5 replies to this topic

[HowChowBlog]

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1747192835466&oid=263088894668&comments

Tian Chinese Cuisine actually isn't Chinese. It is Korean food -- the "Chinese" cuisine sold in Seoul in the same way that General Tso's Chicken is sold as Chinese cuisine here.

As I have read, one of the basics are noodles served either in black bean sauce (jjajangmuyn) or in a spicy seafood soup (jjampong). But people had bemoaned the fact that no one around here makes their own noodles.

Until now. An acquaintance told me that Tian had begun to smack out their own noodles. Literally. In the restaurant (and in the short video), you hear the thwack, thwack, thwack of someone slamming out noodle dough in the kitchen. With that inspiration, we ended up on only our second night of Korean-Chinese. Clearly, we're not the experts to comment on the intricacies of jjajangmyun, but the black bean noodles were delicious comfort food to me. The noodles are tender and chewy. They absorb the mild, black bean sauce, and it's a great contrast with the pickled radishes and onion that they serve as a limited panchan.

We had jjajangmyun (#1) and a cold noodle soup (#18). Thinner noodles in the soup, also chewy. They came in cloudy broth with some hard boiled egg, a few slices of beef and paper-thin radishes. It's garnished with thin-cut vegetables, and you flavor it yourself with the clear vinegar that comes on the table and some excellent wasabi that comes in a small bowl. With the cold and the hint of vinegar, the soup came across like gaspacho. Refreshing and perfect after a hot day, although the taste is more mild and earthy rather than diced vegetables.

Overall, Tian is a fun, inexpensive evening. Those two dishes would have filled us for less than $20. We also ordered steamed dumplings, which were fine but not special. Next time, I going for jjampong, the handmade noodles served in a spicy seafood soup. Tian offers combo meals where you can get two half orders on a plate split into two halves

If the media link at the top of this post doesn't work, I posted the short video on Facebook.

[1000yregg]

I've been meaning to stop at Tian, located in the same shopping center as Lotte in Ellicott City since Howchow posted on his blog that they have handmade noodles. What finally got me to go this weekend was that they also added Mad for Chicken, a Korean fried chicken chain in the same place.
I stopped in Sunday, and knowing that the fried chicken takes 30 minutes to be cooked, ordered a bowl for their handmade samsun jjajangmyun (blackbean sauce with seafood) for the wait.
The noodles were good although I like mine a little more chewy. The black bean sauce was chock full of shrimp and calamari.
The fried chicken was pretty good. My favorite might be BonChon as they kick up the spice level more, but the Mad for Chicken chicken had the great crispiness I expect from Korean style fried chicken. I'm happy I can get Korean chicken now without always driving to VA for it.

[synaesthesia]

I've been meaning to stop at Tian, located in the same shopping center as Lotte in Ellicott City since Howchow posted on his blog that they have handmade noodles. What finally got me to go this weekend was that they also added Mad for Chicken, a Korean fried chicken chain in the same place.
I stopped in Sunday, and knowing that the fried chicken takes 30 minutes to be cooked, ordered a bowl for their handmade samsun jjajangmyun (blackbean sauce with seafood) for the wait.
The noodles were good although I like mine a little more chewy. The black bean sauce was chock full of shrimp and calamari.
The fried chicken was pretty good. My favorite might be BonChon as they kick up the spice level more, but the Mad for Chicken chicken had the great crispiness I expect from Korean style fried chicken. I'm happy I can get Korean chicken now without always driving to VA for it.

Is the jjajungmyun more Chinese style or Korean style?

[1000yregg]

Is the jjajungmyun more Chinese style or Korean style?

Korean- it came with the raw onion and pickles.

[1000yregg]

Oh- one more thing- they also offer a whole chicken fried Korean style. I have not seen this at other similar places.

[HowChowBlog]

I'm completely with 1000yregg that the great order is some fried chicken and some of the jjajangmyun -- noodles with black bean sauce.

The Korean fried chicken bring a unique crunch and some serious heat. The crunch comes from the Mad for Chicken coating that has a unique crispness. It's a thin, almost-brittle layer over moist chicken underneath. The meat isn't particularly spicy, but the glaze on the outside delivers all the flavor that you'd want -- salty/sweet for the regular and mouth-numbing for the spicy.

Seriously, the spice was almost too much for me, and my wife happily traded hot pieces for the regular when we ordered a mixed set.

The magic of Korean fried chicken is that the glaze delivers that flavor without soaking down the crisp coating. It's a delicious dinner, definitely worth a drive to the Lotte shopping center on Rte 40 and definitely a worthy alternative to Chick n'Friends in Columbia or Harvest Fried Chicken in Woodbine. Personally, I'd order the wings or white meat. The ratio of crunch to meat was perfect in the wings.