The owner of a restaurant in Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do sells raw meat made from chicken breast. Next to the raw meat (yukhoe) is a plate with freshly cut chicken breast and gizzard. The meaning of ‘Tongdak’ written on the store signboard is not a fried chicken dish. Baeksuk is being boiled in a steamer on one side of the kitchen.
The founder’s eldest son developed the chicken dish into a course meal. He explains that it is a whole chicken in the sense of tasting a whole 4kg native chicken. In Haenam, known as Ttangkkeut Village, there is a street lined with ‘Tongdak’ shops. Cooking a whole chicken usually refers to frying chicken in oil, but this is not the only way to cook a whole chicken. You can also grill or boil it.
[source: a popular TV show in KBS]
One day, he came up with a raw meat dish after seeing customers leaving a lot of breast meat. The dish consisted of breast meat seasoned with sesame oil and sesame seeds. Customers who tasted it admired the savory texture of the chicken breast. As breast meat became popular, the restaurant that used to cook a 3kg native chicken became crowded with customers every day.
