And the coffee, the coffee.  Good and sweet iced coffee, it was almost enough to make me stand in line twice.

The only thing that bugged me about the Hapa Ramen was the chicken.  Sure, it was a nuggetesque take on the popular panko breaded tonkatsu, but it wasn’t real Japanese Fried Chicken—Chicken Kara-age.  This fried chicken, marinated in soyu and ginger among other things is most importantly dark meat, so it’s automatically more flavorful, because it’s also marinated then breaded then fried.  And it is delicious.  More delicious, in fact, than tonkatsu or southern fried chicken.  If there had been Chicken Kara-age in my Big Daddy bowl, I would have been addicted.  Euphoric.  Drugged.  Hapa Ramen was almost perfect but it lacked the right fried chicken.

If there could be a wrong fried chicken.

Chicken Kara-age (Japanese Fried Chicken)

Adapted from Mommy and Sam Choy

Serves 5-6

½ cup soyu

2 packed tablespoons dark brown sugar

½ tablespoon grated fresh ginger

½ tablespoon minced garlic

¼ cup sherry

2 packages (about 3 pounds) of skinless boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat and cut into 2-3 oz. chunks

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup potato starch

Frying oil (safflower)

1.  Mix the soy, sugar, ginger, garlic, and sherry together.  Marinated the trimmed and cut chicken chunks for at least one hour in the refrigerator.

2.  Mix the flour and potato starch together in a shallow bowl.  Heat the frying oil, at least two inches deep in a frying pan.  Dredge the chicken straight from the marinade without blotting into the flour and then plop into the oil, frying for about 2.5 minutes on each side, or until the coating is a deep golden brown.  (But not burnt.)  Eat immediately after repeating with all the chicken.  To remove some of the oil, let the hot chicken rest on paper towels for a couple minutes to cool.

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