Mukja K-Street Food
8621 - 109 St NW, Edmonton AB
If all you knew about Mukja was that it specializes in hot dogs and fried chicken, you might have some inkling of how fun the food is. Once you learn that you can garnish your hot dog with crispy octopus fritters and wasabi mayonnaise, you start to get a more complete picture.
Not so long ago this space on 109 Street was occupied by ‘It Dog, which likewise focussed on hot dogs and fried chicken. For my money it had some of the better fried chicken in the city. Now re-imagined as Mukja, the chicken is still excellent, but the new owners have leaned into the sweet and spicy flavours and joyful excess of Korean street food.
Hot dogs here come in two formats: on a bun, or as a Korean corn dog.
The buns are much too large for the hot dogs, but they come sluiced with sweet sauces and quirky toppings like bulgogi beef or the Japanese octopus fritters called takoyaki. The takoyaki at Mukja are much better than they need to be as a novelty hot dog topping: they are lightly on the outside, creamy and custardy on the inside, and riddled with tender pieces of octopus.
Korean corn dogs are a bit different than the North American midway variety: the dogs are impaled on a chopstick, and then not only battered but also rolled in breadcrumbs that lend a satisfying crunch. There is an optional inclusion of processed mozzarella cheese that, once melted, stretches so long you could use it as a jump rope. Out of the fryer the corn dogs are squirted with all manner of sweet and tangy sauces: chili mayo, honey mustard, and ketchup, among others.
Mukja’s fried chicken is always fresh, moist, crispy, and lacquered with all the sticky glaze sauces you would expect. Try the “Snow Chicken”, which endures a small blizzard of grated parmesan and white sugar before being served.
Alongside the hot dogs and chicken are other Korean comforts. The long slippery rice cakes called dukkboki have a dense and persistent chew that has no real analogue in western cooking. They come swimming in a spicy red sauce alongside fish cakes and a hard-boiled egg. There is also kimbap, the versatile Korean snack of meat, veggies, and rice rolled in seaweed. At Mukja the seaweed wrappings are glossy and redolent with sesame oil. The sliced cross-sections are small works of art, with tidy compact groupings of (for example) spicy pork, pickled daikon, shredded carrots, and finely sliced omelette.
Mukja does a lunch service, but they are also open till midnight most days and are well-provisioned with cold beer and flavoured soju.
