The garlic is one of the age-old ingredient favorites across the globe as this bulb from the onion family provides excitement to an otherwise bland meal. Pungent when fresh, the garlic smells enticing when cooked to perfection – or fried in butter.
In the kkanpunggi (spicy garlic fried chicken) of Korea, garlic is central to the spicy sauce that coats the vegetables and the chicken. Sources say that this is a modified dish that originated from China but is mainly cooked the Korean way, with Korean ingredients. The name was derived from three Chinese terms, though, with kkan for dry; pung for stir-fry and gi for chicken.
It’s a mash of flavors: sweet, sour and spicy at the same time and best paired with jjajjangmyeon (black bean noodles).
*photo source: https://blog.naver.com/sdl0308/220567142093
