He's Korean. Is He Handsome?

Today I stand in the line of fire. Young girls, aunties and makciks want to take a swipe at me for what I am about to say.

Look at this young man here. Is he handsome? 

How about this lot over here ?

Is it me or do these guys look feminine. DUSH!! One makcik just punched me. And legions of females are baying for my blood.

Look, I turn 50 next year, so understandably the blood in my veins is a little sluggish. So excuse me if I think your hot male Korean TV/pop star looks a little girlish. I'm old school. My taste is different. I prefer men to look jantan. If you know what I mean. No?

Jantan habis yang ni.

And since we are into Korean today, the only thing Korean that gets me hot and deeply bothered is Korean Fried Chicken. Dakgangjeong.

Yeah, deep fried chicken again. It can't be good for my health. Neither is it good for my kitchen. The stove top is oily and so is the floor.

But when you want fried chicken, you don't really care. You just go forth and fry. Worry about the kitchen and your arteries later.

This time I did a double frying for extra crunchiness. After all, the oil is there, all hot and bubbling and you might as well dump the fried chicken into the oil one more time.

The second frying is very fast, just under a minute and you can see the chicken turning golden brown very quickly. Drain one more time on paper towels.

I had already prepared the sauce earlier, so that it had time to cool down and thicken further. Once the chicken was all crispy and ready, I put them into a bowl and poured in the sauce.

Then it was mix, mix, mix and mix some more until all the chicken pieces are completely coated. Time to take a taste. I took a wing and gawd! It was so, so, so good! Yes, it was nice and crispy. Delicious down to the last crunch.

I used a combination of wings, drumsticks and breast meat and noted that it was the pieces with bones that tasted the best. So in future, I will only use either wings or drumsticks.

So ladies, please have some Korean Fried Chicken as a peace offering for offending your girlish Korean heartthrob and your taste in men. DUSH!

Dakgangjeong (Sweet Crispy Chicken)
Adapted from : Korean Bapsang

Ingredients :
- 1kg chicken pieces
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- some pepper
- 1tbsp crushed (or minced garlic)
- 1 tbsp crushed ginger (or minced ginger)
- 2 tbsp mirin (or rice wine vinegar)

- 1 cup tapioca flour
- Oil for deep frying

For the sauce :
- 2 tbsp light soya sauce
- 6 tbsp mirin (or rice wine vinegar)
- 4 tbsp brown rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp gojuchang (Korean red chili paste)
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp crushed garlic (or minced garlic)
- 2 tsp crushed ginger (or grated ginger)

Method :
1. Marinate chicken with salt, pepper, garlic, ginger and mirin. Set aside for 1 hour.
2. To make the sauce, mix all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil and then simmer for about 6 minutes or until the mixture turns syrupy. Set aside to cool.
3. Coat the chicken pieces with tapioca flour, pressing the chicken firmly to ensure flour sticks.
4. Heat oil in a deep pot and deep fry the chicken until lightly brown (need not be fully browned because we will fry it again). Remove and drain on paper towels.
5. Once all chicken pieces have been fried, increase temperature of oil and re-fry the chicken pieces until golden brown (it takes less than a minute). Drain on paper towels.
6. Put chicken pieces into a big bowl, pour sauce and toss to coat the pieces evenly.
7. Serve immediately.