NZ Visual Diary - entry 455
waiting for takeaway
High Street, a narrow thoroughfare directly east of Queen Street in Auckland’s city centre, begins at Shortland Street and terminates, as High Street, at Victoria Street East. From the south side of Victoria Street, the diminutive roadway continues until Mayoral Drive sporting its new name as Lorne Street.
Lorne Street rivals Dominion Road for its density of Asian food restaurants and cafes. I am fairly confident that the cuisines of the vast majority of Asian countries, including India, are represented in the eatery establishments along Lorne Street.
Plus Chicken, the shop featured in this post’s image, is a takeaway-only restaurant on Lorne Street. It is as tiny as the street on which it is located. The fried chicken offerings are prepared in the Taiwanese/Chinese style, a preparation quite different from American fried chicken. Unlike the traditional presentation of American fried chicken of bone-in chicken fried in a thick and bready crust, the Taiwanese/Chinese style prepares boneless chicken that has been flattened into a cutlet and coated with sweet potato or tapioca/potato starch rather than wheat flour. A compliment of seasoning, and notably fried Thai basil leaves, are added after the chicken is fried rather than before frying, as is done in the American style. Finally, Taiwanese/Chinese style fried chicken is served in a paper bag and eaten in the bag from one edge of the chicken to the other, or sometimes on a skewer stick.
The late afternoon light against the store front first caught my eye. The splash of orange window transom against the black and white building materials also interested me. Finally, the frame within frame portrait of the chef added a nice compositional touch.