Tuesday, July 14
If you’ve ever spent time in New York City, or even paid attention to some of the mutterings that come out of it, you know the city takes food seriously. Every neighbourhood has its icons. Some sort of must-eat dish that locals swear by, and across the boroughs, from hole-in-the-wall joints to sleek modern kitchens, one dish kept coming up again and again: Orange chicken. Crispy, glossy, tangy, sweet and apparently one of the absolute best-selling Asian-inspired dishes in the entire city. So of course, we had to find out what the hype was all about.
We packed our bags, jumped on a plane to JFK, and headed straight into the chaos, neon, and magic of New York. Our goal was simple: Taste as much Orange Chicken the city has to offer. We visited several of NYC’s top restaurants. We tried different styles between light and citrusy, deep and caramelised, heavy on the chilli, heavy on the zest. Some versions were wildly creative; others were deceptively simple.
We ate. And we ate. And ate. Until we were genuinely sore. Every bite and plate gave us inspiration and then we brought everything we learned home to Norway. Back in the kitchen, we turned to the man behind so many of Sumo’s signature dishes: Executive Chef, Ion Sarcanean. Ion has been present in NYC, so he knew all about the flavours we loved, the textures we couldn’t forget, the little details that made each version unique. He then got to work!
What followed was weeks of development. Do we want this much orange, or that much? How sweet is too sweet? What is the perfect level of tang? How crispy can we get the the batter to be? How glossy should the sauce cling to each piece? Should we thicken or lighten the sauce? Add chilli? Remove chilli? Add it back again? We lost count of how many versions Ion created. Until finally… it was perfect. The Best Orange Chicken We’ve Ever Tasted, and it's not even in New York We believe that we have something genuinely better than anything we tasted in The Big Apple and we’re proud to say that our NYC Orange Chicken isn’t just inspired by New York… it stands up to it. Some guests have even said it’s the best Orange Chicken they’ve ever had, including visitors from the USA! We’ll let you decide. This is our favourite Orange Chicken we’ve ever tasted, and we think it might become yours too.