The Sound of Delicious

29 Jun

Written By Antony

POP INTO PANMURE - ZIGGLE

Ziggle: a beautiful example of onomatopoeia from the Korean language, and a K-fried chicken and burger joint with a burgeoning number of branches around Tāmaki Makaurau, including on the bustling strip of Queens Road, Panmure.

Owner Chris Choi began his fast food business a few years ago, naming it Ziggle after the Korean word used to describe food sizzling – 지글지글 – in Korean it’s pronounced rather like ‘dzigeul’.

It’s a fitting name, capturing the fun energy of the business, and the fact that everything is cooked to order, being sent out from the kitchen sizzling with residual heat.

The Panmure branch opened about six months ago and has become a popular fixture on the main strip, Queens Rd – look for the bold blue signage and you’ve found a haven of things fried and grilled to perfection. Ziggle specialises in fried chicken and burgers, and while I did just call it a fast food joint a few lines back, it’s not fast in the ‘ready to go’ sense. You order via the website to collect, or at the screen on the counter and your meal is cooked for you – no pre-cooked items sitting around growing stale and soggy here.

Chris, who was born and spent his childhood in Incheon (these days virtually a part of Seoul), Korea, knew great Korean-style fried chicken when he saw it, and didn’t really see much of it here. So made the move from working front of house managing other people’s eateries to founding his own, and building the menu around fried chicken and burgers – two food items that would have to be about as universally loved as it gets.

Korean sweet chilli chicken – the classic Korean yangnyeom chicken – bone-in chicken deep-fried and coated with a spicy-sweet-garlicky gochujang-based sauce, was the starting point for the menu when Chris was planning Ziggle, and remains one of the must-try dishes. Not being a chef himself, but knowing for certain what he liked from many years of yangyeom enjoyment, Chris worked with chef friends to come up with the signature recipe. Like all Ziggle’s sauces, it’s made from scratch. The coating is perfectly crisp, the glossy, sweet sauce turning it almost toffee-like, and the meat inside is flavoursome and tender. You can opt for boneless chicken if you like, but honestly, fried chicken on the bone is so much juicier and more flavoursome! Fried chicken dishes at Ziggle come with a side of homemade pickles.

Another gotta-try dish from the menu’s list of burgers is Ziggle’s Bulgogi burger. It takes the essence of the classic Korean fruity sauce best known for pairing with beef, and slaps that in a burger with a smashed beef patty, mushrooms that have spent time on the grill with its dear friends butter and garlic, salad, and aioli on a brioche bun. It’s savoury and sweet and juicy, and at $14, great value. Add fries for $5 and you’ve got a ziggling meal for shy of a twenty.