Fresh off a recent appearance on the still wildly popular Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Fat Choy owners Sheridan Su and Jenny Wong are set to embark on another adventure. The husband and wife duo will soon be opening Flock & Fowl in a postage-stamp-sized space on Sahara Avenue just off the Strip, focusing on one of their favorite dishes: Hainan chicken.
Both Wong and Su have eaten the Chinese dish their entire lives. But it took a visit to Boon Keng Chicken in Taipei to consummate the relationship. “Taiwan is where we really fell in love with it,” says Wong. Su excitedly adds, “It was insane. It was so good. Since we’ve been back in Vegas, this one dish has been on my mind every single day. It’s almost like an obsession.” Now they’re poised to pass the obsession along to you.
What is Hainan chicken? It’s a fairly simple dish of poached chicken accompanied by rice cooked in chicken fat (aka schmaltz), served with chicken broth and various dipping sauces. That’s it. Su describes it as both “the essence of chicken” and “a celebration of chicken.”
Flock & Fowl will be using Mary’s free-range chicken. Su says the right ingredients are essential because it’s such a basic dish. Of course, he’ll be making his own sauces, including sambal, ginger/garlic and soy sauce. Seriously, who makes their own soy sauce?
Keeping with the avian theme, they’ll offer a variety of winged fare as daily specials including Cornish hen, squab, quail and duck. In the event you’re looking for something a little more American, fried chicken will be available as a contrast to the poached Hainan chicken, but that’s about it. Wong, a former barista, will be complementing the fare with a variety of fresh daily teas and even Vietnamese drip coffee. Since the 12-seat former pizza shop doesn’t have a liquor license, she’s toying with “mocktails,” which, for the record, is a name Su doesn’t particularly care for.
The couple is looking forward to invigorating the little-visited strip mall between the Interstate and the Strip, as Wong says: “We’re very invested in the community.”
