KFC’s Double Down sandwich, made with two fried, white-meat chicken filets instead of the traditional bun, is coming to Austin on April 12, 2010.

The Original Recipe (fried) Double Down has 540 calories, 32 (g) fat and 1380 (mg) sodium.

The grilled Double Down (boo) has 460 calories, 23 (g) fat and 1430 (mg) sodium.

Each has more than half the amount of daily sodium intake recommended by the American Heart Association.

AustinFriedChicken doesn’t care, and we’re gonna try out the Double Down on April 12th and let Austinites know if it’s worth their health.

Stay tuned.

The Double Down’s Web site

Welp, here’s another “black people love fried chicken, right?” mistake.

The cafeteria at NBC served a menu of Fried Chicken, collared greens and jalapeno cornbread in honor of Black History, according to a photo taken by Questlove, the drummer for the band the Roots.

According to the Huffington Post, someone tweeting under @nbcu, who claims to be Kevin Goldmanclaims, NBC’s VP of Communications, said “The sign in the NBCU cafeteria has been removed. We apologize for anyone who was offended by it.”

Fried chicken coincidence? Perhaps, but that Aquafina? Now that’s just racist.

3 out of 5

Phone: 512- 385-2986

Hours:
Monday -Friday, 5am-3pm

Price range: $8 - $12

Location: East Austin (Cesar Chavez)
Type of restaurant: Diner
Payment accepted: Cash, Cards
Good for: Inexpensive and homemade food, diner crowds
Meals served: Breakfast and lunch

Arkie’s Grill is a legit small-town diner — and by small-town, I mean east Cesar Chavez, where the lumber companies and grassy fields make you feel like you haven’t escaped your boring hometown for Austin. I mean that in a good way, though.

Amongst the traditional, cowboy-hat-sporting diner crowd, we split a $6.99 “One-Half” (4-piece) fried chicken meal that comes with fries (plentiful and hot), green salad (average diner salad) and rolls/ cornbread (too dry). Excellent price for a 4-piece combo.

Here’s their fried chicken menu:

________________________

Fried Chicken
No Backs ~ No Wings
Served with French Fries, Green Salad & Hot Rolls

One-Half Chicken
Crisp & Juicy $6.99

One-Quarter Chicken
Crisp & Juicy $6.29

All White Meat, add $1.20
________________________

See full menu

The fried chicken was hot, juicy, well-battered and beautifully textured, but severely lacked salt. Sans gravy, it was almost tasteless.

Inexpensive, but bland.

We also ordered a side of gravy, 2 sodas, two coffees and a slice of mediocre coconut cream pie. It came out to a little over $18.00.

Had we just gotten the chicken meal, though, and not splurged on dessert fluff, it would have been about $8, to feed two hungry fried chicken fiends. Nice.

I’d go again. I recommend Arkie’s for a decent, inexpensive fried chicken lunch.

The ad is part of a series called the “Cricket Survival Guide.” It shows a young white Australian at a cricket match sitting in crowd of black people. Everyone is cheering except the white male, perhaps to show that he is sitting in the opponent section. The white male then says, “Need a tip when you’re stuck in an awkward situation?”

He then pulls out a massive bucket of fried chicken, and everyone starts to grab pieces. After the chicken is shared, everyone seems calmer. He then looks at the camera and says, “Too easy.”

What do you think? Is it racist?

4 out of 5

Address:
7525 Burnet Rd. | Large map
Austin, TX 78757

Phone: 512- 452-2181

Hours:
Monday -Saturday, 11am-8pm

Price range: $8 - $12
Location: North Austin, Burnet Rd.
Type of restaurant: Fast food, Sonic-style curb service
Payment accepted: Cash only (ATM inside)
Good for: Families, old folks
Meals served: Lunch and dinner

Driving up to Top Notch’s burger sign and throwback architecture, you know why Robert Rodriguez (correction below) shot its facade for Dazed and Confuzed. Upon entry, the burger grill wildly flares up 3 feet behind the hunchbacked cashier, Frances, who’s the most endearing old lady ever. She’s the owner, so when her gargled voice takes your order, you feel genuinely welcomed. The placed is packed, upbeat and boasts old-school, rustic decor.

