Singaporeans sure love their Taiwanese Fried Chicken cutlet, with kiosks like Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks, Hot Star, Fried Chicken Master and Devil Chicken opening in several places across the island.
Monga which just launched at JEM, has opened its other Singapore outlet at ION Orchard basement 4 and Paya Lebar Quarter. Wah, so fast.
The Taiwanese fried chicken chain which is co-owned by Taiwanese TV host Nono, got its name from the Wanhua district of Taiwan – which is traditionally known as “Monga” (remember the movie staring Ethan Juan and Mark Chao?)
The chicken cutlets are said to be prepared the way they do over Taiwan, sliced into a thick piece with a minimum of 2cm.
The shop also uses honey instead of granulated sugar to marinate the chicken meat, which is supposed to help tenderise the meat and elevate the taste.
Three different flavours are launched in Singapore: The King ($6.90) dusted with original salt and pepper seasoning; Hot Chick ($6.90) with chilli paprika powder hand-made from Anaheim peppers; and The Taiker ($6.90), with Japanese sauce and seaweed powder imported from Okinawa.
Monga also offers drinks such as Orange Green Tea ($4.50), Grapefruit Green Tea ($4.50) and Osmanthus Oolong ($3.30).
I ordered the Hot Chicken ($6.90) which was indeed chunky and huge.
Each fillet is coated with the optimum amount of flour, before being double-fried to give it its characteristic crust-like crunch with less greasiness.
Here’s what I liked about the chicken: it was juicy and very meaty, portion was great such that two persons can probably share a piece. The bag which contained the piece remained quite oil-free.
The skin remained quite crisp, even though I ate them in ‘phases’ across half an hour as it was just too large to finish in one sitting.
However, I thought that the batter separated from the chicken too easily.
And warning not to wear a white shirt while eating. As there are no proper table and seats around, the likelihood of the seasoning getting all over your clothes is very high.
There was a new “Christmas” flavour launched – the Fiery Chicken Fillet available till 26th December, at both ION and JEM outlets.
This chicken fillet is first deep-fried and then covered with Mexican sauce before it is baked for two-minutes. This distinctively red sauce supposedly coincides with the eponymous colour of Christmas.
However, I would still rather go for their original flavours as the baking kind of ‘removes’ the crunchiness of the batter, which is part of the appeal.
In case you are wondering, not that fiery too.
Monga Singapore – ION Orchard
ION Orchard #B4-62, 2 Orchard Turn Singapore 238801 (Orchard MRT)
Opening Hours: 11am – 9:30pm (Mon – Sun)
Monga Singapore – JEM
50 Jurong Gateway Road, #B1-K10, Jem, Singapore 608549
Opening Hours: 11am – 9:30pm
Monga Singapore – Paya Lebar
10 Eunos Rd 8, SingPost Centre #01-131, Singapore 408600
Opening Hours: 11am – 9:30pm
Other Related Entries
Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks
Fried Chicken Master (NEX)
Fong Sheng Hao 豐盛號 (Paya Lebar Quarter)
Eat 3 Bowls (Crawford Lane)
Liang Sandwich Bar Singapore (Vivocity)
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