We all have those delicious late night snacks we like to eat when we have an empty stomach. So do koreans, and a very famous snack is Chicken and beer. Late night snacks are called "Yasik" in korean. Although they are also eaten at other times in the day, they are very popular at night. Koreans until the 1970s ate chicken either stewed, steamed, or roasted. Many say that fried chicken was introduced to South Korea in 1984 by KFC (which opened its first store in Jongno, Seoul). As years have passed, chicken and beer has changed and many plates today are made with gochujang red pepper paste, garlic, soy sauce, red pepper falkes, and many other popular korean condiments. You might think that these ingridients make the chicken taste really bad, but koreans enjoy it a lot, its a perfect flavor for them. As the popularity of this snack has risen to the top, many Chimaek (chicken and beer) restaurants continue on opening. All these restaurants give their own touch to the snack, you can see a variety of menus, you can have your chimaek with a spicy or sweet dressing, a sauce made of soy sauce, and many other kinds of sauces.
The anju are the side dishes for korean drinks. As koreans like to drink while eating, some side dishes make good combinations with alcoholic drinks. Beer makes a good and refreshing combination with chicken, and rice wine (makgeolli) also does with pajeon (savory green onion pancakes) for example. Chicken and beer is one of the most delivered meals in South Korea, people eat it at work, home, parks, and many other places. You can see a group of friends in front of a convenience store enjoying some chimaek. Although chimaek is for any time of the year, you see it mostly in summer, many say it is the perfect weather for eating it. In every town, there are at least 2 franchises of chimaek, it is indeed very popular. There´s even an event held at Daegu (where many chimaek restaurants are) where many owners of different chimaek restaurants go and set up tents, different recipes of chimaek can be tasted in this festival, it makes your mouth water.
Kyochon is one of the most popular franchises of chiken and beer, it opened 20 years ago. They have stores in the US and China, they are introducing korean chicken to other parts of the world. I haven´t had the chance of tasting korean chicken (can´t drink beer at my age) but I´m sure it tastes really good, seeing all these images makes me want to eat it even more!
If you ever have the chance of tasting it, make sure that you don´t waste it! And if you are thinking about calories, just don´t! Enjoy a little snack that you won´'t regret!
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