As we were wandering about Coimbra, our paths frequently took us through Praça do Comércio, which has several restaurants, bars, and gelato shops amongst the various furniture shops and churches that complete one of Baixa Coimbra’s main shopping areas. But there was once place that was impossible to ignore, since almost every daytime trip through the Praça smelled strongly of KFC. No, not Kentucky Fried Chicken, but it’s Eastern sibling, Korean Fried Chicken. Each trip through the Praça smelled richly of heavily spiced fried chicken, garlic, kimchi and gochujang. And while was was adoring Portuguese food, it isn’t exactly known for being particularly spicy, so after a half dozen passes through the area, we finally gave into the temptation and stopped in to Seoul Chicken for lunch.
Seoul Chicken has a fairly small dining room, but makes up for it with two quite large outdoor seating areas, both overlooking Praça do Comércio. While we looked over the menu, we ordered drinks, my selection being the Sogria. This was a sangria made with Soju, which is essentially a Korean variant of Vodka that’s just a little less refined.
Another flavor that I was really craving, and isn’t terribly common in traditional Portuguese food, was kimchi. Particularly, that combination of sour fermentation and the more earthy flavors of a good Korean gochugaru hot pepper. So we ended up ordering a few small dishes of kimchi as an appetizer, and the version at Seoul Chicken didn’t disappoint: a good crunch, fermented to the point of starting to fizz, and nice sesame oil and hot pepper notes. I’d definitely get this again.
Sophie isn’t really a fried chicken fan, so she ended up going for an order of vegetable mandu. These were very nicely prepared fried dumplings, cooked to just the right amount of crunchy sear without overcooking that I like in a good fried dumpling. Add in a side of a lighter kimchi, and this was a good small plate.
Carol and I, however, both went for the Maeun Yangneum Chicken (“Spicy Seasoned”), which was a platter of very, very spicy red chile fried bone-in chicken, with slaw. I rather liked this: the breading was the typical Korean-style fried chicken heavy on the potato starch instead of flour, making it nicely crispy. The breading had a nice combination of flavors, but the overwhelming note was the smoky red chile notes of Korean gochugaru, quite a bit of garlic, and more than a little sesame as well. The chicken itself was moist and tender, and also had been marinated a bit. Overall, a great fried chicken, albeit slightly messy to eat.
Really, I liked Seoul Chicken. It was a really nice changeup from the mostly traditional Portuguese cuisine we had been eating, and a nice lunch to tide us over the day’s travel down to Lisbon. I’d definitely stop by again.
