Kushiro Original · Bone-In Fried Chicken
Zangi
Photo: ノボホショコロトソ / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The name comes from the Chinese word for fried chicken, zhájī — the Kushiro shop that coined it inserted an extra "n" sound in the middle, borrowed from the Japanese word for good luck, un.
A whole chicken is hacked into large bone-in pieces, marinated in soy sauce, sake, garlic and ginger, then deep-fried to a dark, heavily seasoned crust and served with a dipping sauce, distinct from plain karaage's simple squeeze of lemon.
Why it's made this way: Kushiro was a major poultry-farming hub around 1960, when a small Chinese-style diner called Torimatsu began frying whole birds bone-in for the crowds — that shop still stands, and locals treat zangi as their own dish, not a regional karaage.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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