Saturday's Ferry Plaza farmers' market was drizzly and humid, the kind of day that makes you seek shelter in the warm embrace of a hot meal. We wound our way around the market, until something on the menu at 4505 Meats decided it for us, with a name ― Chicken Yum Yum ― we found impossible to resist. If nothing else, we needed a little humor.
The name might have been playful, but the sandwich was seriously delicious: a spiced chicken filet dipped in a thin cornmeal batter and fried, wedged onto a toasted and buttered bun dressed with peppery aioli, and decorated with a tangy mixture of lightly pickled zucchini, peppers, jalapeños, and tomatoes that seemed to express summer better than the sky seemed capable of.
The chicken was crispy, not greasy, its thin veneer of cornmeal breading serving both as juice barrier and source of contrasting crunch. It managed to be simultaneously rich and light. And after eating half of it in the rain, the part we saved for later stayed remarkably crisp and moist. A chicken sandwich that stays crunchy in the drizzle? For shizzle.
4505 Meats: Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, 1 Ferry Building (at Embarcadero), Thurs. and Sat.
