Hi, I'm Josh.
I'm Ollie
I'm the Connoisseur
And today we are going to be introducing the Chicken Connoisseur to Korean fried chicken
Is there anything different?
like is it Korean people making a fried chicken,
or is it something different about the fried chicken that makes it
- It's a good question - You are in for a whole new world
- Oh mate, I cannot wait - You're like Jasmine at the start of Aladdin
Wait, what?
- Chicken Connoisseur.
- Yes
- Your first time trying Korean chicken today.
- Indeed.
It's like finding out a sommelier hasn't tried red wine
There are various types of Korean chicken we're going to try for you today
Cool
I believe we're going to win you over.
I believe it's gonna be good.
Hopefully...
- What's your go-to order? - It's usually a strip burger, portion of wings and chips
And to drink?
Strawberry Mirinda.
Wow, I don't know if I've ever had Strawberry Mirinda.
- Go to a chicken shop, most of them have it to be fair.
- Okay, I'm missing out.
- It sounds very sweet.
- Yeah it is
Yeah.
I do have quite the sweet tooth, so it's probably that.
Ohhh, here we go
Cheers boss!
This is soy garlic, and this is yangnyeom.
What is yangnyeom?
Ohhhh, we're about to find out!
When the Chicken Connoisseur walks into a shop
what's he looking for?
Has a chicken place ever got 5 stars?
The second one I went to, I gave it five stars just because it was my favourite basically.
- Okay - Like in hindsight it's not the best I've had
You jumped the gun a little bit.
Yeah exactly.
Honeymoon period...there's nothing wrong with this chicken shop
And five years later, miserable.
It's not that bad, but yeah...
He's going straight for a leg
- Nice - Three bites...
no words.
Yeah.
He's a professional.
The tension...
I feel like I'm on Antiques Roadshow
Why?
You're waiting for the review
They're about to tell me I own a masterpiece
That's literally the most old white man reference you ever could've given
Wow look, that is a clean chicken bone, mate
It's pretty...
it's pretty nice.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
Okay
The breading is quite excessive
Quite excessive!
Gone back for a second bit though.
It's kind of sweet and savoury.
Usually I like my wings kind of spicy.
Is it not really a fair comparison with your normal staple,
Like comparing red wine to white wine, for example?
Or Monets to Manets?
Um...
I don't think I'm qualified, you know, to respond to that exactly.
The wing itself is okay.
The sauce does a lot for it.
That's true.
So, when the sauce is kind of doing the legwork
the wing itself usually kind of pales in comparison to the regular boss man wings
Because they don't have any sauce.
Do you want the last one?
- All right, cool.
- Yeah, he does.
You're the guest, go on.
I think that's at least a 4.5.
The score will be quite high.
It's sweet and I like sweet stuff
Reminiscent of a Strawberry Mirinda?
Not quite.
A bit more savoury than that.
I could give it like a 4.6?
- Ohhhh! That feels good.
- Also if you're rounding up, it's a 5.
You're doing maths!
Yeah, I was just wondering...what do you do with this stuff?
Probably don't get this in most chicken shops in the UK.
Fermented cabbage.
Is it like Sauerkraut?
Oh, it's kind of like Korean Sauerkraut.
It's a nice pairing to like, when you've got something really sweet
That's a bit too sweet by itself He's never had kimchi before,
we've just given it to him straight!
Let's say that you woke me up a bit!
We don't have chicken and chips, chicken and kimchi instead.
What do you think, replacement?
It's a good shout to reset for different flavours.
It's different is what I'm getting.
Definitely didn't say it's better than chips.
This is the original real Korean take on fried chicken.
Back in the day American army bases used to have fried chicken in Korea and that's how
a sort of craze kicked off.
And Koreans were like, hey we like spicy food why don't we stick some spicy sweet sauce
on the chicken.
He's gone straight in, Josh
It's like a sommelier drinking an entire bottle.
To be fair I don't think I need to eat too much more to to give it a verdict.
It's not the one.
You're not a yangnyeom fan?
No, the flavour, it's a bit dead.
There's a bit of heat there but it's kind of bland.
Bland?!
This one's got more of a kick no?
It does have a bit more of a kick, but I can tell you now there's certain boss men
their wings have a kick and they got no sauce.
The sauce exposes the chicken here and this one is kind of dead still.
Well, I mean it's definitely not alive...
Indeed. Of course.
I like the complete honesty.
He says it how it is.
He's saying how it is.
That's all I have to say.
I mean you did finish it though.
He sacrificed his life, I'm not gonna waste it.
You can't argue that. You cannot argue with that.
- Rating? - I'm bracing myself.
I'd say a 3.4
Well so rounding down that would be a three, that would, it's basic maths.
You have an amazing story, you were making videos trying chicken...
And then overnight you were everywhere, everywhere on the internet!
Yeah I mean we literally haven't even really intro’d you to our audience, because for us
at least for all of our mates, everyone knows the Chicken Connoisseur.
Yeah, I was doing it for like a year and like someone I knew he basically said that he could
see it getting a lot bigger.
And he knows people in like Huffington Post and places like that
So he put the clickbait title of school kid in suit and trainers reviews chicken shop
in London.
From there it went viral on Reddit.
And then I think he spoke to whatever people he might have known in the marketing industry.
And told them "Oh yeah, look at this stuff it's going mad", and then it did what it did.
Sounds a bit like an inside job...
In a way.
