It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate,

report, explore, from WBEZ.

Hi, I'm reporter Monica Eng. A while back, I answered a question about foods invented in Chicago,

and I found, well, a bunch.

Some of my faves were the Hibarito and Yiros, dishes that sounded like they must have been invented abroad.

But actually, they had their genesis right here.

Today, we're going to add a postscript to that old question, because we found a new Chicago

dish, gampong chicken wings.

It's a local treat created through a series of quirky historical incidents. Here's celebrity chef Candice Nelson describing a version in Los Angeles.

So you bite through this crisp, deliciously sweet and spicy crust to this tender, delicate, moist chicken meat inside.

The dish looks like a chicken lollipop, with all the wing meat smushed to one end of the bone.

The whole thing gets deep fried and slathered into sweet, spicy garlic sauce.

So how did it emerge in Chicago?

Well, about 40 years ago, a unique group of immigrants arrived. They came from Korea,

but they were ethnically Chinese, like they spoke Chinese at home. Once in Chicago, they opened

restaurants serving a kind of Chinese food specifically for Koreans. So Chinese Koreans,

serving Korean-tinged Chinese food. Got it?

They opened up a bunch of these spots in Albany Park,

and that's where chef Xingzong Kao had a place called Peking Mandarin on Lawrence.

And there, he took a traditional dry-fried chicken dish called Gampongi,

and he made it with just wings.

Why wings? Because Chinese love wings.

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