In the 2006 underground classic “Harold’s 6 Piece,” the south-side hip-hop crew Dip Unit paid homage to the ungovernable craving that arises at the mere suggestion of a trip to Harold’s Chicken Shack. Set to the infectious refrain “Mild sauce, fried hard,” the four-and-a-half-minute YouTube video was a sincere, unsolicited, viral advertisement for the venerable fried-chicken kingdom, a fast-food empire that’s grown steadily for 63 years, mostly out of sight and mind of the great majority of white Chicago.
The fish, a daily rotating variety of something white and flaky, is expertly fried as well. Pollock, in particular, arrives as lightly battered, hot, fluffy, minimally greasy planks.
The kitchen really shows grace under pressure when it comes to raw oysters, with a single east- and west-coast variety available each day. On one visit, when the restaurant had just opened, I received a dozen of some of the more perfectly shucked oysters I’ve ever encountered, brimming with liquor and not a flake of nacreous shrapnel to corrupt the creature’s body. I ordered them again when the kitchen was much busier and found them just as good.
2952 W. Armitage 773-384-3333parsonschickenandfish.com
