Cycle 16 – Item 3
-Post 5,482-
8 (Wed) January 2024
Yetnal Tongdak
2.0
at home
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
solo
Hachin Yetnal Tongdak is a Korean restaurant. Offers 4 variations on Korean fried chicken, including their eponymous “old-fashioned (yetnal) + whole chicken (tongdak).” Part of a relatively new franchise chain, currently with just 8 locations, soon to be a zillion.
Upon entering, I went straight to the register, placed my order, and offered the cashier my credit card. He shook his head, pointed to a paper sign taped to the register, and said that I had to pay when the order was complete – presumably, a policy intended to avoid confusion when things are busy. I looked around and found that I was the only customer. I looked back at the guy, on the verge of a instigating a WTF exchange, when I suddenly recalled that incident involving another chicken shop owner who had a dumb payment policy (see generally 12.318 Ojingeo Muchim), which had led to a physical altercation and eventually left me with a criminal record (see generally 14.271 Dimsum). I sat down and shut up. I paid when the chickens were finished, 8 minutes later.
The chicken was hit and miss. The skins were extremely crispy, though almost to the point of being hard. The dark meat was juicy and tasty. But the breasts, underneath the skins, were horribly dry. I won’t be going back for more.
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