Diverging Paths

location: office

mood:

hungry

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)

(Olive Original Chicken)

Southern-fried chicken is one of life's perfect pleasures. Locked in an armored shell of crunchy batter, the chicken is practically steamed in its own rich juices. The intense heat gelatinizes and draws collagen and marrow out from the bones, then forces it into the meat. Biting into a well-prepared piece of fried chicken is an experience akin to eating deep-fried stock; a lip-smacking good time.

The opening of Diamond Jamboree, Irvine's latest Asian mega center, brings a new wave of spectacular Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese eateries to an area of Orange County second only to Little Saigon for great Asian eats. Among them is my latest go-to place for Southern-fried chicken; BBQ Chicken. A restaurant which, ironically enough, serves no barbecue chicken at all.

Any American barbecue enthusiast worth his disposable plastic bib can tell you that true BBQ requires a dry rub, charcoal, and smoke, the holy trinity of this slow-cooked art. Keeping these immutable tenets in mind, BBQ Chicken's "Barbecue Chicken" isn't actually barbecued, it's grilled. What's more, while the grilled items on its myopic menu are good, where BBQ Chicken really shines is with its Southern-fried chicken. South Korea, that is.