Arisan @ CBD

It was one of those days when I craved something fried, greasy, and generally unhealthy. I was this close to making a midnight KFC trip when the boyfriend suggested we have a date out at the city. Using this opportunity, I insisted we go have fried chicken at the city Arisan (called Arisun on Urbanspoon), normally a Korean-Chinese restaurant. This city venue, however, had a fried chicken menu on top of the normal dishes and Korean fried chicken is truly the best.

They gave us the banchan (side dishes) and one of the dishes had something very unusual. At first I thought it was a mint for after the meal. We both curiously touched it, turned it over, sniffed it to discern what it was. After a good 5 minutes of deliberating what this strange substance could be, we finally asked the waitress and she told us that they were wet tissues to wipe your hands with. We were too curious to wait until after the meal and we added a bit of water to the dish. What came next was amazing for us as the little roll absorbed the water and expanded. We were like little kids, watching wide eyed at this magical transformation.

Now for the main dish! We got the spicy sweet chili fried chicken. Ever since that visit to Doo Ri, my sweet chili chicken cravings had been growing. This was the day that it had been satiated.

The Man can't take anything too spicy so we asked the waiter if we could tone it down a bit but sadly, their marinade was already made and they couldn't do anything about it. He told us it wasn't that spicy and we believed him, with the Man reluctantly giving in to his fate..

Compare this with the fried chicken at Doo Ri! Abundant, huge, lots of flesh. The marinade was sticky and well absorbed with the fried chicken. It was terribly spicy though and we were both panting through our bites. We also had soju so that masked the pain a bit but our stomachs were still burning the next day.

Despite the overwhelming chili, I couldn't stop eating. It was sweet and spicy, crunchy and chewy, everything you can hope for in fried chicken. Let me warn you though, if you can't take spicy foods, then get the non-chili fried chickens. There were plenty of other choices among the menu and I will be coming back to try the other ones with a huge jug of beer. I think this will make a rather awesome meal once summer comes. Cold beer in the summer heat is the best ;)