Yesterday my wife and I ordered barbecue chicken from a restaurant that sells fried chicken, 'fire chicken' (불닭), and barbecue chicken. Barbecue chicken is normally cooked on a grill over a fire so it's a little smoky and crispy. That's what I was expecting. But what I received was very different.
When the delivery man left, I opened the package to find pieces of chicken, rice cake (떡), and vegetables. We knew there would be vegetables and rice cake but it was all cooked together in a red sauce. Not grilled. It looked like everything was boiled in the red sauce. I was disappointed but I thought, "Maybe the sauce is barbecue sauce." But no. The sauce tasted good but it was made from hot peppers, not tomatoes, and it was very spicy, like 불닭. Both my wife and I gave up eating after a short time. It was too spicy for both of us. My wife said, "If barbecue chicken is this spicy, I can't imagine how spicy 불닭 is." I ate some bread to get the burning out of my mouth and my wife drank fruit juice.
Today I washed the chicken in water to remove the spicy sauce. Then I fried it in a pan with some potatoes and Western barbecue sauce. It was a little spicy but okay. I won't order from that restaurant again. What I received was very different from the photo in the advertisement and it was much too spicy. But, some of the blame is on me. Did I think that a 불닭 speciality restaurant would have something that is not spicy? I should have expected that but didn't.