Five-Spice Chicken

I'm still getting used to the broiler here. I pulled the chicken out just in time. The skin came out nicely crisp, the sugar in the marinade having carmelized slightly. I think I'll be doing this again sometime: chicken thighs marinated in soy sauce, vegetable oil, sugar, ginger, garlic,chili flakes and five spice powder.

The five spice powder is new to me, although the prominent star anise flavor is definitely what I was going for. Having never used it before, I'm not sure how this brand--from the "ethnic foods" section of publix--compares. I do know that on the jar's label, there is a recipe for some sort of chicken dish. The recipe calls for a "trying" chicken and "sah," both of which I can only imagine are engrishizations of frying chicken and salt.

I'm beginning to learn that meat dishes are not really that photogenic. I took about a dozen picture of the chicken and this is the best one that I came up with.

I've taken to doing close-up pictures of food (1) because I like the way the camera captures some of the texture and (2) because my kitchen is even less photogenic than a chicken thigh.


The broiled asparagus also came out well, despite being a little bit past its prime.

I think I need to start listing my photos as private on my photo-hosting service. In the five minutes that these pictures have been online, two different people have posted comments about the chicken thighs. One said "mmmm" and another said "This looks like a picture of a bad accident." I see it as my duty to give these freaks one less thing to look at. I mean, here you have the pictures to go along with the descriptions of the food. I don't even know how these two found my chicken pictures. Guys out there, trollin for poultry pics? Quit starin'.