Recently, I have been running around campus and Boston like a headless chicken. I’m taking six classes, working two jobs and writing and editing for the Daily, and I recently joined a local sorority on campus. Needless to say, I now use Google Calendar, and if anyone hits me up about getting lunch, you’ll get an invite for a short meal in two weeks.
Sorry, not sorry.
My life has, in a sense, gone back to a high school-like routine with ‘A days’ (Mondays and Wednesdays) and ‘B days’ (Tuesdays and Thursdays). My ‘B days’ go as follows:
8 a.m.: Wake up
8:30 a.m.: Walk to work
9–11 a.m.: Babysit
11 am–12 p.m.: Walk back and grab lunch
12–1:15 p.m.: Intro to Finance
1:15–2:30 p.m.: MBTA to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
2:30–7:30 p.m.: Ceramics
7:30–8:15 p.m.: MBTA back
Tuesday after Indigenous Peoples’ Day looked just like that. In addition, I promised my friend I’d get dinner with her in Davis at 8:15 p.m., and I had to go record audio for my film project once I finished all my scheduling for the day.
The moment I left my room to head to work (at 8:30 a.m., if you refer to the above schedule), it started raining, but it wasn’t real rain or drizzle. It was the kind of light rain where the air just felt like it was made of tiny drops of floating water. Of course, I was wearing a cotton hoodie, which immediately started to soak up all the liquid in the air. So my day was off to a great start.
Luckily, my day did get better from there. I made cookies at work, critique went well in my ceramics class and I was actually starting to get work done for once. The moment I left SMFA, though, it immediately started pouring down on me. I was still in just the hoodie because why would I check the weather after already making that mistake once? Once I got on the T, I could finally look forward to catching up with my friend, Julianne. That, and eating the Korean fried chicken she agreed to get with me. What can I say? Sometimes a girl just wants to end her day with fried food, and, after I was dripping with rainwater, it was something warm.
Normally, I’m pretty anti-fried food. I find it’s always good for the first few bites, but eventually the oiliness gets to me and I just end up feeling gross. Luckily, one thing that distinguishes Korean fried chicken from American fried chicken is its super-thin crispy crust, which saves me from said gross feeling.
Last semester, when I was craving fast food, I tended to jump to Korean fried chicken places because there was one near the Medford/Somerville campus and one near SMFA. The SMFA one, KChickin, is good: consistently well-sauced and super crispy. However, the chicken pieces themselves tend to have a good amount of fat, which scares me away from ordering them as often. If I’m going to spend real money, the food better get eaten. I only went to the one near Medford once during the spring semester, and it’s now closed, which was super upsetting to learn when I came back to campus this fall.
Fortunately, my prayers were almost immediately answered. A new, honestly even better chicken place has opened up right in Davis: bb.q Chicken. I’ve been there three times since it opened, and it’s been super delicious and consistent every time.
The first time I went was a few weeks ago, after my friends and I spent all morning shooting for my film class. It was around 2 p.m., and we were all starving, so we dragged ourselves to the Davis bus. Three of us went to get chicken while the other four went to get poke. Then we met back up and all ate together. I got the eight-piece boneless wings in honey garlic sauce and a side of white rice. I think the total, with tip, was around $18, and for the amount of food I got and how much I enjoyed it, I’d say it was totally worth it.
For one, the chicken was tender and moist, and every piece was super crispy despite being drenched in sauce. My friend Rudy got the Gangnam Style chicken, which they described as having gochujang in it, though the bb.q Chicken website describes it as a black pepper sauce. Maddie got the soy garlic flavor, which is a pretty typical option for these kinds of restaurants, but it was still a really good tried-and-true choice. Honestly, one of my favorite parts is the pickled daikon you get with the chicken. The vinegar really cuts through the sweet, oily chicken and just adds the perfect zing.
When Julianne and I went on Tuesday, we debated in front of the register about what to order. We ended up just splitting the 16 pieces, all in honey garlic sauce, but the woman checking us out did inform us that we could pick two different flavors if we wanted. As I went to grab us a table, Julianne and the woman behind the counter broke out speaking in Thai, which, in a Korean restaurant, is odd. Julianne informed me that she could tell the woman was Thai, so she just tried talking to her. Apparently, there are a lot of Thai people in the Davis area.
This really came in handy later when we had leftover chicken. We are not large people, and as hungry as I was, we couldn’t put away more than 12 pieces of chicken between the two of us. We were waiting at the empty counter for someone to maybe notice us and grab us two to-go boxes. I tried to politely (and quietly) say “Excuse me” through the empty space, in hopes that someone from the kitchen would hear me and help, but my attempt was met with defeat. Julianne eventually gave up on the nice approach and yelled politely in Thai, which immediately got a response; she asked for two boxes and we went on our merry way.
I honestly think bb.q Chicken is such a good option for students because it’s fairly priced for a lot of food (my eight-piece was definitely more than eight pieces), close to campus and delicious. It makes for good takeout because they have specialized boxes that allow for air circulation so the chicken doesn’t get soggy, and there are so many flavor options to choose from.
The interior is casual, with white plastic tables and a quick-eat feel. They play fun K-pop music videos on the screen above the tables, and the whole place feels pretty lively, even when it’s dark and raining out. If you ever need a little food escape or indulgence, I highly recommend it. I think this place is quickly becoming a comfort food spot for me this semester, and I can only imagine how great it’ll be in the (dreaded) upcoming colder months.
