hold up the bar. But walk inside Henne and you might think you’ve left Berlin altogether. The rustic decor and heavy wood furnishings might be better at home in a country pub in Ireland than in modern Berlin.

The place is popular with both a local crowd and tourists, so reservations are a good idea. Especially if you want to go on a Friday evening. Again, though, it’s really all about the chicken. And the beer. And maybe the potato salad.

When a place called Angry Chicken opened up in Kreuzberg, by the same lovely people who own Kimchi Princess, I was skeptical. Angry? In this town even the mildest of salsa is regarded suspiciously. Germans just don’t really do spicy. So I wondered, how angry could it really be? 

A couple of years ago Korean Fried Chicken, that other KFC, was all the rage in NYC. Food writers in the Times wrote with lyrical prose describing the crunchy, blistery fried skin, the tangy, garlicky sauces, the tender flesh. Although I lived in Korea for some time, I couldn’t recall fried chicken being such a big deal in there. It was what you ate on the stagger home, drunk most likely on soju; it was street food. Ah, but it was delicious and spicy and now some enterprising young kyopos, Korean Americans, had brought it across the Pacific.

Fast forward a couple years and Angry Fried Chicken has landed in Kreuzberg. Gluttony, I think, best describes my relationship to this place. The only problem here really is choice. Of course you can go for straight up Angry Chicken (spicy), but you might also like So So Angry Chicken (extra spicy), or even Sexy Chicken (soy garlic), or Furious (extra hot) perhaps?

And for those timid, spice-shy Germans, for whom even ketchup is too spicy, you could start them off with the Friendly Chicken (classic crunch).