The Fried of South Korea

My mind is still filled with memories from last visit to Seoul so I am posting about this experiences from now.  It’s lunch time so I am craving for chicken.   I think fried chicken is a menu that exists in almost all country, there is always a version that each is proud of.   Though i have seen people eating fried chicken in Korean dramas, I always thought it was a western influence, I never thought there is Korean version.

I got introduced to Korean style fried chicken when 본천 (Bonchon) started franchising in the Philippines.  Their chicken wings with chili and soy are really good.  Then my boss one time ordered for BBQ chicken with pickled raddish sidings.  I don’t eat radish but the Terri-Q wings is such a perfect pair with pickled radish.  I eventually learned to make one.

So this year,  I made sure I can eat fried chicken Korean style.  We ended up having lunch on a small chicken HOF in Jongno.  The place is called 오복영양 치킨 (Obokyeongyang Chicken).  We ordered for fried and barbecued chicken.  To our surprise it seems an order is one whole chopped chicken.  The chicken below is my order which is fried.

I tried to order for 밥 (rice) but they don’t serve.  I then realized that this place is which they call HOF is actually a pub that serves beer and chicken.  So this explains why the 삼동치킨  (Samtong Chicken) near the hotel opens by 3pm.

Just like BBQ Chicken here in Manila, they serve it with pickled radish plus a sidings that looks like a coleslaw to me.   It seems to be a perfect pair to fried chicken.  Good thing there is no 밥 is not available because i am able to finish my chicken.

The night before leaving Seoul, we looked for another chicken or HOF.  We really enjoyed our chicken the other day and we are craving for more.  All the HOFs are full and luckily we found this place named 치킨마니아 (Chicken mania). We actually don’t have a choice but to enter this restaurant since most are really full.  Well i guess we are just lucky becuase after getting seated the place got crowded in a few minutes.  We ordered for 마늘 치킨 (maneul chicken) or garlic chicken.

As expected it came with pickled radish and that coleslaw type side dish.  Seems to be pretty standard among chicken HOFs 🙂  I get to practice some Korean phrase during order and we learned our lesson the 1 order is too much for one person:

마늘 치킨 일 인분  주세요 (maneul chicken il inbun juseyo)

일 (il)  is one in Korean, 인분 (inbun) means serving or set while 주세요 (juseyo)  is verb used to request for something.  I think 주세요 has the same meaning as 부탁합니다 (putakhamnida).   The order came as expected so I guess i said the right thing.  Funny is the guy who seems to be the floor supervisor actually knows how to speak English, he is the one seating the guests.  We ordered beer and cider from him.

There is a laundry list of chicken menu in the HOFs we visited.  There maybe other variations that will surely tingle our taste buds.  I am saving this on my next visit 😉