I should preface this by addressing the fact that this eating experience has nothing to do with Chinatown. This restaurant was on Chambers street. It’s Korean owned and the woman working the register was black.

BUT… We must get the ball rolling around here and at the chinatown food blog we, first and foremost like food. So, I (Lychee) am going a little pan asian this week, exploring what none of us has ever tried… Korean Fried Chicken.

Like most laymen I stumbled upon a NY Times article that talked about the fried chicken fad in Korea and how a few chains have set up shop in the states. Having grown up eating fried chicken both homemade and as fast food, I felt I should investigate this chicken that claims to to be non greasy. I won’t discuss specifics of how this is supposedly done, since I don’t really know. What I do know is the eating experience.

To further preface this posting, I should mention my previous fried chicken experience. Every once in a while my mother would fry some chicken. It was good but never as complicated at one would expect from the Times description of typical American fried chicken. Buttermilk… what? Is that what they do at KFC?
Anyway, I’m used to fried chicken without an over abundance of seasoning or and exorbitantly thick crust. So, I didn’t think this as big a deal. I still had to find out though.

Finally, here are my notes from my first Korean Fried Chicken experience.

I showed up at Bon Bon Chicken at around 7:30 on Wednesday. The Times made me think this place was going to be more crowded but it was nice and quiet. The guy in front of me in line, wearing very high cut running shorts ordered the ~$11 medium size which made me worry about portions. I decided that he might be ordering for someone else as well. When I saw him scarf down his whole order, I realized I was wrong.

In any case, the portions aren’t that bad. ~$7 got me a drumstick and 6 wing pieces. I ordered sweet vs spicy and waited. All the chicken is made to order so it took about 15 minutes for me to get my food. When it arrived, it was in a KFC like brown box inside a cute little tote bag. My chicken came with a small serving of coleslaw and a bun.

The cole slaw was a nice change from the chicken. It kind of brought you down to earth from the fried high. The chicken itself was also good. It didn’t blow my mind like I;d expect from what I’ve heard. For some reason the hype made be belive that this was a compleate reimagining of fried chicken, healthy and wonderfully non greasy.

I did say I enjoyed it though. And as one for understatement that means something. I walked into this expecting to not be surprised, considering the NY times made it sound not to different from the fried chicken I grew up eating at home (not the fast food joint).

To and extent this was like homemade chicken, The skin was light, crispy not too thick. It was also not too greasy but biting into it didn’t give me the gush of juices that i normally get flooding my mouth when I bite into fresh fried chicken. That surprised me to the point that it didn’t think it was that fresh. I think though, this might have to do with the (talking out of my ass) two stage frying process. The chicken wasn’t greasy at all.

The glaze was great. There was no preservative taste like I get from KFC. my pallet still felt relatively clear at the end.

I’m really tempted to try the spicy right now. It’s only 8′o clock and I’m not cooking dinner tonight. I can always take the excess home…

(after asking for the bathroom) There’s no bathroom here… WHAT?! They have Dunkin Doughnuts next door but none inside bon bon chicken.

Then I tried spicy and my concerns over juiciness faded away, I could see juicy pocked on my drumstick and feel the spiciness on my tongue. It wasn’t super intense as much at super blunt. It hits you immediately and doesn’t let go until you eat the cole slaw, the magic cole slaw.
Going for the spicy was great. Eating it allowed me to take a needed second pass at the chicken experience. Other than the spice, I have mostly the same comments about it as I do for the sweet. What I really got out of it was the ability to more fully appreciate the chicken and gaina adeeper understanding of the interplay of it and the it’s different sides.

The magic cole slaw was the underestimated show stealer of the group. While seemingly too healthy (read no sweet gooey goodness, just wet cabbage) and uninteresting on its own, it becomes rather plesant when coupled with the sweet style chicken. When coupled with the spicy chicken it becomes nearly indispensable. This is what I like to call a HOT antidote.

All and all I’d rate my experience as pretty good. I’d like to try the different Fried Chicken Joints around and also revisit some of mom’s homemade for a more rounded experience.