Feeling peckish? Flock to the Night Noodle Markets for fried chicken

Fried chicken is no longer just the stuff of takeaway buckets and late-night eating binges. Over the past three years double-crunch, grease-heavy, finger-licking fried chicken has been popping up around town with increasing frequency. Whether it's Kentucky-style or karaage, or from a three-hat restaurant or a food court, Sydney loves fried chicken.

Hartsyard in Newtown has a cult following for its smoked, buttermilk-battered chook and around the corner, punters can flip a 'Larry Bird' Sydney Morning HeraldGood Food Guide

Korean fried chicken is the other KFC. Korea and most of Asia has fried chicken in the bag. There's a bit of a fried chicken smackdown happening at the Good Food Month Night Noodle Markets for the next fortnight where Sydneysiders can taste different Asian methods in the art of poultry preparation.

Flying the Korean flag at the markets is Poklol. "Our head chef uses a special blend for the batter which contains 20 different ingredients." says Poklol owner Sean Cheong. "We use four different types of chilli for our spicy chicken, one of which our chef imports from his hometown in Korea. I'm a chilli eater and I consider this to be hot!".

Poklol also keeps with the Korean tradition of double-frying its chicken to make it extra crunchy.

In the Japanese corner is Harajuku Gyoza, offering chicken karaage at its stall. Karaage has a softer batter than the noisy crunch of Korean chicken. "Karaage is our biggest non-dumpling seller at the [Potts Point] store" says Andrew Jeffreys, Harajuku Gyoza's area director. "We marinate ours in soy, garlic, and ginger before deep-frying."

The mother hen of all fried chicken comes from Taiwan though. Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks is on hand at the markets selling slabs of 'XXL Crispy Crispy'. It's one big boneless breast piece golden-fried and doused in lip-smacking seasoning.

Whatever your choice, the knife-not-necessary nature of fried chicken makes it the perfect snack to eat while you stroll around the markets (or queue for more chicken).

Sydney Night Noodle Markets, part of the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month, presented by Citi, are open every night from October 10-26 in Hyde Park. Entry is free. sydney.goodfoodmonth.com