Birdhouse: A new home for chicken lovers
W ho doesn’t love crunchy, munc hy, piping- hot, and yummy fried chicken? Fried chicken is something you probably grew up with and have never really outgrown. One writer even wrote a love letter to fried chicken, rhapsodizing about the world’s favorite go-to comfort food. And now, here’s something to make you fall more (as in passionately) in love with fried chicken: Birdhouse. Welcome home, chicken lovers, to Birdhouse, which recently opened at the Food Hall of the happening new Uptown Mall, Megaworld’s upscale flagship mall in Bonifacio Global City. (The exciting new Food Hall can seat over 400 diners.)
“I don’t know if we can classify our chicken or put it into a specific kind of box — it’s not Chinese, not Filipino, not American, not Korean,” describes young restaurateur Linfred Yap, whose innovative Relish Group brought in the much-loved Wee Nam Kee, Osaka Ohsho, Kumori Bakery, and Rock and Seoul.
PROUDLY OUR VERY OWN
And now, the Relish Group is proud to announce that it is introducing not a franchise but a homegrown chicken concept that’s bound to fly. “We wanted to come up with fried chicken that feels more special — basically, it’s got 11 spices,” says Linfred.
I ask Linfred to name these 11 spices and he simply replies with an ear-to-ear grin. Of course, he’s willing to reveal Birdhouse chicken’s secret spices, but he would have to kill me after that.
What Linfred can tell us, however, is how they cook their chicken: “We brine it for two days to keep the moisture in (or lock it in). We also marinate it. We roll it in the flour mixture that we have (also a trade secret). And then we fry. After it’s been fried for six to seven minutes, we season it with our powder of 11 spices. You can ask for the spicy version of the powder.”
Although Birdhouse’s fried chicken is tasty (or spicy, for those who like it hot) enough, chef Francis Lim has come up with truly sassy sauces — truffle ketchup (mixed with truffle essence), milk gravy, peach barbecue (making for a sweetish-salty combination); garlic ranch, and Green Goddess (herb cream sauce).
Are you ready for your chicken? Birdhouse has what it calls Barnyard sets A to E. Barnyard A’s got chicken tenders, dirty rice (more on this a bit later), one sauce or gravy, and crispy chicken skin at only P165. Barnyard B consists of one-piece chicken, one side dish, one sauce, and crispy chicken skin at P170. Barnyard C has one-piece chicken, two sides, one sauce, and crispy chicken skin at P220. Barnyard D is a combo made up of two chicken pieces, one side dish, one sauce, and crispy chicken skin at P255. Barnyard E has Birdhouse’s super-hot offering — salted egg lava chicken sandwich with one side dish and five sauces (truffle ketchup, Green Goddess, peach BBQ, bleu cheese, meat gravy).
A LAVA AFFAIR
Linfred admits to having a lava affair with fried chicken. The salted egg lava chicken is Linfred and Francis’ painstaking labor of love. “Orginally, we were thinking of putting gravy inside, but we found out that if you cut into it, the gravy would ooze out,” he relates. “We couldn’t get it done technically, it wouldn’t work out, pumuputok yung chicken, sumasabog in the frying process. So, we thought: Salted egg is very popular these days; what if we put it inside the chicken? People will like it even more! So, we stuffed the salted egg inside the chicken, and then we fried it down. It’s called lava chicken because when you press down the bread (a squid-ink brioche), the red part of the salted egg will flow like lava (the white part is used as a condiment for the patty).”
For your side dish or dishes, you can choose from the following: cole slaw, garlic fries, elote corn, dirty rice, mac and cheese. Or you can have ’em all for P50 per extra order.
Linfred likes to stress that at Birdhouse, every part of the chicken is used, including the chicken skin and liver, “so nothing goes to waste.” Now, that’s a prudent practice other restaurateurs should follow.
Except for the lava chicken, all the Barnyard sets get a free side of crispy chicken skin (which some diners indulge in as a main dish).
For those who love fries (I do!), Birdhouse has its slightly buttered, crunchy fries made more flavorful by frying in parsley and raw garlic.
If you like to be corny, there’s elote corn — elote is the Spanish word for corn on the cob. “We put mayonnaise, and cheese and paprika on top of the corn, and then we torch it down to give it its toasted appearance,” Linfred shares a mouthful.
EATING DIRTY
So, why is the rice here called dirty? “It’s because we cook it with some vegetables plus chicken liver,” Linfred explains. “For people who don’t like liver, they won’t really taste it, it’s skillfully incorporated into the rice. Personally, I don’t like liver, but I can’t taste it in this dirty rice. No, we don’t serve white rice, but so far, everyone likes the dirty rice.”
And what dessert goes best with fried chicken? Ever heard of waffle and ice cream with candied chicken skin? “In Southern America, the restaurants serve chicken and waffles. In the US, they do chicken and waffles, too — it’s a popular, normal combination.”
Linfred is happy to say that eating at Birdhouse will not send you to the poorhouse. “Our prices are affordable. You can have something for as low as P160 (chicken tenders with one side which is dirty rice, crispy chicken skin, and one sauce). Families with kids, office people looking for a quick lunch can come here.”
Chicken lovers have, indeed, found a happy, nice new home at Birdhouse.
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