I don’t usually spend time contemplating fried chicken because it seems like such a mundane subject, a food so accessible we don’t have to think very hard about where to get it. But since the opening of the South Korean franchise BB.Q Chicken in Kahala, I had to think about how we arrived at this place, having come full circle from American soldiers introducing fried chicken to Koreans during the Korean War to them building on the original concept and selling their own version of it right back to us.
The history of fried chicken in South Korea cleared up a source of confusion for me after a Korean friend told me she had visited BB.Q Chicken and ordered the whole chicken.
“Huh? I only see chicken pieces on the menu,” I said, of all the photos I had seen.
It turns out that for years in the impoverished post-war nation, chicken was a pricey luxury and the only way one could order fried chicken in South Korea was to order the whole bird, called tongdak. It was a pragmatic, no-waste approach to selling food as vendors could not be bothered to coddle diners by giving them only the parts they favored.
KFC entered the market in 1984 and chicken vendors picked up on the popularity of the American model of selling chicken pieces, and competition for diners led to creation of sauces unique to each seller. Whole chicken was still an option, but now it was served plain and crispy or served sauced in some combination of gochujang, ketchup and other ingredients as yangnyeom chicken.
The whole chicken was still available but chopped into pieces. As long as every preferred part was there, it was still called a whole chicken. That’s how I ended up ordering a whole chicken ($28.99) comprising one-half plain golden-fried chicken and one-half secret sauced chicken, flavored with the restaurant’s signature version of sauced yangnyeom chicken.
I enjoyed the sweet, sour, spicy nature of the sauce.
As for the basic chicken, the recipe is outlined in Hangul in a series of illustrations on the restaurant’s wall. In a two-day process, the chopped chicken is dusted with seasoning, marinated and dredged in panko before hitting the fryer, delivering a doubly crispy crunch. The chicken is called olive chicken because of the chain’s use of olive oil for frying.
The casual, fun and affordable nature of finger food that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere, among friends eventually returned home to become a trend backed by the added excitement of having one’s pick of dozens of sauces. After starting with BB.Q Chicken’s plain and secret sauced chicken as a baseline, you’re ready to move on to eight more sauced wing options at $16.99 per half order of nine pieces or $28.99 for a full order of 18 pieces. These range from the plain Cheeseling wings flavored with sweet cheese powder to Mala hot wings with Sichuan-style mala sauce heated by the region’s numbing Sichuan pepper.
I gravitated toward the honey garlic wings and another Korean classic of dakgangjeong — or here, gang-jeong — wings flavored with a sweet-soy sauce. Those with a sweet tooth may appreciate the honey garlic wings, but the treacly quality can become overwhelming. I preferred the sweet-salty balance of the gang-jeong wings.
You’ll receive a disposable glove with your order. Use it. I appreciated it more after leaving the restaurant and digging into leftovers at home, which left my hand a sticky mess.
For solo diners or those who have figured out their favorite wings, there are chicken sandwiches ($7.99) and plate options ($14.99) featuring six pieces of wings plus rice, one mandoo, and a choice of coleslaw or macaroni salad. I found I needed coleslaw ($3.99 a la carte) to balance the candy quality of various sauces. For this reason, chicken orders in South Korea typically arrive with chicken mu, or cubes of pickled radish. Here, you’ll pay $1 for an order for the sweetened vinegary radish.
Starters include cream cheese balls ($5.99) that, due to popularity, always seem short in supply. I was happy with the alternative, violet colored sweet potato cheese balls ($5.99) with a soft, squishy mochi consistency.
I’m not usually a big fan of the penne-shaped rice cakes tteokbokki, but I thoroughly enjoyed the cream tteokbokki ($13.99) served here. Even with the cream, it’s just as spicy as the standard tteokbokki ($10.99). The rice cakes are served over a bed of ramen with fishcake and sausages, and topped with a half-boiled egg. Next time I return, I’ll be ready to dig into “The Works” tteokbokki with ramen, mandoo, Spam and sausage, ingredients common to another Korean classic of budae jjigae, or army stew, another dish inspired by American military rations that has come home in a most delicious way.
BB.Q Chicken
Kuono Marketplace
4210 Waialae Ave. Ste. 203, Kahala
Food: **½
Service: ***
Ambiance: **½
Value: ***
Call: 808-888-3532
Hours: 11 A.M.-9 P.M. DAILY
Prices: About $35-$45 for two
Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).
