Day 6.068: A fried chicken

Shortly after my return from my last trip here to Korea in January, I read this post at FUSSYlittleBLOG extolling the virtues Korean fried chicken. I realised that in the four weeks I'd spent here up until then I'd never eaten fried chicken, so this time I was determined to find out what the fuss was about.

I dropped Daniel a line to get what information I could and then managed to get away on my own to downtown Busan where I set out to find fried chicken, eat it and not miss the last train home. I succeeded - just.

It turns out that in a country of very specific restaurants - grilled pork restaurants, boiled pork restaurants, chicken soup restaurants etc. - it is not straightforward to find a fried chicken restaurant because it is not a dish traditionally eaten as a meal. No, it is drinking food. So, newly armed with this knowledge I went into a small establishment resembling the seating area of a bar (but with no bar) more than a restaurant. Took a seat and ordered chicken and beer.

It was a whole small chicken in what seemed from my interpretation of the menu to be the house traditional spiced-sauced style. There were two legs, two wings and pile of bone-in pieces about the size of a child's fist. It was sticky spicy sweet deliciousness and I'm very pleased I tracked it down.  Maybe I'll get to try some of the other varieties, but this will be hard to beat.

After I ate a little over half the plate and realised that there was no way I was going to do justice to the rest, I checked the train times and realised that the last express train was leaving in about 40 minutes and I was over a mile's walk across downtown streets or two stops on the metro away from the station and didn't yet have a ticket so it was a bit of a rush - but I made it with, maybe five minutes to spare!