Seeing as Jenn and I started this blog to fully express the Eastern influences in our Southern lives, it is only fitting that my first food related post be about fried chicken.  Fried Chicken is obviously one of the favorite dishes for Southerners.  It is also a popular dish in Korea!  The Korean style fried chicken is a little bit different than Southern fried chicken that most people are used to.  It's fried twice but the crunchiness is thinner than American fried chicken and doesn't feel as greasy for some reason.  Don't get me wrong.  I love a trip to good ole Bojangles especially when I have had one too many drinks the night before.  But sometimes I want to eat fried chicken and not feel like I have to go work out immediately after.  Korean fried chicken is almost always paired with pickled radish.  They are these bite sized daikon radish cubes that you must eat with Korean fried chicken because you will appreciate the cool and sweet taste after the spicy sauce.

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You can eat it plain or tossed with spicy sauce.  The Korean spicy sauce normally consists of red pepper paste as the base which is (really) spicy and sweet.  In Korean culture, fried chicken is the perfect pairing with beer.  My husband and I got to taste chicken+beer while we were on our honeymoon and it was AMAZING.  We did realize while we were there that it is impossible to go out for a drink, just to drink.  It is just a part of their culture to drink AND eat.  We were amazed at how much Korean people ate and drank and how they still maintained their figures. There was a night where we wandered around looking for just a plain old bar to grab drinks after dinner and we quickly realized that we were just going to have to order food in order for us to have drinks.

Do you see the amount of garlic on the chicken on the right?! I couldn't believe my eyes.  Needless to say, it was delicious.  My husband also enjoyed how you can buy those giant beer bottles at a convenient stores and they all came with little snacks on the bottle.

One of my favorite places to get Korean fried chicken is Bon Chon.  Unfortunately, they don't have any locations in North Carolina, but whenever I go home to Virginia, I try to make it to one. 

But I discovered the other day that there is a place where you can get authentic Korean fried chicken in Raleigh!  Soo Cafe is located in North Raleigh so my husband and I have been trying to get some motivation to drive out there to try it. 

Have any of you tried Korean fried chicken? If you haven't, you're missing out :)