Experiment: the Shoreditch restaurant is paying homage to the expert frying techniques of central Thailand
(Picture: Smoking Goat / Aurora SG)East London’s Thai barbecue bar Smoking Goat will transform into a fried chicken restaurant for four weeks from March 3.
The Shoreditch restaurant, well-loved for its grills and meat and seafood claypots, will instead take on another element of the country’s culture, drawing on the expert frying techniques of central Thailand.
The restaurant team said it was a recent trip through Bangkok that inspired the venture — namely, trying the famous Fah Fried Chicken stall found on Charoen Krung Road.
Smoking Goat founder Ben Chapman talked of trying crisp chicken “steaming hot and dripping in spicy nam jim sauce” — and it was then that he decided to experiment.
The limited menu, a homage to Bangkok street food, will include fried chicken with crispy garlic and dipping sauces; kuaitao khua, where rice noodles are fried with egg and pork fat to form a pancake; and bowls of tom yum nam sai, a soup made with makrut lime leaves and velvet crab.
Head chef Ben Curtis said: “After toying around with a number of ideas and being distracted by sweet braised pork knuckles and biryani rice while in Bangkok, we tried some incredible fried chicken and thought it would be fun to turn Smoking Goat into a chicken shop for a month.
“We loved the intensely spicy and sweet flavours of Bangkok and we’re so excited to bring this to Shoreditch.”
There will also be a new cocktail menu devised by Smoking Goat’s Aurora Calamansari. Diners should expect “whimsical” neon ice Thai teas with salted foam, lychee margaritas, and mango Negronis.
