Taiwanese fried chicken @ Z.X. Fresh Fried Chicken, Renshaw Street Market
85–97 Renshaw St, Liverpool, L1 2SP
Liverpool, like every city or large town in the country, is awash with food markets — Baltic Market, Duke Street Market, The GPO. This summer has already seen the opening of ‘The Roof Project’ on the upstairs terrace of Pins bowling alley and BOXPARK are slated to open their first venue outside London in the Baltic Triangle later this year. The march of the Aperol slush and loaded tots continues unabated.
Renshaw Street Food Market is a slightly different proposition. Neon signs, bleaching lights and glossy tiled floor give the place the feeling of Singaporean hawker market. And like a hawker market it’s somewhere to eat but not necessarily to linger — there’s a cocktail bar at the back but it’s difficult to imagine anyone wanting to spend more time here than it would take to order and eat their food.
That food though is almost universally fantastic. Aside from token taco and shawarma stalls, all the vendors serve East Asian cuisine — rice noodle soup, pad thai, sushi, dim sum — and to consistently big crowds.
It’s difficult to imagine going wrong choosing anything here, but my pick is the Taiwanese fried chicken at ZX Fresh Chicken — either the thigh (two large pieces per serving) or the breast (sliced thin and served with a skewer to eat from the paper bag). Both are hot, crispy and tender. As is traditional, they’re served with a shake or two of an MSG-laced flavour powder of your choice — the mouth-numbing chilli and sweet plum would be my recommendation.
