{"id":1062,"date":"2018-09-05T20:11:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T20:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trialbyfryer.com\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2018-09-10T15:55:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T15:55:38","slug":"taiwanese-popcorn-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trialbyfryer.com\/2018\/09\/taiwanese-popcorn-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken + CRAZY RICH ASIANS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I finally, finally saw Crazy Rich Asians<\/em> this past weekend, and it was a wild and delicious ride.<\/p>\n

I know this is a food blog, but I have so many thoughts about the movie, I have to share them! However, SPOILER ALERT – minor plot points and my very strong opinions follow, so if you don’t care to read those or haven’t seen the movie yet, just scroll to where it says “END.”<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If you’ve been living under a rock, Crazy Rich Asians<\/em> is a movie based on a book of the same name, written by Kevin Kwan<\/a>. Directed by Jon M. Chu, it’s the\u00a0first Hollywood studio production in 25 years to have an all-Asian cast<\/a>, since The Joy Luck Club<\/em> in 1993. Since its release, the movie has broken all sorts of records<\/a>, dominating the U.S. box office and becoming\u00a0most successful studio rom-com in nine years, since 2009’s The Proposal<\/em>. Being Taiwanese American, I cannot overstate how happy this movie made me – to see people who looked like me on the biggest screen, recounting experiences that were my experiences. Overall, I loved it. As a rom-com, it was not my favorite – I thought Rachel Chu’s character was underdeveloped and mostly given awful dialogue until the final scene. Sometimes, it felt like Rachel’s supposedly successful career as an NYU economics professor was treated just as a convenient plot device instead of a real characterization of her identity. I mean, let’s be honest – Nick Young is basically an actual buffoon who has: 1) essentially lied by omission to his girlfriend for\u00a0one whole year<\/em>, and 2) contributes 50% to the decision to marry Rachel, yet seems to bear 0% of the responsibility, at least to his mother. Why exactly is Rachel moping around after him in Singapore when she probably has like five million deadlines waiting for her back in New York??<\/p>\n

I realize that this is not the point of the movie, but to me, it feels like the movie sort of just glossed over the fact that “sacrifice” for East Asian families is often synonymous with “women sacrificing.”\u00a0It’s often the Asian daughters that draw the shortest stick. Whatever Westernization relinquished in terms of family cohesion and loyalty, it at least partly gained in opportunity and independence for women. It’s not for me to say which is necessarily better or worse, but I think this intersection between Asianness, Asian Americanness, and feminism is a complex and tangled topic for a future story.\u00a0Jon M. Chu did a phenomenal job, but I would love to see how this story would unfold in the hands of a female director.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to a related point. Some criticisms<\/a> of the movie have centered on its narrow focus on one specific, privileged section of Singapore society, and how it doesn’t include a wider Asian experience. While this is a legitimate point about representation, and also how our language often conflates “Asian” with “East Asian,” this is ultimately a fruitless argument, because no one movie can purport, or claim, to do all that. We just need more movies<\/em>. More stories with more diverse perspectives. Over the years, we have seen Asians on screen as comedic relief<\/a>, kung-fu warriors<\/a>, sensual lovers<\/a>, overachieving students<\/a>, scrappy underdogs<\/a>,\u00a0immigrant women<\/a>, immigrant families<\/a>, now even zombie killers<\/a>. But there are so many more voices to be heard. And I, for one, am\u00a0loving<\/em> the fact that this particular historic, groundbreaking movie is one that shows Asians as unabashedly and unapologetically bursting with wealth, privilege, and power.\u00a0<\/em>For all our collective obsession with the Kardashians, for all this year’s spectacle with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it is about darn time we got a close look at Singapore’s luxurious, resplendent, glittering (albeit fictional) one-percent.<\/p>\n

*******************END OF STRONG OPINIONS*******************<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Okay, this all still has to do with food, I promise! One of my favorite scenes in this movie (not a spoiler) is one where the main characters are eating in a loud, bustling open air night market. This scene is so iconic of life in many cities in East Asia, where night markets are places of socialization and entertainment, where people go to eat, drink, shop, and win stuffed animals at carnival games. They’re bustling, chaotic, frenetic places<\/a> that take your breath away. One of the iconic things to eat in a Taiwanese night market is popcorn chicken. It’s lightly breaded chicken laced with white pepper, salt, and other fragrant spices. It can come in the form of a huge cutlet, but it’s more commonly found as nuggets, fried with basil leaves, and served in a paper sack with long wooden skewers for poking and munching. It is delicious, and something I have<\/em> to eat whenever I go back to Taiwan.<\/p>\n

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I’ve had a recipe for popcorn chicken bookmarked for years to make at home, but never got around to it. It sounded fairly easy, but marinading and frying are always intimidating on a weeknight. And… the recipe lived up to its feared fussiness for a weeknight! It was crispy and delicious, but involved more time and cleanup than I’d like. Also, the one thing I would definitely do differently would be to fry the chicken in larger chunks.\u00a0I cut the chicken into small bite-sized nuggets because I liked the look of them, but the breading and frying then took foreeeeevver. The next time, I would cut the thighs into long strips, at least, or maybe even just fry them whole. Other tips:<\/p>\n