Love Lugang’s Three Cup Chicken?
It’s one of their most popular dishes!
And now you can have it at your convenience because Lugang has collaborated with 7-Eleven for a line of Lugang Cafe Chef Creations meals.
What is Lugang Cafe?
I remember when it opened its first branch in Greenhills a few years ago, everyone wanted to be seen there.
The restaurant was very stylish, modern yet elegant. I remember noticing how they were using the Ghost Chair that was all the rage back then for their customer seating.
The Lugang Café in the Philippines is the first one outside of China, and has already garnered nationwide recognition such as the highly prestigious Philippine Tatler’s 100 Best Restaurant Awards.
Lugang serves authentic Taiwanese cuisine – and can you guess what the most popular Taiwanese dish is?
You guessed it! It’s their Three Cup Chicken!
Lugang Cafe x 7-Eleven
When I heard about it, I went to our neighborhood 7-Eleven and bought some to try.
There are currently 2 available dishes:
- Three Cup Chicken (P99)
- Sweet and Sour Chicken (P105)
I also got some 7-Eleven macaroni salad for dessert!
You can choose to have your food heated at 7-Eleven. I didn’t because I wasn’t going to be eating them right away and just kept them in the refrigerator until mealtime.
With the meals ready in the ref, I could do other things without worrying about what to cook for dinner! What a relief that was!
When it was time to eat, I just reheated the food in the microwave. Instructions say to reheat at Level 7 for 70 seconds. I did this but it wasn’t hot enough so I microwaved it again a few seconds more. I guess it’s different depending on the microwave.
Then I just set the table, added the macaroni salad and a serving of papaya and it doesn’t look like a microwave dinner anymore, right?
FYI, we try to keep some sliced fruits like ripe papayas, melons or pineapples in a container ready in the ref. The fruits last a few days. This way, we can easily portion out some fruits every meal without having to deal with peeling or slicing.
So how were the dishes?
They were actually good for the price.
The Three Cup Chicken tasted like Three Cup Chicken. If you are not familiar with Three Cup Chicken, it’s a delicious, sweet, soy sauce based dish. Kind of like adobo but it’s sweet and has no vinegar. It’s called Three Cup Chicken because the original recipe called for using 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup sesame oil, 1 cup rice wine = 3 cups!
Honestly, the amount of chicken isn’t as much as I wanted, but I prefer more meat than rice, and knowing the price of the full dish from Lugang, this was reasonable. Actually, for the P99 price, there was already more chicken than I expected! The chicken was boneless but had skin on. I’m impressed they even included some basil leaves, because Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken isn’t complete without some basil!
The Sweet & Sour Chicken also tasted as expected. The sauce was kept in a separate container so the dish doesn’t get soggy. The chicken was also boneless.
The dishes retained the spirit of the original dishes on which they were based, allowing for factors such as pricing, and having to make them last in the ref a few days, etc. Meaning – they didn’t taste vastly different, didn’t have any chemical / preservative taste that I noticed. The Sweet & Sour Chicken even had fresh onions, pineapple and red bell pepper and the sauce tasted similar to the original and not some watered down version 🙂
Would I Buy them Again?
Definitely!
They are very convenient AND reasonably priced. Do you know how time-consuming it is to make a proper sweet & sour dish at home? It’s a lot of work because you have to marinate, bread then fry the chicken, and then make the sauce separately and a proper SS sauce uses a lot of ingredients, as well.
When you just don’t have the time nor the energy to do all that, this is an affordable and convenient alternative!
