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UFC. Korean fried chicken. I was in a fried chicken state of mind after Jollibee, so this weekend I also skipped a few blocks and went straight to Jackson Heights for some more. Unidentified Flying Chickens wins the award for best packaging (so far) on Roosevelt Ave. I still covet Jollibee's red plastic buckets, but just look at the take out bag. Its design is pure cuteness.
And the box, with holes, which keep the crispiness.

But now for the chicken and one side which I sampled this Saturday.
I could only try two flavors of the four they offer (soy garlic, hot, BBQ mustard, and sweet & spicy) as I was alone and not about to get 20 pieces of chicken for myself. Even I wouldn't go that far. So, soy garlic and hot. Soy garlic was good, but I think I liked hot just a little bit more.
Hot drumette!
Soy garlic drumstick!
The chicken was doused in sauce and yet still remained crispy. A beautiful combination of flavor and crunchiness. How do they do it? I somehow managed to save a few pieces (of 10 pieces for $10) for Jose, who was working late, but I could have eaten those wings (and drumsticks) all night, like popcorn.

Ever since our trip to Hawaii, I have rediscovered my love for macaroni salad, so out of the side options of coleslaw, macaroni, daikon, or rice, I went for macaroni. The first bite took me back to childhood. I'm not sure when or why I ate supermarket deli macaroni salad, but at some point in my life I did, and it had that sweet-tangy flavor that I haven't tasted in years. I could not finish the whole thing, a few bites was more than enough nostalgia for one night.

Fried chicken is good. There is no doubt about that. Add fun flavors to crispy skin and juicy meat, and it gets even better. UFC did a good job with all three things. It's close to the train, and walkable from my house, which is both very good and very bad. For me, anyway.

UFC
71-22 Roosevelt Ave
Jackson Heights

Chickenjoy!!!

Jollibee is my absolute new favorite place. If Jollibee were a person, and not an imaginary Filipino cartoon bee, I know that we would be best friends. So fun. Why is fast food from other countries so much better than ours? David and I waited on the long, slow line, glad for the extra time to decide what to order. Fried chicken with fries, mashed potatoes, or corn (fries, of course). Or do we get our fried chicken with spaghetti and hot dogs or palabok (it was a tough decision but in the end spaghetti won). Jollibee spaghetti- the spaghettiest! It definitely was spaghetti. On a side note, I am fascinated by different countries' takes on spaghetti. Mexican Spaghetti is a one of my favorite dinners, not something you'd find at a restaurant (and not a light dinner, as it's topped with lots of sour cream and cheese), but maybe I'll make it and take pictures one day soon, just for fun. Anyway, back to Chickenjoy!, Jollibee's fried chicken. We wanted to try more of the menu, no hamburgers this time, but we also ordered the Shanghai rolls, an ube (purple yam) shake with tapioca, and then I went back for the mango-peach pie.

A not good phone picture of the Shanghai rolls. I went without camera, sadly. They tasted exactly like McDonald's chicken nuggets. And by that I mean everything good about McDonald's chicken nuggets. Crunchy, greasy, with a hint of chicken flavor. Maybe from frying them in the chicken-y oil? Maybe that's what they're supposed to taste like? I don't know, I don't care, they were terribly good.
Yum, icy ube! The tapioca was unnecessary and completely pushed me over the fullness edge, but it was tasty.

Terrible picture of spaghetti and chicken. It looks pretty plastic-like. The sauce was sweet, the meat was chewy, I enjoyed every bite of it.
A slightly better picture.

Crispylicious! Juicylicious! Jollibee loves inventing words and using exclamation points! It was crispy. It was juicy. It was great.
Also the spicy version (no good picture, sorry) came with a little red flag stabbed into the chicken that said "spicy". The top of the crispy juicy chicken was sprinkled with a spice powder that really is hot. Really, really good. So crispy!

Mango peach pie. Fried pie. Hot, fruity, filling. Everyone had them on their tables. I wanted one. I went back to get one a few days later, since the line was too long to get back on the first time. I carried it with me on my 20 minute walk home, and it was still hot when I finally ate it. I can only imagine the tongue burning pleasures of a freshly fried pie. The crust was crisp and bubbly. The filling was very sweet, more peachy than mango, but with a floral aftertaste.

What more can I say about Jollibee? I want to have a large family just so that I can take home big red buckets of fried chicken, and upgrade it with rice and pies. My only fear would be that my chickenjoy would be lessened were I to take it to go, for to lose any of that crispiliciousness would be a crime.

Jollibee
62-29 Roosevelt Ave.
Woodside