Monga Fried Chicken located at 692 Yonge St in Toronto
Thanks to another DKLoEvent, I was able to attend a tasting to try the new Monga Fried Chicken that has arrived in Toronto. Monga Fried Chicken (艋舺雞排) is a Taiwanese chain of fried chicken that boasts thick-cut and crispy fried chicken cutlets and “Bao-gers”.
On a Tuesday evening at 6:15 p.m., the tasting began. As usual, there were a lot of food Instagrammers in the house, both new and old. I took some photos of the products on display. Shortly thereafter, Darren welcomed us officially to the event and the owner of the store, Steven, gave a very thorough and detailed introduction about Monga Fried Chicken to us.
This new fried chicken chain located south of the Yonge and Bloor intersection
DKLoEvents name tags
Chicken nuggets and drinks on display
Three Signature Fried Chicken cutlets on display
Mmm, fried chicken
Look at how big and thick it is
Three types of baogers on display
Braised pork belly baoger
Photoshoots in process
Darren and Steven’s speeches
In his speech, I learned that:
- Their chicken is well-known for to be “juicy, thick-cut, and crispy”. They are marinated for 8 hours and use honey as a topping. The Hot Chick chicken uses 20 types of peppers including the Anaheim pepper! The seaweed flavour uses imported seaweed from Okinawa, Japan.
- Their traditional Taiwanese bao is called a “Baoger” (a cross between a bao and a burger). These came in three types of baos: Pork belly, fried chicken, and shrimp cake.
- Their chicken nuggets used the boneless thighs of the chicken.
- Their drinks included a milk papaya (limited quantity due to the season), watermelon, kiwi yogurt, and coconut orange.
- Each piece of fried chicken is deep fried for exactly 6 minutes and 30 seconds. They experimented with the chicken and found that that was the perfect timing for the chicken to be fried. When the chicken is about 90 percent done, they take it out for a minute to rest.
I liked that Steven was very clear and articulate in his speech which allowed all of us to correctly capture exactly what he shared with us.
Steven explaining the items at Monga
After that, the tasting began! We were each welcome to enjoy one piece of fried chicken, a choice between a Baoger or chicken nuggets, and a drink.
Menu
I love that “hot chick” shirt. So creative
They are a fast casual restaurant
Considering that we were so many of us in the house, the process to order the chicken was seamless and efficient. I ordered the original fried chicken, The King, the Monga Chicken Nuggets, and the Milky Papaya (I was lucky enough to be one of the first five lucky ones to order it). I was also lucky enough to share my order of Monga Chicken Nuggets and Original Fried Chicken with Casey’s Pork Belly Baoger and Seaweed Fried Chicken. This way, we could try more of what Monga Fried Chicken had to offer. 🙂 I love optimizing my food options at restaurants.
Watching how they deep fry the chicken, rest it, and then powder it with the seasonings
Two sets of tasting items for myself and Casey
Before we ate though, we of course went outside to take some photos of the food… although honestly, I could have done without it and snapped a quick photo and then begin eating.
I will participate in these photoshoots but I secretly despise it (although it’s not of a secret now that I’m sharing it with you ;)).
I despise it because it: 1) paints an embellished picture of what is happening — food is food; just take a pretty photo and then eat it; 2) after a unnecessarily prolonged photoshoot, it makes the food all cold; and 3) everyone ends up having the same photo. Luckily, the fried chicken was very hot from the fryer so not much heat was lost during the photoshoot, but still…
You only see this stuff on Instagram…
The two types of fried chicken I tried that day
The King Original Fried Chicken
The Milky Papaya is a take on the classic Taiwanese milk papaya. I thought that it was very good in terms of the quantity of papaya that was in the drink. You could really taste the papaya with each sip. It wasn’t very sweet, however, which is a good thing for some and a lacking part for others.
Milky Papaya. $5.75
The Monga Nuggets had a dusting of spicy powder — it was a choice that I accepted. The Nuggets tasted okay to me; it wasn’t too seasoned but the pieces were indeed big and boneless.
Monga Nuggets. $7
Classic Baoger. $5.25
-braised pork belly, pickled cabbage, fresh cucumber, topped with cilantro and crushed peanuts
I was extremely impressed with the Classic Baoger! The Braised Pork Belly Baoger had pickled cabbage, fresh cucumber, and topped with cilantro and crushed peanuts (although you can ask for it to be without the toppings). I was impressed with this because although we ate this while it was already cold (due to the previously mentioned photoshoot), the bao bun was still very soft and squishy — which is very rare for baos. Usually when baos are cold, they become tasteless and hard. (It must be because they import the buns from Taiwan!) The braised pork belly was very fatty and delicious. I commend their Baoger for sure!
The King Signature Fried Chicken had a dusting of black pepper and salt. Since it was also topped with honey, I could taste the sweetness of it. However, I could barely taste the black pepper or salt part of it. In essence, it was a big thick-cut piece of fried chicken that was fairly bland. It wasn’t too crispy either as there wasn’t too much batter on it. When you got to the middle part of the chicken, it could be quite dry as well. There was no juice or fattiness in it.
The King Signature Fried Chicken. $10
-black pepper and salt
The Taiker Signature Fried Chicken that had Okinawa seaweed on it tasted the same in terms of its insides as The King. There wasn’t enough Okinawa seaweed dusted on it to taste much different in my opinion.
Taiker Signature Fried Chicken. $10
-Okinawa seaweed
Since the portion of the chicken was so large, I definitely wasn’t able to finish the cutlet in one sitting. I brought the rest home in a cute little box to enjoy the next day.
Take-out box
I’m really glad that I got to try Monga Fried Chicken! Thank you so much DKLoEvents and Monga Fried Chicken for having this tasting for us! 🙂
**By the way, Monga Fried Chicken is having their Grand Opening this Friday, September 8, 2017! Starting at 4 p.m., they will be giving away one free piece of fried chicken to the first 100 people in line! Everyone else afterwards will get a free fresh watermelon juice with the purchase of a fried chicken or 1lb wings or any other combos. Don’t miss this if you want to try their chicken out! 😛
Also: From September 13 to Sept 24, 2017, if you go to their store and mention my blog and Instagram name, stenoodie, you can get 10% OFF their fried chicken, wings, or combos! Happy eating! 🙂
Their details
FTC Disclaimer: Although DKLoEvents and Monga Fried Chicken invited me to a complimentary tasting, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the companies.
stenoodie 