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Manila Bulletin devider Lifestyle devider Food devider The way we ate

The way we ate

How this fried chicken restaurant won the hearts of Filipinos

Published May 24, 2024 01:36 am

At A Glance

  • Our choices were very limited. There was only one place for fried chicken, another for foot-long hotdogs, and a fun joint for pizza.

Dining out was a big adventure i n t h e ’6 0 s , long before fast food joints flooded the metropolis. People did not go out to bond. We went out to eat.

Our choices were very limited. There was only one place for fried chicken, another for foot-long hotdogs, and a fun joint for pizza. The fried chicken house proved to be one of the most successful home-grown ventures, thanks to its unique and delicious product which has become part of every Pinoy’s life.

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SIMPLER TIMES Max's Restaurant started operations in 1945 after World War II

Wedding feast

The grandest wedding our barrio saw in the 1950s involved a UST-trained public school teacher and a businessman from Pampanga. They exchanged vows at the Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Pasay City, a popular wedding venue for movie stars and celebrities. E v e r y o n e in our village was invited to the reception at the only restaurant famous for fried chicken: Max’s on Dewey Boulevard beside the Baclaran Redemptorist Church. Each guest was given a whole fried spring chicken. Most of the villagers never had a whole chicken for themselves, so it was really a very big deal. No one finished his chicken; we all asked for doggy bags and took home half.

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Tender to the bone

The Max’s fried chicken style has been a favorite of Filipinos, who love the “to the bone” tender, juicy and flavorful chicken with crispy, nonbattered skin. So different from the fast food variety, which sometimes seems to be more flour than chicken.

Secret recipe

A never-ending debate among chicken lovers is the recipe for fried chicken a la Max’s. Many guess a short simmer in 7-Up. Others use Coke. Fry, cool, then deep-fry once more to crisp the skin and cook the meat and bones thoroughly. Blood around the bones is so yucky and unhealthy.

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MENU STAPLES Spicy Chicken Wings and Kare-Kare

Big brother

Legend has it that the founder’s wife had some American friends for dinner shortly after World War II who praised her own version of the American classic. Because she used native chicken and not imported US chicken, she marinated and tenderized by steaming them before finally frying them twice. Commercially-raised chicken soon became available, perfect in size and tenderness to produce the fried chicken we now know and love.

Perfect match

Fried chicken and catsup is the American way. It is, too, the Pinoy way but with a difference: we prefer thick, red and sometimes lumpy banana catsup.

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