#tbt & #lostreview - GALLERIA SUPERMARKET York Mills 2014 TORONTO ON

 It's time for another #tbt & #lostreview !

It's 2014. It was April and a Friday. I lived in downtown Toronto, and Korean fried chicken was just starting to be a fad in the food world. I had tried a couple of places downtown but I had the best was up in York Mills. 

With access to a car (rental? Zipcar? don't remember) I headed up to Galleria Market Place. I had never really been to York Mills, but Galleria was pretty easy to find. That was the last east part of the trip.

Galleria is a small chain of Korean/Asian supermarket. It's big, clean, and very bright. I wandered around just checking the place out. I eventually found the hot food stand where a small army of workers were making all sorts of fresh Korean food. I was a bit lost as almost everything was in Korean, so I wasn't sure how or where to order KFC (Korean Fried Chicken).

Galleria had branded their poultry as Mom's Chicken. I did find an ad for the reason I was there: $8.99 for Mom's Chicken Wings (normally $9.98) on Fridays. That's what I wanted! And it was Friday! 

I eventually watched others order and I followed suit. I put my order in and just like I had been warned, it took a long time for my order to get made. 30 minutes at least was the standard wait time, It was crazy busy, even though it was mid afternoon and it seemed like everyone was getting chicken.

When my order was I grabbed a seat at the counter and took in my wings. There are a few flavoured options to choose from: Seasoned (dry spice), Mild, Spicy, or Half & Half (Half sauced have Seasoned). It comes in a rotisserie chicken style container. I went with Spicy.

It came with a side of pickled radish. If you haven't had it before, it's cubed up radish that is mostly sweet with a vinegary-tang. It's great cooling agent when eating spicy food.

If you aren't familiar with KFC (Korean not Kentucky), it's chicken that is breaded and double fried. When done right it's juicy inside with a major crunch on the outside. It's usually served either dry like regular fried chicken, or mixed in sauce. I went with Spicy clearly.

The wings were medium in length but were pretty meaty. As they are very breaded, the size of the wings was larger. They were also VERY crispy/crunchy.

The chicken itself was very tender. The bones just pulled off the meat with no effort.

The wings were saucy AF. I mean you need a ton of napkins to eat these there's so much sauce. Every inch was covered in the sticky, thick sauce.

Spicy is made with Gochujang Korean pepper paste, which is spicy, but this sauce has a lot of sweetness too. It's not that spicy in my opinion, and the sweetness was stronger than the heat. 

The sauce is so sticky, you are going to make a mess, guaranteed!

This was a food experience. An adventure to get there, get my food, and eat. The chicken was super crunchy, the wings coated in sticky-sweet-spicy sauce, and the meat was tender as can be. I would have liked it spicier, but this was such a good meal. Unfortunately I never got back there to have it again. Mom knows what she is doing!

Mom's Chicken @ Galleria Supermarket

865 York Mills Road, Toronto ON (and other locations)

galleriasm.com (find the menu HERE)