Great Sea with Joe G [Past Event ]

LTHForum,

Please join Joe G, aka Germuska LTHForum SysAdmin Extraordinaire and me for platters of pump, crispy chicken drumettes for which Great Sea is justifiably famous. Though Joe is one of the more well rounded (even though he is thin) LTHers of my acquaintance this will be his maiden voyage to Great Sea.

Great Sea Chicken Wings

Pump, crispy drumettes, oily chili sauce, subtle note of sweet. Delicious.


In addition to crisp delicious wings Great Sea is known for cha chiang mian, house made noodles served warm in an inky black bean sauce. Both cha chiang mian and the spicy chicken wings (gampongi) are in the Chinese-Korean style. Mike Sula recently did a very interesting Omnivorous column in the Reader about this very subject.

All are welcome, the more the merrier!

Enjoy,
Gary

7pm
Tuesday, 2/24/09
Great Sea
3254 W. Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL
773-478-9129

On the day I met Gary (North Clark-a-thon I), I mentioned that I hadn't been to GS and he was shocked. "Brother!" he said. "You must!"

Please help me erase the shame of letting this go uncorrected for more than two years!

I'll be there, but passing on the cha chiang mian in favor of the outstanding wings.

Well, cluck me! I'm going to try to make this wingding, as well.

=R=

stevez wrote:I'll be there, but passing on the cha chiang mian in favor of the outstanding wings.

They are not mutually exclusive.

I too am remiss in not having tried GS. I hope to make it on 2/24, but won't know for sure until that morning, save some wings.

I will join you as well. I've had Great Sea wings, but nothing else on the menu (although some might say that this is quite enough), so I am looking to expand my knowledge.

I need to leave Evanston at 6:30, and so may be a little late.

I will join you if you have room.

Me too, + moetchandon

Count me in. I've never been either.

I am on a roll with asian places and LTH lately. I will like to attend. I am especially interested because I believe I have been to Great Seas many years ago and the chicken wings were outstanding. However, I am not sure if Great Seas was the place and I can't wait to find out. See you there.

I'll be there.

I will try to make it as well!

I will have to cancel tomorrow. Sorry for teh inconvenience.

Count me in.

-Dan

Count me in too please.

Happyeater

Wow, great turn out!

I'll cap this at 16 as Great Sea has a large round and smaller round that when put together can comfortably accommodate 16 which I have reserved.

If there is serious additional interest we can go to two separate tables of 10 which would preclude cross table conversation as they are too widely separated.

- Joe G +1
- Gary W
- Ronnie_S
- GAF
- nr706
- MoetChandon
- Eli
- Cinny's Mom
- Trixie-Pea
- happy_stomach
- Jazzfood
- Dansch
- Happyeater
- MBH
- Jyoti
- Jayz +1
- lindsaybanks

- Head count 19

I can make it, see you at 7:00.

I'd like to join you - I believe I would be the 16th!

Jyoti

jygach wrote:I'd like to join you - I believe I would be the 16th!

16 closes it for now.

If there is serious additional interest we can go to two tables of 10.

Lets see if there is the inevitable last minute drop out or two.

It's great to see such mid week interest, just to be clear, Joe G is not treating.

Enjoy,
Gary

I notice the count has closed at 16 and I can't believe I haven't seen this topic until now but...if there's room for me I'll take it. If you do accept me a PM would be great, I'll be at Blackbird for lunch and receive emails on my phone. Hopefully the answer's a yes...I haven't tried the wings yet. If not that's cool, I can always swing by and eat alone.

G Wiv wrote:If there is serious additional interest we can go to two tables of 10.

Looks like additional interest, JayZ and a friend and a friend of Joe's. No problem moving up to 2 tables of ten, we are at 18, room for 2 more.

For simplicity sake please bring cash.

A great dinner with an at home feeling, good times. Tonight's dinner was a blast and allowed me to meet a large group of people. The food was...hot. Next time I get to Great Seas I'll be sure to order 40 or so chicken pops. And no...not 1x, 6x, or 10x, just mild. I enjoyed the mild/hot a bit more when I wasn't burning my mouth. Overall a great time and some new dishes I haven't tried yet so it was a winner.
I enjoyed the small chat with Cinnys Mom, Eli, Gwiv, and others tonight. I'll see you guys at some more meets soon.

*Props to the crew which allowed a group so large and went about it very nicely.

