Recently, I have been organizing events at a restaurant called Bonchon. During the last event there, 15 people came out to it. One of the appeals of Bonchon is that is offers Korean fried chicken, which tastes very different from traditional, American friend chicken.
Part of the uniqueness is that Korean fried chicken is double fried. Fried once to cook the meat. Fried a second time with the chicken coated in a Korean special sauce that will permeate the chicken fully. Frying the chicken this way makes it extra crispy, well-done, and bursting with flavor.
Korean fried chicken also has more nutritional value than traditional, American fried chicken. The reason for this is because traditional fried chicken generally includes fewer ingredients: the chicken, batter, and salt. Korean fried chicken, on the other hand, is fried in potato starch, cornstarch, or tempura batter. Then, each piece of chicken is dipped in baking powder and the sauce is cooked into it.
The sauces used to make Korean fried chicken include a mix of these ingredients: salt, seasonings, sugar, garlic, red pepper, vinegar, honey, ginger, soy sauce, and onion. The unique way that Korean fried chicken is double fried with unique sauces cooked into it is why it has such a unique taste.
If you have never been to Bonchon before, it is a Korean restaurant that is known for having delicious food and traditional Korean dishes, such as:
- Healthy Kimchi – Kimchi is fermented vegetables. If you are on a diet or want to lose weight, then fermented vegetables are a must. The vinegar used to ferment foods is great for breaking up excess fat in the body and it helps you feel full on less food. Vegetables are also essential for weight loss because they are low-calorie and very filling. The vegetables used to make kimchi include: cabbage, carrots, spring onions, radishes, kelp, cucumber, chives, watermelon radishes, mustard greens, parsley, and onions. Red pepper, black pepper, garlic, ginger, onion, salt, rice flour, chili flakes, fish sauce, fermented shrimps, and sugar are used to flavor various types of kimchi. Kimchi is great for cleaning out the body and it is a food that vegetarians can eat. There is even vegan-friendly kimchi. However, Bonchon only has 1-2 types of kimchi: white radish kimchi and/or red pepper cabbage kimchi.
- Japchae – This is a noodle dish, but it is healthier and contains fewer calories than traditional pasta and noodle dishes because it is a vegetarian dish made with sweet glass potato noodles. One serving of japchae is around 600 calories. One sweet potato is about 110 calories. It takes a few sweet potatoes to make a serving of japchae, which is why it is a bit higher calorie than you would expect. All in all though, if you are trying to lose weight, it is better to go for sweet potato noodles over wheat noodles.
- Tteokbokki – This is spicy peppered rice cakes. Korean rice cakes are very thick and are like noodles in texture, but they are much chewier, bigger, and they do not contain gluten. This dish is healthier than pasta because it contains fiber, you don’t feel tired and heavy after eating it because it is a complex carb that is better for the body, and it is low-calorie. One serving of tteokbokki can contain around 350 calories.
However, tteokbokki can become more fattening when restaurants make it with cheese so that is more like a pasta.
- Bibimbap – This is a rice bowl with vegetables, meat, and chili sauce. The meat in bibimbap is beef, and one serving of bibimbap is about 430 calories, so this is another safe dish to go for if you are dieting.
Below is a photo of bibimbap. This dish mainly contains rice and a lot of vegetables.
- Bulgogi – This is thinly sliced grilled marinated beef. Bulgogi is sweet; the beef is made with sugar, soy sauce, garlic, spring onions, sesame seeds, and pepper. Bulgogi contains about 330 calories per serving.
- Korean Tacos – Korean tacos are different from traditional tacos because they contain coleslaw, mayonnaise, ranch dressing, and red onions, instead of white onions. The coleslaw, mayonnaise, and ranch dressing make these tacos have a very different, unique taste from traditional Hispanic-style tacos. If you have never tried Korean-style tacos, I highly recommend trying them at least once.
- Buldak – This is a spicy, stir-fry chicken dish made with red pepper, sesame oil, sesame seeds, green onions, chili, garlic, ginger, black pepper, chicken stock, soy sauce, rice cakes, and cheese. This is a very cheesy dish, so it is higher in calories. You may want to avoid this dish if you are dieting. Buldak contains around 600 calories per serving.
Bonchon’s Food
I really love Bonchon’s food, so if you have not been to this restaurant before, I highly recommend giving their food a try. Bonchon fried chicken is excellent, and every time I have had it, the meat was very flavorful and fresh. Generally, Bonchon restaurants have a much smaller, limited menu compared to most restaurants, so this may be why I found the food to be so fresh.
Korean fried chicken can be better than a lot of fried chicken sold at restaurants in the U.S. because the oil used tends to be fresher, the chicken is much less likely to be undercooked and red in places because it is cooked twice, and Korean fried chicken is not greasy and dripping with oil. Korean fried chicken can come in many different flavors, but the most common flavors are spicy and soy garlic.
Along with the fried chicken, I also ordered one of my favorite Japanese dishes at Bonchon: takoyaki. Bonchon does offer a few Japanese dishes, like takoyaki and udon. Udon is a ramen-like dish that is made with thick wheat noodles. Takoyaki 🐙 is a dish that is round in shape, they are essentially ball-shaped. Each ball has octopus cut up inside of it. Takoyaki is made with a wheat batter and tempura scraps, so the texture is similar to biting into soft bread. Takoyaki is topped with bonito flakes and is coated in a mayonnaise and a special brown sauce that contains soy sauce, sugar, and various other ingredients.
Bonchon’s Drinks
The slushy flavors available at this particular Bonchon are: Peach, Mango, Strawberry, Coconut, Taro, Red Bean, Coffee Cappuccino, Coffee Mocha, Watermelon 🍉, and Vanilla. The slushies were very good; they were not very sweet, so I could tell that they were lower in calories and more diet-friendly. I loved the slushy I ordered very much!
In addition to slushies and bubble tea, this Bonchon has other drinks that are common in Korean restaurants, such as beer and soju (this is Korean vodka), Japanese ramune soda, tea, and sake. The sakes offered at this Bonchon are bunraku sake and flavored sakes: apple 🍎, lychee, and peach flavored sake.
When it comes to dessert, Bonchon does not have traditional Korean desserts like rice cakes and bingsu. Bingsu is a shaved ice dessert served in the summer in Korea that comes in various flavors and can include many toppings, such as mochi bits, cereal, fruit, coffee, green tea, ice cream, sweet red beans, condensed milk, syrup, and multigrain powder.
Bonchon only has Japanese desserts: usually mochi ice cream or tempura ice cream. Tempura ice cream is made with vanilla ice cream, tempura batter, chocolate syrup, pound cake, sugar, flour, eggs, sprinkles, and sometimes bananas. Tempura ice cream is fried, but it is served cold, just like traditional ice cream. The texture of tempura ice cream is like eating cake and ice cream together. Tempura ice cream does contain a lot of sugar and fat, but it tends to be less fattening than American ice cream and cakes. Tempura ice cream is around 300-350 calories per serving.
All in all, a good number of people came out to this event, the food was delicious and fresh, and the restaurant had a lot of space to accommodate our big group, so I feel that this event was a success!
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