Danyang chicken shop post-trip feast: Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong

Black Garlic Nurungji Dakgangjeong at Danyang Gugyeong Market

A must-visit dakgangjeong (sweet crispy Korean fried chicken) spot at Danyang Gugyeong Market. We’ve already stopped by and eaten here several times, and it’s so good that buying dakgangjeong at Gugyeong Market has become the final stop whenever we come to Danyang.

How do you choose between the two flavors?

Order directly at the front of the shop, get your receipt, and they’ll tell you how long the wait will be. But first, you have to choose one of two flavors—and generously, they let you sample them!!!

This is the double black garlic flavor dakgangjeong, with a deep black garlic aroma and a thicker, stickier sauce.

This redder one is the familiar classic dakgangjeong flavor, but pieces of nurungji (scorched rice) are tucked throughout. It feels familiar, while the nurungji adds something new.

We’d always bought the original flavor before, but after sampling this time, we carefully chose the black garlic flavor!

Black garlic makgeolli as a travel souvenir

Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong also sells black garlic makgeolli (Korean rice wine): two bottles are ₩10,000. It comes in a carry-handle package, so it was easy to buy as a travel souvenir and carry around.

We also got black garlic makgeolli, which looked like it would pair perfectly with the black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong!

Danyang has all kinds of garlic dishes, and everyone walks around carrying shopping bags of dakgangjeong or bread. We joined the crowd and headed home with our box of black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong! There are lots of garlic dishes in Danyang, but dakgangjeong is our couple favorite. We come often and eat it often, but never get tired of it~~~

Opening the dakgangjeong box as soon as we get in the car

Our routine is taking a bite as soon as we get in the car. It smelled so delicious that we couldn’t wait and opened the box right away.

Thin nurungji is mixed in with dakgangjeong coated in a gorgeous sauce. You can tell right away that it’s intensely flavored and sticky, but even with black garlic, it isn’t overwhelming. The subtly fragrant black garlic is actually the charm of this double black garlic dakgangjeong.

We said we’d only have one bite and eat the rest at home, but it was so moreish that one bite became two... and then kept increasing haha. The nurungji is wonderfully crunchy, and it’s coated in the seasoned sauce too, so delicious.

Continuing our Danyang post-trip feast at home

As soon as the trip was over and we got home, we decided to have a little after-party with dakgangjeong and makgeolli.

The way to enjoy a trip longer is to finish it with food bought at the destination. We often buy it while in Danyang too, but we always make a point of buying it on the day we head home. That way, eating it at home lets us look back on the Danyang trip all over again~

It comes with chicken pickles, too.

There’s also a generous amount of fried lotus root and nurungji.

The chicken is tender, the sauce is delicious, and we absolutely count this among the best dakgangjeong places at Korean travel destinations. The portion is big enough that the two of us sometimes have leftovers. When that happens, we freeze the dakgangjeong and later warm it briefly in the microwave or air fryer. Just a note, though: if you save the nurungji in the freezer or fridge, it turns tough later, so it’s best eaten on the day you buy it.

And we ate it together with makgeolli made from 100% black garlic!

The black garlic makgeolli had a shelf life of about 40 days, so it keeps for over a month and can be enjoyed slowly.

Black garlic makgeolli is a perfect match for black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong. The black garlic makgeolli had such a deep black garlic fragrance that it almost felt like drinking a medicinal liquor. It has a wholesome herbal scent that older adults might enjoy more than younger people, so I think it would make a nice gift for elders, too. The holiday is coming up soon—if you take a family trip to Danyang, I recommend this combination! Danyang travel food filled with garlic.