Onto fried chicken: Top Notch offers 2, 3 and 4-piece meals that come with either dark, mixed or white meat–all sided with fries, coleslaw and Texas toast. We split a 3-piece mixed, which comes with a thigh, leg and wing. We tacked on  small mashed potatoes and gravy for $1.99.
Total: $9.03.

The fried chicken was golden-orange and fresh as hell. Juice dripped all over my hands. It was so juicy that it almost soggied up the crispy, abundant batter. The fries were fast-food style (stringy, yellow). The slaw was… slaw. The cream gravy’s salty bang overpowered the instant-taters’ drabness. Perfect for chicken-dipping. The Texas toast was actually just-toasted and buttery. Average sides, but awesome fried chicken.

North Burnet–not so cool. But Top Notch–a gem. Middle-aged food bloggers claim this place is truly 1970’s. I’ll take their word on it. Far from chain fast food quality, Top Notch offers fresh, juicy fried chicken in a stimulating, old-fashioned atmosphere.

Correction: Richard Linklater directed Dazed and Confused. I so knew that. I’m a huge Linklater fan and feel really dumb for that slip-up.

2.5 out of 5

Address:
13376 Research Blvd. #400| Large map
Austin, TX 78750

Note: Only the Northwest location has fried chicken, and it’s only served on Sunday

Phone: 512- 335-0300
Fax: 512-335-0306

Hours:
Monday -Thursday, 11am-9pm
Friday, 11am-10pm
Saturday, 8am-10pm
Sunday, 8am-9pm

Price range: $8 - $16
Check out its to go menu for more prices

Location: East Austin (Manor Rd.) and North Austin (Research Blvd.)
Type of restaurant: Sit down
Payment accepted: Cash, Cards
Good for: Southern food with an American atmosphere, families
Meals served: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Anna and I heard about this place by searching the web for southern food, which is a daily activity for us. So we were pretty excited as we drove up north to see what the chicken gods had in store for us. What we saw when we arrived appeared to be an old Shoney’s building. For those who don’t know Shoney’s serves below average food to families.

Hoover’s, sadly, continues this tradition.

We got to Hoover’s about 7 p.m., and we were sat at a table by a teenager, and then we were greeted by a teenager who became our server. He told us the chicken we came for was served all day until they ran out on Sunday only at this location on Research Blvd. The chicken special was a 3-piece meal that came with 2 sides. It cost $9.99. It cost $2 less if you didn’t get sides, and if you wanted to split the special with someone, they would tag on an extra $3.

We each ordered the special and a margarita with no salt, which was an expensive $6. Yes, $6 dollars for a margarita from a place on Research Blvd. that serves fried chicken. I will acknowledge that we should have skipped the rita for a more southern drink, but for me, Austin is a city where margaritas should be consumed everywhere. Oh and they forgot to not put salt on the drinks.

While we waited for the chicken we were treated to jalapeno corn bread and sweet potato biscuits. They were the best thing to distract us from the incredibly boring decor of the restuarant. It looked like a funeral home mixed with an antique store mixed with several houses occupied by grandmothers.

Our chicken came out fast. It wasn’t made to order. But that is alright. A lot of restaurants do that and get away with it. However, it clearly makes the chicken taste worse. Overall, the chicken was decent. It tasted like the basic fried chicken you would get at a grocery store or gas station, expect that it had a little more black pepper in it — and it kind of tasted like sausage. I altered the waiter to this, and he said it must have something to do with the kitchen serving more sausage than fried chicken.

The chicken was also very greasy, which is fine. But when you serve fried chicken on paper, people are going to notice it and maybe have second thoughts as to why they are eating it. We did not.

We don’t plan to go back to Hoover’s Cooking. The atmosphere is so so, and the food is worse. I mean, the fried chicken wasn’t terrible. I’d eat it again, I just can’t recommend a $10 plate of chicken that doesn’t kick ass.

It’s only available in Providence, R.I., and Omaha,  Neb.

If the sandwich is successful in those cities, it’ll pop up on menus elsewhere.

