For the third installment of Burger Month, I went in a different direction. I am sure you were expecting a post about a juicy hamburger somewhere in Ibaraki. Don't worry. That post will be coming next week. This week, I decided to talk about a tasty traveling chicken burger that needs to have its tale told. Today, I will be talking about a Taiwanese-style chicken burger made by the lovely chicken burger master chefs of Hao Hao Kitchen.
Hao Hao Kitchen
Hao Hao Kitchen is a Taiwanese traveling food truck that goes around Ibaraki and Chiba. They go to different events like the Tsukuba Village Market, the Waninaru Market, and they even came to the Tsuchiura Fireworks Tournament. (All pictures were taken at that event.)
On the night of the fireworks tournament, I found Hao Hao next to Food Truck Bolilian close to the Sakura River. I told my wife that we needed to get a chicken burger from them and it had to be spicy.
The Menu
When it comes to chicken burgers, there are only two options on the menu: the normal chicken burger and the spicy chicken burger. Both burgers bring Ji Pai which means Taiwanese fried chicken. Ji Pai is usually cooked in a sweet and salty soy sauce and fried until it gets that nice golden brown color. I tried a few in Taiwan and was in heaven each time I ordered one.
The chicken burger also brings melted cheese, lettuce, tomato, and an original homemade sauce. If you order the spicy chicken burger, you get all of that plus jalapenos.
My wife and I ordered the spicy chicken burger. We were given a beeper and told it would be a few minutes.
The Menu
If you are not in the mood for a burger, you can get a mini Ji Pai, Ji Pai size for sharing, or Ji Pai on a stick.
Spicy Hao Burger
After waiting a few minutes and watching the fireworks show, my beeper went off signaling that my Ji Pai burger was ready. I went to grab it and it was piping hot. It smelled wonderful. Not a heavy smell of fried chicken but not completely absent either. I let my wife take the first bite and her eyes lit up like the fireworks in front of us. She loved it, but she hadn't gotten the jalapenos yet. I took my bite and got everything plus the jalapenos. That juicy fried chicken with melted cheese, the sauce, and those spicy jalapenos for extra excitement and flavor made it an amazing chicken burger. I couldn't quite figure out the sauce but it was delicious. It reminded me of a kind of tartar sauce but not fishy at all. The sauce went very well with everything in the burger but again the spicy jalapenos and cheese were attention grabbers. I might try the normal burger next time to figure out the sauce, but it will be hard for me to turn down those amazing jalapenos.
I don't know about you, but I grew up with Wendy's in the States. I have a happy memory of eating their spicy chicken sandwich while I was in high school. Then I moved to Japan, and there were no spicy chicken sandwiches in sight. I am so happy to finally say that I found my spicy chicken sandwich, and will be coming back for more.
Having Hao Hao at the Tsuchiura Fireworks Tournament was awesome. I was happy that I could introduce my wife to their amazing chicken burger and hope to see them again at the next event.
So if you are walking around an event hungry with no idea what to eat and you see a black truck with Hao Hao written on it, why not head over to Hao Hao Kitchen and get an amazing chicken burger? Who knows, you might see me there, chowing down on a spicy chicken burger while enjoying whatever event is going on.
Enjoy!
For more information on Hao Hao Kitchen, check out their Instagram page:
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