Is Korean fried chicken something to be proud of?

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

Food critic sparks debate over size, taste of local poultry

Korean fried chicken is expanding its global reach, captivating the palettes of many abroad. On its home turf, however, debate is roiling over its size, taste and even a lack of supposed “Koreanness” of the beloved dish.

Local food critic Hwang Kyo-ik sparked debate when he complained of the size of Korean chickens, which he said is the reason for Korean fried chicken relying too much on sauce, instead of the meat itself.

Korea is the only place in the world where broiler chickens are bred for just 30 days and a slaughter weight of 1.5 kilograms, he claimed, citing the National Institute of Livestock Science.

“Some people insist that these small broiler chickens taste better than big ones. I wonder if they have ever tried big broiler chickens weighing around 3 kilograms,” Hwang said in a Facebook post late last month.

His remarks were soon blasted by the Korea Poultry Association, which promotes the interests of domestic poultry farms.

While acknowledging that local fried chicken is small in size compared to other countries, the association refuted that the taste is greatly affected by that.

“It is very inappropriate for Hwang to make such an argument as if most small chickens produced in Korea and offered at local restaurants are tasteless,” a KPA official said.

Hwang’s criticism comes as Korean-style, double-fried chicken is enjoying growing global popularity, with many local chicken franchises setting up or expanding their presence in foreign territories.

According to a survey of 8,500 people in 17 major cities across the globe who have tried Korean food, conducted by the Korean Food Promotion Institute with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs between August and September, nearly 30 percent of respondents picked fried chicken as their most favorite Korean dish. Bibimbap, a dish of rice mixed with meat and vegetables, came second at 27.2 percent, followed by tteokbokki, rice cakes in a red chili sauce, at 18 percent.

On this result, Hwang also had something to say.

“Are we really proud that fried chicken now represents Korean food? If local fried chicken is Korean food, it should contain Korean traditional ingredients, but it doesn’t.”

While making his case for the lack of Koreanness in fried chicken, he also said that rich people do not eat chicken, which triggered another round of debate among fried chicken lovers.

On Friday, a chairman of Korea’s massive chaebol group SK was drawn into the chicken debate.

Responding to a question on his Instagram as to whether chaebol people really don’t eat fried chicken, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said: “I’m a ‘mania’ (ardent supporter) of Kyochon Chicken,” referring to the popular Korean fried chicken chain.

Source: Choi Jae-Hee for The Korea Herald

Just an article that made me laugh a bit! Omona, what is the representative dish of your home country/the country where you live and is it something to be proud of?

Comments

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

it's an interesting cultural difference, I feel like if a US food critic said something critical about the size of US chickens the poultry lobby would barely take notice, or if they did their response would never be as serious as this. they'd make a cheeky tweet at most.
in general SK seems to take things super seriously that would be treated as just an opinion here.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

This guy is a pretty well-known media troll/all-around asshole and he was basically saying Korean chicken is subpar peasant food that only people with no sense of taste enjoy so I don't blame them for being a little worked up

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

thank you as always for providing some context that this article is clearly missing!

[babycheeses1.livejournal.com]

Lol 😆. I'm gonna need a kdrama about this haha! I mean this story has everything: passionate spunky KPA official (female lead in my mind), a chabeol (second lead who was childhood besties with the main lead and has a decades-long one-sided crush on her), a cynical, jaded food critic (tsundere male lead) and delicious food as a background character.

[imahurricane.livejournal.com]

i’d pay good money to watch that. pd-nim and writers, here’s an idea for you!

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

i don't eat meat and i still haven't found anywhere that does veggie korean style fried chicken and i'm like I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HYPE IS

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

he also said that rich people do not eat chicken

Where did this come from???

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

I feel like every place that I've gone to in UK that does Korean fried chicken does it differently so I have no idea what is actually authentic.

For England, I think most non Brits think of fish and chips?

[nudrive.livejournal.com]

I mean isn't that the same in Korea? Not every place is gonna make it the same...

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

Yes I assume there might be differences, but thought there must be some sort of commonality, that would make it Korean fried chicken rather than just fried chicken?

[nudrive.livejournal.com]

There's not just one type of korean fried chicken though? There are various varities but I assume you're probably talking about Yangnyeom but that just means it's seasoned with red pepper paste, garlic, and sugar so there's no one recipe.

[nudrive.livejournal.com]

I miss korean food so bad ;~; my local place isn't great and it's so goddamn expensive and for what D:

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Urghhhh Hwang Kyoik is such a gross, sad little troll

So I’ll just leave this palate cleanser here instead




*fyi the English word “chicken” only refers to fried chicken in Korea, everything else is “dak/dakgogi”
sorry for ruining the joke but I gotta defend my man’s intelligence lol

[catharsiskat.livejournal.com]

He's so cute omg

[myungung.livejournal.com]

I love the seasoning they do on fried chicken, even though it's not always the same. I feel like this is something that Korea does well in marketing their fried chicken, especially when many cultures or popular ways of fried chicken doesn't have the seasoning. truly their defining food export since it has almost everyone liking it, as compared to say kimchi or jjajangmyeon which might be more divisive

[nudrive.livejournal.com]

anyone who doesn't season their fried chicken past like salt and pepper is so freaking weird to me like... why???? you colonised south asia for what??

[921227.livejournal.com]

This was interesting lol

Ive noticed Korean fried chicken tends to be smaller, but just thought I was comparing it to the hormone pumped up US fried chicken hah