Eating in Taipei: New Taipei City

Spyci was recently featured on Taiwanese television as a place to get some really decent fried chicken around the XinDian area of Taipei. Therefore, I thought I'd check it out.

It's a relaxed affair around the shop. I can't quite stretch to call it a restaurant as it has a mere 2 tables with 4 seats at each. It all looks very new, so I'd be interested to know if anyone knows how new this place is?

The really nice thing about Spyci is that it documents its small menu really well, and showcases its great spice sauces in depth. The white topped spice jar is the really spicy sauce, and the black topped spice jar is the slightly spicy sauce with whole mini fish inside. Below these sauces we also have the drinks ranging from beer, to Japanese soda and also American soda.

There are less than 15 things on the menu you can order individually, however, a great thing that Spyci offers is a mix of $70x2 food, $60x2 food and also $50x2 food in a sharing box.

Everything in the kitchen is kept very clean, which, for a Taiwanese fried chicken kitchen is very rare, indeed! Anyway, let's take a look at the menu:

You're in luck! Everything is in English! Here's what we ordered:

1. Juicy Wings

2. Soft Bone

3. Tail

4. Leg Steak

5. Barley Water

Two plates filled with fried chicken - winner!

I will say this: the fried chicken was not greasy in any way! Which is astonishing considering how much chicken is on these two plates. Served on paper plates you'd expect the plates to be soggy and dripping when everything was eaten. Nope. Not in any way. Astonishing.

Above is the leg steak, which is the 雞排 ji1pai2. Flattened out piece of chicken leg deep fried and cut up for you into bite size pieces. You may not get an idea for how crunchy and light the batter is by looking at the picture, but you can definitely see how juicy and moist the chicken is. Often at nightmarkets or even dedicated fried chicken stalls, the chicken inside the 雞排 can be under-cooked or overcooked. It is difficult to find a good one that sits in between.

Here is the chicken wing. I am from England, where eating chicken wings isn't quite the institution that it is in America. However, I am equally as big a fan as your average American chicken wing enthusiast! These fit the bill as far as fried chicken wings are considered. The meat inside is equally as juicy as that of the 雞排 and equally as delicious in every way. However, below is the star of the show....

These are what are inside the jars mentioned in the fridge previously: the little dish on the left is the spicy one and the little dish on the right is the less spicy one. I was very impressed by both of these sauces and they pair up to compliment the chicken really well! The spicier of the two sauces has a real kick as soon as it hits your lips, but doesn't stay around to smash at your taste buds. It lingers for a little over 10 seconds and then disappears - perfect! The less spicy sauce with the mini whole fish inside is also a triumph in sauces, albeit a little more greasy than the spicier of the two. The sauce would, I feel, go perfectly with some noodles, too! It has a taste not too dissimilar to that of a tomato based Italian sauce, but with a slight hint of chili.

All of this washed down with a delightful Barley water