chimaek

Chimaek (; ) is a pairing of fried chicken (either plain huraideu or spicy yangnyeom) and beer, served as anju () in the evening in many South Korean restaurants, including a number of specialized chains.

== Origin and popularization == While chimaek as we know it today did not exist in the Joseon era, historical records suggest that similar individual components did. The 1459 cookbook Sangayorok () recorded Pogye, a stir-fried chicken dish—not deep-fried—and also mentioned maekju, a barley-based makgeolli somewhat analogous to beer, which shares the same name (maekju) in modern Korean. These elements were not combined as chimaek and were eventually forgotten until rediscovered in the late 2010s. Modern chimaek is believed to have been invented in late 20th century, but it is hard to pinpoint the exact time and place. From the roasted chicken that appeared in the early 1960s to the spicy chicken that was adapted to meet Korean tastes, South Korea has imported and developed a growing variety of chicken dishes. While chicken was gaining popularity, a new draft beer which appeared in the 1970s was also becoming very popular, and it became common for the two to be combined as a single menu item. Moreover, the 2002 Korea–Japan World Cup shed more light on the chimaek phenomenon, and the dish has also had a significant impact on Korean drinking culture. Today, fried chicken is one of the most popular dishes in Korea. It's so popular that Koreans created the word Chi-neunim, which is a compound word of chicken and God Haneunim in Korean.