We sat down with Eric Huang, founder of Pecking House and partner at Double Standard to chat all things fried chicken, because why not? Scroll down to read more of our convo. Book Double Standard HERE.
If your fried chicken had a theme song, what would it be — and why?
The Thong Song" by Sisqo. It's a silly fun song that gets all the people going but there's some sick classical technique in the background. Holy crap, that's actually awesome, I can't believe I never thought of that.
What’s the weirdest or most unexpected ingredient you’ve ever considered putting on your menu? Did it work?
Salted duck egg was definitely a bit of a risk. It's something so familiar to Asian cultures but is difficult to explain to people who grew up eating Western food. I still don't really have a good way to describe it to people who have never had salted egg yolks, but people seem to like it! Still fine-tuning the execution though...
If you could only serve one dish from Pecking House to aliens as a representation of Earth’s food culture, which dish would it be?
It would have to be our Chili Fried Chicken. It is our signature dish after all. It would be interesting for extraterrestrials to study humans from this perspective. Though we are biologically identical, minor expressions of the genetic alphabet that change our superficial appearance fracture us into ethnic groups and thus form isolated cultures that occasionally come together in the experiment known as the United States of America, and then centuries of isolated culinary traditions can be smashed together like protons in a particle accelerator. Nice.
Pecking House started as a cult favourite. If you were to start a secret society around fried chicken, what would the initiation ritual be?
You have to eat a tablespoon of dry chili mix. It's pretty painful. And it doesn't taste good. It requires the herbed duck fat to become its best self.
What’s your guilty pleasure fast food order — and do you ever use it for inspiration?
The Original Chicken Sandwich at Burger King. I know it's an oblong of chicken paste formed together with inhuman machination, but it's really tasty. In fact, I am a major proponent of chicken patties in general. I think they get an unfair PR treatment. It's an extremely efficient use of animal protein and if I could make it easily in my own restaurant, I would. Unfortunately without industrial assistance, it's a bit difficult to make.
If Pecking House were a movie, what genre would it be? Action, rom-com, thriller… and who would play you?
I think it would be a comedy because Pecking House's origin story is a comedy of errors. And unexpected circumstances. I'm not sure there are any not-very-in-shape Asian men in Hollywood, they're mostly extremely good-looking with 4% body fat. So I guess I have to say Jimmy O. Yang.
Have you ever had a customer request that completely blew your mind — for better or worse?
We got a lot of beautiful messages during the pandemic about how much joy we had brought them in their difficult lockdown. It was what convinced me to build Pecking House into a real restaurant. And then once society returned to normal they went back to their same, erratic behavior of jumping from trending restaurant to trending restaurant. So the collective of all customers, I suppose, is my answer.
What food trend do you secretly love but would never admit in a serious chef interview? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell… maybe.)
I both loathe and love the ubiquity of the Caesar Salad. I hate it because of what it says about us as a society. But I really love a great Caesar Salad. It causes a lot of self-loathing and cognitive dissonance.
If you had to pair your fried chicken with a soundtrack for the ultimate dining experience, which artist or album are we listening to?
Jurassic 5 radio on Spotify has never failed us. Jurassic 5, A Tribe Called Quest, Q-tip, Grand Puba, Gangstarr, KRS-One ... SO GOOD. Classic hip-hop without gunshots and minimal expletives. Fun for the whole family.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about fried chicken — and how does Pecking House break that rule?
Fried chicken isn't and shouldn't be cheap to produce. It is only cheap because of lobbied government subsidies and massive economies of scale as popularized by international fast food chains like McDonald's, Popeye's and KFC. It is a lot of animal protein and should be treated as such -- with some measure of respect and moderation.
If someone gave you $1 million to open a second concept tomorrow, but it couldn’t be fried chicken, what would you create?
It can't be fried chicken!? HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH! I would love to open a restaurant that doesn't have a deep fryer in the entire building. I would open my once-upon-a-dream concept of opening a restaurant that exists at the intersection of American and Cantonese barbecue.
You can invite three historical figures to Pecking House for dinner. Who are you feeding and what are you serving them?
George Washington. I want to see what all the fuss was about and where he really existed on the spectrum of individual liberties versus the inherent acceptance of slavery in America. And then I would say Anthony Bourdain, because he is the one who inspired me to become a chef. Oh and Carl Sagan because he's the fucking man.