You had a man on the inside.
I guess so.
Lord Huffington.
I don't think he actually works there to be fair.
He's like, "I've said too much".
Backtrack....
Next chicken is out.
They've given us something that's not on the menu.
Chicken Connoisseur comes, special things happen.
You weren't a fan of the yangnyeom, I've gone for a spicier level.
That's hot...that's really...
I need some more water.
You are not even phased!
It's kind of the same but just a bit spicier.
I'm sweating, I can feel it dripping down my face.
You've got a bit of a sweat on.
Yeah, I feel like I'm always sweating.
All right so we can't edge it up to a 3.5?
I'd say probably so yeah. The Scoville units they account for something. I'll give it a 3.6
Oh okay, 3.6
Rounding up to a 4.
Very nice.
Can we talk about one thing? Maybe an elephant in the room.
There has been speculation online as to your age.
Yeah.
You're a beautiful specimen, may I say, of the human species.
Is your age known?
By people who know me, yeah.
But you don't put it out there?
No, I prefer not to say.
Leave it mysterious.
Yeah, eventually I'll say, but on a special occasion.
Okay, spice of life, mystery.
On a special occasion, OK. Teasing us.
We now have the secret menu item.
Honey butter garlic - if you've got a sweet tooth...
Yes.
Are we going to get five stars?
I can say no quite quickly.
It's not as good as the last golden one.
Somehow that last golden one it was sweeter.
The crunch is next level, surely, there's a lot of crunch.
Should be extra points.
The crunch?
Trying to tell him how to do his job.
The crunch was a bit excessive, to be honest.
Excessive crunch, I didn't know that was a thing.
It's like saying someone has too much charisma.
You know what it is.
That type of crunch makes me slightly worried for my gums.
You chew it the wrong way you might start shredding up your gums.
Yeah, it's violent.
Violent crunch.
I don't know whether I buy that.
Too much crunch.
That's what I want in chicken.
No, it's annoying.
It's annoying.
Yeah because what it does is it it distracts you from the actual chicken.
I think I see where you're coming from.
Chicken is only half the story. Chicken's the lyrics and batter's the melody.
And let's be honest, it's like Coldplay. The lyrics are interesting but they don't make
much sense when you think about it.
Wow!
Are you a fan of Coldplay Elijah?
Who isn't a fan?
I've heard a couple of their tunes over the years. I can't remember the last time I heard
one to be honest.
He's old. I think he's 40 plus.
Could you imagine?
I think we cracked it, boys.
Pack this up, we got it.
This was all a ploy.
I dropped the Coldplay gag, he walked right into that one.
You've got a bit of...
Thank you very much.
You actually have a bit of chilli on your mouth as well, but I'm just going to let you
handle that.
Wait, so you didn't tell me.
No, just I didn't want to interrupt.
Literally, within seconds of spotting it, I removed it.
You had a bit of batter there for about 20 minutes.
Yeah.
You didn't say anything either?
Nah I thought you were saving it for later.
There you go.
don't give me that.
What is this, I forgot to ask.
(Korean)
Jeon is king.
King is wan.
Still learning Korean.
80 percent there, round it up to ten.
Round it up to ten! Checks out.
A hundred! A hundred!
I'm a little concerned, OK. I feel like you are concerned as well just looking at it.
I don't know what it is, I'm not sure what's going on.
Is it tofu?
It's not tofu it's chicken, we're not playing around.
I'm at ease.
this is fried chicken you get at Korean markets.
this I'd say more than normal fried chicken... they're heavy on the batter, the sweetness...
Yikes.
We know now that you're not a huge fan of the batter and the sauce.
Heavy on the batter and the sauce.
Thoughts?
Yeah, it's pretty good, pretty nice. I'll give it a good 4.4.
4.4! Okay.
Rounds down to 4, but still a good score.
Stop rounding!
I'm kind of chickened out.
Are you chickened out Elijah?
No, I wouldn't say so but I'm not sure what else they could have that would be that much
more interesting.
Oh, Elijah.
There's a couple of things on the menu.
So cheese (Korean).
Is it cheese?
There's cheese on top.
I'm not a fan of cheese on chicken.
Damnit.
Will you give it a go?
If I gave it a go it'll probably end up with a one-point something.
You know what? I take your challenge.
- No... - I think he's gonna like it.
Wow, okay, oh my gosh.
That's a lot of cheese.
It's a lot of cheese.
I can take this little piece off the edge here.
but this one should have flavour.
It's been saturated with the sauce.
Yeah, it has, that's kind of the whole point with this type of chicken.
I think what you need young man... Or old man, I don't know.
Is some cheese.
What I'll tell you now is the chicken in and of itself, is definitely past a 2.
I'm happy with that.
Is it past a 3?
Past a 4 or a 5?
Relax.
Chill out.
To be fair the cheese will just nullify the flavour.
It's okay though, I'd give it a 3.5.
As we know, rounds up to four, so that's good.
I feel like you're defeating the purpose of the rating system by rounding.
You wouldn't understand.
What next for you Elijah?
In a way, I'm not sure. Now I'm kind of thinking about how to…
Retire? Sixty-five?
The state pension's coming soon, but not that soon.
How soon, couple years?
It's on the way.
In the post, or...?
You can check out the Connoisseur's YouTube channel.
Thank you, Elijah.
Brilliant guys, thanks for watching.
And in the meantime...
See you JOLLY soon!
See you later.