I’m sure many of you have realized how much I love the Tales of series. Tales of the Abyss is the one I hold dearest to me. Sure, Tales of Symphonia was my first game in the series but the characters were one dimensional and the gameplay hasn’t aged too well. And although the Tales of the Abyss characters were far more developed and interesting (Jade always holds a special place in my heart), my group of friends developed very odd connections to some of the less popular characters. One of our favorites is Elder McGovern from St. Binah. It is difficult to explain WHY we love this character so much. The moment he appeared on screen we just couldn’t get enough of him. Was it the one droopy eyebrow? Or was it his amazing poncho? He is a pretty minor character but I know any mention of Elder McGovern gets us all in a laughing fit and several people talking in our imaginary voice of his. Those who have played through the game may understand a need for our caricature of him to constantly be yelling “OH NO, WHY IS EVERYTHING FALLING!?”
One disappointing thing about Tales of the Abyss, though, is the lack of a wonder chef. All the food recipes in game are found by little pieces of paper or chatting with characters rather than a ridiculous object that the wonder chef used as camouflage. It is a minor fault but I love the wonder chef in all the games! Still, there are plenty of recipes in the game and it is about time I shared one with you. Another character we fell in love with was the Ant Lion Man. During the story, he request items for you to find and will give you a reward in return. One of those rewards is a new recipe for fried chicken. Now, this isn’t your normal fried chicken it is Japanese-style fried chicken known as chicken karaage. There are a few major differences with karaage and American fried chicken. First instead of using flour for the coating, you use potato starch (you can find this at an Asian market). Another big difference is there are no eggs in the recipe. Instead, it uses soy sauce and sake as the wet base. Overall this recipe is pretty straight forward but as with all deep fried food it can be time consuming to make.
Required Equipment: bowl, spatula, deep pot, oil thermometer, thongs, mesh spoon
Ingredients:
– 1lb chicken thighs, cut into one/two bit pieces
– 2 tbsp soy sauce
– 2 tbsp sake
– 6 garlic cloves, grated
-2 tbsp ginger, grated
– ½ tsp sugar
– 2 tsp salt
– 2 tsp pepper
– ½ cup potato starch
– peanut oil
– lemon juice
In a bowl place the chicken, garlic and ginger. Add the soy sauce, sake and sugar and mix well. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator. Allow the chicken to marinate for at least an hour.
After the chicken has marinated, in a small bowl combine the potato starch, salt and pepper. Begin setting up your oil for deep frying. In a deep pot add the oil – it should be about one inch/ one and a half inches deep. Place an oil thermometer into the pot and allow the oil to heat until 360°F.
While the oil is heating, add the potato starch to the chicken and mix thoroughly. It will become thick and pasty.
Once the oil has reached the desired temperature, carefully place a few pieces of chicken in the oil. Fry for 90 seconds and then remove it. You will have to do this in several batches. After all the chicken pieces have gone through the 90 second fry, you will fry them again for about 60 seconds. The second fry will make all the chicken extra crispy.
If you enjoy lemon on your fried foods, I’d recommend giving the karaage a quick splash of lemon juice to finish it off.
