One of the new trends in food right now is Nashville Hot Chicken (confirmed by KFC’s attempt to market a mass-market friendly version). This profile of the origins of hot chicken and the current offerings in that city is both funny and makes me want to try it.
These are the kinds of restaurants I’m in constant search of, where what’s being served challenges sensory norms and forces you to reckon with food’s capacity to change you in the moment — not just emotionally, but physically.
My search brought me to Prince’s, but it didn’t stop there. In planning my journey, I found inspiration in Anthony Bourdain, who had tweeted earlier this year that eating hot chicken was a “three day commitment.” And so that’s what I did. I committed myself to eating at three hot chicken joints in three days, ordering the highest spice level available at each one.
I realize now that isn’t what Bourdain meant.
His experience reminded me very strongly of my Drover’s XXX-Hurt Me Hot Wings story, right down to the server saying, “I want to see you eat this.”