Read more about this here.

Do you think the Double Down needs to travel to Austin?

KFC chicken twister

An 11-year-old Australian girl, Monika Sumaan, claims that she developed brain damage after eating a KFC chicken twister (fried chicken strips in a pita wrap) when she was 7. She is suing KFC-operator YUM! Restaurants Australia for $10 Million.

According to WalletPop.com, her lawyers claim that the fast food chain gave her a salmonella-contaminated chicken twister, which caused Monika to develop salmonella encephalopathy and salmonella septicemia. This rare form of salmonella eventually brought on intellectual disability, spastic quadriplegia and liver dysfunction.

Monika ate part of a chicken twister and shared some with her parents and older brother on October 4, 2005, in Villawood, a suburb of Sydney. The whole family became ill, but Monika collapsed. The Sumaans were all rushed to the hospital by ambulance, where medical specialists found that they all had a common strain of salmonella.

Monika Sumaan, before contracting salmonella

Monika’s lawyers claim that their food poisoning came from the Villawood KFC’s unhygienic practices, such as dropping chicken on the floor, picking it back up and serving it to customers. They said that Monika’s current disabilities are a result of the “disturbing” and “unsettling” practices at the restaurant.

Yum! Restaurants Australia spokesman Nick Bryden claims that KFC wasn’t the cause. According to FOXNews.com, Bryden said that “KFC’s supplier also confirmed that routine tests showed that the chicken supplied to the store contained none of the alleged strain of salmonella.”

All of this comes in the wake of other Sydney-area KFCs being fined $73,125 by the State Government due to breaches of food hygiene laws, after an investigation by the Food Authority.

Read more about this here: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/08/03/kfc-chicken-twister-causes-brain-damage-says-11-year-old-sui/

3.5 out of 5

Address:
2538 Elmont | Large map
Austin, TX 78741

Phone: 512- 740-5580

Hours:
Thursday, 11am-10pm
Friday, 11am-11pm
Saturday, 9am-11pm
Sunday, 9am-9pm

Price range: $8.50 - $12.50
(the fried chicken is the most expensive item on the menu)

Location: Riverside
Type of restaurant: Trailer
Payment accepted: Cash
Good for: Real Central American food, hipsters, late-night bites
Meals served: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

“1000% Honduras” reads the bold, blue text on this little mid-Riverside trailer. Honduras offers a uniquely Central American version of fried chicken: covered in a creamy sauce of mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar and various other condiments, the two-piece chicken dish comes with green bananas and a heaping salad of cilantro, onion and other vibrant vegetables that we had a hard time identifying. After the first bite, our taste buds were jumping with surprise and delight.

The trailer’s parked at Food Stop, a rundown gas station and convenience store. Located at the heart of the (arguably) most Mexican part of Austin, Honduras faces Mexican shopping center El Gran Mercado, a Mexican flea market and student apartments. Honduras offers a fresh break from all of the Mexican food in Austin.

Some tips for maximizing your Honduras visit:

1. Everything is cooked to order (nice!) and takes 15-20 minutes (boo). Don’t wait in the heat; go in the evening or at night.
2. Actually, call and preorder.
3. The creamy sauce gets too rich after the first piece of fried chicken. Ask for sauce on only one piece of chicken.
4. Bring cash. The fried chicken is $8.50.
5. Unless you already know you love green bananas, don’t order extra. They taste like bitter, unripe bananas.
6. Order the Tamarind drink. Honduras extracts the sweet-and-sour pulp from this Mexican seed and turns it into an addictive beverage. At whole foods, this would be 6 bucks. At Honduras, it’s $2.

Co-founded and owned by sisters (and Honduras natives) Jessica and Mimi, this little joint not only serves up authentic Honduras grub, but also boasts stellar customer service. Jessica entertained us the whole time, letting us snack on her bag of Tamarind seeds, showing us how they purplefy the onions (by soaking them in juices from other strong-hued veggies), and talking to us about her 2nd job as a nanny.

Overall, Honduras’ fried chicken is well worth a trip to Riverside. Just don’t go when it’s 105 degrees.