Hi,

I forgot that this place will offer torture test level of heat. I am so glad I did not give into the temptation to consider attending. From your report, it had the potential for me to be over my capsaicin limits.

Regards,

LTH,

Joe G has drawing power, 19 LTHers converged on Great Sea, including a number of first timers, for cha chiang mian, deep flavored murky black bean sauce w/house made noodle, Korean/Chinese style garlic pork and rounds of increasingly spicy crisp fried chicken wing drumettes,.

LTHers at Great Sea



Somewhat apprehensive of a repeat of a recent Great Sea outing where my insistence on 10X hot turned Ronnie_Suburban, Jazzfood and my palates into a Superfund site we ordered both mild and hot for the first round of chicken wings. Consensus was hot was not all that hot and we mixed in a 1X for the next round. Ron, Jazzfood's and my tale of blow torch hot wings had piqued the interest of Happyeater, Jyoti, Joe G and Happy_Stomach who suggested a plate of yet spicier wings, Sui Lim, genial owner of Great Sea, accommodated our request.

Turns out the toughest guy at the table was Happy_Stomach who, if not for her innate politeness, I'm guessing would have been standing on the table screaming Bring it ON! She was unfazed by half orders both 6X or 10X.

Sui (Owner of Great Sea) brought H_S a just in case pitcher of water with the 10X wings. Water was unnecessary.

Sui (Owner/Great Sea), Happy_Stomach, Jazzfood



Great Sea is one of my favorites, while it's true I only love one dish there, chicken wing drumettes, I always enjoy cha chiang mian, garlic pork and pot stickers. Unfortunately Great Sea was out of potstickers, though Sui said she is making a batch of a thousand in a couple of days.

Service was exceptional, they graciously accommodated our kooky requests for small batches of killer hot wings, and the price for multiple bowls of cha chiang mian, platters of garlic pork, beer, soda and even a plum wine or two, not to mention mountains of crisp fried spicy delicious chicken wing drumettes, was a very reasonable $17 per person including tax and a 20+% tip.

As an added bonus Karen Lim, Sui's daughter and owner of Take Me Out in Pilsen, was on hand helping her mom.

Karen Lim, Sui Lim



Terrific evening, good food, great conversation, more fun than one should have on a Tuesday night.

A few additional pictures may be found ---> here

Enjoy,
Gary

Good times, thanks for organizing. I'd never been to Great Sea, but the wings were excellent. I agree with Jyoti that the 1X wings had the perfect balance of heat and flavor for my tastes. And based on her heat tolerances, I'll be calling Sharon happy_cast_iron_stomach from now on.

Looks like a great time & the food looks great! I haven't had Great Seas in many many years. Have you ever had the cham pong/jam pong there? It's a spicy seafood noodle soup with the same noodles they use in the cha chiang mian. I remember Great Seas making a great version.

Wow, it definitely turned out to be a Fat Tuesday. I am happy to say that the Great Seas wings are all they are cracked up to be. I look forward to someone posting the study of the residual sauce left on the platters from the varying levels of heat. It was interesting how much more flavor accompanied the increasing levels of heat, as well as the general consensus that we all were able to tolerate the hotter wings because we ramped up, instead of searing our tongues at the beginning and not being able to enjoy anything else.

I may have actually liked the garlic pork more than the wings. It had nice spice and a nicely "evolving" flavor profile.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and special thanks to Gary for engineering everything. As usual, I regret not being able to hang out with folks at the other ends of the table, but it was still great fun. I still feel kind of full.

Gary,

Thank you for organizing this evening. While the first round of mild wings didn't quite hit the mark for me, the spicier orders were nothing short of fantastic. I can now publicly state that I have acquired a new food addiction - Great Sea Chicken Wings Extra Hot 1x.

Can't wait to go back!

Jyoti

germuska wrote:I look forward to someone posting the study of the residual sauce left on the platters from the varying levels of heat.

Not sure about a study but I will post visual aids a bit later on.

It was a fun night and I really enjoyed the wing progression. Thanks, to Gary, for organizing, to Joe for having never been there before , and to everyone else for attending.

For me, the 1x wings are the thing at Great Sea. The garlic pork was interesting but that strong note of white pepper is not to my liking. I joked earlier that for me, wings at Great Sea followed by pizza at Marie's might be more enjoyable than an entire meal at GS. Still, I don't think I'd ever refuse an invite to Great Sea. Those wings are highly addictive and really wonderful.

=R=