Thai Peppers

Oi, it's been a while: my bad. Life has been kind of busy the past couple of months and then I was back in the US for bit at the end of January. So let's start off the year with a blog about one of my favorite places to eat in Springfield, MO: Thai Peppers.

Thai Peppers is, obviously, a Thai place located on Sunshine street across from Kaleidoscope on the corner of Sunshine and Fremont.

The interior is cozy and the staff are friendly. You can often be entertained by a little boy named Anthony running around the place (a good Italian name for a little Thai boy :D ).

I really like the food here a lot, and yes, I often order the same thing each time: the gaprow chicken. This is minced chicken in a delicious sauce with some peppers. There is enough on the plate for two people or two meals if you take it home. Rice will come separately in a large bowl to share.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of these next two dishes, but my brother and Doug said they were really good.

One of my favorite appetizers is the spring rolls. The rolls themselves are quite good, but the turnip sauce that comes with them is absolutely wonderful. This is the sampler appetizer with tofu triangles, spring rolls, chicken and beef skewers, and something else that I can't remember right off hand.

The meat skewers come with a little burner that you "cook" them over (heat up really).

I haven't really had any bad dishes here, but sometimes the leaves (sorry, the type escapes me at the moment) can be overpowering in the dishes and I have to take them out.

This is one place that I pretty much have to eat at at least once when I go home. The prices aren't too bad either considering the amount of food you get: I believe most dishes run around $7 or $8.

So if you're in the Springfield area, definitely swing by Thai Peppers and give it a try!

BBQ Chicken

Well friends, I’ve had to find a new chicken place to get my chicken fix since DD Chicken closed. And I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I had been cheating on DD with BBQ before DD brought our long-standing relationship to an end. Yes…I am a dirty chicken ho’: I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it’s fried and delicious.

And BBQ Chicken is indeed delicious. I'm pretty sure that they mix a little bit of crack in with the flour. I swear to insert-your-favorite-deity that for several days after I first took some BBQ Chicken home, I was jonesing for more chicken…breaking out in cold sweats…stomach growling….hallucinating about chicken…Ok, maybe not that extreme, but it is some damn good chicken and I was craving it for a few days until I got some more. It’s also one of the more expensive, if not the most, fried chicken places around. The prices will range from 15000 won to 20000 won.
(I’ll scan in a menu later)

I usually get chicken from the branch inside the complex at work when I leave work at night and have a chicken craving – it’s very convenient. Unfortunately, unless you work for Samsung, you can’t access this one. However, fear not my fellow Yeongtongites, Yeongtongians waegookins!! There is a BBQ Chicken branch located between the Yeongtong Homeplus and Kyunghee-de. I, unfortunately, can’t give you an exact location, but if you wander around between the two places, you’ll spot it :D I’ve only ordered delivery from here since I live down in the 4 danji area and don’t feel like walking forever for my chicken fix. Ordering delivery from them is pretty simple if you know you’re address…just say hello and then tell them what kind of chicken you want. They’ll ask something about if you want a small or large soda, and then for your address. The people there speak just enough English to prompt you. And, if you’re lucky, once you order a few times, they’ll repeat your address back to you before you even give it because they have stalkercaller ID.

I’ve tried a few different kinds of chicken from here because sometimes my team orders it, but when I order it myself, I keep it pretty simple with either the BB Wings or the Olive-whatever Chicken Strips – honestly, when I order from work, I just point at the picture, and I order “BB Wings” for delivery because it’s easy. I don’t eat a lot of whole chicken (just white meat) so that’s why I don’t order a lot of the “soon sal” chicken (순살), which is a whole chicken cut up and fried.

Mmm....wings...

Now, I’ve had a Korean friend warn me before that if you order a saucy chicken (no, it doesn’t have an attitude), they will fry the chicken in older oil since the sauce will cover up the darker batter color. I don’t know if it’s true, but eh, who cares: it’s fried chicken. I used to work at KFC when I was in high school, so I know how often the oil needs to be changed before it starts affecting the color.

There isn’t anything here that I’ve tried that I don’t like. The breading on the fried chicken is just, really, really good. I can’t really describe the flavor, but it’s yummy. The chicken is also juicy and not overcooked or undercooked.
So, for those that aren’t too hot with Korean, here’s a list of some of the words on the menu and what they are in English:

후라이드 (hu-ride) = fried
닭 (kind of like dawk) or 치킨 (chee-keen) = chicken
다리 (da-ri) = leg
웡스 (wings) = wings
칼슘양념 (cal-shum yeong-nyeom) = fried chicken dipped in a “calcium sauce” (not sure what it is, though)
매운맛양념 (mei-un-mat yeong-nyeom)= fried chicken dipped in a hot sauce
매운맛 닭 다리 (mei-un-mat dawk da-ri) = hot chicken legs
순살크래커 (soon-sal c-rak-ah) = I don’t know. I think this is the hacked up whole chicken fried in pieces
비비웡스 (bee bee wing-suh) ^^ - fried wings
스모크 치킨 (s-mo-kuh chee-keen) – smoked chicken
퉁다리비배큐 (tong da-ri bee-beh-que) = some kind of barbequed legs
골드휭거 (golduh hwing-gah) = chicken fingers (strips)

So, hope that helps! Good luck ordering chicken ^^